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fierce emotional conflict that haunts the reader throughout Kaddish, we can better understand both protagonists in the context of Allen’s emotional development. One critic suggests that despite problems with the method, a “suspicious” literary approach, wherein the reader holds the text and the narrator to be unreliable, and looks for meaning more through what is omitted or presented strangely (as in the case of my own analysis of the choice of opening word, “strange”), can give us valuable insight into the poem.6 Certainly, adopting a suspicious approach is vital when dealing with Naomi’s schizophrenia – the reader has no choice but to dismiss her paranoid visions of “fascists!” and “murderers!” as delusions of persecution; in order to be able to follow the narrative coherently, one cannot afford to indulge Naomi in her hallucinations. From this pre-existing angle of suspicion the reader holds with respect to Naomi, it is no great leap to apply a similar attitude to Allen’s behaviour as we stray from the traditional literary idea of the narrator as the infallible voice of reason, and strive to gain a deeper understanding of Kaddish through our skepticism.
Death let you out, Death had the Mercy, you’re done with your century, done with God
Rather than purely a celebration or a condemnation of death, as a literary construct Kaddish is perhaps best viewed as an act of catharsis – Ginsberg’s declarations of grief through the medium of verse serve to release the emotions he is initially unable to express, having been repressed under the flat and impersonal “strange” and through philosophical meditations on death. As Part II of the poem nears its conclusion, Allen no longer conceals his loss through attempts to celebrate death, nor does he try to understand it through the lens of Hebrew theology; instead he openly mourns for his “holy mother” and “longs to hear her voice again”, immortalising the happier image of her as the “Communist beauty….crowned with flowers” through his acceptance of her decline and death. This signals Allen’s progression to the final form of mourning – rational and emotional resignation to her loss, while preserving his memories of her in her most pure and joyful form.
In this respect, Kaddish could be read structurally as a contemporary literary example of the concept of katabasis in comparative mythology – a mytheme in which the protagonist descends into the underworld and returns with heightened wisdom or virtue – a spiritual rebirth, so to speak. Psychologist Carl Jung applied this concept to psychoanalysis through the idea of Nekyia – the attainment of wisdom and insight “through the introversion of the conscious mind into the deeper layers of the unconscious psyche”, and this is one way through which Allen’s emotional journey over the course of Kaddish can be interpreted.3 Throughout the poem, Allen represses his conflicted sentiments for Naomi through the use of what Freud termed “ego defence mechanisms” – projection, the transference of negative emotion onto others such his father Louis and brother Eugene, reaction formation (acting in a manner antithetical to his repressed emotions) in his philosophical celebration of her death, and self-deprecation – diverging from the main narrative to ridicule his childhood ambitions to be “President, or Senator…”. In his 1977 paper “Allen Ginsberg: The Origins of ‘Howl’ and ‘Kaddish,’” Breslin suggests that Allen’s response to his mother’s attempts to seduce him, that of viewing the interaction through a psychoanalytic lens himself – “seemed perhaps a good idea to try – know the Monster of the Beginning Womb….Would she care? She needs a lover” is in itself an act of rationalisation – “pretending to be open and at ease about incestuous desire…affecting sophisticated [psychoanalytical] awareness” is just another way for Allen to repress his conflicted emotions towards Naomi.4 In any case, it is clear that Allen’s journey from stoicism and repression, through grief and mourning, then finally to acceptance and newfound spirituality is an archetypal example of Jungian katabasis – a descent from relative stability into chaotic emotional turmoil, then the rebirth and rejuvenation of the psyche once insight is obtained.
Interestingly, Ginsberg’s most famous poem, Howl, has also been interpreted as an example of Jungian katabasis or nekyia5 – the anonymous “best minds” of Ginsberg’s generation are alienated and sacrificed at the altar of capitalist, conformist society, its evils personified as the Biblical deity Moloch. The collective protagonists of Howl are trapped in a downward spiral of hedonistic self-destruction as an escape from social oppression, but their metaphorical death is presented as a Messianic act of sacrifice, “with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years.” Although the protagonists may be “destroyed by madness”, their deaths are not in vain, as the art and literature they created both redeems them in the eyes of society, and redeems society in the eyes of the sacrificed.
The key is in the window, the key is in the sunlight at the window – I have the key –
Processing the character development of Naomi over the course of Kaddish through this suspicious and psychoanalytic methodology can grant us similar insights into the poem and its message. As Naomi’s illness worsens and she transitions to and from psychosis and remission, Ginsberg’s use of imagery to construct a persona is altered significantly. After her first nervous breakdown in 1919, she journeys to New York to make her recovery, and it is here that Allen first discusses the image of Naomi he eventually memorialises as an example of her at her most lucid and maternal; a beautiful young woman sitting on the grass with her “long hair wound with flowers – smiling – playing lullabies on mandoline…in left-wing summer camps and me in infancy”. This vision is later returned to after Naomi’s final descent into madness, as Allen eulogises the “Communist beauty” with “long black hair crowned with flowers”, praying for her to “sit here married in the summer among daisies, promised happiness at hand.” After her death, similar images of nature and purity are invoked: Naomi’s final address to Allen prophesies over “the key in the sunlight at the window”, his final reply in Part IV refers to her “Death full of Flowers”, and his pleas of “Lord” for her salvation in the afterlife merge with the shrieks of crows to form a unified “Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord” in the poem’s conclusion. From this, Naomi’s death can be seen not only as a return to nature, but as a return to the harmonious and idealised symbol of purity she represented in Allen’s memories of her before her madness.
However, when dealing with the morbid and visceral progression of her schizophrenia, Ginsberg eschews natural imagery to instead focus on the artificial and the urban, the clinical and austere hell of the institutions and tenements in which the “communist sister loses her revolution.” Reflecting the traditional psychoanalytic model of neurosis as a result of conflict between natural human drives and the social demands of civilisation,7 manifestations of her illness are consistently paired with images of modernity, enclosure and institutionalism. Initial paranoia over “mystical assassins from Newark” and “invisible bugs and Jewish sickness” walking through Paterson soon descends into delusions of “cosmic financial murder plots”, “bugs of Mussolini” and thought control from “radio gossip thru the wires in her head”. Her madness culminates in accusing her family of being spies and plotters in a fascist conspiracy to have her killed, and she is institutionalised for the final time, having electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy forced upon her until she loses her memory, becoming a “small broken woman….ward greyness on skin”.
This pairing of imagery could be seen as another literary example of Ginsberg’s distrust of psychiatry, and an embodiment of the Beat Generation’s broader sense of anti-establishmentarianism – Ginsberg was forced to spend several months in a mental institution after pleading insanity in a trial for possessing stolen goods8, which, along with Naomi’s illness and the inability of psychiatry to alleviate her symptoms, is likely to have influenced his perspective on institutionalisation. Howl also heavily criticises contemporaneous mental health practices, particularly in Part III, addressed to Carl Solomon, whom Ginsberg met during his own institutionalisation. Allen’s persona in Howl declares his solidarity with Solomon who is incarcerated in the mental hospital “Rockland”, as they proclaim that “the soul is innocent and immortal it should never die ungodly in an armed madhouse”, and condemns the electroshock therapy Solomon is subjected to, stating that “fifty more shocks will never return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void”. Indeed, Part III concludes with the emotional climax of Solomon’s metaphorical liberation from Rockland, as they “wake up electrified out of the coma by [their] own souls’ airplanes roaring over the roof”, and “the hospital illuminates itself, imaginary walls collapse”. Similarly to Kaddish, modernist attempts to enforce a subjective ideal of mental health through psychiatry are condemned as a confinement and repression of human nature, an enslavement of the “innocent and immortal” soul.
“I will think nothing but beautiful thoughts.”
If Allen’s emotional progression over the course of Kaddish can be seen as an example of Jungian katabasis, the course of Naomi’s illness could also be interpreted this way; albeit as a subversion of the concept, in that her eventual spiritual enlightenment and release is only actualised through her death, when she finally finds “no more suffering”. Early images of her vitality, love, and beauty give way to the destruction of her psyche through schizophrenia, institutionalisation, electroshock therapy, stroke, and lobotomy – “learning to be mad in a dream” – until “death [has] the mercy” to bring her release and remedy from her suffering, transcending the trauma and misery of life to instead be immortalised in verse and memory as the “holy mother” with her world “born anew”.
Alternatively, the development of Naomi could be interpreted as a postmodern twist on the concept of a tragic hero in classical Greek drama, in fitting with the idea of Kaddish as a form of literary catharsis for Ginsberg, and with Arthur Miller’s concept of tragedy of the common man, arguing that every individual is capable of becoming a tragic figure through their struggle for identity in a chaotic world.9 The commonly accepted definition of a tragic Aristotelian hero10 describes several narrative devices to be archetypal: an unsuccessful struggle against fate or external forces, a fatal flaw leading to their downfall, catharsis of the reader or narrator, the eventual enlightenment, redemption, or insight through their defeat, and a revelation of the hero’s true identity. The character of Naomi fits the majority of these criteria, while subverting the final one.
Allen’s interpretation of Naomi’s mental struggle as being against seemingly predetermined external forces fulfils the first criterion of tragedy; in the days leading up to her first episode of institutionalisation, she is left “to Parcae in Lakewood’s haunted house”. The Roman parallel to the Moirae of Greek mythology, “Parcae” refers to the three Fates, (Nona, Decima, and Morta) – feminine personifications of destiny, who wove and cut threads to control the lives of mortals. Naomi is also referred to as “doomed”, reiterating the concept of her illness as a constant struggle in a losing battle against her own personal fate. Her fight is unsuccessful in the context of both the poem’s narrative and her personal delusions – in reality, she fails to maintain her precarious grasp on her own sanity and the Ginsberg family’s stability, while in the narrative of her hallucinations, she fails to protect herself from the multitude of threats that conspire to kill her – “Hitler, Grandma, the Capitalists, Franco, Daily News, Mussolini”. Naomi’s fatal flaw, or hamartia, is her “mad idealism” – the heroic quality of her boundless love for her family and her sympathetic and altruistic devotion to the Communist ideology – this idealism precipitates her inability to accept information inconsistent with her worldview, which eventually causes the onset of her delusions, setting the events that lead to her downfall in motion. Catharsis, as previously discussed, occurs through Allen’s own emotional development over the course of Kaddish – the katabasis of his descent from repression into turmoil, followed by his rejuvenation from grief towards acceptance; Naomi’s eventual redemption takes place through her death, delivering her from suffering and insanity to be reborn as the immortal “holy mother”.
It is the final criterion for tragic heroism that Kaddish subverts – rather than a revelation of Naomi’s identity as Part II draws to a close, a destruction of her identity takes place as electroshock therapy, worsening schizophrenia, stroke and lobotomy destroy the last remnants of the former “blessed daughter come to America” and the sanity she fought desperately to keep. However, this criterion for tragic heroism is fulfilled if we interpret Kaddish as an attempt to reconstruct and memorialise her identity in its purest form – the image of maternal tranquillity that is epitomised in the “Communist beauty”. If we are to interpret the poem this way, and Naomi as a doomed Aristotelian tragic heroine, philosophical questions of fate and predestination become vital – can acts carried out through one’s own volition, but based on a delusional view of reality, be classed as free will?
Work of the merciful Lord of Poetry.
The final aspect of the poem which we shall examine through a suspicious approach is Ginsberg’s alleged motive for memorialising Naomi in this way – his claim that Kaddish is an exorcism of sorts, written to put her memory to rest, to “talk to you like I didn’t when you had a mouth”. However, as we analyse the poem more closely, many other motives are suggested. Kaddish could be interpreted as a work of confessional poetry – flaunting traditional social taboos by tackling issues of mental illness, sexuality, family and the psyche in great personal detail in order to come to a deeper understanding of the individual. There are several aspects of Ginsberg’s life that Kaddish can be read as confessional, some of them even on a more literal level, as in a “confession” and atonement for his perceived shortcomings or misdeeds.
Firstly, the poem could be seen as an admission of guilt for their collective inability to hold the family together in the face of adversity and tragedy. The remnants of her husband Louis’ spirit are “killed by [her] ecstasy”, and he enters a state of deep depression, with Allen recounting that he “ate grief, forlorn” until he re-established himself with another girl, scarred by “20 years Naomi’s mad idealism”. Allen’s brother, Eugene, is portrayed as lost and directionless, drifting between the “failure doorsteps” of law, teaching, and the army before coming home “changed and alone” and ending up in an unfulfilling, dead-end career “hiding at 125th street, suing Negroes for money on crud furniture”. A theme of guilt for repressed resentment of Naomi can also be detected, as Allen is driven to disgust by his mother’s stubborn paranoia and delusion, on one occasion wishing “she were safe in her coffin”. It is also likely that any guilt also stems from his inability to emotionally connect to her while she was still alive, meaning to talk to her “as [he] didn’t when [she] had a mouth”, and sitting with her in “comfortless lone union” during one of her last periods of mental clarity. The narrative also serves as a way for Allen to openly admit his homosexuality, stating that if his teenage affection for the unnamed boy “R” was a crush, what came later was a “mortal avalanche.” A literary exorcism of Naomi provides Ginsberg with a convenient vessel for the admission of his sexuality to his family – as an adolescent, he had been led to believe by his psychotherapist that it was a result of his tumultuous relationship with his mother (alluded to in his 1959 poem Mescaline: “I can’t stand these women all over me/ smell of Naomi). Finally, Allen addresses themes of distance from his ancestral Jewish faith and culture throughout the poem, but this is suggested to be overcome over the course of Part II’s arguable emotional climax. After Allen’s shocked, cold reflections on Naomi’s attempt to “make [him] come lay her”, he lapses into a passage from the traditional Jewish Kaddish hymn: “Yisborach, v’yistabach, v’yispoar, v’yisroman” (“blessed, praised, glorified, exalted”), suggesting a reconciliation between him and his faith has begun to take place. This theme of spiritual reunification is emphasised by the interlude between parts II and III, “HYMMNN”, in which the refrain “Blessed be” accompanies Allen’s meditations on Naomi’s life. At any rate, the motives for writing Kaddish are likely to be much more diverse than Allen initially claims.
Death, stay thy phantoms!
Elegy, biography, prayer, confession, admission, meditation, memorial, celebration, catharsis, plea. Ginsberg’s mastery of language, narrative, and emotion is never more perfectly demonstrated than in Kaddish, as our understanding of life and death develops in parallel with Allen’s personal and spiritual rebirth. Immortalising the holy Naomi through verse, Kaddish is a shining example of the triumph of hope in the face of great tragedy – though loss may be the lion that eats the lamb of the soul, we cannot help but emerge stronger on the other side.
Blessed be Thee Naomi in Death! Blessed be Death! Blessed
be Death!
Blessed be He Who leads all sorrow to Heaven! Blessed be He
in the end!
Blessed be He who builds Heaven in Darkness! Blessed Blessed
Blessed be He! Blessed be He! Blessed be Death on us
All!
Bibliography
1: Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish”: Life on stage after death – blog post written for The Economist by “E.S.”, accessed at
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/10/allen-ginsbergs-kaddish
2: Drugs and the ‘Beats’: The Role of Drugs in the Lives and Writings of Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg – J. Long, p. 168, accessed at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9iQjOkc8VwUC
3: Analytical Psychology – C.G. Jung, 1976, p. 41
4: Allen Ginsberg: The Origins of “Howl” and “Kaddish” – J. Breslin, 1977, p. 99, accessed at http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2207&context=iowareview
5: Classical myth in Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” – J. Albrecht, 2014, p. 41, Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, accessed at http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/002/162/600/RUG01-002162600_2014_0001_AC.pdf
6: The Difficulty of Reading Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” Suspiciously – N. Scholes, 2012, written for M/C Journal, accessed at http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/394
7: Civilization and Its Discontents – S. Freud, 1929.
8: Allen Ginsberg, Biography on Poetry Foundation website, accessed at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/allen-ginsberg
9: Tragedy and the Common Man – A. Miller, 1949, accessed at http://www.nplainfield.org/cms/lib5/NJ01000402/Centricity/Domain/444/tragedymillerandaristotle.pdf
10: Tragic Hero Classical Definition, article by California State University, Sacramento, accessed at http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/santorar/engl190v/trag.hero.htmBritain is considering talks with Ecuador to discuss the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the UK’s Foreign Office. This would be the first major step towards resolving a one-year diplomatic stand-off.
The Foreign Office announced that it is considering taking up Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino’s request to set up a meeting with Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague when Patino will visits London later in June.
"We're considering that request. We hope the visit will contribute to our joint commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to this issue," Reuters quoted a spokeswoman as saying.
Julian Assange has been inside of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning in regards to allegation of sex crimes, which he has denied.
He refuses to go to Sweden unless it guarantees that it won’t extradite him to the US, where Assange faces espionage charges over data released by WikiLeaks. According to his lawyers, if sent to the US he is likely to face trial and possibly even the death penalty over WikiLeaks' release of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables.
Ecuador has given Assange asylum and houses him in a small basement room in its London embassy. UK law enforcement keeps a close eye on the embassy, ready to arrest Assange should he leave the diplomatically-protected building.
The cost of the surveillance, which is believed to involve two police vehicles and eight officers on duty at all times, is now over $16,500 a day, Scotland Yard recently reported. The operation cost British taxpayers over $5 million since Assange got his refuge on June 19, 2012. By the time of the anniversary, the sum is expected to have exceeded $6.3 million.
The WikiLeaks Party submitted its registration to the Australian Electoral Commission in April and has secured over 1,000 fee-paying members, more than double the 500 members required for registration. Assange is planning to run for a senate seat.
Assange is preparing for a tough remote campaign. If elected, he still may not be physically present at the Australian Senate if he remains trapped in the embassy. Assange's running mate could sit in for the WikiLeaks founder if he wins the race but is unable to leave the embassy.
The Foreign Office’s announcement comes on the day the trial of Bradley Manning, the United States Army private responsible for the biggest intelligence leak in US history, begins. US authorities arrested Manning in May 2010 and accused him of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive government files to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.INTRODUCTION
We are rolling out a new Android Wear software update for Moto 360 by Motorola. With this update we have added support for new features and fixed some issues to improve your experience. For more information on Motorola updates and repairs, visit motorola.com/mymoto360.
NOTE: You cannot downgrade to a previous software version after installing this update.
ENHANCEMENTS
This Moto 360 software update is for all users. After installing the software update you will notice changes that include:
Third Party Watch Faces Choose from a variety of public watch faces available through the Google Play Store. Watch faces can be selected and configured through the Android Wear app on your phone or directly on your Moto 360. Developers can leverage application programming interfaces (APIs) to create a watch face and retrieve calendar and notification data. Quick Settings Swiping down from the top brings new settings that include Theatre mode (display off), Sunlight mode (temporarily maximize brightness), managing interruptions, and easier access to deeper Settings. Interruptions choices made on your Moto 360 automatically change the Interruptions setting on your Lollipop-based phone. User Interface Improvements Easily undo the accidental dismissal of notification cards. Battery & Storage Stats The Android Wear application will now allow you to obtain more information about Moto 360 battery performance including a projection of time left and a breakdown of usage by applications. You can also see how much storage space remains - which is helpful when planning offline music. Android™ 5.0, Lollipop Updates Android Wear to the latest platform for consistency across Android devices for both consumers and developers. Bug Fixes A variety of system optimizations to improve performance and stability
INSTRUCTIONS
This software update will be rolled out in phases to Moto 360 users over the next few days. When you receive the update, you will receive a notification on your watch.
To successfully install the update, your watch must be connected to a phone which is in turn connected to the Internet. Your watch’s battery level must also be greater than 80%.
If you have received a notification message for this update:291 SHARES Share Tweet
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Summary: Macromolecular damage contributes to the chronic diseases of aging by causing DNA damage, inflammaging, stem cell decline, increased cellular stress and cell death. Hopefully, geroscientists may have found a way to repair the damage using compounds like rapamycin that induce autophagy. This article first appeared on the LongevityFacts.com website. Author: Brady Hartman.
Macromolecular Damage Ages Us Prematurely
As we grow older, the decades of damage to our cells and tissues called macromolecular damage, cause the chronic diseases of aging and lead to our gradual decline.
To reverse aging, we need a way to clear out decades of macromolecular damage in viable, yet aged cells. The best way to accomplish this is by prodding the cell’s natural housekeeping process known as autophagy. Unfortunately, our natural autophagy processes decline as we age. Scientists have found that the drug rapamycin stimulates autophagy but other tricks also boost our cellular housekeeping.
When a cell has become too damaged, the best course of action for the body is to eliminate this cell completely. For example, researchers have developed, a new breed of drug called senolytics that reverses aging in some tissues of mice by removing crippled cells. Researchers are planning to test these drugs in humans.
However, even if senolytic compounds are wildly successful – which we all hope for – senolytic treatments will leave our tissues full of viable yet damaged cells. These tissues, chock full of macromolecular damage, will continue to promote disease and dysfunction. To reverse aging, we need to clean out this damage as well.
Does Macromolecular Damage Cause Aging?
Leading geroscientists such as Carlos Lopez-Otin and others agree that the deterioration of the building blocks of our cells, called macromolecular damage, is a significant hallmark of aging. There is little disagreement that macromolecular damage accompanies aging. The dispute is over whether this damage is the root cause of aging or just a byproduct of the aging process itself.
Two respected authors teamed up to study the role of macromolecular damage in aging; Professor Arlan Richardson, Ph.D., from the Department of Geriatric Medicine and University of Oklahoma Health Science Center; and Eric Schadt, Ph.D., with the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The authors published a paper with their findings stating,
Several decades of research have shown that macromolecular damage increases with age and that damage to protein, DNA, lipids, and other macromolecular components appears to be important factors in specific age-related diseases.
As we age, damaged cellular components accumulate in and around our cells. These damaged building blocks of our cells, called macromolecules, include DNA, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates.
Richardson and Schadt suspect that macromolecular damage is a root cause of aging. For evidence, the authors quote studies which show that calorie restriction increases lifespan, saying
The strongest evidence that macromolecular damage is a causative factor in aging comes from studies using manipulations that increase life span.
Richardson and Schadt are cautious about offering a final verdict, stating
However, it is currently unclear whether damage to macromolecules plays a role in the actual processes of aging. In other words, is macromolecular damage driven by aging or is it that damage to a key molecular component directly causes aging?
Macromolecular Damage as a Driver of Disease
While geroscientists have yet to come up with the proximal cause of aging, it is apparent to scientists, physicians, and the average person that damage to cells and tissues causes disease. For example, damage to beta cells cause type 1 diabetes; damaged arteries, combined with high cholesterol cause atherosclerosis; and damaged heart cells contribute to heart disease. Macromolecular damage is a significant cause of illness.
Various scientists offer evidence that macromolecular damage contributes to cellular senescence, stem cell decline, progenitor cell dysfunction, and inflammaging, a chronic low-grade inflammation that usually accompanies old age. In turn, researchers say that these conditions significantly contribute to the major chronic diseases of aging, such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
Bottom Line: Macromolecular damage significantly contributes to chronic diseases. However, researchers are unsure if this damage causes the aging process itself.
Macromolecular Damage to Proteins
By and large, proteins are the most significant class of macromolecular damage. Proteins make up the building blocks of our cells and tissues and can fall victim to all sorts of hazards. Dysfunctional proteins include those that are misfolded, oxidized, abnormally glycated, cross-linked, and aggregated. These damaged proteins do not just take up space. As we age our protein quality control and autophagy processes degrade and our cells and tissues fill up with these junk proteins which promote inflammaging, cellular senescence, and cell death.
Even the cautious Richardson and Schadt suspect damaged proteins as causing disease and aging, and as they say in their study,
How could damage to protein lead to aging? Because proteins play a critical role in catalyzing reactions that are critical to a cell…
Look into a microscope, and you can find these dysfunctional proteins at the scene of the crime, in the tissues of affected organs in age-related chronic diseases. If you don’t have a microscope handy, look at the image above, and as an example, you can see how a decline in autophagy up due to clogged lysosomes lets macromolecular damage build-up in Parkinson’s Disease. Aggregated proteins both accompany and worsen many diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, insulin-dependent diabetes, and dilated cardiomyopathy.
Macromolecular Damage Weakens Stem Cells
Our cells become damaged all the time, and fortunately, our bodies are equipped with stem cells to repair the damage. To do the job, our tissues are full of progenitor cells – the early descendants of stem cells. Progenitor cells have a limited capacity for self-renewal and play a vital role in replacing and repairing damaged tissue. Like the shmoos of the cellular world, progenitors can differentiate into specialized cells to make new tissue.
Unfortunately, as the decades roll on, our stem cells decline due to years of damage. This happens as the build-up of damaged macromolecules stimulates cellular stress responses in the progenitor cells. In turn, this stress inhibits them from differentiating into specialized cells. No differentiation, no new tissue.
Macromolecular DamAGE Causes Inflammation
While there is plenty of types of macromolecular damage, for an example of how they lead to chronic diseases, consider the case of glycated proteins.
Proteins frequently get tangled up with a sweet young thing called sugar, inappropriately binding with them to form advanced glycation end-products. Glycation occurs when a sugar molecule chemically attaches to something it ought not to, such as a protein, a lipid (fat) or a nucleic acid (part of DNA). When sugar latches on to one of these macromolecules, it forms an advanced glycation end-product. It’s a bad marriage that leads to all kinds of trouble.
Our Declining Defenses Against the AGEs
Our defenses against the formation of advanced glycation end-products weaken as we age. Advanced glycation end-products are bad news because they stoke inflammaging and have been implicated in a slew of chronic diseases. Our bodies are finely tuned to advanced glycation end-products and even have receptors for them, called Receptors for Advanced Glycation End-Products (RAGEs) that set off pro-inflammatory cascades. AGEs are but one of the causes of the low-grade chronic inflammation that accompanies aging called inflammaging. In turn, inflammaging contributes to host of dysfunction and chronic diseases.
AGEs in Clinical Trials
Experimental evidence supports the idea that AGEs promote inflammaging. For example, a group of Italian scientists wanted to see how much damage is caused by dietary AGEs and set up an experiment to find out.
The researchers put a group of prediabetics on either a low AGE or standard diet. After about six months, the researchers found that, compared to the control group, the group on the low AGE diet low had improved cholesterol levels and reduced C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation. They published their results in 2016 in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology.
Bottom Line: The Italian experiment showed that a diet low in AGEs resulted in lower levels of inflammation and vice-versa.
Diseases Caused by Advanced Glycation End-Products
One danger of advanced glycation end-products is that they can clog the tiny blood vessels throughout the body – called the microvascular system – especially those in the brain, kidneys, eyes, and heart. This clogging of the microvascular system may contribute to the risk of various complications of diabetes.
Physicians have long known that high blood sugar leads to all kinds of problems in the body, and this may be due in part to high levels of advanced glycation end-products. High blood sugar leads to increased inflammation and more AGEs, two known sources of disease and damage. In diabetics, uncontrolled blood sugar leads to higher risks of all kinds of complications, including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, amputations, and blindness.
High levels of AGEs can be found in many healthy older adults as well as in those with chronic diseases, so scientists are unsure of how strong a role they play in human health. Scientists have not conclusively fingered AGEs as the culprit behind these diseases, but they are suspect.
Macromolecular Damage Causes Cardiovascular Disease
For example of how macromolecular damage leads to disease, consider the concept that AGEs promote heart disease. Geroscientists strongly suspect that AGEs work in three ways to stoke the pathology of atherosclerosis. In turn, atherosclerosis, also called hardening of the arteries, leads to heart disease. While many things lead up to a heart attack, the concept that AGEs, a form of macromolecular damage, contribute to heart disease goes as follows
Strike One: AGEs can cause crosslinks to form in the collagen in our artery walls, stiffening them up and making it easier for cholesterol to stick to the walls of our artery.
Strike Two: Cholesterol can also become glycated, making it more likely to become oxidized. Oxidized LDL cholesterol stokes the fires of atherosclerosis.
Strike Three: AGEs bind to the RAGE receptors and cause oxidative stress as well as stimulate inflammatory pathways in the lining of our arteries known as vascular endothelial cells. This inflammation attracts immune cells until a crowd forms.
Three Strikes and Out: Our veins are the last place we want a crowd to form. If too many immune cells gather, a blood clot forms, which can break off and lodge in an artery feeding the heart or brain, leading to heart attack or stroke.
Macromolecular Damage to Lipids
Lipid damage is another form of macromolecular damage and, unfortunately, our lipids also become damaged as we age. Lipids are fats, and while you think we should avoid fats, our bodies need them for many essential functions.
Our bodies typically store fat in adipocytes, also called fat cells. Adipocytes have three essential jobs. First of all, they store energy in the form of fat and respond to insulin to meet the immediate energy needs. Secondly, they secrete hormones that our bodies need. Lastly, adipocytes keep toxic fat out of the areas in which it does not belong. Some fat is toxic to our tissues, and fat cells are much better equipped for storing this toxic waste.
More On the Topic of Ectopic Fat
Ectopic fat is a type of fat that collects in abnormal locations in the body and adversely affects our health. Ectopic fat accumulates in the liver, bone marrow, pancreas, muscle and around some of our organs, where it is called visceral fat. The age-related frailty common to many seniors, called sarcopenia is linked to ectopic fat infiltration of muscle.
Scientists do not precisely know why fat gets stored in the wrong places. Some blame it on the decreasing capability of our adipose tissue (fat cells) to store fats efficiently. Geroscientists believe this due to the fat cell progenitors failing to differentiate into fully functioning fat cells. Our progenitor cells have also taking am age-induced damage hit, and are less efficient.
Ectopic Fat Promotes Disease
Besides being ugly to look at, ectopic fats are unhealthy because they contain reactive molecules, cytotoxic fatty acids, and ceramides. While our adipose (belly fat) tissue can store these toxic wastes without harm, the other cells in our body are poorly equipped to protect themselves against these toxins. Too many ectopic fats can lead to a condition known as lipo-toxicity, which in turn contributes to metabolic dysfunction and inflammaging. The problem is made worse in people who overeat.
However, don’t blame your overactive appetite too much, because autophagy also declines with aging and this decline contributes to the accumulation of intracellular cytotoxic fats.
Bottom Line: Lipid damage is a form of macromolecular damage. In general, as we age, our defenses against lipo-toxicity decline at all levels, and this amplifies the adverse health effects of the build-up of ectopic fats.
Are Telomeres Part of Macromolecular Damage?
Our DNA has protective caps called telomeres which start out long and naturally shorten as a cell divides. However, Richardson and Schadt make the point that telomeres are macromolecules as well, and are subject to all kinds of damage. The authors point out that abnormally short telomeres lead to disease and accelerated aging. The concept that telomere damage leads to aging remained an unproven theory until Dr. John Cooke recently showed that lengthening telomeres reversed aging in cells in culture.
Related Article: Learn more about the idea of lengthening telomeres to rejuvenate the body in this report.
Crippled DNA is Part of Macromolecular Damage
DNA is another macromolecule that becomes damaged as we grow older. DNA damage happens all the time. Our body’s DNA repair mechanisms usually fix the damage, but errors slip through and |
We did a lot of work to optimize the port and make it run smoothly whether you are playing handheld or docked. We also had to rethink a lot of UI and control issues, since on PC you have access to keyboard & mouse. Given the amount of content and the resources that went into it, we felt this was a fair price.We've had requests for mobile, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 ports. At the moment, we are not making any plans for future ports, but plans can always change. A lot of the work we did for the Switch version would benefit these other platforms as well.Unfortunately, we received a very limited amount of promotional codes from Nintendo. All of them are being used for press outlets, reviewers, YouTubers, etc. If we had any extra to give away, we would!Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Norfolk, Va. - Norfolk Chief of Police Michael Goldsmith outfitted 300 Norfolk Police officers with body-worn video cameras Monday that will record audio and video interactions with citizens.
The cameras will record during traffic stops and pursuits, crimes or incidents in progress, arrests or detentions, searches, mental health calls, and events or incidents that could become aggressive or confrontational. Whenever safe and practical, officers will advise citizens that the camera is recording.
"It is my belief that these new cameras will provide increased accountability and customer service," said Police Chief Michael Goldsmith. "Every day Norfolk officers work closely with the community and these cameras will not only help us build and maintain trust but also foster positive relationships."
The recordings from the body cameras will be downloaded to a secure storage server and retained for future reference.
Officers do not have the ability to edit or delete recordings.
Recordings related to criminal investigations will be saved for a minimum of five years. All other files will be retained for 45 days.
According to a release from the department, the goals of implementing the body camera system are to:
Enhance public trust
Enhance officer safety
Document crime or incident scenes
Improving an officer’s ability to document and review statements and actions for
reporting purposes and criminal prosecution
reporting purposes and criminal prosecution A tool for officer training
The public is welcome to call 757-664-3277 and speak to a Norfolk Police Public Information Officer about the body-worn cameras.I’ve written in depth before about the amount of fucking poor porn on the box, you know, the shite that really gets your blood boiling and your veins sticking out like someone from Kensington who’s inadvertently stumbled into an Aldi.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Channel 5 at literally any time of the day.
There’ll be some cocky fucking fat twat who’s one Tunnocks away from a fucking heart attack, crying that she can’t keep her fucking swarm of screaming gobshites in Coca Cola and KFC, on the mere 2 grand more a year than you earn actually fucking working for a living.
You’ll want to smash the fuck out of your tele. That’s what this shit is designed to do, and guess what? It fucking works.
Shit like this is why we have working class tories. Turkeys literally voting for Christmas.
People think if they rent a nice flat, have a fucking Nissan on HP and a 42″ plasma from Littlewoods, that they’re somehow middle class and should vote in the same way.
Get a fucking grip! You’re one Brexit triggered redundancy away from the fucking dole queue you stupid bastards.
The welfare state is flawed yes. People take the piss more than Bernard Manning in a mosque, but it’s just a tiny percentage.
It’s a fucking safety net. People need it from time to time, like the 500,000 public sector workers that Britain breaking bacon pumper sacked off after deciding he was in charge.
If you’re voting Conservative because “them scroungers have sky and a big telly” then you seriously need to evaluate you’re decision and read another paper other than The Sun and watch another channel, other than 5.
I can recommend a video The Guardian posted yesterday, about a disabled woman crawling around her poorly designed house with no wheel chair access.
She has to pay for her meds now and guess what? She can’t fucking afford them, so she goes without.
She lives off fucking milk for Christ’s sake, in Britain in 2017. She’s not the only one and if you vote for more of that you’re a fucking cunt. I don’t care what class you are.
If you like this shit then why not buy me a beer?
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-----------Buy Photo Attorney Dee Wampler (Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader)Buy Photo
Gay rights activists are raising issue with language used by a well-known Springfield attorney in his letter about same-sex benefits within the Ozark Fire Department.
Today's Poll: Do you think Dee Wampler's letter to the Ozark Fire Board was appropriate?
Prominent defense attorney Dee Wampler sent the letter to several people involved in the issue. It includes language about gay rights being pushed "down our throats."
One of the letters went to Capt. Andi Mooneyham, an Ozark firefighter who recently pushed the board to allow health benefits for her wife and any other same-sex couples who may work for the department in the future.
MORE: Ozark fire board won't extend same-sex benefits
The board decided earlier this month not to extend benefits after an attorney told them they didn't have the authority.
Wampler's short letter says he agrees with the board's decision to follow the Missouri constitution, as well as state statutes, that say marriage is only between a man and woman.
"I am tired of promo attempting to cram homosexuality and lesbians down our throats," the letter says. "You have followed the law and I congratulate you. Now — back to fighting fires."
(Photo: Submitted)
Reached by phone today, Wampler said he often sends letters to people "congratulating them or not congratulating them" often based on stories he reads in the newspaper.
"Whatever I wrote, I believe," he said.
Wampler said he doesn't believe those who support same-sex benefits should take issue with him, but rather with those who would need to change the state's constitution.
Mooneyham declined to comment on the letter, but PROMO, the state gay right's advocacy group that Wampler's letter references, has posted a photo of the letter on social media sites.
Andi Mooneyham (Photo: Submitted)
The post on Facebook has the accompanying text: "Think discrimination doesn't exist?"
As of about 11 a.m., the post had been shared 132 times.
Wampler said his letter, and PROMO's online response, were both speech protected by the 1st Amendment.
A.J. Bockelman, executive director for PROMO, also sent a letter to State Auditor Thomas Schweich, asking him to denounce Wampler's letter. The connection PROMO is making is that the Wampler letter came on the firm's letterhead, which also includes Attorney Joseph Passanise, who is the treasurer for Schweich's campaign committee.
"While we know neither you nor Mr. Passanise authored this letter, we call on both you and your campaign treasurer to denounce this bigoted action," the letter says. "As a statewide office holder, you stand for all Missourians, including the LGBT community."
A majority of Ozark Fire Board members said they supported the change at an August meeting, but advice from attorney Todd Johnson led them to let the motion die. Johnson said the law is specific about who it allows fire protection districts to provide with benefits.
About 40 people attended the meeting earlier this month in which the board declined to vote on the motion.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, which has led to changes in how the state writes policy in regard to same-sex marriages.
A group of 10 same-sex couples are part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union pushing for marriage recognition in Missouri.
Read or Share this story: http://sgfnow.co/1u8mxrwA new poll of Americans aged 18-30 finds we Millennials continue to have a low level of confidence in Republicans and Democrats, as less than a third of us are willing to claim the “two major parties do a good job of representing the American people.”
The GOP gets the boot from more than two in three young adults, and though Democrats fared better, they hardly receive a ringing endorsement. Among white Millennials in particular, 52 percent said the Democratic Party doesn’t care about them.
The poll also asked Millennials about the two parties’ candidates for president, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and disenchantment levels only grew. Young people may be able to muster some enthusiasm for the parties in the abstract, but thinking about these two politicians in particular makes that really difficult.
Half said Clinton isn’t qualified to be president—a baseline question that doesn’t require one to support a candidate to answer affirmatively—and three in four said the same about Trump. Those are damning numbers, and yet completely expected from the most politically independent generation ever.
For Clinton, the survey further zeroed in on whether she intentionally broke the law by using a private email server while secretary of state.
RELATED: Why do Millennials like both Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders?
Now, Clinton has never been very popular with this generation (she got absolutely walloped by Bernie Sanders among that demographic in the primaries), so it’s perhaps not surprising that survey respondents generally took a low view of her email habits.
Just 8 percent—fewer than one in 10—said she did nothing wrong, and 63 percent said she broke the law. Of that majority, most (43 percent vs. 20 percent) say Clinton’s lawbreaking was intentional, though white Millennials were harder on her in this regard than minorities.
Together, all this reiterates what I’ve argued for a while. Millennials like me have grown into adulthood with an awful economy and constant war. Every fresh news day seems to bring yet another report of some dastardly way the government is violating our liberties and trampling the rule of law. It’s easy for us to recognize the need for real and lasting change.
That’s why someone like Sanders or Ron Paul is so appealing—we aren’t interested in just fiddling around the margins of politics, which is basically the promise of a Clinton White House.
RELATED: Millennials may be the first generation to earn less money than their parents
And the 2016 election has clarified the sort of change young Americans want. In short, it’s not the protectionist, hawkish, discriminatory approach Donald Trump is offering.
Though this generation does lean left (as young people historically have), Millennials are comparatively conservative with our money, ready for a more responsible foreign policy, and disinterested in running other people’s lives. That’s good news and further evidence that libertarianism could well win out.In Napoleon in America, King Louis XVIII at one point looks to his nephew, the Duke of Angoulême, for support, but is disappointed in the result. That about sums up the poor Duke’s life.
Louis Antoine – to give the Duke his Christian name – was born August 6, 1775, the son of the Count of Artois and Marie Thérèse of Savoy. He is less well known than his cousin and wife, Marie-Thérèse, the Duchess of Angoulême, who was born at Versailles on December 19, 1778. She was the eldest child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the only one of their offspring to survive the French Revolution.
Marie-Thérèse (or Madame Royale, as she was then known) was imprisoned in the Temple, the remains of a medieval fortress in Paris, from August 13, 1792 to December 18, 1795, the eve of her seventeenth birthday. During this time her parents were guillotined and her younger brother – imprisoned in a separate room and neglected – died of illness.
On her release from prison, Marie-Thérèse was taken to Vienna (her mother was a member of the Austrian royal family). She then joined her uncle Louis XVIII in exile in Mitau, in present-day Latvia, where he was living as a guest of the Russian Tsar. Louis XVIII wanted Marie-Thérèse to marry the Duke of Angoulême. She readily agreed, as it was a project her parents had favoured, though she could not remember ever having seen her cousin. They were married on June 10, 1799 at Jelgava Palace.
An unhappy couple
The Duke was probably a disappointing husband. He lacked his father’s charm and manners, and had a sickly appearance. Even a partisan of the royal family said,
He is small, ugly and awkwardly built. He has very little brains and speaks in an uneducated manner. (1)
The Duke of Angoulême was widely thought to be impotent or homosexual, and there’s a good chance the marriage was never consummated. There were rumours, probably unfounded, that he ill-treated the Duchess. In public they were courteous to each other. Marshal Macdonald wrote:
[T]hose…who had opportunity for observation, noticed that the young couple were very affectionate and treated each other with the greatest deference and regard. (2)
In any case, the Duchess was already sorrowful. She said it would have been better to share in her family’s deaths than to live “condemned to cry.” (3) In fact she maintained a strict reserve and didn’t cry often. Louis XVIII, in a letter to the Count of Artois after their niece’s arrival at Mitau, wrote:
When she speaks of her misfortunes, tears do not come easily, from habit, as she contained herself to not give her jailers the barbaric pleasure of seeing her cry. (4)
The couple moved with Louis XVIII and the Count of Artois to Britain, until the royal family’s return to France in 1814. The Duke of Angoulême, who had entered service with the émigré army in 1792 (he led an unsuccessful royalist uprising in the Vendée) and commanded a regiment of Bavarian cavalry in the battle of Hohenlinden in 1800, sailed to Bordeaux in March 1814; the city had declared for the King even before Napoleon’s abdication.
The only man of her family
When Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to France in March 1815, the Duke of Angoulême led the French army in the southern Rhône valley. When Angoulême surrendered to General Grouchy, Napoleon spared the Duke’s life by allowing him to be conducted to Spain. Meanwhile the Duchess of Angoulême was trying to rally the troops in Bordeaux. They agreed to defend her, but would not oppose Napoleon’s men. She finally agreed to leave on an English ship once she realized her cause was lost. Napoleon, when told of her courage, said, “She is the only man of her family.” (5) She called Napoleon “the usurper” and “the criminal.”
The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême returned to France after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. The Duchess was tenderly attached to Louis XVIII, though she frequently disagreed with him. The Duke was more in sympathy with his uncle. To his family’s great pride, in 1823 Angoulême led a French invasion of Spain to restore a Bourbon cousin, Ferdinand VII, to the Spanish throne (that part of Napoleon in America is not fiction – read about the invasion here). In 1824, when Louis XVIII died and the Count of Artois became Charles X, the Duke became heir to the French throne (the Dauphin) and his wife became the Dauphine – the last one France ever had.
Neither had deep intellectual resources. The Duchess did not care for clever people, the Duke was extremely shy, and both were extremely pious. The Duchess developed a reputation for haughtiness. Chateaubriand wrote of her refusal to speak to him:
Silence from the orphan of the Temple can never be deemed ingratitude. Heaven has a right to the earth’s worship and owes nothing to anyone. (6)
The Duchess of Angoulême liked simplicity in her rooms and her dress. She banished from court the luxurious clothing of the Napoleonic period, preferring her ladies to wear simple white dresses. She did her own dressing and toilette, as she had done in prison.
King for 20 minutes
When Charles X lost his throne in the July Revolution of 1830, he abdicated in favour of the Duke of Angoulême. The Duke reigned for 20 minutes as King Louis XIX of France before abdicating in favour of his nephew Henri, the Duke of Bordeaux. Unfortunately for the Bourbons, the Chamber of Deputies pronounced the Duke of Orléans (Louis Philippe) their new king. Yet again the royal family went into exile. They lived first in Edinburgh, and then at the Castle of Hradschin in Prague, where they maintained the etiquette of the Paris court on a greatly reduced scale.
When Chateaubriand saw the Duke of Angoulême in 1833, he wrote:
I found him looking older and thinner. He was dressed in a shabby blue coat, buttoned high to the throat; it was too big for him and looked as if it had been bought at a second-hand shop; I felt terribly sorry for the poor Prince.
The Duke seemed ashamed of his lack of action during the July Revolution. He reportedly said, “There is no mouse-hole small enough to hide me,” and “[l]et no one speak of me; let no one be concerned about me; I am nothing; I wish to be nothing.” (7)
Chateaubriand continued to Carlsbad, where the Duchess of Angoulême was taking the waters. This time she was happy to speak with him. Of his meal with her, he wrote:
The dinner was so meagre and ill-cooked that I rose from the table dying of hunger. It was served in her own salon, for she had no dining-room.
After dinner, she sat looking out the window, commenting on the passers-by.
It interested me to see Marie-Thérèse, the Princess of thrones and scaffolds, come down from her lofty position to gossip like other women about the habits of the neighbours; I observed her with a kind of philosophic tenderness. (8)
Leniency towards each other’s failings
The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême both remained greatly attached to Charles X and nursed him through his final illness and death. They lived an austere and monotonous life as trusted friends who shared each other’s sadness. They detached themselves from any political activity and turned increasingly to mysticism. The Marquis de Villeneuve observed:
[T]he couple had become august not only by sorrow nobly borne, but also by the strength of the bond between them, which included absolute leniency towards each other’s failings. (9)
The Duke of Angoulême died of sepsis on June 3, 1844 at the age of 68. After his death, the Duchess settled outside Vienna at Schloss Frohsdorf, where Napoleon’s sister, Caroline Murat, had earlier lived in exile. She spent her days walking, reading, sewing and praying. Her niece and nephew, Louise and Henri, on whom she doted, joined her there. She died of pneumonia on October 19, 1851 and was buried next to her husband in the Bourbon crypt at the Kostanjevica Monastery in Slovenia. Two months later, Napoleon’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, staged a coup d’état in France. He went on to rule as Napoleon III.
Just as theories swirl about Napoleon’s possible substitution and escape from St. Helena, there is a theory that the Duchess of Angoulême was secretly substituted for someone else on her trip from Paris to Vienna in 1795, laid out here. The Madame Royale Historical Society is trying to determine the truth of this theory through DNA testing of the remains of the “Dark Countess” (the alleged real Marie-Thérèse).
You can read the Duchess of Angoulême’s memoirs of what passed in the Temple here.
You might also enjoy:
Louis XVIII: Oyster Louis
The Count of Artois, Charles X of France
Louise Marie Thérèse d’Artois: Mademoiselle of France
Henri d’Artois, Unready to be King
When the King of France Lived in EnglandWhich of the following is a type of monkey or ape? patatas monkey
patas monkey
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? beetle monkey
spider monkey
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? chimpanzee
loris
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? panda
bonobo
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? leaf monkey
flower monkey
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? marmot
marmoset
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? pink monkey
green monkey
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? Banbury ape
Barbary ape
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? propolis monkey
proboscis monkey
Which of the following is a type of monkey or ape? yowler
howlerSexual assault charges against Mustafa Ururyar will be dropped in a Toronto courtroom on Wednesday, CBC Toronto has learned.
Ururuyar is expected to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Wednesday in the high profile case and sign a peace bond agreeing to have no contact with Mandi Gray for 12 months. Ururyar and Gray were York University PhD students at the time of the alleged incident.
A peace bond is not an admission of guilt.
Gray told CBC Toronto she was informed of this development by her lawyer on Monday. She said she was willing to participate in a new trial, but also relieved to put a difficult time behind her.
"I'm so happy," Gray said. "This is the best case scenario."
Gray said she had asked for a peace bond but, when Ururyar initially refused, she started to reluctantly prepare herself for another trial.
Daniel Brown, Ururyar's lawyer, said on Tuesday his client has no comment at this time.
This development is the latest in a nearly three year, highly-publicized saga that has wound its way through several courts.
In 2016, Ururyar was found guilty of sexually assaulting Gray. The alleged incident occurred in the winter of 2015.
But Ururyar, who always asserted he and Gray had consensual sex, appealed his conviction, and in July 2017, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned it. A new trial was ordered.
Gray said Tuesday she is happy not to return to court.
"I do not feel any disappointment," she said. "I can't go through another four days of cross-examination."South Africa’s ruling African National Congress says it has a “good story to tell” ahead of the May 7 general election. This is the second of two reports evaluating key election claims.
The African National Congress has been in power in South Africa for twenty years. Despite criticism of corruption, crime, poverty and inequality, its leaders are adamant that it has a “good story to tell” voters.
In his introduction to the party’s 2014 manifesto, President Jacob Zuma wrote: “The lives of our people have vastly improved and South Africa is a much better place than it was before 1994…Our struggle has now reached the second phase, in which we will implement radical socio-economic transformation to meaningfully address poverty, unemployment and inequality.”
In this – the second of two reports – we examine some of the key claims that the ANC has made in its election campaign. (Read the first one here.)
Crime
Claim “In 2009 the number of contact crimes was 1,407 per 100,000 people. In 2012 the number of contact crimes was 1,233 per 100,000 people.” Verdict incorrect
Contact crimes are the crimes we fear most and include murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm, common assault, sexual crimes, common robbery and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
While the overall ratio of contact crimes (usually represented as a ratio per 100,000 people) has indeed decreased since the cited 2008/2009 period, the ANC’s claims are incorrect as they contain a “serious statistical error”.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), an independent research organisation, explains that instead of using population estimates based on the most recent national census, which was published in 2011, police calculations (on which the ANC claims appear to be based) instead used outdated population figures from the earlier 2001 census.
Using the correct population data the number of contact crimes stood at 1,381 per 100,000 people in 2009, and 1,209 per 100,000 people in 2012, lower than the ANC’s figures.
The ANC’s claim also excludes the most recent official contact crime statistics. During 2012/2013 incidents of murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances increased for the first time in years. These categories account for only 33% of all crimes categorised as “contact crimes”. Consequently, the overall contact crime ratio in 2012/13 still showed a decline – to 1,181 per 100,000 people.
“The government appears not to be taking these worrying trends seriously as we have seen no indication from the South African Police Service (SAPS) about what they will be doing to address these increases [in murder, attempted murder and aggravated robbery],” said Gareth Newham, head of the Governance, Crime and Justice Division at the ISS. “Instead, we had the SAPS National Commissioner releasing inaccurate and misleading crime ratios for the first time in 20 years.
“Despite being made aware of this, no action has been taken to correct these statistics. This raises serious concerns about the integrity of the SAPS senior leadership and has contributed further to the undermining of public trust in this important institution.”
For an explanation of the importance of crime ratios and using the correct population data to calculate them, see Africa Check’s guide to understanding crime statistics and read this report.
Electricity
Claim “In 1994, 39% of South Africans had access to electricity, today, 86% of South Africans have access to electricity.” Verdict incorrect
According to the ANC’s official Twitter account the party’s secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, made the claim during a rally in South Africa’s Northern Cape province yesterday.
Access to electricity is usually assessed in terms of households. Therefore, it is strange that Mantashe referred to “South Africans” and did not use the standard measure of “households”.
It is not the first time Mantashe has made such a claim. In an interview with The Africa Report in February this year he was quoted as saying: “…[I]n 1992 only 39% of South Africans had access to electricity. In 2013, it is 84% who have access to electricity.”
A 2003 study conducted by the University of Cape Town’s Energy and Development Research Centre included data which showed that 39% of South African households had access to electricity in 1992, not 1994 as Mantashe reportedly claimed yesterday.
The Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation’s Development Indicators show that 50.9% of households had access to electricity by 1994/95.
Mantashe’s claim yesterday that 39% of South Africans had access to electricity in 1994 is incorrect, according to the available data.
If Mantashe had referred to “households”, the second part of his claim would have been in the right ballpark. According to the 2012 General Household Survey, 85.3% of South African households had access to electricity.
Education
Claim “In 1994, there were 150,000 African students in university, a 57% matric pass rate and no grade R. In 2012, there were 750,000 African students in university, a 78% [matric] pass rate and grade R.” Verdict checked
There are no consistent figures for the number of black students in universities in 1994. This is due, in part, to the different structures and classifications of tertiary institutions before 1994.
The estimated total number of black students in tertiary institutions in 1994 ranges from the figure of 150,000 cited by the ANC up to 191,000 and even as high as 273,526.
The ANC is correct to claim that there was a school pass rate of 58% in 1994. In 1994, 287,343 pupils passed matric, out of a total of 495,408.
The claim that Grade R did not exist in 1994 is also correct. Grade R was officially phased in as the first year of formal schooling from 2001.
The Department of Basic Education aims to provide universal access to Grade R in 2014, although this was originally planned for 2010.
The claim that there were 750,000 African students enrolled in universities in 2012 is incorrect, according to the Department of Higher Education and Training. Its annual report for 2012/2013 states that 640,443 African pupils were enrolled in universities that year.
The claim that the matric pass rate in 2012 was 78% is also incorrect. That was actually the pass rate in 2013.
In 2012, the pass rate was 73.9%. But,as we explained in an earlier report, matric pass rates are not a reliable benchmark of education quality.
No-fee schools
Claim “Over seven million learners are in no-fee schools, up from five million in 2009.” Verdict unproven
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the figures originated from the Department of Basic Education’s 2013 Annual School Survey. The document is not available online and the ANC did not respond to emails requesting a copy of it. The basic education department failed to respond to questions about the number of children in no-fee schools.
However, the department’s latest annual report appears to contradict the claim, stating that there are currently “over nine million children in non-fee paying schools”, two million more than the ANC has claimed. The 2009/10 annual report indicates that approximately 8-million children were attending no-fee schools in 2010.
School meals
Claim “Over nine million learners in 20,000 schools receive daily meals.” Verdict checked
The Department of Basic Education has reported that in 2012/13 the National School Nutrition Programme reached 9,159,773 pupils in 21,400 schools. This figure was also reported in the department’s 2014 – 2015 annual performance plan.
But the programme has been dogged by controversy and there have been reported cases where thousands of pupils have not received daily meals. Investigations by Corruption Watch found that the programme was “prone to corruption and manipulation”.
In 2013, a teacher union took the Kwazulu-Natal education department to court amid claims of irregularities in the issuing of tenders for the school nutrition scheme. The union claimed that thousands of pupils were going hungry because companies that had been awarded tenders to provide the meals had failed to do so.
The public interest litigation centre, Section27, was also involved in legal action to compel the delivery of food to schools.
Reporting on problems at 11 schools in Limpopo province in 2013, the Mail & Guardian newspaper noted: “School feeding schemes have proven notoriously vulnerable to corruption because middlemen are contracted to provide the meals, and sometimes their relationship with their employers appears to be worth more than their competence.”
Higher education
Claim “Twice as many young people attended university and twice as many graduated in 2012 than in 1994.” Verdict checked
In 1994, there was a total of 347,566 students enrolled at various universities, according to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). An estimated 685,729 students were enrolled in 2012, the 2012 Household Survey found. The DHET put the figure at 938,201 in 2011. The South Africa Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) 2012 Survey findings also support the claim.
As far as the numbers go, the claim that the number of students enrolled at tertiary institutions has doubled would appear to be correct.
However, if population growth is taken into account, the trend is negative. The most recent census, published in 2011, found that higher percentages of people aged 18 to 24 were in education in 1996 than in 2011.
The number of students graduating from universities has also doubled, as claimed, from 74,000 to about 160,000. However, despite the increase, only a small proportion of students who enrol in tertiary institutions ultimately succeed in their studies. The graduation rate for undergraduate students is 15%, 20% for masters students and 12% for doctoral students.
Further Education and Training colleges
Claim “Further Education and Training college enrolments doubled from 345,566 in 2010 to 657,690 in 2012.” Verdict correct
The claim is correct, according to the DHET’s 2012/13 annual report which shows that enrolment figures have increased from 345,566 in 2010 to 657,690 in 2012.
Same-sex marriage
Claim “South Africa was the first African country to legalise same-sex marriages back in 2006. It was the fifth country in the world to take this bold step.” Verdict correct
The claim is correct. In 2005, South Africa’s Constitutional Court – the highest in the country – ruled that the common law definition of marriage was inconsistent with the Constitution. South Africa’s Parliament was given a year to remedy the situation.
The Civil Union Act was passed in 2006 and allowed for two people, irrespective of their sex, to enter into a marriage or civil partnership.
South Africa was the fifth country in the world to legalise same-sex marriages, following the Netherlands in 2000, Belgium in 2003 and Spain and Canada in 2005.
Edited by Julian Rademeyer
Related fact-check reports
Does the ANC have a “good story to tell”? We examine key election claims
President Jacob Zuma’s 2014 State of the Nation address fact-checked
Zuma’s claim that South Africans are “beginning to feel safer” is misleading
Zuma’s land reform figures: Officials don’t seem to know the real numbers
Is Zuma correct to claim that a million households were electrified in five years?
ANC billboard’s sanitation claim is false
No evidence to support ANC leader’s claim that 98% of property owners in Cape Town are “white and Jewish”
© Copyright Africa Check 2019. You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page.An undercover investigation reveals the reality of life behind bars in Britain's crisis-hit prison system. Footage recorded by a reporter also working as an officer at a Category C adult prison shows how inmates are effectively running the prison, with many of them off their heads on drugs and drink. It also reveals how prison officers don't feel able to maintain control and how they are at risk themselves. In one incident a senior officer is seen on the ground, shaking and having a fit after accidentally inhaling the drug spice being smoked by prisoners.
The programme also finds little evidence of rehabilitation or change, where some weak prisoners suffer, career criminals profit while jailed, drug addicts simply change which drugs they smoke, and the prisoners who could change their ways are being ignored. It comes as the government faces repeated warnings about the crisis inside Britain's prisons. There have been a riot and three disturbances in the last three and a half months, 354 deaths in prison last year and 6,430 assaults on staff in the year to September 2016.It was the clock that started it. As detailed in Alan Sepinwall’s exhaustive The Revolution Was Televised, the defining network drama series of the ’00s didn’t begin with the grim visage of Jack Bauer or the brutal depiction of torture; there was no grand plan to rid the world of fictional terrorists, one shattered kneecap at a time. All of that came much, much later. Instead, the story of 24 — a story that improbably continues on Monday with the debut of a much-hyped miniseries called 24: Live Another Day — began with the clock.
At the turn of the millennium, Joel Surnow, a middle-aged Hollywood survivor who had done time in the trenches of Miami Vice and The Equalizer, looked at his future and sighed. As an undistinguished toiler in the pre-Sopranos universe, the only path he could see ahead of him was paved with 22-episode seasons; every year the same challenge, every year the same grind. He was employed but not inspired. It was stability, but it felt like a straitjacket.
To most writers, the logical conclusion to this existential crisis would be to pursue a series that simply filmed fewer episodes. But Joel Surnow is not most writers. As he told Sepinwall, “I’m basically a journeyman TV writer, so it’s 22, 22, every year of my life is 22. And I thought, ‘What if it was 24?'” At a brainstorming breakfast in 2000, Surnow and eventual cocreator Bob Cochran kicked around dozens of ideas that could potentially fit into a rubric that had never been attempted before: a series that told its story in real time, one hour after another. After flirting with various comic scenarios, they eventually settled on anti-terrorism — not for any political reasons, but because of the baked-in urgency. After all, even a brain surgeon has a bedtime. But someone trying to stop a presidential assassination? Yeah, that’s the guy who’ll be popping NoDoz like Tic Tacs.
Yet even after finding, in Fox, a network willing to take a chance on such a nontraditional structure and, in Kiefer Sutherland, an actor able to carry the weight of the world while simultaneously trying to save it, 24 was far from a sure thing. The series premiered in 2001, just two months after the attacks of 9/11. After considering scrapping the series entirely, Fox executives hastily reedited a key scene in which a villain parachuted out of an exploding airplane. Though the series was praised on arrival for its ambition and visual flair (those split-s |
35 photos totalA new study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that people around the world are predisposed to believe that atheists are more likely to be serial killers than religious believers — a bias even held by atheists themselves.
By the numbers: The study included 3,256 participants across 13 diverse countries that included highly secular nations like Finland and the Netherlands as well as highly religious ones like the United Arab Emirates and India.
The study included 3,256 participants across 13 diverse countries that included highly secular nations like Finland and the Netherlands as well as highly religious ones like the United Arab Emirates and India. The test: Participants answered a survey question regarding the religious beliefs of a hypothetical sociopathic serial killer, and 60% tagged the killer as not believing in any gods, compared to 30 percent who branded him a religious believer.
Why it matters: Even as the world becomes increasingly secular, people in very diverse societies across the globe still generally view belief in a god as preventative of extremely immoral actions. Though humanity's core moral norms tend to largely be universal and independent from religious convictions, centuries of overwhelming religious belief still impact our collective view on morality.MUKALLA, Yemen, June 18 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida soldiers in Yemen killed two alleged spies Thursday after the assassination of an al-Qaida leader.
Earlier photographs showed the two men blindfolded and kneeling in front of armed soldiers holding banners.
They were then shot dead, publicly, in the city of Mukalla before being hung off a bridge in front of various spectators below and on the surface of the bridge.
Al-Qaida members from the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) hung the men alongside a banner that translated to "The House of Saud directs American planes to bomb the holy warriors."
An AQAP militant explained that the men were thought to have infiltrated the group in order to get information that would facilitate the death of Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who was Osama Bin Laden's former senior lieutenant and was killed in a U.S. drone attack Tuesday.
It's believed that the men acquired the necessary information to the U.S. through bugs planted on clothes and vehicles.
Analysts and Yemeni government officials say the airstrikes require local informants in order to work. It's possible that the surge in spies may destabilize APAQ and lessen the effectiveness of its tasks by slowing down its command and control structure.
The U.S. has killed five senior AQAP figures so far this year, while AQAP has plotted bomb attacks against international airlines and attacked French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo following its insult of the Prophet Mohammed.
AQAPs stronghold over remote areas in Southern Yemen came to be after the merge between the Yemeni and Saudi portions of al-Qaida in 2009. They have strong control over the area as state authority is essentially non-existent.Pulitzer Prize-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee will discuss his book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer at 6 p.m. Wednesday, November 28, in Duke University’s Page Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Mukherjee is a leading cancer physician and researcher at Columbia University. Ten years in the writing, The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago to the epic battles of modern times to cure, control, and conquer it. Mukherjee examines this shape-shifting and formidable disease with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2010 by the New York Times.
A Rhodes scholar, Siddhartha Mukherjee graduated from Stanford University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.
Mukherjee will be delivering the Weaver Memorial Lecture, hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and former member of the Library Advisory Board. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Office of the Chancellor for Health Affairs, the Duke Department of Medicine, and the Duke Cancer Institute.
Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event.
Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available through the Duke Box Office. Visit tickets.duke.edu for more information.
EVENT PARKING: A limited number of free parking spaces will be available on a first-come, first-served basis on the West Campus Quad in front of Duke Chapel starting at 5 p.m. (Click here for map to the West Campus Quad). Parking will also be available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage (Parking Garage IV) for a $5 charge. (Click here for map to Bryan Center Garage.)
Media are invited to attend the event, but recording is not permitted. Members of the media interested in covering the talk should contact Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, Duke University Libraries, at 919-660-5816 or aaron.welborn@duke.edu by November 26.Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994)[5] was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, educator, and husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.[6] New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time,[7] and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history.[8]
Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology.[9] His contributions to the theory of the chemical bond include the concept of orbital hybridisation and the first accurate scale of electronegativities of the elements. Pauling also worked on the structures of biological molecules, and showed the importance of the alpha helix and beta sheet in protein secondary structure. Pauling's approach combined methods and results from X-ray crystallography, molecular model building and quantum chemistry. His discoveries inspired the work of James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin on the structure of DNA, which in turn made it possible for geneticists to crack the DNA code of all organisms.[10]
In his later years he promoted nuclear disarmament, as well as orthomolecular medicine, megavitamin therapy,[11] and dietary supplements. None of the latter have gained much acceptance in the mainstream scientific community.[7][12]
For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger).[13] Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes,[14] and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie.[13]
Early life and education [ edit ]
Photo of Herman Henry William Pauling, Linus Pauling's father, taken c. 1900
Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon,[15][16] the first-born child of Herman Henry William Pauling (1876–1910) and Lucy Isabelle "Belle" Darling (1881–1926).[17] He was named "Linus Carl", in honor of Lucy's father, Linus, and Herman's father, Carl.[18]
In 1902, after his sister Pauline was born, Pauling's parents decided to move out of Portland, to find more affordable and spacious living quarters than their one-room apartment.[19] Lucy stayed with her husband's parents in Lake Oswego until Herman brought the family to Salem, where he worked briefly as a traveling salesman for the Skidmore Drug Company. Within a year of Lucile's birth in 1904, Herman Pauling moved his family to Oswego, where he opened his own drugstore.[19] He moved his family to Condon, Oregon in 1905.[20] By 1906, Herman Pauling was suffering from recurrent abdominal pain. He died of a perforated ulcer on June 11, 1910, leaving Lucy to care for Linus, Lucile and Pauline.[21]
Pauling attributes his interest in becoming a chemist to being amazed by experiments conducted by a friend, Lloyd A. Jeffress, who had a small chemistry lab kit.[22] He later wrote: "I was simply entranced by chemical phenomena, by the reactions in which substances, often with strikingly different properties, appear; and I hoped to learn more and more about this aspect of the world."[23]
In high school, Pauling conducted chemistry experiments by scavenging equipment and material from an abandoned steel plant. With an older friend, Lloyd Simon, Pauling set up Palmon Laboratories in Simon's basement. They approached local dairies offering to perform butterfat samplings at cheap prices but dairymen were wary of trusting two boys with the task, and the business ended in failure.[24]
At age 15, the high school senior had enough credits to enter Oregon State University (OSU), known then as Oregon Agricultural College.[25] Lacking two American history courses required for his high school diploma, Pauling asked the school principal if he could take the courses concurrently during the spring semester. Denied, he left Washington High School in June without a diploma.[26] The school awarded him an honorary diploma 45 years later, after he was awarded two Nobel Prizes.[13][27][28]
Pauling held a number of jobs to earn money for his future college expenses, including working part-time at a grocery store for $8 per week. His mother arranged an interview with the owner of a number of manufacturing plants in Portland, Mr. Schwietzerhoff, who hired him as an apprentice machinist at a salary of $40 per month. This was soon raised to $50 per month.[29] Pauling also set up a photography laboratory with two friends.[30] In September 1917, Pauling was finally admitted by Oregon State University. He immediately resigned from the machinist's job and informed his mother, who saw no point in a university education, of his plans.[31]
Higher education [ edit ]
In his first semester, Pauling registered for two courses in chemistry, two in mathematics, mechanical drawing, introduction to mining and use of explosives, modern English prose, gymnastics and military drill.[32] He was active in campus life and founded the school's chapter of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.[33] After his second year, he planned to take a job in Portland to help support his mother. The college offered him a position teaching quantitative analysis, a course he had just finished taking himself. He worked forty hours a week in the laboratory and classroom and earned $100 a month, enabling him to continue his studies.[34]
In his last two years at school, Pauling became aware of the work of Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir on the electronic structure of atoms and their bonding to form molecules.[34] He decided to focus his research on how the physical and chemical properties of substances are related to the structure of the atoms of which they are composed, becoming one of the founders of the new science of quantum chemistry.
Engineering professor Samuel Graf selected Pauling to be his teaching assistant in a mechanics and materials course.[35][36][37] During the winter of his senior year, Pauling taught a chemistry course for home economics majors. It was in one of these classes that Pauling met his future wife, Ava Helen Miller.[36]:41[38][39][40]
In 1922, Pauling graduated from Oregon State University[5] (known then as Oregon Agricultural College) with a degree in chemical engineering. He went on to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, under the guidance of Roscoe Dickinson and Richard Tolman.[2] His graduate research involved the use of X-ray diffraction to determine the structure of crystals. He published seven papers on the crystal structure of minerals while he was at Caltech. He received his PhD in physical chemistry and mathematical physics,[4] summa cum laude, in 1925.[41]
Personal life [ edit ]
The Pauling children at a gathering in celebration of the 1954 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm, Sweden. Seated from left: Linus Pauling, Jr., Peter Pauling and Linda Pauling. Standing from left: an unidentified individual and Crellin Pauling
Pauling married Ava Helen Miller on June 17, 1923. The marriage lasted until Ava Pauling's death in 1981. They had four children.[1] Linus Carl Jr. (born 1925) became a psychiatrist; Peter Pauling [Wikidata; Reasonator] (1931–2003) a crystallographer at University College London; Edward Crellin Pauling (1937–1997) a biologist; and Linda Helen (born 1932) married noted Caltech geologist and glaciologist Barclay Kamb.[42]
Pauling was raised as a member of the Lutheran Church,[43] but later joined the Unitarian Universalist Church.[44] Two years before his death, in a published dialogue with Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, Pauling publicly declared his atheism.[45]
Lost on a sea cliff [ edit ]
On January 30, 1960, Pauling and his wife were using a cabin about 80 miles (130 km) south of Monterey, California, and he decided to go for a walk on a coastal trail. He got lost and tried to climb the rocky cliff, but reached a large overhanging rock about 300 feet (90 m) above the ocean. He decided it was safest to stay there, and meanwhile he was reported missing. He spent a sleepless night on the cliff before being found after almost 24 hours.[46]
Death [ edit ]
Pauling died of prostate cancer on August 19, 1994, at 19:20 at home in Big Sur, California.[12] He was 93 years old.[47] A grave marker for Pauling was placed in Oswego Pioneer Cemetery in Lake Oswego, Oregon by his sister Pauline,[48][49] but Pauling's ashes, along with those of his wife, were not buried there until 2005.[48]
Career [ edit ]
In 1926 Pauling was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel to Europe, to study under German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld in Munich, Danish physicist Niels Bohr in Copenhagen and Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in Zürich. All three were experts in the new field of quantum mechanics and other branches of physics.[3] Pauling became interested in how quantum mechanics might be applied in his chosen field of interest, the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. In Zürich, Pauling was also exposed to one of the first quantum mechanical analyses of bonding in the hydrogen molecule, done by Walter Heitler and Fritz London.[50] Pauling devoted the two years of his European trip to this work and decided to make it the focus of his future research. He became one of the first scientists in the field of quantum chemistry and a pioneer in the application of quantum theory to the structure of molecules.[51]
In 1927, Pauling took a new position as an assistant professor at Caltech in theoretical chemistry.[52] He launched his faculty career with a very productive five years, continuing with his X-ray crystal studies and also performing quantum mechanical calculations on atoms and molecules. He published approximately fifty papers in those five years, and created the five rules now known as Pauling's rules.[53][54] By 1929, he was promoted to associate professor, and by 1930, to full professor.[52] In 1931, the American Chemical Society awarded Pauling the Langmuir Prize for the most significant work in pure science by a person 30 years of age or younger.[55] The following year, Pauling published what he regarded as his most important paper, in which he first laid out the concept of hybridization of atomic orbitals and analyzed the tetravalency of the carbon atom.[56]
At Caltech, Pauling struck up a close friendship with theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who spent part of his research and teaching schedule away from U.C. Berkeley at Caltech every year.[57][58] Pauling was also affiliated to UC Berkeley as Visiting Lecturer in Physics and Chemistry from 1929–1934.[59] Oppenheimer even gave Pauling a stunning personal collection of minerals.[60] The two men planned to mount a joint attack on the nature of the chemical bond: apparently Oppenheimer would supply the mathematics and Pauling would interpret the results. Their relationship soured when Oppenheimer tried to pursue Pauling's wife, Ava Helen. When Pauling was at work, Oppenheimer came to their home and blurted out an invitation to Ava Helen to join him on a tryst in Mexico. She flatly refused, and reported the incident to Pauling. He immediately cut off his relationship with Oppenheimer.[57]:152[58]
In the summer of 1930, Pauling made another European trip, during which he learned about gas-phase electron diffraction from Herman Francis Mark. After returning, he built an electron diffraction instrument at Caltech with a student of his, Lawrence Olin Brockway, and used it to study the molecular structure of a large number of chemical substances.[61]
Pauling introduced the concept of electronegativity in 1932.[62] Using the various properties of molecules, such as the energy required to break bonds and the dipole moments of molecules, he established a scale and an associated numerical value for most of the elements – the Pauling Electronegativity Scale – which is useful in predicting the nature of bonds between atoms in molecules.[63]
In 1936, Pauling was promoted to Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech, and to the position of Director of the Gates and Crellin laboratories of Chemistry. He would hold both positions until 1958.[52] Pauling also spent a year in 1948 at the University of Oxford as George Eastman Visiting Professor and Fellow of Balliol.[64]
Nature of the chemical bond [ edit ]
In the late 1920s, Pauling began publishing papers on the nature of the chemical bond. Between 1937 and 1938 he took a position as George Fischer Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry at Cornell University. While at Cornell, he delivered a series of nineteen lectures[65] and completed the bulk of his famous textbook The Nature of the Chemical Bond.[66][67]:Preface It is based primarily on his work in this area that he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances".[13] Pauling's book has been considered "chemistry's most influential book of this century and its effective bible".[68] In the 30 years after its first edition was published in 1939, the book was cited more than 16,000 times. Even today, many modern scientific papers and articles in important journals cite this work, more than seventy years after the first publication.[69]
Part of Pauling's work on the nature of the chemical bond led to his introduction of the concept of orbital hybridization.[70] While it is normal to think of the electrons in an atom as being described by orbitals of types such as s and p, it turns out that in describing the bonding in molecules, it is better to construct functions that partake of some of the properties of each. Thus the one 2s and three 2p orbitals in a carbon atom can be (mathematically)'mixed' or combined to make four equivalent orbitals (called sp3 hybrid orbitals), which would be the appropriate orbitals to describe carbon compounds such as methane, or the 2s orbital may be combined with two of the 2p orbitals to make three equivalent orbitals (called sp2 hybrid orbitals), with the remaining 2p orbital unhybridized, which would be the appropriate orbitals to describe certain unsaturated carbon compounds such as ethylene.[67]:111–120 Other hybridization schemes are also found in other types of molecules. Another area which he explored was the relationship between ionic bonding, where electrons are transferred between atoms, and covalent bonding, where electrons are shared between atoms on an equal basis. Pauling showed that these were merely extremes, and that for most actual cases of bonding, the quantum-mechanical wave function for a polar molecule AB is a combination of wave functions for covalent and ionic molecules.[54]:66 Here Pauling's electronegativity concept is particularly useful; the electronegativity difference between a pair of atoms will be the surest predictor of the degree of ionicity of the bond.[71]
The third of the topics that Pauling attacked under the overall heading of "the nature of the chemical bond" was the accounting of the structure of aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the prototype, benzene.[72] The best description of benzene had been made by the German chemist Friedrich Kekulé. He had treated it as a rapid interconversion between two structures, each with alternating single and double bonds, but with the double bonds of one structure in the locations where the single bonds were in the other. Pauling showed that a proper description based on quantum mechanics was an intermediate structure which was a blend of each. The structure was a superposition of structures rather than a rapid interconversion between them. The name "resonance" was later applied to this phenomenon.[73] In a sense, this phenomenon resembles those of hybridization and also polar bonding, both described above, because all three phenomena involve combining more than one electronic structure to achieve an intermediate result.
Ionic crystal structures [ edit ]
In 1929 he published five rules which help to predict and explain crystal structures of ionic compounds.[74][54] These rules concern (1) the ratio of cation radius to anion radius, (2) the electrostatic bond strength, (3) the sharing of polyhedron corners, edges and faces, (4) crystals containing different cations, and (5) the rule of parsimony.
Biological molecules [ edit ]
An alpha helix in ultra-high-resolution electron density contours, with O atoms in red, N atoms in blue, and hydrogen bonds as green dotted lines (PDB file 2NRL, 17-32).
In the mid-1930s, Pauling, strongly influenced by the biologically oriented funding priorities of the Rockefeller Foundation's Warren Weaver, decided to strike out into new areas of interest.[75] Although Pauling's early interest had focused almost exclusively on inorganic molecular structures, he had occasionally thought about molecules of biological importance, in part because of Caltech's growing strength in biology. Pauling interacted with such great biologists as Thomas Hunt Morgan, Theodosius Dobzhanski, Calvin Bridges and Alfred Sturtevant.[76] His early work in this area included studies of the structure of hemoglobin with his student Charles D. Coryell. He demonstrated that the hemoglobin molecule changes structure when it gains or loses an oxygen atom.[76] As a result of this observation, he decided to conduct a more thorough study of protein structure in general. He returned to his earlier use of X-ray diffraction analysis. But protein structures were far less amenable to this technique than the crystalline minerals of his former work. The best X-ray pictures of proteins in the 1930s had been made by the British crystallographer William Astbury, but when Pauling tried, in 1937, to account for Astbury's observations quantum mechanically, he could not.[77]
It took eleven years for Pauling to explain the problem: his mathematical analysis was correct, but Astbury's pictures were taken in such a way that the protein molecules were tilted from their expected positions. Pauling had formulated a model for the structure of hemoglobin in which atoms were arranged in a helical pattern, and applied this idea to proteins in general.
In 1951, based on the structures of amino acids and peptides and the planar nature of the peptide bond, Pauling, Robert Corey and Herman Branson correctly proposed the alpha helix and beta sheet as the primary structural motifs in protein secondary structure.[78][79] This work exemplified Pauling's ability to think unconventionally; central to the structure was the unorthodox assumption that one turn of the helix may well contain a non-integer number of amino acid residues; for the alpha helix it is 3.7 amino acid residues per turn.
Pauling then proposed that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was a triple helix;[80][81] his model contained several basic mistakes, including a proposal of neutral phosphate groups, an idea that conflicted with the acidity of DNA. Sir Lawrence Bragg had been disappointed that Pauling had won the race to find the alpha helix structure of proteins. Bragg's team had made a fundamental error in making their models of protein by not recognizing the planar nature of the peptide bond. When it was learned at the Cavendish Laboratory that Pauling was working on molecular models of the structure of DNA, James Watson and Francis Crick were allowed to make a molecular model of DNA. They later benefited from unpublished data from Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College which showed evidence for a helix and planar base stacking along the helix axis. Early in 1953 Watson and Crick proposed a correct structure for the DNA double helix. Pauling later cited several reasons to explain how he had been misled about the structure of DNA, among them misleading density data and the lack of high quality X-ray diffraction photographs. During the time Pauling was researching the problem, Rosalind Franklin in England was creating the world's best images. They were key to Watson's and Crick's success. Pauling did not see them before devising his mistaken DNA structure, although his assistant Robert Corey did see at least some of them, while taking Pauling's place at a summer 1952 protein conference in England. Pauling had been prevented from attending because his passport was withheld by the State Department on suspicion that he had Communist sympathies. This led to the legend that Pauling missed the structure of DNA because of the politics of the day (this was at the start of the McCarthy period in the United States). Politics did not play a critical role. Not only did Corey see the images at the time, but Pauling himself regained his passport within a few weeks and toured English laboratories well before writing his DNA paper. He had ample opportunity to visit Franklin's lab and see her work, but chose not to.[57]:414–415
Pauling also studied enzyme reactions and was among the first to point out that enzymes bring about reactions by stabilizing the transition state of the reaction, a view which is central to understanding their mechanism of action.[82] He was also among the first scientists to postulate that the binding of antibodies to antigens would be due to a complementarity between their structures.[83] Along the same lines, with the physicist turned biologist Max Delbrück, he wrote an early paper arguing that DNA replication was likely to be due to complementarity, rather than similarity, as suggested by a few researchers. This was made clear in the model of the structure of DNA that Watson and Crick discovered.[84]
Molecular genetics [ edit ]
In November 1949, Pauling, Harvey Itano, S. J. Singer and Ibert Wells published "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease"[85] in the journal Science. It was the first proof of a human disease caused by an abnormal protein, and sickle cell anemia became the first disease understood at the molecular level. Using electrophoresis, they demonstrated that individuals with sickle cell disease have a modified form of hemoglobin in their red blood cells, and that individuals with sickle cell trait have both the normal and abnormal forms of hemoglobin. This was the first demonstration causally linking an abnormal protein to a disease, and also the first demonstration that Mendelian inheritance determines the specific physical properties of proteins, not simply their presence or absence – the dawn of molecular genetics.[86]
His success with sickle cell anemia led Pauling to speculate that a number of other diseases, including mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, might result from flawed genetics. As chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and director of the Gates and Crellin Chemical Laboratories, he encouraged the hiring of researchers with a chemical-biomedical approach to mental illness, a direction not always popular with established Caltech chemists.[87]:2
In 1951, Pauling gave a lecture entitled "Molecular Medicine".[88] In the late 1950s, Pauling studied the role of enzymes in brain function, believing that mental illness may be partly caused by enzyme dysfunction.
Structure of the atomic nucleus [ edit ]
On September 16, 1952, Pauling opened a new research notebook with the words "I have decided to attack the problem of the structure of nuclei." On October 15, 1965, Pauling published his Close-Packed Spheron Model of the atomic nucleus in two well respected journals, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[89][90] For nearly three decades, until his death in 1994, Pauling published numerous papers on his spheron cluster model.[89][91][92][93][94][95]
The basic idea behind Pauling's spheron model is that a nucleus can be viewed as a set of "clusters of nucleons". The basic nucleon clusters include the deuteron [np], helion [pnp], and triton [npn]. Even–even nuclei are described as being composed of clusters of alpha particles, as has often been done for light nuclei.[96] Pauling attempted to derive the shell structure of nuclei from pure geometrical considerations related to Platonic solids rather than starting from an independent particle model as in the usual shell model. In an interview given in 1990 Pauling commented on his model:[97]
Now recently, I have been trying to determine detailed structures of atomic nuclei by analyzing the ground state and excited state vibrational bends, as observed experimentally. From reading the physics literature, Physical Review Letters and other journals, I know that many physicists are interested in atomic nuclei, but none of them, so far as I have been able to discover, has been attacking the problem in the same way that I attack it. So I just move along at my own speed, making calculations...
Activism [ edit ]
Wartime work [ edit ]
Pauling had been practically apolitical until World War II. At the beginning of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer invited him to be in charge of the Chemistry division of the project. However, he declined, not wanting to uproot his family.[98]
Pauling did, however, work on research for the military. He was a principal investigator on 14 OSRD contracts.[99] The National Defense Research Committee called a meeting on October 3, 1940, wanting an instrument that could reliably measure oxygen content in a mixture of gases, so that they could measure oxygen conditions in submarines and airplanes. In response Pauling designed the Pauling oxygen meter, which was developed and manufactured by Arnold O. Beckman, Inc.. After the war, Beckman adapted the oxygen analyzers for use in incubators for premature babies.[100]:180–186[101]
In 1942, Pauling successfully submitted a proposal on "The Chemical Treatment of Protein Solutions in the Attempt to Find a Substitute for Human Serum for Transfusions". His project group, which included J.B. Koepfli and Dan Campbell, developed a possible replacement for human blood plasma in transfusions: polyoxy gelatin (Oxypolygelatin).[102][103]
Other wartime projects with more direct military applications included work on explosives, rocket propellants and the patent for an armor-piercing shell. In October 1948 Pauling was awarded a Presidential Medal for Merit by President Harry S. Truman. The citation credits him for his "imaginative mind", "brilliant success", and "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.[104][105][106] In 1949, he served as president of the American Chemical Society.[107]
Nuclear activism [ edit ]
The aftermath of the Manhattan Project and his wife Ava's pacifism changed Pauling's life profoundly, and he became a peace activist. In 1946, he joined the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, chaired by Albert Einstein.[108] Its mission was to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons.
His political activism prompted the U.S. State Department to deny him a passport in 1952, when he was invited to speak at a scientific conference in London.[109][110] In a speech before the US Senate on June 6 of the same year, Senator Wayne Morse publicly denounced the action of the State Department, and urged the Passport Division to reverse its decision. Pauling and his wife Ava were then issued a "limited passport" to attend the aforementioned conference in England.[111][112] His full passport was restored in 1954, shortly before the ceremony in Stockholm where he received his first Nobel Prize.
Joining Einstein, Bertrand Russell and eight other leading scientists and intellectuals, he signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto issued July 9, 1955.[113] He also supported the Mainau Declaration of July 15, 1955, signed by 52 Nobel Prize laureates.[114]
In May 1957, working with Washington University in St. Louis professor Barry Commoner, Pauling began to circulate a petition among scientists to stop nuclear testing.[115] On January 15, 1958, Pauling and his wife presented a petition to United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld calling for an end to the testing of nuclear weapons. It was signed by 11,021 scientists representing fifty countries.[116][117]
In February 1958, Pauling participated in a publicly televised debate with the atomic physicist Edward Teller about the actual probability of fallout causing mutations.[118] Later in 1958, Pauling published No more war!, in which he not only called for an end to the testing of nuclear weapons but also an end to war itself. He proposed that a World Peace Research Organization be set up as part of the United Nations to "attack the problem of preserving the peace".[13]
Pauling also supported the work of the St. Louis Citizen's Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI).[115] This group, headed by Barry Commoner, Eric Reiss, M. W. Friedlander and John Fowler, organized a longtudinal study to measure radioactive strontium-90 in the baby teeth of children across North America. The "Baby Tooth Survey," published by Dr. Louise Reiss, demonstrated conclusively in 1961 that above-ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks in the form of radioactive fallout spread primarily via milk from cows that had ingested contaminated grass.[119][120][121] The Committee for Nuclear Information is frequently credited for its significant contribution to supporting the test ban,[122] as is the ground-breaking research conducted by Dr. Reiss and the "Baby Tooth Survey".[123]
Public pressure and the frightening results of the CNI research subsequently led to a moratorium on above-ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by the Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. On the day that the treaty went into force, October 10, 1963, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling the Nobel Peace Prize for 1962. (No prize had previously been awarded for that year.)[124] They described him as "Linus Carl Pauling, who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts."[125] Pauling himself acknowledged his wife Ava's deep involvement in peace work, and regretted that she was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with him.[126]
Political criticism [ edit ]
Many of Pauling's critics, including scientists who appreciated the contributions that he had made in chemistry, disagreed with his political positions and saw him as a naïve spokesman for Soviet communism. In 1960 he was ordered to appear before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee,[127] which termed him "the number one scientific name in virtually every major activity of the Communist peace offensive in this country."[128] A headline in Life magazine characterized his 1962 Nobel Prize as "A Weird Insult from Norway".[129][130]
Pauling was a frequent target of the National Review magazine. In an article entitled "The Collaborators" in the magazine's July 17, 1962 issue, Pauling was referred to not only as a collaborator, but as a "fellow traveler" of proponents of Soviet-style communism. In 1965, Pauling sued the magazine, its publisher William Rusher, and its editor William F. Buckley, Jr for $1 million. He lost both his libel suits and the 1968 appeal.[131][132][133][134]
His peace activism, his frequent travels, and his enthusiastic expansion into chemical-biomedical research all aroused opposition at Caltech. In 1958, the Caltech Board of Trustees demanded that Pauling step down as chairman of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division.[87]:2 Although he had retained tenure as a full professor, Pauling chose to resign from Caltech after he received the Nobel peace prize money. He spent the next three years at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (1963–1967).[23] In 1967 he moved to the University of California at San Diego, but remained there only briefly, leaving in 1969 in part because of political tensions with the Reagan-era board of regents.[87]:3 From 1969 to 1974 he accepted a position as Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University.[52]
Vietnam war activism [ edit ]
During the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson's policy of increasing America's involvement in the Vietnam War caused an anti-war movement that the Paulings joined with enthusiasm. Pauling denounced the war as unnecessary and unconstitutional. He made speeches, signed protest letters and communicated personally with the North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, and gave the lengthy written response to President Johnson. His efforts were ignored by the American government.[135]
Pauling was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR in |
] => 0 [unique_magic_penetration] => 0 [unique_armor_penetration] => 0 [unique_lethality] => 0 [unique_life_steal] => 0 [unique_spell_vamp] => 0 [unique_tenacity] => 0 [unique_attack_speed] => 0 [unique_cooldown_reduction] => 0 [unique_ability_power] => 0 [unique_critical_strike_chance] => 0 [unique_critical_strike_damage] => 0 [unique_dodge] => 0 [unique_gold_generation] => 0 [unique_health] => 0 [unique_death_time_reduction] => 0 [unique_energy] => 0 [unique_energy_regeneration] => 0 [unique_experience] => 0 [unique_health_multiplier] => 0 [aura] => [passive] => [unique_passive] => Thorns: Upon being hit by a basic attack, reflects magic damage equal to 25 + 10% of your bonus Armor, inflicting Grievous Wounds on the attacker for 1 second. UNIQUE Passive: Cold Steel: When hit by basic attacks, cripples source's attack speed by 15% for 1 second. [consume] => [active] => [unique_active] => [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_published] => 1 [comment_count] => 22 [last_comment_ts] => 2015-03-23 18:56:58 ) ) ) ) [ability_builds] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [display_name] => [ability_ranks] => Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 [3] => 1 [4] => 1 [5] => 4 [6] => 1 [7] => 2 [8] => 1 [9] => 2 [10] => 4 [11] => 2 [12] => 2 [13] => 3 [14] => 3 [15] => 4 [16] => 3 [17] => 3 ) [description] => Max out Q, then W, then E. Make sure to level up R whenever you can. [display_order] => 1 ) ) [threats] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [champion_id] => 17 [rank] => 5 [description] => Poor Zilean. He can poke you with Time Bomb, and revive himself or an ally with Chronoshift. That's really it. Super easy, but don't let him set up his Q-W-Q combo, otherwise you get stunned. [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 17 [display_name] => Zilean [url_str] => zilean [title] => The Chronokeeper [key] => Chronokeeper [description] => In the wastelands of Urtistan, there was once a great city. It perished long ago in a terrible Rune War, like most of the lands below the Great Barrier. Nevertheless, one man survived: a sorcerer named Zilean. Being obsessed with time, it was only fitting that he dwelled in the city's Clock Tower. As the havoc of the war neared his home, Zilean experimented with powerful temporal magic to divine all possible futures, hoping to discover a peaceful solution. But Zilean's enchantments affected his perception of the passage of time, and he was in a contemplative stasis when Urtistan was set upon by an entire phalanx of dark summoner-knights of unknown affiliation. By the time he realized his error, Urtistan was nothing more than smoldering debris. The summoners who were responsible for its destruction had wisely left the Clock Tower unharmed, both to avoid drawing Zilean's attention and to torment him for his oversight. Zilean barely had time to grieve the momentous loss before he learned that his dangerous research had a cruel side effect: chrono-displasia. This mystical disease granted him immortality, but detached his consciousness from its anchor in the present time. He now mentally drifts through time, from any point he has already lived to the present, unable to impact the events which unfold. The most torturous aspect of this curse is that Zilean sometimes experiences Urtistan as it once was and the rest of the time resides in its lonely ruins. Only the powerful summoning magic employed by members of the League of Legends has been able to treat this condition, and Zilean has joined in hopes of finding a cure, and thereafter a way to save his people. "There is no greater grief than for a loss that is yet to come." - Zilean [spotlight_embed_url] => [role] => Support [defense_rating] => 5 [magic_rating] => 8 [attack_rating] => 2 [difficulty_rating] => 6 [damage_rating] => 2 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 2 [toughness_rating] => 1 [utility_rating] => 3 [health] => 499 [health_increase] => 71 [mana] => 361 [mana_increase] => 60 [movement_speed] => 335 [armor] => 19.1 [armor_increase] => 3.8 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 51.6 [attack_damage_increase] => 3 [critical_strike] => 2 [critical_strike_increase] => 0.3 [health_regeneration] => 5.4 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0.1 [mana_regeneration] => 8.5 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0.09 [attack_range] => 550 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.838 [health_18] => 1808 [mana_18] => 1381 [movement_speed_18] => 335 [armor_18] => 83.7 [magic_resistance_18] => 38.5 [attack_damage_18] => 102.6 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 13.9 [mana_regeneration_18] => 22.1 [attack_range_18] => 550 [tip_playing_as] => * You can combine the use of Time Bomb and Rewind to place two Time Bombs on a target quickly. Placing the second bomb will detonate the first and stun all nearby enemies. * Time Warp is an effective way to enable allies to finish off enemies, or escape from a losing battle. * Chronoshift is a powerful deterent to attacking your carries, but casting Chronoshift too early in a fight can cause the enemy to switch targets too soon, making it less effective. [tip_playing_against] => * If you're able to match Zilean's speed, it can sometimes be beneficial to wait until his ultimate has faded before landing the killing blow. * Zilean is fragile if a team focuses on him, but otherwise he's very difficult to kill. Commit to killing him as a team. [client_id] => 26 [riot_points] => 585 [influence_points] => 1350 [icon] => /content/champion/312e302e302e37302d3236.jpg [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 1 [views] => 21602 [view_count] => 3019477 [comments] => 1 [comment_count] => 6 [votes] => 13 [vote_count] => 13 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 437 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.55103 [community_tier_list_rank] => 3 [score] => 9 [lastpost_ts] => 2010-11-08 09:24:38 [last_comment_ts] => 2013-12-10 19:02:41 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 0 [create_ts] => 2009-04-18 00:00:00 ) ) [1] => Array ( [champion_id] => 16 [rank] => 5 [description] => Super easy if you know how to dodge that super long snare. Super hard if you can't. Don't use Crescendo if she has Black Shield up, as it will not stun her (and the shield absorbs the damage you deal) effectively wasting your ult. [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 16 [display_name] => Morgana [url_str] => morgana [title] => Fallen Angel [key] => FallenAngel [description] => There is a world far away populated by graceful and beautiful winged beings gifted with immortality, where an ancient conflict still rages. Like so many conflicts, this war split families. One side proclaimed themselves as beings of perfect order and justice, fighting to unite the world under their law and strong central governance. Those that fought against them saw their kin as tyrants, creatures incapable of seeing the larger view, who would sacrifice individuality and freedom for the illusion of efficiency and safety. Morgana was one who fought against what she perceived as the tyranny of her kind, and for that she was branded ''fallen.'' Morgana was not innocent, having plumbed forgotten ways to gather forbidden might to become a powerful mistress of the black arts. This goal was driven by her obsession to defeat the general of the opposition's army - her sister, Kayle. While the two were in fact birth-sisters, Kayle struck the first blow by disowning any filial connection when Morgana refused to join her cause. Eventually, Morgana grew in power enough to not only reach, but challenge Kayle. As the time approached when the two would meet in what could be their final conflict, Morgana was suddenly summoned to Valoran. At first, Morgana made a deal with the League's summoners to fight in exchange for greater power. With the advent of Kayle into the League, Morgana now willingly fights in the League of Legends for the privilege of being able to destroy her sister again, and again, and again. She lies in wait for the day the bonds of the Institute of War no longer hold her, and on that day she plans to destroy Kayle once and for all and return home a hero. "There is no rest while Kayle's brand of tyranny still exists." - Morgana [spotlight_embed_url] => [role] => Mage [defense_rating] => 6 [magic_rating] => 8 [attack_rating] => 1 [difficulty_rating] => 1 [damage_rating] => 2 [mobility_rating] => 1 [cc_rating] => 3 [toughness_rating] => 1 [utility_rating] => 2 [health] => 548 [health_increase] => 86 [mana] => 341 [mana_increase] => 60 [movement_speed] => 335 [armor] => 25.4 [armor_increase] => 3.8 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 55.5 [attack_damage_increase] => 2.8 [critical_strike] => 1.9 [critical_strike_increase] => 0.3 [health_regeneration] => 5.7 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0.12 [mana_regeneration] => 8.5 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0.09 [attack_range] => 450 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.788 [health_18] => 2010 [mana_18] => 1361 [movement_speed_18] => 335 [armor_18] => 90 [magic_resistance_18] => 38.5 [attack_damage_18] => 115 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 15.9 [mana_regeneration_18] => 22.1 [attack_range_18] => 450 [tip_playing_as] => *Shrewd use of Black Shield can determine the outcome of team fights. *Items that provide survivability allow Morgana to become extremely difficult to kill in conjunction with Black Shield and Soul Shackle. [tip_playing_against] => *Focus on killing Morgana early to prevent her from obtaining late game items. *Morgana often needs to land Dark Binding to setup her other attacks, try to keep minions between you and her as shields against Dark Binding. [client_id] => 25 [riot_points] => 585 [influence_points] => 1350 [icon] => /content/champion/312e302e302e37302d3235.jpg [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 23919 [view_count] => 7142461 [comments] => 1 [comment_count] => 12 [votes] => 12 [vote_count] => 12 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 556 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.403957 [community_tier_list_rank] => 2 [score] => 12 [lastpost_ts] => 2011-02-07 20:41:18 [last_comment_ts] => 2017-07-21 12:53:25 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 285 [create_ts] => 2009-02-21 00:00:00 ) ) [2] => Array ( [champion_id] => 124 [rank] => 5 [description] => A bad Bard will let you and your ADC feed on the enemy while he's off collecting chimes. A good Bard will give you PTSD. Just poke him down and sustain your ADC. This matchup can range anywhere from 2/10 to 7/10, depending on Bard's (and your) skill. [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 124 [display_name] => Bard [url_str] => bard [title] => The Wandering Caretaker [key] => [description] => Bard travels through realms beyond the imagination of mortal beings. Some of Valoran's greatest scholars have spent their lives trying to understand the mysteries he embodies. This enigmatic spirit has been given many names throughout the history of Valoran, but titles such as Cosmic Vagabond and Great Caretaker only capture a fleeting aspect of his true purpose. When the unknowable structure of the universe is threatened, Bard steers all existence away from utter annihilation. [spotlight_embed_url] => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNDoXIYptk [role] => Support [defense_rating] => 4 [magic_rating] => 5 [attack_rating] => 4 [difficulty_rating] => 9 [damage_rating] => 1 [mobility_rating] => 2 [cc_rating] => 3 [toughness_rating] => 1 [utility_rating] => 3 [health] => 535 [health_increase] => 0 [mana] => 350 [mana_increase] => 0 [movement_speed] => 330 [armor] => 25 [armor_increase] => 0 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 52 [attack_damage_increase] => 0 [critical_strike] => 0 [critical_strike_increase] => 0 [health_regeneration] => 5.4 [health_regeneration_increase] => 0 [mana_regeneration] => 6 [mana_regeneration_increase] => 0 [attack_range] => 500 [attack_speed] => 0.625 [ability_power] => 0 [ability_power_18] => 0 [attack_speed_18] => 0.838 [health_18] => 2048 [mana_18] => 1200 [movement_speed_18] => 330 [armor_18] => 93 [magic_resistance_18] => 38.5 [attack_damage_18] => 103 [critical_strike_18] => 0 [health_regeneration_18] => 14.8 [mana_regeneration_18] => 13.7 [attack_range_18] => 500 [tip_playing_as] => * It's important to collect chimes to improve your meep's attacks, but don't neglect your lane partner! Try to make a big entrance by bringing an ally into the lane with you with Magical Journey. * Let your Caretaker's Shrines charge up - they heal for a lot more when at full power. * Don't forget that enemies can also use your Magical Journey doorways, and that your ultimate can also hit your allies! [tip_playing_against] => * Bard's opponents can also travel through his Magical Journey doorways. You can follow him, if you think it's safe. * You can crush Bard's healing shrines just by walking over them. Don't let his allies take them without a fight. * Bard's ultimate, Tempered Fate, affects allies, enemies, monsters, and turrets alike. Sometimes it can be to your advantage to jump into it! [client_id] => 432 [riot_points] => 975 [influence_points] => 6300 [icon] => [is_published] => 1 [is_deprecated] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_buildable] => 1 [is_free] => 0 [views] => 0 [view_count] => 3481207 [comments] => 0 [comment_count] => 3 [votes] => 0 [vote_count] => 0 [community_tier_list_vote_count] => 489 [community_tier_list_score] => 0.485072 [community_tier_list_rank] => 2 [score] => 0 [lastpost_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [last_comment_ts] => 2015-05-04 23:28:15 [critical_strike_chance] => 0 [critical_strike_chance_18] => 0 [preferred_skin] => 0 [create_ts] => 2015-03-12 00:00:00 ) ) [3] => Array ( [champion_id] => 29 [rank] => 5 [description] => Ah, good old Janna. Endless peeling... Just poke her and her ADC to win. She isn't a damage dealing support (like you), so take advantage of that, and remember her best strengths are her mobility (and peeling). [champion] => Array ( [champion_id] => 29 [display_name] => Janna [url_str] => janna [title] => The Storm's Fury [key] => Janna [description] => There are those sorcerers who give themselves over to the primal powers of nature, forgoing the learned practice of magic. Such a sorceress is Janna, who first learned magic as an orphan growing up admist the chaos that is the city-state of Zaun. Janna eked out what living she could on the streets. Life was tough and dangerous for the beautiful young girl, and she survived by her wits, and by stealing when wits weren't enough. The rampant magic that characterizes Zaun was the first and most alluring tool which Janna realized could both protect and elevate her. Janna discovered that she had an affinity for a particular type of magic - the elemental magic of air. She mastered her studies of air magic in a matter of months, almost as if she was born of it. Janna went from a street vagrant to an avatar of the air virtually overnight, stunning and surpassing those who taught her. Such a rapid ascension also changed her physical appearance, giving her an otherworldly look. Seeking to right the injustice in the world (particularly the insanity that has become the city of Zaun), Janna has brought her talents to the League. She is a voice for the regulation of magical experimentation and a supporter of the development of techmaturgy, making her an indirect ally of the city-state of Piltover and the amazing techmaturgical minds that live there. Janna is also a new favorite of the League's many fans. She is often the center of attention at functions, fan appreciation days, and other celebratory events. There is something untouchable about Janna, however, and her affections can change as quickly as the wind. Do not be captivated by Janna's beauty. Like the wind, she is one gust away from terrible destruction. [spotlight_embed_url] => [role] => Support [defense_rating] => 5 [magic_rating] => 7 [attack_rating] => 3 [difficulty_rating] => 7 [damage_rating] => 1 [mobility_rating] => 1 [cc_rating] => 3 [toughness_rating] => 1 [utility_rating] => 3 [health] => 500 [health_increase] => 78 [mana] => 350 [mana_increase] => 78 [movement_speed] => 315 [armor] => 19.4 [armor_increase] => 3.8 [magic_resistance] => 30 [magic_resistance_increase] => 0 [attack_damage] => 46 [attack_damage_increase] => 2.95 [critical_strike] => 2 [critical_strikI mentioned earlier that I had decided 2012 was the year I’d take derby to the next level. In my mind, that required a two-pronged approach: trainining better, and eating better. You can read my article about training better here. Because it’s a complex issue, this one will be in two parts; eating better, and giving up sugar. Again, I’m not a professional – this is just based on personal experience and some pretty extensive research.
Training better, while incredibly challenging, wasn’t that hard a lifestyle change to make; it just meant forming a new habit. Fixing my diet, however, was a huge overhaul – not only was I trying to form new, positive eating habits, but I was simultaneously trying to break 24 years of terrible ones. It was a daunting task, to say the least.
•••
The first change I needed to make was to eat more. If you’re anything like me (that is, you grew up smack bang in the middle of popular media surrounded by “women’s interest” – don’t get me started on what a fallacy that concept it – magazines) you probably have a fairly skewed idea of how much food you need to eat. For instance, thanks to the guidance of Cosmo, I’ve always believed I need to eat around 1200 calories a day.
Now, I’m a 5’8″ woman weighing around 155lbs, which means my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is around 1500 calories. Your BMR is the number of calories your body requires to carry out its basic functions at rest – if you literally did nothing whatsoever all day, that’s how many calories you need to maintain the same body weight. If I lived a very sedantary life, I’d need to eat 1.2 times that amount, about 1800 calories. However, since I’m exercising at a high intensity for 1-3 hours most days of the week, I need more like 2200-2500 calories a day. That’s almost twice what I was eating before!
As you probably know, to burn fat requires a caloric deficit. However, my main goal is to gain strength, which actually requires a caloric surplus. Therefore I’m eating around 1800-2000 calories a day, depending on my activity, which should, in theory, allow me to gain muscle and burn fat slowly at the same time. Since I’ve started eating more, I find I have more energy, I don’t fatigue as easily at training, and I’m still burning fat. Magic!
•••
Although it might seem like a conflicting idea, the next thing to take control of is learning to only eat when you’re actually hungry. For so many women, eating has such an emotional undercurrent, and for a lot of people (like me) it often comes down to just boredom or habit. Now, this is where your self-discipline comes in. When you’re going to grab something snacky, think about whether you’re actually hungry. If you really are, then dig in! But I often found myself browsing the pantry out of sheer boredom, or just because it was what I had always done.
•••
So once you’ve got that concept down, the next step is to eat better. While I was never one of those vegetable-hating kids, I never really went out of my way to eat them once I moved out of home, and I certainly never ate fruit. Yep, this is where shit got real – I started eating fresh fruit & veggies, upped my protein intake, and stopped eating processed food and sugar. I experimented with paleo for a couple of months, but for me, cutting out sugar and processed stuff felt good. Aim to eat food that’s been messed with as little as possible. That means, oats that say “Ingredients: oats” and peanut butter that says “Ingredients: Peanuts”.
•••
On that note: don’t fear fat. Fat gets a bad wrap, which is really unwarranted. Weight gain is not caused by eating fat; weight gain is caused by eating excessive calories. It’s true that fat does contain more calories than some other nutrients, but it also helps you feel satisfied and, most importantly, it makes food taste good! Have you ever noticed how non-fat milk looks and tastes like crap?
Look at the ingredients in a “low-fat” food item next time you buy groceries. Chances are, they has a lot more salt and sugar and isopropolbentylate and flavour (431) than their full-fat counterparts, and may not even be that much lower in calories. I’m proof of this: I have been eating fat since the start of the year, and my body fat percentage is lower now than it was then. Kablammo.
•••
Now, this is, I think, the key to overhauling your diet. Focus on adding good stuff to your diet, rather than removing the bad stuff. This is how you overcome that deprivation mentality, by a simple change in thinking. I think of myself as a pretty strong-willed person, but as soon as I tell myself I can’t have something, I immediately go, “You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my real mom!” and eat twenty times more of it than I normally would.
It’s a gradual process. If you try to change everything at first, you will probably fail. Give yourself a month on this adding phase. You can have the cake/chocolate/ice cream, as long as you eat all the veggies, protein and other good stuff first. Chances are, you’ll be too full, or too smugly proud of yourself to want cake afterwards anyway. And if you do eat the cake, well hey, you just ate a whole ton of veggies and stuff that was really good for you – it’s not the end of the world. The important thing is not to be too hard on yourself; every little bit of improvement is a step in the right direction. And that is all you can ask of yourself – to improve at your own pace, just the way you improve your skating! You didn’t show up your first day of training and expect to do everything right, so why would you expect that when you’re trying to eat better?
This is what a standard day of eating looks like for me:
Breakfast:
Smoothie, which normally contains any combination of the following: 1 cup almond/coconut milk, protein powder, LSA mix or chia seeds, a banana, maybe a handful of frozen berries, oats, peanut butter, Greek yoghurt. Then I fill the blender to the top with spinach. It turns out bright green which terrifies everybody, but I promise you can’t taste the spinach at all!
or
Oatmeal: 1/2-3/4 cup oats, unsweetened Greek-style yoghurt, LSA mix or a handful of nuts, banana, and cinnamon.
Lunch:
Half a bag of spinach, 150g grilled chicken, couple of tablespoons of chopped up bacon, craisins with ranch dressing.
Dinner:
Grilled chicken, rice, half a plate of spinach with spanish onion, apple and something (usually ranch because it’s freaking delicious) on top.
Snacks:
Twice a day, I’ll eat something like: apple slices with peanut butter; nuts and an orange; Greek yoghurt with banana; cheese and grapes; a boiled egg and some other fruity item.
Once I find something that works for me, I tend to eat it ALL. THE. TIME. As a result there are a few things I use like they’re going out of fashion:
Bags of spinach – I seriously eat so much spinach it’s ridiculous
Peanut butter
Bananas
Greek yoghurt
I’m not saying I eat perfectly all of the time. But I make a concerted effort to eat really well most of the time, so that when I go out and drink beer and eat pizza, it’s not the end of the world. And that’s okay! Remember that what you do most of the time is so much more important that what you do some of the time.
I’m going to write another post in the coming days about kicking the sugar habit because for me (and, so I’ve heard, for a lot of other people too) this is a huge undertaking.
Super greens and sufficient protein,
Blockie
AdvertisementsThe Government Accountability Office will investigate the activities of President Trump's voter fraud commission after three Democratic senators asked that the agency look into the matter.
Sen. Michael Bennet Michael Farrand BennetDemocratic donors stuck in shopping phase of primary Overnight Health Care — Sponsored by America's 340B Hospitals — CDC blames e-cigs for rise in youth tobacco use | FDA cracks down on dietary supplements | More drug pricing hearings on tap The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the American Academy of HIV Medicine - Next 24 hours critical for stalled funding talks MORE (D-Colo.) said Thursday that the government watchdog has accepted the request to investigate the commission. Bennet, along with Sens. Cory Booker Cory Anthony BookerSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Warren Buffett: I would support Bloomberg if he ran for president MORE (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar Amy Jean KlobucharMore than 60 former staffers defend Klobuchar as ‘a mentor and a friend’ Warren Buffett: I would support Bloomberg if he ran for president Warren vows to forgo 'fancy receptions or big money fundraisers' MORE (D-Minn.), wrote to the agency last week asking for a probe.
In a letter to Bennet dated Wednesday, the GAO said that it had determined that such an investigation "is within the scope of its authority." The investigation will begin in about five months.
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Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity has stirred controversy since it was established in May.
Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election. He won the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE by nearly 3 million ballots.
Critics have slammed the panel as a partisan effort to suppress voter turnout, particularly among minorities, and an effort to back up the president's claim.
Some lawmakers have also complained that the commission has not conducted its work in a transparent manner, and has ignored congressional requests for information on its activities.
"Without any PACEI response to Congressional inquiries, we fear that the manner in which the PACEI is conducting its work will prevent the public from a full and transparent understanding of the Commission's conclusions and unnecessarily diminish confidence in our democratic process," the senators' letter requesting the GAO review read.On October 13, 1966, 10 artists and more than 30 engineers from Bell Laboratories convened in New York for 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. The festival ran for nine nights, and featured 10 performances in which an artist, dancer, or musician was paired with a Bell engineer who had the technical expertise to bring the performer's vision to life. This meant building tools like a proportional control system, an electronic pen and surface interface to control lights and audio during a performance, and televisions and projectors capable of producing kinetic images in response to sound. This partnership was good for the artists, and fantastic for Bell’s engineers: it provided a stage upon which they could prototype the future of the tech sector.
Douglas Coupland
9 Evenings is where Electronic Superhighway, a new exhibit at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, begins. Although, to be accurate, it’s where the exhibit ends. Curators arranged the experience anti-chronologically, so stepping into the first gallery space reveals a visual cacophony of contemporary artwork. “It’s overwhelming downstairs, purposefully so,” says Emily Butler, who co-curated the show. This is art in 2016: almost impossible to separate from digital technology. As you proceed through the exhibit, which traces the impact of computers and the Internet on art over time, things quiet down. When you make it to the last gallery, artifacts and footage from 9 Evenings concludes your trip back through time.
No shortage of exhibits explores the relationship between art and computers and the web. Right now, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Laura Poitras’s Astro Noise exhibits uses film footage and document to reveal her life under surveillance. The New Museum’s 2015 Triennial, Surround Audience, focused exclusively on how the digital world permeates art. At last year’s Future of Storytelling show at the Museum of the Moving Image, VR headsets were everywhere—and that’s a mere fraction of this genre.
Frieder Nake / Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Electronic Superhighway sticks to works with more seminal impact—pieces that point to specific moments in time. Butler says the curators chose works that showed “artists actually using material they found online,” and “artists reflecting on technology itself, and reflecting on the meaning it has in our lives, and the relationships between physical and virtual worlds.”
Among works created using material found online, you see works that expose these new, technical mediums plainly for what they are, without much content. Frieder Nake's Walk-Through-Raster Vancouver Version is like this. It's a screenprint based on a random pattern generated by an early algorithm-writing computer program. Other's, like Douglas Coupland's Deep Face, which mulls the effects of facial-recognition software, are more introspective. This dualism—celebrating new technology while simultaneously questioning it—is central to Butler's thesis for the exhibit. "Artists are in a unique position to the help visitors reflect on their relationship to technology," she says. "They're really helping us to be aware of the issues surrounding technology, but they can also show the amazing possibilities that technology can bring about—the utopian and dystopian possibilities."Prices versus wages plus rental demand divided by coastal desirability are combining to drive down housing affordability in Coffs Harbour.
Prices versus wages plus rental demand divided by coastal desirability are combining to drive down housing affordability in Coffs Harbour.
IT is cheaper to live in sophisticated Manhattan than in casual Coffs Harbour according to a new global survey of housing affordability.
The seventh annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey has listed Coffs Harbour as the world’s fifth least affordable city in which to buy a house.
Unbelievably, this puts us behind Londoners and New Yorkers seeking to buy.
The survey bases affordability on median house price divided by gross annual median household income.
Survey author Joel Kotkin said the shift across Australia had been the most remarkable in the world.
“It was once the exemplar of modestly priced, high-quality middle-class housing and is now the most unaffordable housing market,” he said.
Hong Kong topped the Demographia list, followed by Sydney, Vancouver, Bournemouth and Dorset – and then Coffs Harbour.
With an average house price of $369,900 and an average income of $40,500, Coffs Harbour stood out because of its low household income rather than its high house prices.
Only one other city in the top 12 had lower house prices –Warwickshire in the UK had an average house price of $A294, 422, but its residents had much higher incomes – $53,414.
Hong Kong residents had the lowest incomes, $A34,469, and so struggled to buy homes at average house prices of $A394, 571.
Coffs Harbour has a labour force of 31,805 people, 2189 of them out of work, giving the city 29,616 working residents out of a population of 70,000 people, according to the small area labour market figures for the September quarter 2010.
Coffs Harbour also has an above-average number of veterans and disability support pensioners, many of whom have moved from capital cities.
Coffs Harbour Uniting Church pastoral care worker Joan Howlett said she was surprised by the ranking.
“I did not think it was so bad,” she said, “but there is no work around and if there is any, it is only casual stuff.
“Once you get to 18 there is no casual work.”
The joint licensee of Coffs Coast real estate agency Unreal Estate, Chris Hines, said he was very surprised by the city’s ranking as new residents were generally pleasantly surprised by local house prices.
“There are a lot of factors – we don’t have a large workforce and there is no one large industry or agriculture, we survive on a lot of smaller industries,” Mr Hines said. “Coffs has a lot of retirees and we also have a university so we have |
those choices. Fallout: New Vegas was widely praised for having writing superior to Bethesda’s two entries in the series, and without a doubt what makes Obsidian’s commercial struggle but cult classic Alpha Protocol stand out compared to its Bioware-crafted peers is how the game handles choice and consequence and the high-pressure espionage situations it places you in.
“It can’t just be do you shoot grandma or do you help her across the street. Now, fifteen, twenty years ago we were doing a lot more of that, but I think as time has gone on we’re understanding that better.”
But what makes for a good video game choice according to those masters of the craft? Obsidian co-founder and CEO Feargus Urquhart knows a thing or two about crafting a strong moment of difficult player choice – so we put the question to him.
“It can be often too easy to make it about good and evil, right? So player choice needs to be legitimate and it needs to be about the player and not the designer,” Urquhart told me during a lengthy phone interview about Obsidian’s work in general. “I think that’s the biggest important thing. We’re at our best when we’re thinking about – okay, where is the player in the game? What do we feel that they’re thinking, what are they enjoying, and what are the type of players that they’re trying to be?
“When we do that and give players choice based upon that… of course we can’t say you can be any type of player. You can’t be a serial killer and you can’t be a nun! We still have to start with some sort of ground rules as far as what choices we’re giving the player to do… but it’s important to make those choices really make sense contextually within the quest and within the area of the game – it can’t just be do you shoot grandma or do you help her across the street. Now, fifteen, twenty years ago we were doing a lot more of that, but I think as time has gone on we’re understanding that better.”
It was this sort of nuance that really made games like Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol sing in spite of bugs or gameplay systems that just failed to come together, and unburdened by worries about facial animation this is an area where the 2D isometric Obsidian games have really doubled down, with subtlety to choices that actually hasn’t been seen all too often in gaming at all. While choices might be a studio strength, Urquhart says balance and restraint in player choices is an equal part of the process.
“Hard choices are good, but they’re tiring,” added Urquhart. “I think this is the other thing – so if you give players a hard choice that’s hard for anybody unless you’re a complete nun or a complete psychopath… those are great to have but they have to be used sparingly. This is because the player comes out of it kind of emotionally drained and if you do that too much… it’s like playing Doom 3! It just ends up like, oh my god, stop, let me breathe. I think that’s an important part of it, and I think that’s what we focus on.
Once a player has made a choice for it to have meaning the game itself must react, and this too is something Obsidian has proved skillful at. Where Mass Effect was more simple and clear-cut with its pulpy good-or-evil, paragon-and-renegade player agency, Obsidian’s Alpha Protocol was often more subtle, reacting to your actions in the world as well as how you spoke to people in ways that other games didn’t. A focus on how consequence echoes through the game is an enormous part of why Alpha Protocol, which in many ways was unremarkable, became a fan-favourite on Steam.
“The other thing we used to do and I think what we try to do better and better now is… consequence has a negative connotation. There’s this idea of… so, well, a consequence must be bad. No. What we mean is a reaction to what you did based upon how you did it. The player should always be ‘rewarded’ – in quotation marks – it’s not just that if you help this person you get 10 gold because you’re a good person but if you slit their throat you get all 1000 gold pieces on them,” Urquhart says.
“We need to embrace the fact that ultimately we’re telling a story, and it’s fiction, and we’re trying to tell things that have themes, and those themes will require choices… and some of those choices in modern life you would never do.”
“It’s not that – it’s more what we really, properly started doing in Alpha Protocol. So there’s an arms dealer, right – if you’re nice to him and you work with him then it means these kind of things will unfold across the rest of the game. Punch him in the face and slam his face into the bar and then another type of consequences and reactivity will happen. It’s not black or white, though. In a lot of ways it can all be rewards – it’s just different types of rewards, with the key reward being that what you get is tuned to how you as a player chose to go through that.
“That goes back to that immersion – it makes you feel like you’re in that game. If you slam his head in and he’s like ‘Alright dude!’ and then he reacts to that throughout the rest of the game and now he’s scared of you, the rewards in the game down the road, right through the game, are based on him being scared of you. I think that’s how we’ve tried to make choice as relevant and as impactful as possible.
“It’s tough. There is this modern… in our world today, not to make this about politics or anything like that, but there’s this idea of making everything so broad and so inclusive and all this and all that. That’s awesome, but I think that sometimes if we try to do that in a game it can risk flattening everything. In some ways we need to embrace the fact that ultimately we’re telling a story, and it’s fiction, and we’re trying to tell things that have themes, and we’re exploring those themes and those themes will require choices… and some of those choices in modern life you would never do. Some you’d go to jail for doing!
“That’s the difference between games and real life – it’s not meant to mimic real life, it’s meant for us to put players in these worlds and have them experience things that will be broader than real life.”Show full PR text
Nuance Announces Dragon Assistant Beta, a Voice Application for Intel-Inspired Ultrabooks
Dragon Assistant Lets People Speak to their PC to Search the Web, Find Content, Play Music, Check and Reply to Email, Update Social Network Statuses and More
San Francisco and Burlington, Mass. – September 11, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced the availability of Nuance's Dragon Assistant Beta, a voice assistant application for the Intel-inspired Ultrabook ™, the first offering resulting from the two companies' strategic collaboration announcement at CES 2012. Dadi Perlmutter,Intel chief product officer, demonstrated Dragon Assistant Beta today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The Dell® XPS13 Ultrabook will be among the first PCs to ship with Dragon Assistant Beta in Q4 2012.
Dragon Assistant uses Nuance's core Dragon voice technology and innovative natural language understanding capabilities to provide people with an easy and intuitive way to engage and interact with their devices. Simply say "Hello Dragon" to awaken Dragon Assistant, and from there, just speak to search the web for content, information and shopping; access, discover and play music; check and reply to email; and, listen to and update social media statuses. Dragon Assistant also provides direct access to the most popular content providers for content on the web. For instance, people can say "Search YouTube for Justin Bieber." When finished using Dragon Assistant, simply say "Go to sleep" for the application to stop listening.
Intel also today announced the availability of the Intel Perceptual Computing SDK 2013 Beta, which includes the voice SDK components from Nuance, giving developers the ability to leverage the power of Dragon to create applications and experiences that drive natural, intuitive voice interactions.
"Dragon Assistant is a direct result of Nuance and Intel's vision for a more human, natural interaction between people and their technology. You speak and the Ultrabook responds. Working closely with Intel, we've created a voice assistant experience optimized for the Ultrabook – incredibly fast, reliable, and with the performance you expect from a combined Nuance-Intel innovation. Dragon Assistant drives productivity, creativity and simply a PC experience that fits today's busy lifestyle," said Peter Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer, Nuance Communications.$ 11.00
Philly's PSYCHIC TEENS return with "Hex": a five song EP that showcases their unique blend of post-punk, goth, shoegaze, and noise rock. With "Hex", PSYCHIC TEENS set to capture the sensory overload of their live show -colossal guitars and ear-piercing volume- and combine it with the gloomy mood they have brought on their previous three LPs.
Sonically speaking, Psychic Teens deliberately created two very distinct sides to "Hex"; choosing to place three abrasive noise rock songs together at the start of the record and two of their more sparse melodic songs at the end. There are moments of overblown screeching guitar as well as some of the more melodic song-structured pieces that are more akin to their LP "Nerve", from last year.
<a href="http://hexrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hex">HEX by PSYCHIC TEENS</a>
Click label name for other Hex titles.Women less likely to be hacked than men, research reveals
'This research shows how employees can be a gateway in to corporate systems'
Women are better than men at protecting their work and private data, new research has revealed.
The study, which examined the online behaviour of UK employees, discovered how vulnerable organisations are to cyber threats posed by social engineering, which sees hackers use stolen personal information to attack corporate networks.
Overall, 54% of respondents said they would connect with strangers on social media and 56% had not set up access controls to their social media.
>See also: A woman’s journey in the male-dominated world of information security
But it was middle-aged men who came off worst in the survey, with women more aware of cyber threats. More than half of the women surveyed (52%) had set up privacy settings on their social profiles, compared to just 36% of men.
However, while females are more diligent about their privacy on social media sites, the survey did find they may still be vulnerable – with 12% using pet names to generate online passwords, compared to just 5% of male employees.
Researchers also revealed a generational gap in employees’ security savviness. The majority of the 18 to 24 year olds quizzed (62%) had taken precautions over who can access their social media data on mobile apps by checking identities of before connecting.
However, the same respondents tended to share more work information on social media, while only 33% of 45-to-54-year-old respondents said they check requests before accepting invitations to connect.
In recent cyber attacks, basic information has been used to reset social media passwords, which then provides hackers access to sensitive information that can damage brand reputations and compromise valuable business assets.
Surprisingly, 18% of respondents said they have never had IT security training. And of the people who had been trained, just 10% received regular training.
Although social engineering cyber attacks are becoming more complex, just 6% of employees in the study had received training and guidance on phishing attacks – a common tactic.
>See also: Women in technology must speak out, you can’t be what you can’t see
“This research shows how employees can be a gateway in to corporate systems,” said Hugh Thompson, chief technical officer and SVP at Blue Coat, which commissioned the research. “As they reveal more about themselves on social media, they become more ‘knowable’, which exposes them to higher risk of social engineering.
“As the seriousness and complexity of threats grows, businesses need to employ security measures, including training, that take into account the habits and behaviours of employees to better protect the enterprise. Security measures need to be seamless and tailored to enforce cyber-safe behaviour recognising that even the paranoid can be phished.”ANKARA
Turkish Coast Guards came to the rescue of their Greek counterparts when a Greek Coast Guard vessel became grounded, military sources in Turkey said Saturday.
The Greek ship ran into trouble in Turkish waters off the western province of Aydin at around midnight on Friday night.
Greece’s rescue coordination center contacted the Turkish Coast Guard to report that one of its vessels ran aground when its engine broke down as it tracked a boat thought to have been carrying refugees, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Six Turkish Coast Guard vessels and an aircraft helped in the rescue operation.
The coast guards of Turkey and Greece are coordinating efforts to stem the flow of refugees - mostly Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war - arriving in EU member Greece from Turkey.
The area where the Greek vessel was tracking suspected refugee smugglers is close to the Greek island of Samos.
An estimated 805 people died in the Aegean Sea in 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration, with more than 850,000 arriving in Greece by sea over the year.Yes, yes, yes on Proposition 63 — greater gun control, greater background checks, greater limitations on ammunition. Should Proposition 63 pass, and it should, purchasing ammunition would require a permit, and sharing ammunition with people who don’t have permits would be against the law.
No longer could gun owners order ammunition online and have it delivered to their homes, nor could they order it without first going through a background check.
These are common-sense practices that will further prevent lethal weapons from falling into the hands of the wrong people.
Moreover, previous laws already made it illegal in this state to carry large-capacity magazines, but those who already had them were grandfathered in. Proposition 63 would overturn this exception and require owners to sell theirs to gun stores, turn them over to the government or remove them from the state.
While hunting or using guns for sport, high-capacity magazines are unnecessary and ridiculous. But they’re popularly used in mass shootings, such as in San Bernadino, California, and Orlando, Florida. Making guns and munitions more difficult to obtain would serve to reduce the prevalence of shootings — whether they be mass shootings or day-to-day violence.
Proposition 63 also ups the ante for those who elect to steal guns. In the state of California, if somebody steals an item that costs less than $950, it counts as a misdemeanor. This proposition would create an exception stipulating that stealing a gun that cost less than $950 counts as a felony.
And because people who steal guns generally don’t do so for their next big game hunt, this law would disincentivize and criminalize people ready to use their guns for evil.
A spate of past shootings and a heightened drive to limit guns makes Proposition 63 particularly important, as it closes many of the loopholes in existing gun laws.
Approving common-sense gun laws is, well, common sense.
Endorsements represent the majority opinion of the Senior Editorial Board as written by the opinion editor.In the past six months, the U.S. economy has displayed signs of weakness that have worried many economists. In the last quarter of 2015, GDP growth was just 1 percent. Other indicators such as industrial production, the stock market and expected inflation experienced bouts of outright contractions in 2015. Some economists are even predicting that we are on the verge of a recession.
Analysts blame a number of things for this economic turbulence, including low oil prices, weak growth abroad and a stronger dollar. But if you look at the effects of U.S. monetary policy around the world — and their repercussions in America — it becomes clear that the ultimate culprit for these economic headwinds lies at home. Through both its policy actions and its written words, the Federal Reserve has mistakenly tightened monetary policy in fear of rising inflation. That mistake has not just hurt the U.S. economy, it is reverberating around the globe.
This week, the Fed has an opportunity to admit its error when the Federal Open Markets Committee meets to set monetary policy. It’s critical that Fed board members understand how their actions are hurting economies around the world, which has a corresponding negative effect on the U.S. Otherwise, the Fed will continue to tighten policy — and the economic recovery will continue to sputter.
The Fed began tightening policy in 2014 when, despite a slow start, the U.S. economy made significant advances with some observers believing an economic boom was under way. This improved economic outlook and the need for Janet Yellen’s Fed to prove its inflation-fighting credibility led U.S. monetary officials to start talking up future interest rate hikes.
This signaling from the Fed that monetary policy would tighten intensified in 2015. As a consequence, investors expected U.S. interest rates to rise. About the same time, the central banks of Europe and Japan were indicating they would keep interest rates low. This divergence increased the demand for short-term investments in the United States as interest rates there were now expected to be comparatively higher. As more funds flowed into the United States, demand for U.S dollars rose and caused the currency to appreciate over 20 percent from mid-2014 to late-2015, one of the sharpest rises in decades.
By talking about future interest rate hike, the Fed was indicating that tighter monetary conditions would exist in the future. That, in turn, worsened the economic outlook and caused companies to cut back on their spending plans. The Fed’s talking up of interest rate hikes, therefore, amounted to an effective tightening of monetary policy long before the actual raising of interest rates in December 2015. It affected not only the U.S. economy but also the many emerging economies whose currencies are pegged to the dollar, colloquially known as the “dollar bloc countries.”
For the United States it meant monetary policy was tightening well before the economy had reached full employment. Though the unemployment rate had fallen to about 6 percent by mid-2014, other measures such as the employment-to-population rate for prime-age workers indicated there was still much slack in the economy during this time. The Fed, in other words, was getting ahead of the U.S. recovery with its rate hike talk. And that’s why a number of U.S. economic indicators like stocks, industrial production, capital expenditures and expected inflation all started trending down in 2015.
The Fed’s tightening of monetary conditions were also poorly timed for the rest of the dollar bloc countries, especially China. The Chinese economy was already slowing down as it attempted a difficult transition from the high growth of a developing economy to the more modest growth of a middle-income country. In addition, China’s debt-to-GDP ratio had grown from around 150 percent in 2008 to about 250 percent today, making it more vulnerable to economic shocks. Between a natural slowdown and an increased susceptibility to shocks, the Chinese economy was not ready for the Fed's tightening of monetary policy.
But that is exactly what it got. The dollar’s 20 percent-plus rise meant a significant appreciation of China’s currency, the renminbi, and a tightening of Chinese monetary conditions. Chinese officials tried to offset this tightening by lowering interest rates. This easing plus the economic slowdown coming from its transition to middle-income country have been putting downward pressure on the Renminbi’s value. The strong dollar, however, has kept it artificially propped up.
Understanding the renminbi is artificially higher, many investors fear that a major devaluation of 10 percent or more is inevitable. Unsurprisingly, they want to get their funds out of China before the renminbi loses value. Chinese monetary authorities, on the other hand, want to maintain the peg because they fear the fallout from a major currency devaluation. Consequently, they have defended the Renminbi’s elevated value during this time by paying out almost $700 billion of the country’s foreign reserves to the investors rushing to get out of China.
The Fed’s tightening that began in mid-2014, then, was the catalyst behind this mass exodus of capital from China and can explain why China’s problems erupted when they did.
The Fed’s tightening can also explain why China’s economy has become such a tinder box. The Fed’s actions have pushed China into an untenable position. Chinese monetary authorities must burn through their foreign reserves to defend the overvalued Renminbi. However, at some point the reserves will run out and China will be forced to devalue. Chinese officials can try to delay this day of reckoning by restricting capital outflows. But for a country that big with corruption problems, capital controls will not work and may serve only to increase uncertainty. The fear of capital controls only incentivizes investors to move their capital out the country, further weakening the renminbi and making financial markets even more unstable.
The Fed could reverse these dire developments by cutting interest rates or implementing more quantitative easing if needed. This would ease monetary conditions throughout the dollar bloc countries. Instead the Fed continues to signal a desire to raise interest rates in 2016, as seen in Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony to Congress in February.
So why is the Fed unwilling to act? The answer is the Fed’s continued belief in the Phillips Curve, the idea that inflation and slack in the labor market move in the opposite direction. Consequently, the Fed sees the ongoing decline in the U.S. unemployment rate as indicating a rise in inflation is just around the corner. They do not want to be caught off guard with inflation and therefore are unwilling to ease.
These fears are misplaced. As former top International Monetary Fund economist Olivier Blanchard recently noted, the relationship between inflation and labor market slack is not constant. It is not worth fiddling with such an unreliable instrument when the stakes so high. Though the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core PCE deflator, has recently inched up to 1.7 percent, it is still well below the Fed’s 2 percent target and not far from its 1.5 percent average over the past seven years. If anything, then, the Fed has erred by keeping inflation below its target.
The Fed is a monetary superpower, affecting monetary conditions across the globe. It needs to better recognize this role and act now with decisive easing. Otherwise, it risks cutting off the economic recovery before most Americans even begin to feel it.
David Beckworth is a former U.S. Treasury economist, visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center and an associate professor of economics at Western Kentucky University.By Todd Miller, TomDispatchThis piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt’s introduction here.
With the agility of a seasoned Border Patrol veteran, the woman rushed after the students. She caught up with them just before they entered the exhibition hall of the eighth annual Border Security Expo, reaching out and grabbing the nearest of them by the shoulder. Slightly out of breath, she said, “You can’t go in there, give me back your badges.”
The astonished students had barely caught a glimpse of the dazzling pavilion of science-fiction-style products in that exhibition hall at the Phoenix Convention Center. There, just beyond their view, more than 100 companies, including Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Verizon, were trying to sell the latest in futuristic border policing technology to anyone with the money to buy it.
The students from Northeastern Illinois University didn’t happen to fall into that category. An earnest manager at a nearby registration table insisted that, as they were not studying “border security,” they weren’t to be admitted. I asked him how he knew just what they were studying. His only answer was to assure me that next year no students would be allowed in at all.
Among the wonders those students would miss was a fake barrel cactus with a hollow interior (for the southern border) and similarly hollow tree stumps (for the northern border), all capable of being outfitted with surveillance cameras. “Anything that grows or exists in nature,” Kurt Lugwisen of TimberSpy told a local Phoenix television station, “we build it.”
Nor would those students get to see the miniature drone — “eyes in the sky” for Border Patrol agents — that fits conveniently into a backpack and can be deployed at will; nor would they be able to check out the “technology that might,” as one local Phoenix reporter warned, “freak you out.” She was talking about facial recognition systems, which in a border scenario would work this way: a person enters a border-crossing gate, where an image of his or her face is instantly checked against a massive facial image database (or the biometric data contained on a passport).”If we need to target on any specific gender or race because we’re trying to find a subject, we can set the parameters and the threshold to find that person,” Kevin Haskins of Cognitec (“the face recognition company”) proudly claimed.
Nor would they be able to observe the strange, two day-long convention hall dance between homeland security, its pockets bursting with their parents’ tax dollars, and private industry intent on creating the most massive apparatus of exclusion and surveillance that has ever existed along U.S. borders.
Border Security Expo 2014 catches in one confined space the expansiveness of a “booming” border market. If you include “cross-border terrorism, cyber crime, piracy, [the] drug trade, human trafficking, internal dissent, and separatist movements,” all “driving factor[s] for the homeland security market,” by 2018 it could reach $544 billion globally. It is here that U.S. Homeland Security officials, local law enforcement, and border forces from all over the world talk contracts with private industry representatives, exhibit their techno-optimism, and begin to hammer out a future of ever more hardened, up-armored national and international boundaries.
The global video surveillance market alone is expected to be a $40 billion industry by 2020, almost three times its $13.5 billion value in 2013. According to projections, 2020 border surveillance cameras will be capturing 3.4 trillion video hours globally. In case you were wondering, that’s more than 340 million years of video footage if you were watching 24 hours a day.
But those students, like most of the rest of us, haven’t been invited to this high energy, dystopian conversation about our future.
And the rebuff is far from a surprise. It has, after all, been less than a year since Edward Snowden emerged on the scene with a portfolio of NSA documents revealing just how vast our national security state has become and how deeply it has reached into our private lives. It has by now created what the Washington Post’s Dana Priest and William Arkin have termed “an alternative geography.” And nowhere is this truer than on our borders.
It is in the U.S. borderlands that, as anthropologist Josiah Heyman once wrote, the U.S. government’s modern expertise in creating and tracking “a marked population” was first developed and practiced. It involved, he wrote prophetically, “the birth and development of a… means of domination, born of the mating between moral panics about foreigners and drugs, and a well-funded and expert bureaucracy.”
You may not be able to watch them at the Border Security Expo, but in those borderlands — make no bones about it — the Department of Homeland Security, with its tripartite missions of drug interdiction, immigration enforcement, and the war on terror, is watching you, whoever you are. And make no bones about this either: our borders are widening and the zones in which the watchers are increasingly free to do whatever they want are growing.
Tracking a Marked Population
It was mid-day in the Arizona heat during the summer of 2012 and Border Patrol agent Benny Longoria (a pseudonym) and his partner are patrolling the reservation of the Tohono O’odham Nation. It’s the second largest Native American reservation in the country and, uniquely, shares 76 miles of border with Mexico. The boundary, in fact, slices right through O’odham aboriginal lands. For the approximately 28,000 members of the Nation, several thousand of whom live in Mexico, this international boundary has been a point of contention since 1853, when U.S. surveyors first drew the line. None of the region’s original inhabitants were, of course, consulted.
Now Tohono O’odham lands on the U.S. side of the border are one place among many in Arizona where the star performer at Border Security Expo, Elbit Systems of America — whose banner at the entrance welcomed all attendees — will build surveillance towers equipped with radar and high-powered day/night cameras able to spot a human being up to seven miles away. These towers — along with motion sensors spread over the surrounding landscape and drones overhead — will feed information into snazzy operational control rooms in Border Patrol posts throughout the Arizona borderlands.
In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded a $145 million contract to that Israeli company through its U.S. division. Elbit Systems prides itself on having spent “10+ years securing the world’s most challenging borders,” above all deploying similar “border protection systems” to the separation wall between Israel and Palestine. It is now poised to enter U.S. indigenous lands.
At the moment, however, the two forest-green-uniformed Border Patrol agents search for tracks the old-fashioned way. They are five miles west of the O’odham’s sacred Baboquivari mountain range and three miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border. It’s July and 100-plus-degrees hot. They scour the ground for tracks and finally pick up a trail of fresh ones.
The agents get out of their vehicle and begin to follow them. Every day, many hours are spent just this way. They figure that people who have just walked across the border without papers are hot, uncomfortable, and probably moving slowly. In this heat in this desert, it’s as if you were negotiating the glass inside a light bulb. About an hour on, Longoria spots the woman.
There’s a giant mesquite tree, and she’s beneath it, her back to the agents, her arm shading her head. They creep up on her. As they get closer, they can see that she’s wearing blue jeans and a striped navy shirt.
When they’re 10 feet away and she still hasn’t moved, Longoria whispers, “Oh, shit, why isn’t she reacting?” In Arizona in July, you can almost hear the sizzle of the heat.
In human terms, this is where the long-term strategy behind the Border Patrol’s “prevention through deterrence” regime leads. After all, in recent years, it has militarized vast swaths of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border. Along it, there are now 12,000 implanted motion sensors and 651 miles of walls or other barriers. Far more than $100 billion has been spent on this project since 9/11. The majority of these resources are focused on urban areas where people without papers traditionally crossed.
Now, border crossers tend to avoid such high concentrations of surveillance and the patrolling agents that go with it. They skirt those areas on foot, ending up in desolate, dangerous, mountainous places like this one on the sparsely populated Tohono O’odham reservation, an area the size of Connecticut. The Border Patrol’s intense armed surveillance regime is meant to push people into places so remote and potentially deadly that they will decide not to cross the border at all.
That, at least, was the plan. This is the reality.
“Hey,” Longoria says to the woman as he steps up behind her. “Hello.” Nothing.
“Hello,” he says again, as he finally stands over her. And it’s then that he sees her face, blistered from the sun, white pus oozing out of her nose. Her belly has started to puff up. She is already a corpse.
The moment is surreal and, for Longoria, depressing. In the 1990s, almost no undocumented people bothered to cross this reservation. By 2008, in the midst of an exodus from Mexico in the devastating era of NAFTA, more than 15,000 people were doing so monthly. Although the numbers have dropped since, people avoiding the border surveillance regime still come, and sometimes like this woman, they still die.
“The Occupation”
Before 9/11, there was little federal presence on the Tohono O’odham reservation. Since then, the expansion of the Border Patrol into Native American territory has been relentless. Now, Homeland Security stations, filled with hundreds of agents (many hired in a 2007-2009 hiring binge), circle the reservation. But unlike bouncers at a club, they check people going out, not heading in. On every paved road leaving the reservation, their checkpoints form a second border. There, armed agents — ever more of whom are veterans of America’s distant wars — interrogate anyone who leaves. In addition, there are two “forward operating bases” on the reservation, which are meant to play the role — facilitating tactical operations in remote regions — that similar camps did in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now, thanks to the Elbit Systems contract, a new kind of border will continue to be added to this layering. Imagine part of the futuristic Phoenix exhibition hall leaving Border Expo with the goal of incorporating itself into the lands of a people who were living here before there was a “New World,” no less a United States or a Border Patrol. Though this is increasingly the reality from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, on Tohono O’odham land a post-9/11 war posture shades uncomfortably into the leftovers from a nineteenth century Indian war. Think of it as the place where the homeland security state meets its older compatriot, Manifest Destiny.
On the gate at the entrance to her house, Tohono O’odham member Ofelia Rivas has put up a sign stating that the Border Patrol can’t enter without a warrant. It may be a fine sentiment, reflecting a right embodied in the U.S. Constitution, but in the eyes of the “law,” it’s ancient history. Only a mile from the international boundary, her house is well within the 25-mile zone in which the Border Patrol can enter anyone’s property without a warrant. These powers make the CBP a super-force in comparison to the local law enforcement outfits it collaborates with. Although CBP can enter property warrantlessly, it still needs a warrant to enter somebody’s dwelling. In the small community where Rivas lives, known as Ali Jegk, the agents have overstepped even its extra-constitutional bounds with “home invasions” (as people call them).
Throughout the Tohono O’odham Nation, people complain about Homeland Security vehicles driving at high speeds and tailgating on the roads. They complain about blinding spotlights, vehicle pull-overs, and unexpected interrogations. The Border Patrol has pulled O’odham tribal members out of cars, pepper-sprayed them, and beaten them with batons.
As local resident Joseph Flores told a Tucson television station, “It feels like we’re being watched all the time.” Another man commented, “I feel like I have no civil rights.” On the reservation, people speak not only about this new world of intense surveillance, but also about its raw impact on the Tohono O’odham people: violence and subjugation.
Although the tribal legislative council has collaborated extensively with Border Patrol operations, Priscilla Lewis seemed to sum up the sentiments of many O’odham at an open hearing in 2011: “Too much harassment, following the wrong people, always stopping us, including and especially those who look like Mexicans when driving or walking in the desert… They have too much domination over us.”
At her house, Ofelia Rivas tells me a story. One day, she was driving with Tohono O’odham elders towards the U.S.-Mexican border when a low-flying Blackhawk helicopter seemingly picked them up and began following them. Hanging out of the open helicopter doors were CBP gunmen, she said. When they crossed the border into Mexico, the helicopter tracked them through a forest of beautiful saguaro cacti while they headed for a ceremonial site, 25 miles south of the border. They were, of course, crossing what was a non-border to the O’odham, doing something they had done for thousands of years. Hearing, even feeling the vibration of the propellers, one of the elders said, “I guess we are going to die.”
They laughed, Rivas added, as there was nothing else to do. They laughed real hard. Then, a mile or so into Mexico, the helicopter turned back.
Americans may increasingly wonder whether NSA agents are scouring their meta-data, reading their personal emails, and the like. In the borderlands no imagination is necessary. The surveillance apparatus is in your face. The high-powered cameras are pointed at you; the drones are above you; you’re stopped regularly at checkpoints and interrogated. Too bad if you’re late for school, a meeting, or an appointment. And even worse, if your skin complexion, or the way you’re dressed, or anything about you sets off alarm bells, or there’s something that doesn’t smell quite right to the CBP’s dogs — and such dogs are a commonplace in the region — being a little late will be the least of your problems.
As Rivas told me, a typical exchange on the reservation might involve an agent at a checkpoint asking an O’odham woman whether, as she claimed, she was really going to the grocery store — and then demanding that she show him her grocery list.
People on the reservation now often refer to what is happening as an armed “occupation.” Mike Wilson, an O’odham member who has tried to put gallon jugs of water along routes Mexican migrants might take through the reservation, speaks of the Border Patrol as an “occupying army.” It’s hardly surprising. Never before in the Nation’s history under Spain, Mexico, or the United States have so many armed agents been present on their land.
On the Borders, the Future Is Now
At the Border Security Expo, Mark Borkowski, assistant commissioner for the Border Patrol’s Office of Technology, Innovation, and Acquisition, isn’t talking about any of this. He’s certainly not talking about the deaths and abuses along the border, or the firestorm of criticism about the Border Patrol’s use of deadly force. (Agents have shot and killed at least 42 people since 2005.) He is talking, instead, about humdrum things, about procurement and efficiency, as he paces the conference hall, just as he’s done for years. He is talking about the inefficient way crews in Washington D.C. de-iced the wings of his plane before it took off for Phoenix. That is the lesson he wants to drum in about border technology: efficiency.
Borkowski has the air of a man whose agency has everything and yet who wants to appear as if he didn’t |
ruling, the Court instead relied on the ruling from Cohen that stated that offensiveness was not a sufficient justification for curtailing free speech. Subsequently, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prohibit the march on the grounds that a swastika was a "fighting word", as the offense it caused to the audience was irrelevant to the law.[8]
R.A.V. v. St. Paul
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul was a 1992 United States Supreme Court case which ruled that St. Paul's Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was unconstitutional because it discriminated by the content of "fighting words". The Court stated that while the law applied to "fighting words", which are not protected under the First Amendment, it was unconstitutional because it specifically targeted fighting words that "insult or incite violence on the basis of race, religion, or gender."[10] In its ruling, the Court acknowledged that while cross-burning was an abhorrent act, the ordinance was nevertheless void and the defendants could be prosecuted by other means. In his opinion on the ruling, Justice John Paul Stevens cited Cohen in his claim that "we have consistently construed the "fighting words" exception set forth in Chaplinsky narrowly."[10]
The State of Washington v. Marc D. Montgomery
In State of Washington v. Marc D. Montgomery, 15-year-old Montgomery successfully won an appeal overturning his convictions for disorderly conduct and possession of marijuana on the grounds of free speech. Montgomery was arrested after shouting obscenities, such as "fucking pigs, fucking pig ass hole" at two police officers passing in their patrol car. Citing Cohen v. California, the Court ruled that Montgomery's words could not be classified as fighting words, and restricting speech based merely on its offensiveness would result in a "substantial risk of suppressing ideas in the process."[11]
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
In the Supreme Court case Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), the Court ruled that the Commission could regulate broadcasts that were indecent, but not necessarily obscene. In the ruling, the Court stated that while the Cohen ruling disputed that Cohen's speech would offend unwilling viewers, and that no one in the courthouse had actually complained, the Commission was responding to a listener's complaint. Furthermore, the ruling noted that the while Cohen was sentenced to 30 days in jail, "even the strongest civil penalty at the Commission's command does not include criminal prosecution."[12]
In the dissenting opinion, the ruling cited Cohen to argue that listeners could simply turn the radio off, and therefore offensive speech on the radio did not infringe on people's right to privacy. [12]
Bethel School District v. Fraser
In Supreme Court case Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986), the court ruled that public schools had the right to regulate speech that was indecent, but not necessarily obscene. The Court stated that while adults could not be prohibited from using offensive speech while making a political statement, this protection did not extend to public school students. The ruling cited New Jersey v. T.L.O., arguing that "the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings."[13]
Other cases
Below is a list of other court cases that cited Cohen v. California. The list below is by no means exhaustive:
State of Louisiana v. Meyers (1984)
Collin v. Smith (1977)
Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974)
Gooding v. Wilson (1972)
Opinions of experts off the Court [ edit ]
In his critique of the Cohen ruling, Professor R. George Wright wrote that it would be reasonable to expect all speakers to maintain at least a minimum level of decorum in their speech, such that they do not disrespect "substantial numbers of reasonably tolerant people." Wright pushed back on claims made by other scholars that Cohen should not be censored because the word "Fuck" in the phrase "Fuck the Draft" expressed the depth of Cohen's emotion, and instead argued that it is risky to assume that a slogan, "profane or otherwise, is likely to be particularly apt in expressing deep frustrations." He further argued that we should not assume Cohen's emotions from his willingness to offend. Subsequently, Wright claimed that the effect of speech on the level of public discourse should not be ignored.[14] Legal scholar Archibald Cox similarly argued that the expression, "Fuck the Draft", in the Cohen ruling unnecessarily lowered the standard of public debate.[15]
In his retrospective on the ruling, legal scholar Thomas Krattenmaker points out that at the time of the ruling, uttering the word "Fuck" in public, especially in the presence of women, was exceptionally rare, and that it was not unreasonable that Cohen aimed to be offensive in his use of the word.[16] Despite this, Krattenmaker states that the Cohen ruling successfully addresses and disputes arguments that Cohen's speech should not be protected because of the location of the speech, its perceived obscenity, and its potential classification as "fighting words". However, Krattenmaker does argue that governments should perhaps have more power to regulate hurtful speech, and criticizes the Court's treatment of the captive audience problem for providing little direction for future rulings.[16]
Legal scholar William Cohen also noted the limitations of the ruling in providing guidance on whether profanity should still be protected in certain locations or given certain audiences. Cohen argues that because the ruling is "narrowly limited to its facts", it has not been used in future cases pertaining to the regulation of offensive speech, such as FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.[17] As a result, the ruling has been contradicted in future cases that have attempted to interpret the limitations of the First Amendment in specific contexts.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Apple has been granted a patent for Podcasting.
Podcasts are audio or video files created by broadcasters or amateurs. The podcast was made popular by Apple’s iPod, from which it took its name. The name was first mentioned by UK reporter Ben Hammersley in the Guardian newspaper.
The word Podcasting was declared word of the year in 2005 by the New Oxford American Dictionary, notes Patently Apple.
Now that Apple owns the rights to its podcasting process it could make it difficult for third parties to use the word podcast to describe their offerings and for non-Apple software for making podcasts, although it shoudl be noted that the patent pertains to improved podcasts and techniques that facilitate their use, rather than the term, Podcasting.
Apple has its own Podcast app, which it updated recently following a number of stability issues.
Follow Karen Haslam on Twitter / Follow MacworldUK on Twitter
Related:
Apple updates flawed Podcasts app
Apple launches Podcasts app: tested
Apple iOS 6 Rumored to Include Podcasts AppIn response to the ongoing surge in illegal immigration from Central America, the Obama Administration is expanding its already controversial program to bring would-be illegal immigrants to the United States as refugees and parolees.
The State Department says it is growing the list of aliens eligible for the administration’s existing Central American Minors program. The CAM program grants certain immigrant parents — who are largely ineligible for family reunification programs, like illegal immigrants granted amnesty — the ability to bring their unmarried children (under the age of 21) or legal spouse and child who currently live in Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador to the U.S.
Under the changes to the CAM program announced Tuesday, the menu of Central American relatives for whom immigrants in the U.S. may petition to bring to the U.S. is larger. Lawful permanent residents, and those with temporary protected status, parole, withholding of removal, deferred action, and deferred enforced departure may now petition to have their children over the age of 21; the in-country biological parent of a qualified child; and caregivers of their minor children who are related to them.
“As the United States has made clear in the past, we are committed to protecting Central Americans at risk and expanding resettlement opportunities in the region,” the State Department said in a statement to the media. “The steps taken today, and over the past year, are another example of the creative solutions being taken across the federal government to make progress on this issue. ”
Republicans and immigration hawks have blasted the CAM program as another Obama Administration effort to circumvent Congress and flout immigration law while adding to the ongoing border surge.
Following the announced expansion, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) doubled down in the criticism calling the program expansion “simply a continuation of the government-sanctioned border surge.”
“Tens of thousands of unlawful immigrants continue to arrive at the Southwest border to benefit from the President’s lax immigration enforcement, and now many more can simply use this government-run program to come here,” he said. “By allowing unlawful immigrants to benefit from this program, the Obama Administration undermines the integrity of our immigration system and the rule of law, and makes the system unfair for those who seek to come to the United States legally.”
As Goodlatte noted, parole is intended to be used on a case-by-case basis, however, the administration plans to use it for those Central Americans who would be otherwise unqualified to come to the U.S. as refugees.
“Rather than take the steps necessary to end the ongoing crisis at the border, the Obama Administration perpetuates it by abusing a legal tool meant to be used sparingly to bring people to the United States and instead applying it to the masses in Central America,” he added.Terry (Terry Crews) meets his boyhood hero, Gina (Chelsea Peretti) fights for the venue of the Boyle family vacation and Amy (Melissa Fumero) picks Kevin’s (Marc Evan Jackson) side over Holt’s (Andre Braugher) on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” season 4, episode 8 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine 4x08).
Spoiler alert: This recap contains plot details about season 4 of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” The fourth season premiered Sept. 20. The series is available for Australian viewers to watch on SBS every Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.
Jake (Andy Samberg) grabs the case of famous author D.C. Parlov (Fred Melamed), who is Terry’s boyhood hero. Jake insists that it will be a good thing for Terry to meet Parlov, who is receiving death threats from a fan. Terry is initially hesitant to join Jake in solving the case but he agrees anyway. They both proceed to attend Parlov’s local book event hoping to catch the culprit, but they soon find out that it was Parlov’s former assistant who wrote the death threats. They both arrest the suspect, although Terry is disappointed to find out that his favourite author is actually not the one who autographed his prized book.
Holt and his husband Kevin talk to Amy about a math puzzle they were arguing about over dinner. Amy sides with Kevin, annoying Holt in the process. Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) suggests that Holt and Kevin’s real problem is their lack of sex and not the math puzzle, further infuriating Holt. The following shift, Holt arrives at the precinct in a good mood.
Gina is set to join Charles (Joe Lo Truglio) and the rest of the Boyle family in their reunion. Gina tries to convince him to change its venue to Aruba, but Charles stands firm by the family’s decision to hold the reunion in Iowa. Gina takes Charles’ cousin Sam out to dinner to persuade him to have vacation in her place of choice. Sam agrees with Gina, much to Charles’ dismay.
A Boyle council meeting is set for Gina and Charles to convince family members to vote for either Aruba or Iowa as the reunion venue. In the end, the family votes to go to Aruba, but Charles is surprisingly happy about it, noting that Gina is now a true member of the Boyle family and that they’d all share the same grave someday.The flotilla comprised six ships carrying about 10,000 tonnes of aid for Gaza [AFP]
Shock and outrage have swept the globe after Israeli soldiers stormed a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza.
International powers have closed ranks in condemning the deadly raid (click on a name to jump to the relevant statement).
Statement from the Turkish foreign ministry
The interception on the convoy is unacceptable... Israel will have to bear the consequences of its actions.
We strongly condemn it and await an immediate explanation.
By targeting innocent civilians, Israel has once again clearly displayed that does not value human lives and peaceful initiatives.
We forcefully condemn these inhumane activities by Israel.
The incident that occurred in open sea which is a gross breach of international law, could cause irrevocable consequences for our relations.
We wish to express our condolences to the bereaved families of the deceased, and swift recovery to the wounded.
Statement from the White House
US President Barack Obama "expressed deep regret at the loss of life in today's incident, and concern for the wounded" in a phone call to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
"The president also expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning's tragic events as soon as possible."
Ismail Haniya, Hamas leader in Gaza
The government of Hamas call on Palestinians to carry out a total strike in Gaza and West Bank to show solidarity and protest the Israeli crimes.
We request emergency session for the UN Security Council, Arab League and Islamic Conference and we demand the Palestinian Authority to stop all forms of negotiations.
The government decided to grant those on board Freedom ships the medal of honour.
We appeal to the UN to withdraw from the Quartet.
The government has decided to name the May 31 "the freedom day". We demand the Arab League to carry out all decisions to stop the siege of Gaza.
We say to those heroes that the essence of your honourable blood has reached us before the aids you are carrying to us.
We salute everyone on board the Freedom ships.
Salam Fayad, Palestinian prime minister
Israel went beyond all that could be expected.
This [attack] is a transgression against all international covenants and norms and it must be confronted by all international forums.
Statement from the Palestinian presidency
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the crime perpetrated by the occupation authorities against international solidarity activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla.
The Palestinian leadership is closely following the developments and the President calls on the United Nations to confront Israel, which is disregarding all international laws and norms.
The attack on the Flotilla is an attack against humanity.
This incident will have grave consequences in the region and the world.
Statement from the Arab League
Secretary General Amr Moussa has called for an emergency meeting at the League's headquarters in Cairo on June 1.
The attack clearly shows Israel's aggressive nature and its disrespect to international and humanitarian rules and laws.
We call on the international community to take immediate steps against Israel, a rogue state that practises all forms of terrorism and piracy, and instigates tension and instability in the region and in the middle of the Mediterranean sea.
Statement from Chinese foreign ministry
China condemned the raid and urged a "quick response" from the UN Security Council.
"We were shocked by the Israeli naval attack on the Turkish flotilla carrying humanitarian goods to Gaza which led to severe casualties and condemn it," Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.
In New York, a Chinese diplomat said Beijing was prepared to back quick council action on the raid, and urged that Israel's blockade on Gaza be lifted.
"We support a quick response by the security council," the diplomat, Yang Tao, was quoted as saying by China's state Xinhua news agency.
Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian prime minister
A military attack against civilian activists is totally unacceptable.
We are shocked at the news that Israeli naval forces have attacked ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
An independent international investigation into what has taken place, must be opened as soon as possible.
Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will raise this issue with the UN Secretary General today.
Statement from Brazilian foreign ministry
Brazil condemns, in vehement terms, the Israeli action, given that there was no justification for a military intervention on a peaceful convoy of a strictly humanitarian character.
Brazil considers that the incident should be the object of an independent investigation that should fully elucidate the facts in the light of human rights and international law.
Saad Hariri, Lebanese prime minister
The Israeli attack on the aid convoy is a dangerous and crazy step that will exacerbate tensions in the region.
Lebanon firmly denounces this attack and calls on the international community, notably major powers... to take action in order to end this continued violation of human rights and threat to international peace.
Spokesperson for EU's foreign policy chief
High Representative Catherine Ashton expresses her deep regret at the news of loss of life and violence and extends her sympathies to families of the dead and wounded.
On behalf of the European Union she demands a full enquiry about the circumstances in which this happened.
The continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counter-productive. She calls for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries
The EU condemns the use of violence that has produced a high number of victims among the members of the flotilla and demands an immediate, full and impartial inquiry into the events and the circumstances surrounding it.
EU does not accept the continued policy of closure, it is unacceptable and politically counterproductive, we need to urgently achieve a durable solution to the situation in Gaza.
Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister
I am deeply concerned about the events last night in the waters off Gaza... These are disconcerting initial reports.
The foreign ministry is now working to establish the full facts of what happened.
Diego Lopez Garrido, Spain's secretary of state for EU affairs
The Israeli storming of a flotilla of activist ships heading for Gaza is unacceptable and very serious event.
We have have summoned the Israeli ambassador [to Spain] to give us explanations and, of course, we will investigate and will start handling this matter immediately.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president
[The attack was an] inhuman Zionist regime action against Gazans.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Emir of Qatar
The Israeli act of piracy against Arab and foreign activists who tried to break an non humanitarian unjust siege imposed on our fellow citizens in Gaza Strip, for no reason but they exercised their democratic right of choice.
The crimes purportrated this morning against the civilians supporting the Palestinians remind us of the unjust siege the open bleeding wound in the Strip; and all those who preach freedom, justice and democracy are required now to move and act to break this siege so the bloods of those free men do not go down the drains.
This is also message addressed to the Arab states who were brought to the moment of justice by those free men on board.
Micheal Martin, Irish foreign minister
I am gravely concerned at the reports emerging of the storming of a Turkish ship this morning by Israeli commandos.
My department is seeking to establish the full facts of what has occurred and confirm the safety of the eight Irish nationals who sailed with the
Turkish-led flotilla.
The reports of up to 15 people killed and 50 injured, if confirmed, would constitute a totally unacceptable response by the Israeli military to what was a humanitarian mission attempting to deliver much needed supplies to the people of Gaza.
Statement from Britain's Stop The War Coalition
The action should see Israel condemned under international law.
Israel has repeatedly flouted law and public opinion worldwide in its treatment of the Palestinians.
The decision by Israel to attack the flotilla with such loss of human life shows it is arrogant and deadly intent in opposing any aid to the Palestinians.
Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights
I am shocked by reports that humanitarian aid was met with violence early this morning reportedly causing death and injury as the boat convoy approached the Gaza coast.
The blockade keeps undermining human rights on a daily basis.
The current situation falls far short of what is necessary for the population to lead normal and dignified lives.
I condemn once again the indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
Franco Frattini, Italian foreign minister
Italy deplores the loss of civilian life in Israel's raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza.
Statement from the UN Relief and Works Agency
We are shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on board boats carrying supplies for Gaza, apparently in international waters.
Such tragedies are entirely avoidable if Israel heeds the repeated calls of the international community to end its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza.
William Hague, British foreign minister
I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza Flotilla. Our embassy is in urgent contact with the Israeli government.
We are asking for more information and urgent access to any UK nationals involved.
We have consistently advised against attempting to access Gaza in this way, because of the risks involved.
But at the same time, there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations.
It will be important to establish the facts about this incident, and especially whether enough was done to prevent deaths and injuries.
This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1860. The closure is unacceptable and counter-productive.
There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis.
I call on the government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians.
Ebrahim Ebrahim, South African junior foreign minister
The recall of ambassador Ishmael Coovadia is to show our strongest condemnation of the attack. This recent Israel aggression of attacking the aid flotilla severely impacts on finding a lasting solution to the problems of the region
Ivo Josipovic, Croatian president
The Republic of Croatia expresses its deep regret over the loss of lives and injuries of civilians resulting from the Israeli military action in the international waters against the ship convoy bound for the Gaza Strip.
Croatia expresses condolences to the families of the diseased and strongly condemns the use of violence.
Croatia also expects that the humanitarian aid bound for Gaza will be delivered to the destination and that an investigation into the incident will be conducted in line with international standards.
Croatia encourages all sides involved in the peace process to make the maximum effort in order to prevent an escalation of tensions and supports the continuation of direct negotiations aimed at reaching a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and an establishment of enduring peace in the Middle East.On the one-year anniversary of the 2016 presidential election it is worth looking back at the history of American presidential democracy. One disheartening feature of our democracy is the fact that, compared to many other democratic nations, voter turnout in America is very low. The graph on the left shows the number of votes the Republican, Democratic and combined third party candidates received as a percentage of the total voting age population. Since 1916, only 57% of eligible voters on average cast a ballot for president. As a result, the president is decided by only 30% of eligible voters on average, far less than a majority of the population. If “didn’t vote” was treated as a candidate, Candidate Nobody, she would have won every single election of past 100 years with the sole exception of losing to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. American citizens who care about the future of their country need to get informed, motivated and voting. And not just every four years for president. Every election matters.
For the Data Wonks
The Pew Research Center published an excellent resource about voter turnout in the US and other democracies. Their report can be accessed here: https://goo.gl/SdPsrU All election results were accessed from the US Election Atlas maintained by David Liep: https://goo.gl/ZudWGk Voter turnout data by year was accessed from the United States Election Project: https://goo.gl/9Ld3PX The graph on the left was structured so that the “Didn’t Vote” group was always the bottom segment. Other segments were rank ordered by vote share. The election results for 2000 and 2016 were altered to place the Republican candidate (George W. Bush and Donald Trump respectively) on top since they won the election via the electoral college, but did not carry the popular vote. For visual depiction a gap between party designations was added (0.4%). The effects of this alteration in accuracy was deemed to be trivial and greatly improved the aesthetic of the graph. On average, 42.52% of the voting age population didn’t vote (SD = 4.4%). Therefore, the average voter turnout was 100% – 42.52%, or 57.48%. The winning candidate (based on the electoral college) received on average 30.46% of the voting age population (SD = 3.7%). In 1964, Lyndon B Johnson received 38.3% of the vote, compared to 37.2% of the voting age population that did not vote that year. In every other year the “Didn’t Vote” percentage was greater than the vote share received by either major party candidates. On average the share of the “Didn’t vote” share was 12.6% greater than the winning candidate’s vote share.Mike Plant, a key member of the UCI Management Committee has announced that he can no longer support UCI President Pat McQuaid, saying that cycling is at a critical turning point and needs strong, credible leadership. Related Articles Confederacy of Dunces? A look into the UCI presidential election
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Cookson reacts to dossier on McQuaid
Like McQuaid, Plant has been involved in cycling for more than 20 years. He organised the Tour de Trump and Tour DuPont in the USA and first Tour of China, and has sat on the board of USA Cycling and the United States Olympic Committee. He was a member of the UCI Management Committee between 1997 and 2004 and was re-elected in 2009.
Plant is an experienced sports politician but also understands the business of professional sports. He has been critical of the UCI in recent times, especially after the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and the lack of credibility in professional cycling following the publication of the USADA reasoned decision.
Plant allegedly produced a secret dossier on McQuaid's work as UCI President and presented it to UCI Management committee meeting in Norway on Thursday. Several sources indicate that the explosive dossier sparked a heated debate on Friday and possibly a vote of no confidence in McQuaid. The outcome of the vote is not known.
When contacted by Cyclingnews, Plant refused to reveal what happened behind closed doors at the UCI Management meeting but in a significant move, he has now publicly ended his support of McQuaid in a damning statement sent to Cyclingnews.
After Irish Cycling club members voted against nominating McQuaid for re-election on Saturday, the Irishman's position and hopes of re-election have become even more untenable.
"I have been asked by a number of media outlets to provide information about our recent UCI Management Committee meeting and my actions during an executive session at the conclusion of the meeting yesterday, June 14th," Plant's statement reads.
"Since that portion of the meeting was in a closed session of the members, I will not answer questions about what has transpired, however, I believe it is time to make my views public."
"I can no longer support the current President of the UCI. In private discussions with the UCI President and fellow members of the UCI Management Committee, I have made my reasons, findings and concerns clear to him and my colleagues."
"This isn't a time for self-interest"
Plant called for strong credible leadership for the long-term good of cycling.
"This is a critical turning point in the history of our sport, and strong, credible leadership has never been more important. The impact of the decisions being made today will be felt for generations to come."
"What the sport of cycling needs most at this crucial time in its history is to be guided by a consistent set of values. This isn't a time for self-interest; this is a time for doing what is in the best interest of the sport."
"That's my primary objective for the sport I have been a part of for 40 years. I learned long ago that ethics and integrity cannot be situational; they must be constant and unwavering."
Plant did not say if he will now support Brian Cookson at the UCI Presidential elections in September or if he will resign his position on the UCI Management Committee.
McQuaid has tried to temper criticism of the UCI by announcing major changes to the structure of professional cycling from 2015 and reviews and changes of the governance of the international body that runs the sport.Red Bulls midfielder Lloyd Sam will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a knee injury in Saturday's scoreless draw against Sporting Kansas City.
Head Coach Hans Backe spoke to media Tuesday following the team's training session at Montclair State University to unveil the upsetting news.
“Lloyd Sam is out for the season, unfortunately,” said Backe. “Knee injury, I don’t know the exact diagnosis but he’s out, definitely.”
The diagnosis has since been labeled a PCL injury, and the team is exploring options to avoid surgery.
Since joining the Red Bulls in mid-August, Sam played in five matches, starting in two. The former Notts County midfielder first set foot on the pitch for New York as a sub in a 2-2 draw against DC United on Aug. 29. He registered his first assist on Sept. 29 in a 4-1 win over Toronto.In Northeastern Brazil, energy companies are erecting wind farms to capitalize on the constant winds that have challenged farming families for generations. (Juan Forero and Sandi Moynihan/The Washington Post)
With its abundant dams and rivers that carry more fresh water than any other country, Brazil — big and bountiful — essentially runs on hydropower. But it turns out that the country can also count on a good strong breeze.
Wind is emerging as a prize for energy planners here who see the howling gusts that arrive from the east as a way to offset the fresh limits imposed on hydropower.
A string of wind-turbine parks is being erected in Brazil’s windiest stretches, in what planners see as the beginning of an extraordinary transformation. No one expects that wind will outpace dams as the main source of electricity here. But the goals remain audacious for a country that projects an annual increase in electricity consumption of up to 5 percent in coming years.
Wind turbines in the municipality of Caetite. A string of turbine parks is being erected in the windiest stretches of Brazil’s Bahia state. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
To keep pace with that growth, Brazil’s capacity to produce energy must increase by 50 percent over the next decade, government planners say — in line with a target set by rapidly growing China, and even faster than what is projected for Russia and India, two similarly sized, energy-hungry emerging economies.
In Brazil, wind will play a vital role: The aim by 2021 is to have Brazil rely on wind turbines for up to 10 percent of its generating capacity — nearly enough to power S ã o Paulo, South America’s largest city.
It’s an expansion that planners believe makes perfect sense, allowing Brazil to avoid an energy crisis like the one in 2001 — when drought led to nationwide blackouts — while diversifying with a new source of power that is far cheaper and more efficient than it was just five years ago.
“Wind is the perfect complement for the hydro base that we have in Brazil,” said Mathias Becker, president of Renova Energia, a S ã o Paulo wind energy company founded 12 years ago with $5,000 and now worth nearly $1.5 billion. “When it rains, we don’t have wind. When the wind blows, there is no rain.”
Workers prepare a new tower in a Renova Energia wind-turbine park. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Workers hoist tools up a new tower in the wind-turbine park. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Brazil’s big push on wind is not trouble-free. Transmission lines, devilishly difficult to build, have not kept up with wind-park construction. Brazil’s economy is barely expanding, and onerous government regulations slow investment.
Both the pitfalls of relying on wind on a big scale and its tantalizing possibilities are evident here in Caetite, a town with a frontier feel in the northeastern state of Bahia.
The land is parched and the semi-arid hills are rocky. What the homesteaders who struggle to make a living here always noticed was how the strong gusts could rip clay tiles off roofs and level fields of tomatoes.
“Here, it blows and it blows hard,” one farmer, Areldo Silva, 57, said as he surveyed his damaged fields on a recent day. “It knocks over plants all day long.”
But what was long viewed as a curse is now being harnessed as a steady source of power for a growing, 57-square-mile wind farm.
Run by Renova Energia, the High Wilderness Wind Complex is close to completion: a project of more than 400 wind turbines dotted across farms. Towering nearly 300 feet in the air, their gently turning rotors making them look like giant eggbeaters, the turbines form the biggest collection of windmills in Latin America.
Workers prepare wind blades to be hoisted onto a new tower in a Renova Energia wind-turbine park in the town of Caetite in Brazil’s Bahia state. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Wind still accounts for only about 3 percent of the energy-
producing capacity in Brazil, with its 200 million people. But it has reached that level at a blisteringly fast pace. Just four years ago, in 2009, the government held its first auction for companies vying to build wind farms.
Now, industry leaders talk of producing enough energy capacity each year to power 4 million Brazilian households.
“Why can Brazil be so big in wind?” said Elbia Melo, president of Brazil’s wind power trade group. “It’s because here the wind is so strong, spectacularly so. Brazil is also big, so we have many places with strong potential.”
The push to develop wind could add to the influence that Brazil wields at international climate talks, where the country is criticized for how deforestation affects the level of greenhouse gases. Industry and government officials say the growing number of wind farms in Brazil — 140 of them — shows how a country far from the epicenter of renewable energy development in Europe can quickly turn to wind and provide lessons to South America.
“I’ve been involved in Brazilian wind power for 22 years, but it’s in the last five years things have started to happen in dramatic fashion,” said Andrew Garrad, chairman of London-based GL Garrad Hassan, a renewable energy consulting firm. “Nothing much happened for a very long time. However now, this is one of the brightest areas for the wind energy market.”
Market spurred by drought
Guanambi is one of several small, arid towns where wind turbines are being erected in the windiest stretches of Bahia state. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Once derided as too expensive and too complex to ever be anything more than a niche in the world’s energy market, wind-
generated power is now reaching a capacity of 300 gigawatts. That’s nearly three times the total electricity-producing potential of Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest economy.
In the United States, wind represents nearly half of all new electricity-generating capacity. Last year, the United States was wind energy’s top market. China projects its wind turbines will provide energy for 50 million people in two years. In Denmark, 30 percent of all electricity comes from the wind.
Renewable energy will provide nearly a third of the world’s electricity in just over 20 years, according to projections by the International Energy Agency. After hydropower, most of that power generation will come from the wind.
In Brazil, the road toward wind power began in the 1970s, when oil shortages led the government to ramp up oil production and develop the use of biofuel and hydropower. Wind’s rise came after the 2001 drought, which led to the rationing of electricity as river levels fell precipitously, hitting power generation hard.
Under President Dilma Rousseff’s center-left government, wind power has a strong backer, with the state’s big development bank providing sizable loans to the largest projects, including Renova Energia. “We are going to advance more and more, and see wind turbines spread across this country,” said Edison Lobão, the energy minister.
Though hydropower, which generates the vast majority of electricity, will remain vital, the government’s energy planners say that by 2025, dam building may be tapped out as a viable alternative.
Projects like Belo Monte — a gargantuan dam whose construction has generated relentless protests by environmentalists and Indians — appear to be a thing of the past. Instead, the Energy Ministry wants wind and biomass, which here means sugar-cane waste, to provide 30 percent of new electricity generation.
Perfect wind
Fast, steady wind is needed to rotate the huge blades of the 1.6-megawatt turbines being erected across the country. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Wind is everywhere.
But there are regions where the wind is simply stupendous for electricity generation: the Great Plains up through West Texas, Australia and New Zealand, frigid Patagonia, the North Sea, Mongolia and northern China.
Then there’s Brazil’s northern shoulder, Rio Grande do Sul state in the far south, and this bone-dry swath of Bahia state. The winds that whip here are the same ones that lore says took Portuguese explorers off course in 1500, leading Pedro Á lvares Cabral to claim Brazil for the crown in Lisbon.
It is fast, steady wind — what’s needed to rotate the huge blades on the 1.6-megawatt turbines being erected across the country.
“It’s the only big country like this which has tremendous wind resources,” said Steve Sawyer, head of the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council, an industry-supported policy group. “It’s perfect, in very many ways.”
And perfect wind for power generation has its peculiarities. It shouldn’t come from various directions. It shouldn’t be turbulent. It shouldn’t be so strong as to wear down turbines. It needs to blow at 250 feet, up where the rotors are located.
The home of the Silva family is surrounded by wind turbines. (Lianne Milton/For The Washington Post)
Florisvaldo Silva, 83, says the wind is so strong that it blows over the tomatoes |
the throngs of people.
The fee is payable in the Meyers Beach parking area at the start of the trail to the ice caves. People also can purchase an annual pass for $10 at the park service’s headquarters in Bayfield.
For more information, visit nps.gov/apis/mainland-caves-winter.htm.
Andy Rathbun can be reached at 651-228-2121.
Follow him at twitter.com/andyrathbun.Borussia Dortmund are closing in on securing Edin Dzeko’s signature.
The German club are confident that Dzeko will move to the Westfalenstadion in the winter transfer window, and the player himself is willing to take a pay-cut in order to force the move, according to Bild.
The Bosnian has not had a regular starting place since his arrival at the Etihad Stadium, but has still scored a fair number of goals during his time at Manchester City. The 27-year-old has scored 56 goals during his time with City.
The strike partnership of Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo means that Dzeko has started just ten matches in the league this season, and will not get many chances if both the first choice strikers stay fit.
Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp sees Dzeko as a replacement for the departing Robert Lewandowski, who will join rivals Bayern Munich on a free transfer at the end of the season.
Dzeko’s contract runs out in June 2015 and it will be difficult for City to get close to the 27 million they paid Wolfsburg to sign the 6ft 4in striker.Brookline’s biggest party of the year is next weekend, and it plans to be bigger than ever.
Lisa Paradis, director of recreation for the town, said the third annual Brookline Day at Larz Anderson Park on Sunday, Sept. 14, will look a lot like last year’s version, with some additions.
The popular 5K race and kids 1K from last year remain part of the festivities, and the event will still feature plenty of activities for kids, such as an inflatable obstacle course and bounce houses, face painting, as well as a rock-climbing wall and bungee jump.
But the list of vendors just continues to grow, said Paradis. In just two years, that number has gone from 80 to 120.
One of the biggest changes was starting a dedicated website for the event, brooklineday.org. Visitors can find information about transportation, parking, and what to expect at Brookline Day by visiting the site.
Paradis expects about 300 to 400 runners for the 5K, which starts at 9:30 a.m. (a kids’ 1K starts at 9 a.m.). Those interested in running can register on the website. The bulk of Brookline Day activities will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Overall, she said the town is expecting between 6,000 to 9,000 visitors at Brookline Day.
There will also be food trucks at the event, as well as food from Juliana’s Catering.
Paradis also addressed the shuttle issue from last year, in which one bus failed to stop at Town Hall at 11:30 a.m., leaving a handful of residents to wait for roughly an hour.
“It’s important to let people know that we know we had a shortage of transportation in the Village, so we doubled up our buses,” she said, adding that the event will have eight vehicles — seven buses and a minibus — circling the town in loops, as well as more bus stops. “We listened to what people had to say.”
There will also be parking spaces available at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Goddard Avenue, Dexter School on Newton Street, as well as Beaver Country Day School on Hammond Street and Baker School on Beverly Road. The town will be providing shuttles from those locations to Larz Anderson Park.
Visitors to Brookline Day can expect to see bands, as well as competitons such as pie-eating contests and trivia. There will also be a mini Town Hall for residents to meet some government officials and employees.
Paradis said Brookline Day has grown quickly, and she’s excited for the 2014 version.
“It’s an opportunity for people to come together at a great event,” she said.Image: Seaturtle.org
Easier to Protect if We Know Where They're Going
Photo: NOAA, public domain.
The leatherback sea turtle, which is categorized as "critically endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, has a mysterious life. We know where its main breeding colonies are located (the largest one is off the coast of Gabon in Central Africa), but until recently, we only had a general idea of its migration paths. But a team of scientists decided to shed some light on this by tracking 25 female leatherbacks using satellites. Here's what they found...Three migration routes were identified, one of which is 7,563 kilometers long (4,699 miles) and goes straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America! Other routes lead to food-rich areas where the turtles go for 2-5 years to build up enough reserves to be able to reproduce.
Image: Seaturtle.org
Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys - with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic." [...] Dr Brendan Godley said the new research would be vital for informing this conservation strategy: "All of the routes we've identified take the leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there's a very real danger to the Atlantic population. Knowing the routes has also helped us identify at least 11 nations who should be involved in conservation efforts, as well as those with long-distance fishing fleets. There's a concern that the turtles we tracked spent a long time on the High Seas, where it's very difficult to implement and manage conservation efforts, but hopefully this research will help inform future efforts to safeguard these fantastic creatures."(source)
Indeed, if we don't know where they are going, it's much harder to establish effective conservation strategies. The Atlantic leatherbacks are probably in better shape than the Pacific ones ("one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9"), but when it comes to conservation, prevention is better than cure.
The image below shows the latest locations of active turtles:
Image: Seaturtle.org
The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) - a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org.
If you like this article, you can follow me on Twitter (@Michael_GR) and Stumbleupon (THMike). Thanks.
Via Exeter, Discovery News, Seaturtle.org
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Fewer than 50 Wild Tigers Left in China, Says Wildlife Conservation SocietyEDMONTON – Drug-impaired driving has become a growing issue for law enforcement across the country and the Liberal government’s plan to legalize marijuana next spring may compound the problem.
“There is a rise in drug-impaired driving. It might even be surpassing alcohol-impaired driving at this point,” Constable Kyla Currie, the Alberta Provincial Coordinator for the RCMP’s Drug Evaluation and Classification Program, said.
Drug and alcohol-impairment are tracked under one category by the RCMP in Alberta. However, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), almost as many drivers died in road crashes after using drugs as those who had been drinking.
“Down in the south here, we see a lot of cannabis as the drug of choice. Also, a lot of antidepressants. Central nervous system depressants are relevant – a lot of people don’t realize that they can take that medication and be under the influence of a drug,” Currie said.
Offenders are also subject to criminal code charges.
“[With] Alcohol, we know what we’re dealing with. It’s a commodity that people understand. They know what the legal limit is, what the limit of impairment is and we haven’t got that far yet with marijuana,” Clive Weighill, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said.
Weighill, who is also the chief of the Saskatoon Police Service, said he is waiting to hear the full extent of the plan from the federal government.
“We don’t know how the regulatory framework will be set up. The prime minister said there will be a regulatory framework about who can grow it, who can sell it and who can buy it.”
“We don’t have an instrument to measure impaired, so it’s not like dealing with somebody who’s been pulled over for alcohol-related offences. So we need some type of instrument that the courts will accept that will show what the level of impairment is.”
In Alberta, if there is any suspicion a driver may be impaired by a drug, a standard field sobriety test could be done. However, there have been calls for devices and measures beyond that.
In July 2008, revisions to the Criminal Code of Canada were made. Police are now able to demand that a suspected drug-impaired driver submit to a drug influence evaluation and provide a sample of blood, urine or saliva to test.
Recently, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the Canadian Society of Forensic Science’s Drugs and Driving Committee (DDC) collaborated on a research project. They tested three roadside oral fluid drug-screening devices.
They are similar to Approved Screening Devices (ASD) used to detect alcohol. Legislative changes would need to be made before such devices could be approved for use in Canada.
With testing now complete, the RCMP and its project partners have turned their gaze towards conducting additional tests of the devices in an operational setting to see how they could be used by active members of law enforcement.
Colorado State Patrol has been in the midst of a three-year pilot project. Marijuana was legalized there in 2014.
Law enforcement there have also been trying out oral screening fluid testing.
“What I recommend to anybody is to start gathering your data now if you’re even thinking about it because it’s hard to go back in time and gather something that you didn’t identify to gather,” Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Eldridge with the Colorado State Patrol said.
Eldridge said they have been working with the department of transportation to educate the public on the dangers associated with drug-impaired driving.
“Impairment is impairment and educating the public that just because marijuana is legal, doesn’t mean you can drive legally.”Former France international Eric Cantona feels Didier Deschamps is not the right person to coach the national team due to his inability to find a formation where all his best players can shine at once.
Les Bleus are in danger of missing out on the 2018 World Cup in Russia following their recent defeat at the hands of Sweden.
And Cantona believes Deschamps is the one to blame for their precarious situation, calling on Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane to take his place.
"The quantity of talent and potential France have is just insane," Cantona told Eurosport.
"But why is all this talent not on the pitch when it really matters? It is mind-boggling.
"A great coach is being judged on his ability to find a tactical system where his best players can all express themselves at the same time.
"That will not happen when you are being coached by an accountant rather than a visionary.
"Zizou, Zizou, please return. Your country needs you."
France sit second in Group A with 13 points from six games, level on points with leaders Sweden and three points clear of third-placed Netherlands.JERSEY CITY - The Jersey City Fire Department's first Hispanic deputy chief and first female battalion chief were among 30 people to rise in the ranks Thursday.
A standing room only promotion ceremony was held at City Hall on Thursday afternoon where the men and women took their oaths and assumed new positions in the department.
Joseph Menendez becomes the city's first Hispanic deputy chief, while Constance Zappella is now the first woman in the department's history to become a battalion chief. She was among the first two female firefighters in the city's history when she joined in 2002.
Zappella, 38, said she's working on having the most successful career with the department. Asked what her message to young Jersey City girls with dreams of becoming a firefighter, Zappella said she would tell them to "become one of us."
"I'm very feminine, I'm obviously female, but don't even think about that," she said after the ceremony. "Go in, if you really want this job and you really want to make a difference in your city, go in with a positive attitude. Forget, put it on the shelf that you're a female and become one of us."
Menendez, Richard Casella, and Michael Monaghan were all sworn in as deputy chiefs. Loren Hart, Shawn O'Connor, John Bowen, Jose Colon, John Arvanitis, Joseph Altomonte, and Zappella were sworn in as battalion chiefs.
Captains sworn in were James Van Winkle, Keith Raymond, Patrick Nestor, Justin Savino, Roberto Robalino, George Conroy, Dwayne Taylor, Joseph Dagato, Craig Wallace, Anthony Gonzalez, Bela Vaszlavik, Carmine Rizzi, Michael Ruggieri, William Gebhard, Daniel Mitchell, Ronald Tredo, Bertrand Moore, Justin Fahey, Matthew Rodriguez, and Harry Kawoczka.
Zampella sued the city in federal court in 2014 over allegations of gender bias within the fire department. She settled the suit for $50,000 this year.
Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.The BBC is producing “crap” comedy and would not have the courage to commission Monty Python’s Flying Circus today, John Cleese has claimed.
Speaking ahead of the comedy troupe’s reunion shows at the O2 Arena next month, Cleese, 74, was asked if the BBC would have green-lit the ground-breaking series today.
“Definitely not,” he told Time Out. “What has happened since my time is that a very simple process, which worked wonderfully well at the BBC, has been lost. In those days the departmental heads were very trusting of their producers.
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“What happens now is you have a new species, a ‘commissioning editor’, who, as far as I can make out, haven’t actually written comedy, or directed it, and yet they seem to think that they understand comedy.
“This would be fine if they did understand it, but comedy is very difficult. Just look around – there’s an awful amount of crap. These decisions are being taken by people who don’t understand comedy but don’t realise that they don’t understand it.”
The BBC screened 45 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus between 1969-74.
Cleese added: “One of the things that makes me saddest about the way the country has gone since I was young is the BBC. I look back at what was really a magnificent institution that, for economic reasons, has been thinned down and become something very different.”
Cleese’s criticisms echo those of John Lloyd, the producer of Blackadder and QI. He recently said that comedy is a “disaster in television because so few people know how to do it.”
Rehearsals are under way for the ten “farewell” Python shows, which begin on July 1. Terry Gilliam’s comments that he found the lucrative shows “depressing” appears to have stung his fellow Pythons.
Cleese said: “I think Terry finds a lot of life depressing. He’s been engaged in a life-long struggle with reality, and I think he’s losing.”
Eric Idle told the magazine: “Oh, he’s such a little arsehole! He’s got to be the one that’s always more holy than everybody else. I’m sure he’ll carry on talking it down, but he’s always a bit bitter like that, you know? I mean, how’s his film doing? He’ll be saying he’s the only real artistic one, but that’s because he equates artistic success with box office failure.”
Extra tickets will be placed on sale on Wednesday for the shows, which initially sold out in seconds. The final three-hour long Monty Python Live (Mostly) will be broadcast on the Gold channel on July 20. “Yes, that really is going to be the last performance,” Cleese said. “All the Pythons now do such jolly different things… We will all get a bit emotional, probably, but I don’t think any of us want to go on working together.”
Cleese said his great objection to working with Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam was that he “was fed up of being outvoted. “ He called scenes from The Meaning Of Life, the final 1983 film made by the original group of 6 members, including the late Graham Chapman, “very second-rate material.”
Money was an incentive for the reunion, Cleese said. “But we’re also doing it because we think it’s going to be a fun experience. At 74 I welcome these experiences.”CLOSE The Attorney General of California is blocking state funded travel to Texas, Alabama, South Dakota and Kentucky for passing legislation that will discriminate against the LGBT Community. Buzz60
Buy Photo Louisville International Airport. (Photo: By Pat McDonogh, The CJ)Buy Photo
Editor's note: This article has been updated to more specifically define what Senate Bill 17 accomplishes.
California's attorney general blocked state-funded travel to Kentucky and three other states on Thursday in response to what he considers anti-LGBT rights laws enacted this year.
In Kentucky, the ban has to do with a law signed by Gov. Matt Bevin. The law, passed as Senate Bill 17, is designed to reinforce students’ constitutional right to express religious and political views in public schools and universities. However, the bill also says religious and political student organizations cannot be hindered or discriminated against for the way they conduct their internal affairs or how they select their leaders and members. Critics say those provisions could be used to let student groups prevent LGBTQ students from joining their ranks.
That law could have indirect repercussions on the LGBT community in one of the nation's more gay-friendly cities, said Chris Hartman, the director of Louisville's Fairness Campaign.
"This is a clear example of the unforeseen consequences that even a vaguely anti-LGBT bill can have," Hartman said. "This is a bill that we opposed, and here we have a real-world economic consequence of passing this bill."
Related: Kentucky law may let school clubs bar LGBT students, group says
More: Top Democrats want Dan Johnson kicked out, investigation shows
Civil rights groups worry the law, which goes into effect this summer, could lead to scenarios in which LGBTQ students are prevented from joining a Christian club led by students who disagree with homosexuality.
The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Albert Robinson, R-London, who told the Courier-Journal in March that it affirms students' constitutional right to express religious and political views in public schools. He refuted the California attorney general's decision in an interview Friday and defended the legislation.
"I'm disappointed that a person of that caliber would make a decision on a bill that they have not read or do not understand," Robinson said. "If a Bible group in a school tried to exclude a gay group, they would not only be violating the Constitution, they'd be violating God's law too. It would be unchristian."
Woody Maglinger, press secretary for Bevin's office, called the California Attorney General's actions hypocritical in a statement emailed to the Courier-Journal.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Breaking news alerts Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-866-2211. 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
"It is fascinating that the very same West Coast liberals who rail against the president’s executive order, that protects our nation from foreign terrorists, have now contrived their own travel ban aimed at punishing states who don’t fall in lockstep with their far-left political ideology," the statement said.
Louisville has been widely accepted as an LGBT-friendly city.
Chris Poytner, spokesman for Mayor Greg Fischer, would not comment on the California decision but said the Human Rights Campaign has given Louisville a perfect score in LGBT friendliness for the past two years.
In 2015, Louisville ranked 11th in the country for percentage of gay residents, and the University of Louisville has been named one of the most LGBTQ-friendly campuses in the South by Campus Pride Index.
Hartman previously told the Courier-Journal that gays and lesbians have flocked to Louisville since 1999, when it became one of the first cities in the South to have a comprehensive law barring discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation.
"This is a place where people feel comfortable being themselves," he previously said.
More: U of L earns gay-friendly recognition
More: Louisville maintains perfect gay rights score
Besides Kentucky, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra added Texas, Alabama and South Dakota to the list of places where state employee travel is restricted. Lawmakers passed legislation last year banning non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi and Tennessee are already on the list.
California taxpayers' money "will not be used to let people travel to states who chose to discriminate," Becerra said.
It's unclear what practical effect California's travel ban will have. The state law contains exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts made before 2017. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that could be blocked. Becerra's office couldn't provide information about how often state employees have visited the newly banned states.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Reporter Thomas Novelly at tnovelly@courier-journal.com, call him at 502-582-4465. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.
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Read or Share this story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2017/06/23/california-bans-state-travel-kentucky-3-other-states/423352001/This nifty little shed on a suburban street in Gothenburg, Sweden is filled with microbes busily eating household garbage in a pilot project to dry up compost before it's turned into methane at the local biogas plant.
Brainchild of Lars Smedlund, the Somnus Hus is a system that helps remove 75 percent of the moisture, and most of the odor from compostable food waste. About 180 families in a condominium complex in the pilot will share the shed and deposit their paper bags with food scraps into the green shute (each family has a key to the shute). After the scraps are shredded, moisture is sucked away via a wet filter system filled with odor-eating bacteria. In 4-5 days the scraps resemble finely-chopped wood chips (photo after the jump).
Unlike other compost systems, which are subject to rot when too wet, the Somnus system is designed to control the humidity and smell, and the smaller resulting volume of compost only requires a pick-up once or twice a year, versus the once a week or every two weeks for food compost collection systems such as San Francisco's.
Even better, the dried-up compost can be redistributed in community gardens, or it can be collected by what Smedlund described as'sucking cars' (industrial vacuum trucks) where it is then deposited as raw material at the local biogas plant - at least in places like Gothenburg where there actually are 'local biogas plants.'
By Smedlund's reckoning, each bag of household food scraps can make enough methane to drive a car 3.2 kilometers. If only Volvo hadn't killed their bi-fuel methane model last year!
Smedlund says each shed uses about 6,500 kWh of electricity per year - about the same as a TV on stand-by. The Gothenburg pilot will last 1.5 years. ::Via Smedlund.seDo a quick search on Amazon for Lightning cables, and you’ll get tens of thousands of listings—it can be pretty overwhelming if you just want to find a good, reliable cable at a fair price.
In previous editions of this guide, we spent a huge amount of time and resources testing cables: We looked at nearly 40 popular and highly rated cables for the prior edition, including sending a selection of those to a former NASA engineer to tear them down and study their physical construction.
Our long-term testing showed that this kind of super-thorough testing was less important than the durability of each cable. Sure, some cables include a certain kind of shielding around their wires, or filler fiber (both good things, in theory), but none of our top picks ended up performing noticeably better or worse—in terms of data or charging functionality—than the others over the months and years since we first tested them. What did matter was how well a given cable held up to regular use: Did the cable still work after six months or a year? Did the cable start to come apart from the plug?
Based on this real-world experience, we decided that our testing should instead focus primarily on two things: durability and charging speed. Wirecutter readers want cables that will hold up over time without fraying, splitting, or otherwise falling apart, and they want cables that will allow them to charge their devices at the fastest possible speed. We also considered only MFi-licensed cables to ensure compatibility with all iOS devices and all versions of iOS.
That said, plenty of cables fulfill those criteria, and the differences in price and functionality between good cables is small. Though we could spends dozens of additional hours researching and testing more cables to find minute differences, we’d never be able to test them all, and even if we were to do so, the good ones would test similarly. In addition, because cables are such a commodity product, we had to change our previous top picks several times because companies such as Monoprice and Amazon routinely discontinue cables and replace them with different models, or they change (sometimes silently) the construction or components.
What we can do is find cables that satisfy our criteria, that come from a reputable company we’ve had good experiences with as both customers and reviewers, and that we’ve been using ourselves long enough to feel confident in their durability. So instead of saying, “This is the best cable,” we’re telling you the cables we’d buy ourselves.Louisiana Tech University’s School of the Performing Arts and The Ruston Daily Leader will present the United States Air Force Concert Band and Singing Sergeants in concert at 3 p.m. April 10 in Howard Auditorium on the Louisiana Tech campus.Howard Auditorium is located in the School of the Performing Arts on the northwest corner of Dan Reneau Drive and Arizona Boulevard in Ruston. This is a general admission event with no reserved seating and no reserved tickets. Ticket holders will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis 30 minutes prior to performance. Non-ticket holders will be seated 15 minutes prior to performance.Tickets to this event are free to the public and can be picked up beginning March 14 at the School of the Performing Arts Box Office or at The Ruston Daily Leader, which is located at 212 West Park Avenue in Ruston and is open Monday through Friday from 8:00-5:00 p.m. The Louisiana Tech Box Office is located in the drama wing of the School of the Performing Arts and is open Monday through Friday from 1:30-4:45 p.m. Please limit five tickets per person.Written by Judith Roberts – jroberts@latech.eduAfter the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the British RAF assembled several Polish fighter squadrons. These squadrons consisted of volunteers, men and women who had been forced to flee their own country and families. People of Polish origin, angered by the German occupation. Even foreign nationals who simply wanted to see a free Poland.
Although at first these squadrons were met with discrimination, the hastily assembled units became some of the most effective of the entire RAF. During the aerial Battle of Britain, 303 Polish Squadron were the most effective unit of the campaign. The following are ten of the pilot aces who fought like hell to liberate Poland.
10. Michal Cwynar
Living in Orzechowka, this Polish ace was born on November 14, 1915. Michal graduated from Air Force school in 1936, being assigned to 113 EM. When war broke out, 113 EM fought valiantly against overwhelming German invaders despite heavy losses and limited fuel supplies. Cwynar personally downed two enemies before he was evacuated to France through Romania. On April 25, 1941, after fleeing France, Michal joined the 315th Polish Squadron of the RAF.
Gaining victories against enemy fighters, Cwynar became most efficient in shooting down V-1 rockets with 315th Polish Squadron when they were reassigned to hunting duty in July 1944. To effectively hunt rockets, which traveled at fast speeds, the Mustangs which Michal and his squadron used had to be modified greatly. This put strain on the engine, and as such, was a highly dangerous job. On the morning of July 24, after successfully downing a V-1, Cwynar’s engine failed. At 2,000 feet, with his propeller running only on airspeed, Michal had to make an emergency landing which would have been tragic had he not been near an airfield. By the end of the war, Cwynar had downed 5 enemy fighters and 5 of the 53 V-1 rockets that his entire squadron had destroyed.
9. Antoni Glowacki
Hailing from Warsaw, Antoni was born on February 10, 1910. Partaking in both Army and Air Force training, he became a flight instructor in 1938. In September, 1939, Glowacki flew reconnaissance for the Warsaw Armoured-Motorised Brigade until he was evacuated to France via Romania. Arriving in Britain on January 28, 1940, the refugee was assigned to 501 RAF Fighter Squadron.
During the Battle of Britain, Antoni became one of only two pilots and the only Pole to earn ace status within a single day. This took place on August 24, when he shot down three Messerschmitts and two bombers during a battle. Despite being badly damaged during this great, Antoni returned to an airfield only after running out of ammunition during another duel. Only a few days later, on August 31, he survived being shot down in his Hurricane.
After such heroism, Antoni served as a flight instructor and commander for the rest of the war. In November 1941, he became a flight commander for 303 Polish Squadron, securing two probable and one shared kill. From February 1943, Antoni acted as a flight commander for 308 Polish Squadron. In both roles, he led the Polish forces to many victories. He later went on to serve in the USAAF and after the war, joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Antoni secured a total of 9 kills during his brief career as a fighter pilot.
8. Gabby Gabreski
The son of a Polish immigrant, Francis “Gabby” Gabreski was born in Oil City, Pennsylvania on January 28, 1919. Gabby had a tough start to his flying career, barely passing his training and nearly being kicked out of the Army Air Corps for fainting from a hangover during a morning parade. Stationed in Hawaii, Gabreski awoke to the sound of explosions on the morning of December 7. Pearl Harbor was under attack. An aircrew, including Gabby, were readied to man 10 undamaged planes. After searching the harbor for 45 minutes, it was obvious that the Japanese had already left, and that America was at war.
In October of 1942, after being sent to fly with the RAF in Europe, Gabby met a group of Polish pilots also serving under the RAF. Sympathetic to their situation and wishing to avenge his homeland, he was able to convince RAF and American command to allow him to join 315 Polish Squadron. Gabby flew 26 missions with the Poles, engaging in combat only once. However, observing and training with the Polish aces in combat taught this otherwise novice pilot a great deal about being a fighter pilot. After being transferred to the 56th Fighter Group when they arrived in Europe, Gabreski was somewhat resented for his Eastern European background. Commander of 9 pilots, Gabby claimed his first kill on August 24, 1943. On December 11, he successfully took down a Messerschmitt before losing his squadron. Gabby then successfully landed on fumes, after losing a German plane which had damaged his own plane greatly.
From that point on, victories came easy, with a total of 28 air victories and 193 missions a few weeks after D-Day. This made him America’s leading ace, due in no small part to the training he received as part of 315 Polish Squadron. After reaching his flying limit, Gabby went against orders to go on “one more” mission before reassignment. Shot down on this mission, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. Gabby went on to fight in the Korean war.
7. Josef František
Josef, born in Czechoslovakia on October 7, 1913, fled the country after the Munich agreement, which allowed Germany to annex vast swathes of his country. On July 29, 1939, František received an offer to settle in Poland and join the Polish Air Force, an offer which he accepted. Based at Deblin airbase, the Germans attacked the facility on September 2, before Polish planes could launch in retaliation. Josef was forced to flee the largest airbase in Poland, which was by that point no more than a smoldering ruin. Josef helped in the evacuation of aircraft from Gora Pulawska airfield, flew reconnaissance and communications and also aiding the defense of the city of Luck. On September 22, Josef fled Poland along with what was left of his friends.
Arriving in France, Frantisek changed his name briefly to avoid his family being targeted. Fleeing to England during the evacuation, the Czech and Pole veteran joined the 303rd Polish Squadron. From September 2 to 30, 1940, Josef went on a rampage in the heat of the Battle of Britain. Achieving 17 kills during this period, he was beaten only by two other pilots, both of whom perished. Josef excelled at lone wolf tactics, sometimes flying off from his squadron to engage enemies. He would also patrol the channel, laying in wait for German planes attempting to return home, who were usually low on ammo and fuel.
On October 8, 1940, František was seen flying away from a routine patrol, and his plane later crashed on Cuddington Way in Ewell, Surrey. His body was found flung from the cockpit into a nearby bush, with a broken neck suggesting that he died instantly. The circumstances surrounded his death are still unknown, with some saying he was exhausted from constant German raids and others saying that he was trying to show off to his girlfriend with aerobatic moves. What is evidently clear is that Josef fought like a lion, flying under a Polish flag to liberate both Poland and Czechoslovakia. Josef’s kills remained at 17, one of the greatest scores of the war.
6. Marian Pisarek
Born on January 3, 1912, Marian started his military career as a rifleman, or as the Russians called them, cannon fodder. In 1934, he joined the Air Force, graduating in March 1938. At the outbreak of war, he was the Second Commander of 141st Fighter Squadron. Shooting down two enemy fighters and attacking an armored column by the 4th day, Pisarek was then forced to evacuate to France. The Polish squadron that Marian joined in France was forced to flee to Britain before they were combat ready.
On September 7, 1940, a group of 11 Poles from the 303rd Polish Squadron, including Marian, engaged a bomber group. With the group destroying 14 German planes in all, Pisarek claimed one enemy downed before being forced to bail. July 2nd, 1941, saw the Squadron escorting a group of bombers to attack an electric facility at Lille. During their return, the Polish 308th, which Marian now commanded, were attacked by a far larger group of sixty German fighters. Under his command, the group destroyed five Messerschmitts, losing two of their own pilots, one dead, the other captured.
On July 17th, Marian commanded a group of a dozen Polish spitfires who again successfully defended themselves against a large group of Germans. Under his command, the 308th became the most successful Polish air force in 1941, with 52 confirmed victories. After being given command of 1st Polish Fighter Wing, Marian was shot down on April 19th, 1942. Despite his short tour of duty, Pisarek took down 12 enemies.
5. Boleslaw Gladych
Born on May 17, 1918, Boleslaw had not completed his aviation training by the time Germany unleashed its Blitzkrieg. Fleeing to Romania, Gladych was |
the “significant educational and scientific benefits of marine mammal displays”.
Heidrun Frisch of the convention secretariat, who drafted the resolution on behalf of the signatories, says that the resolution only covers captures for commercial purposes, so rescue and rehabilitation of stranded animals are outside of its scope.
“Our Parties have not expressed an opinion about any benefits of captivity,” she says. But she added that there are “at least considerable doubts” as to whether any benefits for humans justify “the suffering caused by capture, transport and keeping of cetaceans”.
Even stronger measures were adopted to protect 31 other iconic species, including sharks, giant rays and polar bears. Threatened by shrinking Arctic ice cover, polar bears were added to the convention’s Appendix II, which obliges signatories to coordinate transboundary conservation, as were hammerhead, thresher and silky sharks. Stricter Appendix I protection, which legally restricts the capture of species, was granted to manta rays, devil rays and sawfish.For the second time in four years, residents of a Maine town will vote on whether or not to change the name of a street called Katie Crotch Road.
No one seems to know where the name came from, but it costs the town of Embden hundreds of dollars each year to replace signs presumably stolen by people who find the oddly vulgar-sounding moniker funny, the Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel reports.
“You put it up and in a week’s time it’s down again,” Charles Taylor of the town’s Board of Selectmen told the paper. “You would think every dorm room in the state of Maine should have one by now.”
Google Maps Google confirms that yeah, there's a Katie Crotch Road.
In 2012, residents voted not to change the name to simply “Katie Road.” Saturday, they’ll be voting on whether to rename it “Cadie Road.”
Maybe Embden should take a cue from Fucking, Austria, where officials reportedly had signs bearing the town name welded to steel posts and the bases buried in concrete. Shitterton, England, had their own creative solution to sign theft, engraving the hamlet’s name in a huge rock that weighs more than a metric ton.The History Boys vote Brexit By Victor Hill 15 January 2016 6 mins. to read
Finally, the groves of academe have awoken to the sound of gnashing teeth. An assembly of the most eminent British historians has formed a campaign group called Historians for Britain[i]. Their aim is to advance the argument, from a historical perspective of course, that the forthcoming UK-EU IN-OUT referendum is a historic opportunity to go our own way. In fact, they believe that it was a historical aberration that we ever got involved in that show at all.
Historians for Britain is led by Chairman, Professor David Abulafia (Professor of Mediterranean History at Cambridge since 2000), and a panel of highly distinguished (and media-savvy) historians whose names will be familiar to anyone who reads history and/or watches high-end telly. They include Dr Sheila Lawlor, Dr Andrew Roberts, Dr David Starkey and Professor Brian Young.
Their research aims to inform the debate about Britain’s EU membership, articulate some of the problems that exist in the EU today and to analyse the historical myths that surround the EU. They have sought to expose how former British political leaders failed to tell the public about the consequences of EU membership.
On Tuesday morning (12 January) Professor Gwythian Prins of the University of Buckingham (who is of Anglo-Dutch heritage) was asked by John Humphreys of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about his essay Beyond the Ghosts: Does EU Membership Erode Britain’s Global Influence? This essay is now available on the Historians for Britain website[ii]. It is long and rather academic in style, but I have now had the chance to read it and I thought I might summarise some of its main arguments for practical folk whose trade is money.
Professor Prins sets out to show how the decision-making process in the EU is incompatible with the political traditions of the United Kingdom and that anyway, the EU urgently needs radical change. Now 58 years old, the EU was the future once; but it is now mired in crisis. Its two main achievements – the single currency and open borders – are now under severe strain.
First, the currency union was misconceived. Greece, because it is unable to devalue, is being tortured slowly in order to remain a member. Meanwhile, Finland, one of the most competitive countries in Europe, is unable to revalue. Its parliament will debate exiting the Euro soon.
Second, the Schengen system of open borders did not anticipate either the upswing in Islamist terrorism or the refugee crisis. The decision to impose refugee quotas on the former Eastern Bloc countries, which have little historic experience of religious and cultural diversity, has fundamentally changed sentiment amongst Germany’s eastern neighbours.
We Brits might be thankful that we are aloof from both the currency union and open borders. (Actually, we have Sir John Major to thank – as I have mentioned before). But at the historic juncture, we are entitled, if not obliged, to weigh up our interests in a thoughtful way. And besides, on many objective measures, Britain is different from Europe – and more dynamic. We are a soft-power superpower which also has a relatively dynamic economy.
Moreover, it is simply not possible to unpick the intricate tapestry of consecutive EU treaties to which we are all subjected. Each treaty forbids the revision of its predecessor. Mr Cameron’s four demands (as submitted to EU Council President Donald Tusk on 09 November last year) were pretty small beer, as even if they are accepted (which is doubtful), they will not address the fundamental issues that the UK has with the EU.
The EU of today has become a modern Napoleonic league – a supra-national power that seeks to control its population on the basis of shared ideals rather than popular democratic consent. (Just look at how Greek popular sentiment, as expressed by the referendum of 05 July 2015, was steamrolled aside). We should return to the Castlereagh Doctrine (1820), neatly summarised by Churchill in 1930 as follows: We are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not compromised.
Interestingly, the ritual humiliation of Syriza last summer did not go unnoticed by the British left. We still don’t know on which side Mr Corbyn will campaign. But then, says Professor Prins, the hard left never truly aims to win elections, but rather to discredit liberal democracy itself.
There is a fundamental difference in thinking between Britain and largely Francophone Europe. The British regard their freedoms as inherited benefits of a system which has evolved over many centuries. The European model, first established in the French Revolution, is grounded in the abstract notion of fundamental human rights (which by the way are subject to continual reinterpretation by the courts). Since New Labour’s Human Rights Act of 1998, itself a desperate attempt to harmonise English Common Law with continental norms, it has become common in the UK to regard the acquisition of social privileges – housing, central heating, ownership of a computer games console, whatever – as human rights, in total contrast to Edmund Burke’s principles of natural inheritance, which defined British government for centuries. If you want to see how far the continental human rights culture can be contorted, look no further than the difficulties that states (especially the UK) have had in deporting undesirables.
There were two ghosts, or myths, argues Professor Prins that got us to this absurd impasse. On the British side, after the Suez debacle in 1956 was the spectre of decline. On the European side the spectre of war haunted all diplomacy. Both of these ghosts should now be slain. Britain is, if anything, a rising power which has recovered from its post-colonial trauma; and a post EU Europe would not descend into war.
Britain is now a captive of an economically declining region at a time when there is a dynamic Anglosphere out there, most of which resides within the Commonwealth. Thanks to decades of quiet diplomacy by HM The Queen, the Commonwealth is still relatively well-disposed to the old colonial power, despite the miserable treatment our elected leaders have meted out to its members over decades. I’ve been writing about India in recent months as a case in point – an Anglophone rising power with which we could certainly enjoy a special relationship.
Britain is a key player in all the major global groupings and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Despite Cameron’s cuts, our armed forces are superior to those of any big EU member. Yet even the Europhile Sir Humphreys at the FCO fear that they will soon be neutered by Brussels. So the EU has become not a force multiplier for British diplomacy, but an inhibitor.
If we stay, EU energy policy, which favours “renewables” in favour of fracking, could seriously undermine our energy security.
General de Gaulle talked about the French rider on the German horse. In 1962 he affirmed that Europe was the way for France to regain what she ceased to be at Waterloo. The British were never going to be a pivotal part of the project – they have a different mind-set. It’s time, implies Professor Prins, to face up to history.
Essays like this are not, of themselves, going to sway the vote which Mr Cameron indicated on 10 January might even take place in the early summer. I am still doubtful if it will be so early, especially given the trend in opinion polls. And events might overtake us.
But this kind of contribution to the debate is evidence of what could be a historical trend of thinking that will do us no harm. The British (especially the English) are not in thrall to intellectuals, as the French are. But they still heed them. Don’t let anyone say that the OUTs are isolationist xenophobes – they are nothing of the sort.
For my part, though I admitted in my piece in the MI December magazine that I am agnostic on Europe, I’m beginning to feel that there is only one outcome that will work in the long term. More on that soon…
[i] See: http://historiansforbritain.org/about/
[ii] Download at: http://historiansforbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/01/WzW-HfB-Beyond-the-Ghost-7.pdfJose Mourinho: Says David Moyes will remain at Man United
However, the Chelsea boss also insisted that he does not think David Moyes' position at the club is in any doubt.
Mourinho's Chelsea host United as part of Super Sunday this weekend, and the Blues go into that tie challenging for top spot - but the Red Devils are down in seventh, some five points adrift of the UEFA Champions League places.
And Mourinho has revealed that 'inside information' tells him that all is not well at Old Trafford.
"My feeling, which is based on years of communicating with Sir Alex and some inside information, is Man United are not happy, but they are calm," he is quoted by the Daily Mail.
"They trust David. David trusts them. I don't think David is under pressure.
"The pressure is something virtual. It is something that comes from the media as a consequence of not having the best results.
"The most important thing in all of this is not the pressure that comes from the outside, it's the reality of the inside.
"The manager is calm and they are thinking this is our manager for the next two, three, four, five years.
"So they're all together and are going to rebuild again a big team. The bad results will finish.
"They will get back on track, although it is probably too late to win the league because they're too many points behind the leader."
Title battle
Switching to United's local rivals Manchester City, Mourinho believes they are Chelsea's main rivals for the title and he thinks beating them to the title would be the 'greatest achievement' in his career.
"It would be my greatest achievement if we beat them to the title this year," he said.
"We were champions before but we were the team to be champions, the team to attack the title, especially in our second season when we killed it from day one.
"This is a team in development and if you win titles in this time, it is not handed to you. It would be a super achievement. But we are not worried about that right now, just thinking about improving every day.
"City, in terms of power of the squad, are in another dimension. You can't compare their situation with any other club. Some people disagree or some managers feel they shouldn't say it but I say what I feel. City are different."
Watch Chelsea entertain Manchester United live on Sky Sports 1 this Sunday from 3.30pm.Today in Tedium: The history of computing is full of stories that follow a specific arc, or a slight variation on it. Here’s the gist: A company has massive success, dominating an entire era of computing. They, understandably, get big in their britches, and fail to consider that their technology may not always be the greatest thing since sliced bread. First, they go into slow decline, then leadership problems pile up and the slow decline happens fast. Then the company closes its doors or gets sold for scrap. To put it in the terms of a Web 2.0 supergenius, “That’s what we in the industry call disruption.” But that storyline had to come from somewhere. In today’s Tedium, let me tell you about Wang Laboratories, the company that was one of the first to tell this sad, oft-repeated story. I’ll try to emphasize the good times a little. — Ernie @ Tedium Editor’s note: This has been a very big week on the Tedium front; Monday was our website’s most successful day ever, with more than 10,000 visitors, and we were also featured on NPR’s Planet Money with a whole lot of other cool things. As a result, we have a whole lot of new subscribers this time around—we just topped the 5,000 mark, in fact. We love you all equally.
“Failure is inevitable and provides valuable feedback that can move you in the right direction. You have to risk failure to succeed. The important thing is not to make one single mistake that will jeopardize the future.” — A quote, attributed to Wang Laboratories cofounder An Wang, about the nature of failure. For much of his career, he knew little about failure. Born in Shanghai in 1920, Wang took advantage of a World War II-era program that allowed him to take part in a training program in the United States. This led him to Harvard as a graduate student—and with the war still going on, he was able to get in without too much trouble. While on the Harvard campus, he filed a patent for magnetic core memory, an early form of RAM that proved a fundamental building block for the computing industry. He later sold that patent to IBM for an estimated $500,000—an amount that allowed him to build a company that would later compete with IBM.
The Wang 2200. (via Wikimedia Commons) The product (and strategy) that turned Wang computers into a household name Wang Laboratories went through an array of different evolutions throughout its life, but the one that truly stuck—and defined it in the 1970s—was its line of minicomputers. These devices, aimed at offices, were smaller in size than the mainframes of the era, but predated the microprocessors that you know and love today, so they were still pretty big. Sold to resellers who customized the computers for purpose-built reasons, different kinds of Wang devices were used for services such as word processing and data management. Still, the design of the actual terminals themselves should look pretty familiar to computer users familiar with the PCs of the early 1980s. “In some respects, it was similar to microcomputers that came four or five years later, such as the Commodore Pet or the TRS-80,” the Wang2200.org website states. “Of course, the 2200 was much more rugged, reliable, and expandable than such machines.” Part of its marketing approach was specifically to needle IBM, whom Dr. Wang harbored ill feelings toward because of his treatment at the hands of the tech giant when selling his patent. (It was so serious that Wang initially avoided the PC clone business because its owner didn't want to give IBM the satisfaction.) Their strategy was tough. These days, you can target the enterprise pretty narrowly through niche channels, but back then, if you wanted to advertise on TV, you had to go big. I apologize for the unintentional euphemism here—truly, it was an accident—but Wang went big. And in 1978, if you wanted to draw some eyeballs, you advertised before the Super Bowl. That’s right, six full years before Apple made its infamous “1984” ad, Wang made a commercial with a similar conceit—that IBM was a dangerous giant that needed to be taken on by a “David” of the world. And if you think that’s not subtle enough, you should see what they did for the 1985 Super Bowl. Tagline? “Wang: We’re Gunning for IBM.” In The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising, the 1978 saga is described as an attempt to boost name recognition among corporate managers. Before the commercial, Wang had brand awareness of 4 percent among the managers it was trying to reach. Within six months of the ad, the number was up to 80 percent. Wang sold itself as an enterprise solution, and advertised its email platform this way as far back as 1980. The firm grew really big, really fast. Problem was, the market was moving away from minicomputers to computers with microprocessors. And that exposed challenges within the company.
14 The number of products that Wang Laboratories announced in a single day in October 1983—most notably a computer that could scan, store, and deliver paper documents throughout the office using a digital imaging system. Most of the products announced, however, did not ship for various reasons, in part because they weren't ready—making the event an astonishing show of vaporware.
Dr. An Wang, shown with an array of 2200 models. (Via the Computer History Museum) Wang Laboratories’ fatal flaw: Its founder thought it was a family business, until it was too late The problem with technology companies is that they often make really bad family businesses, especially in the West. For every story like Casio, there are plenty of others where the nepotism approach has a negative effect on a company’s future. An Wang saw his namesake company as a family business, one in which his son Fred could take over and ensure its legacy. The focus on family led Dr. Wang to take dramatic steps to hold onto control. The company’s stock structure, as laid out by a 1986 New York Times article, highlights this. The public traded the company’s class B stock, which paid dividends, but the Wang family controlled class C stock, which kept company ownership consolidated. “All other things being equal, my children should be more highly motivated than a professional manager because of their substantial stake in the ownership of the company,” the elder Wang wrote in his book, Lessons. Like what you‘re reading? Consider subscribing to our freaking newsletter. We publish stuff like this twice a week. Learn More, Hoser But Fred, who hopped into the role as Wang was suffering from a slump, proved a not-so-great fit. There were already warning signs: He had been installed as the head of research and development at the time of the company’s embarrassing vaporware announcement. A 1992 Computerworld piece about Wang Laboratories’ demise pinned the problem on a strong desire to build a company with a family lineage. And when An Wang made Fred president in November 1986, the report noted that many people within the company had concerns: For years, there have been quiet concern about Fred. Members of the board of directors had worried that Fred did not have the experience, the judgment—the overall heft—to lead the company. Ever since the middle of the 1980s, outside directors had made repeated efforts to persuade the Doctor to bring in a professional manager—to give Fred an impressive title if needed but to avoid placing the young man in operational control of this sprawling, worldwide corporation in the thick of the most competitive industry on earth. An Wang would not yield. To the directors he said: “He is my son. He can do it.” When Fred became president—replacing someone with nearly 20 years of experience, John F. Cunningham—he quickly failed to live up to the high expectations set by his father. Within two years, Fred presided over a change in fortunes so significant that a company that once had shares that topped the $800 mark had lost $424 million in a single fiscal year—the equivalent of $936 million today. (Charles Kenney, the author of the ComputerWorld article, did not lay the failure at Fred’s feet, but his father’s, saying his father leaned too hard on family considering the sophistication of the company.) Dr. Wang would not get his wish of a family legacy. In poor health, just weeks after a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his throat, he found himself in the unenviable position of firing his son. The elder Wang, who died less than a year later, departed as his company was struggling to stay afloat—under a new set of leaders, who laid off thousands of the company’s employees. In 1992, the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.Five years ago, a few dozen kindred spirits set up a makeshift campsite in a tiny park squeezed between the monolithic skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. In the days and weeks that followed, hundreds, then thousands, descended upon Zuccotti Park, creating an international movement against corporate greed.
For those of us who braved the mace and ridicule, Occupy Wall Street was a radical departure from the apathy and pseudo-activism that has numbed an entire generation of Americans.
It was an incredible, "high-energy" time, with one fatal flaw: There was no real consensus regarding what (or whom) we were fighting against, or how to go about making a brighter tomorrow. We had come to protest corporate greed, but who was the target of our anger? Goldman Sachs? Raytheon? These are faceless, behemoth corporations. Even Obama emerged from OWS largely unscathed; taking millions of dollars from gelatinous corporate monsters was considered "the cost of doing business" in 2011.
Bernie Sanders has changed the rules. Without the Vermont senator acting as a foil to her insatiable hunger for corporate financing, Hillary Clinton would have sailed through the primaries on a boat made of legal bribes.
Sanders' remarkable success against the Clinton political machine and the Democratic Party (sorry, redundant) is arguably the result of the same kind of restless energy, idealism and passion that I witnessed at Occupy Wall Street. He really is the candidate of the 99%: So far, Sanders has received nearly 7 million individual donations (average gift size: $27). To put that insane number is perspective: That's more unique contributions than Obama received during his entire 2008 campaign.
As for Hillary, her top PAC donation amounts to 222,000 Bernie Sanders donations. Bernie's largest PAC donation amounts to nothing, because he doesn't have a PAC.
This goes way beyond her $200,000 speeches to Goldman Sachs: Hillary Clinton is the corporate-financed candidate ("the big bankers love Clinton, and by and large they badly want her to be president"). And new allegations of Hillary's unethical joint fundraising with the Democratic National Committee is further evidence that the establishment is betting big on the former Secretary of State.Griezmann and Khedira battle for the ball during the World Cup quarter-final between France and Germany Adrian Dennis / AFP / Getty Images
Tottenham Hotspur are vying with Bayern Munich for Antoine Griezmann and have increased their offer for Ben Davies to £10 million, above Liverpool’s bid for the Swansea City left back.
The north London club are looking for a left-sided winger and Griezmann has declared that he wants to leave Real Sociedad this summer. Known for his speed, he has a £24 million buyout clause and is scheduled to return to Spain a week on Monday after being given time off having played for France in the World Cup. He scored 16 league goals last season and has been followed by Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.
Tottenham are also battling with Liverpool for Zakaria Bakkali, the 18-year-old Belgium winger who PSV Eindhoven are trying to use…How could we ever have a referendum on Scottish independence without including one of the most famous Scots of all time?
(Sorry, William Wallace)
The beloved Simpson’s character Groundskeeper Willie, famed for his inexplicably ripped torso and his abrasive attitude, has popped up in a video chiming in on the debate.
Although he doesn’t explicitly state it, it’s fairly apparent which side he is supporting, be it ‘the right one, or the obviously wrong one’.
The video, posted to the show’s official Youtube channel, does actually make some legitimate points concerning the referendum, including highlighting Scotland’s vast natural oil reserves.
Willie also cheekily suggests that should Scotland win independence the population should consider him as their new leader over Alex Salmond.
Finally, he adds: ‘I’ve lived in America most of my life, so I’ve seen first hand how not to run a country.’
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If only all politicians were as honest as he is.
‘That’s not a tattoo it’s a birthmark’ (Picture: The Simpsons / Fox TV)As Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government took its first step in overhauling the country’s electoral system, a new poll suggests nearly three-quarters of Canadians say any changes should be put to a national referendum.
The poll, conducted exclusively for Global News by Ipsos Public Affairs, found 73 per cent of respondents “agree” (37 per cent strongly/36 per cent somewhat) that the Liberals shouldn’t make any changes to the country’s voting system without a national referendum first.
READ MORE: Tories on electoral reform: Liberals ‘want decisions to be made by Twitter’
“It seems that there is a consensus view that if we’re going to make major changes it probably needs to go to a referendum,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos.
“There seems to be this view that any significant change to the system requires some sort of consent from the public, and that simply having a mandate and winning an election isn’t enough.”
While every province was in agreement on the referendum issue, Albertans (80 per cent) were most likely to agree to a referendum. Quebec was the least likely to agree with 62 per cent.
Seventy-six per cent of B.C. and Ontario residents agreed with the statement, while 75 per cent of those surveyed in Saskatchewan and Manitoba were in agreement. Atlantic Canada residents reflected the national average at 73 per cent.
“There is a lot of public support for a [referendum], so you would have to have a pretty compelling reason not to have one,” said Bricker.
Conservative MP Scott Reid said the results of the poll reflect Canadian values that have been held since the 1992 Charlottetown Accord.
“Canadians since that time have simply accepted and deeply internalized the belief that no fundamental change should occur to our political system without the approval of the Canadian people.”
READ MORE: Liberals unveil plan to overhaul elections, but timeline is tight
During the 2015 federal election, the Liberals pledged it would be the last under the first-past-the-post system after securing a majority government with 39.5 per cent of the popular vote, roughly the same share of the popular vote as Stephen Harper’s Conservatives received in 2011.
Critics of the first-past-the-post system say it silences the voices of millions of voters because it ignores everyone who didn’t vote for the winner in their riding.
When it comes to referendums, Canada has had only three federally. However provinces like British Columbia and Prince Edward Island in 2005, and Ontario in 2007 have held referendums on whether to change their voting systems, and in each case opted to keep the status quo.
Last week, Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef unveiled the long-awaited special all-party committee on electoral reform that will how make recommendations on how the voting system might be changed (to preferential ballots or proportional representation, for example).
WATCH: Conservatives continue to insist Liberals hold referendum on electoral reform
The Conservatives have consistently said electoral reform should not proceed without a referendum.
“When it comes to changing the way we vote now more than ever Canadians need to have the final say,” Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said in the House of Commons Friday, before calling on Monsef to commit to holding a referendum.
In response, Monsef said the government “will go out of our way to ensure Canadians have the first and final say in how we conduct our electoral reform.”
READ MORE: Tom’s Take: Breaking the code on electoral reform rhetoric
Last Thursday, Monsef argued in the House that by consulting Canadians using a variety of methods, including town hall meetings over the next few months and online tools like social media, the government will be able to gain insight from “those who aren’t normally included in this conversation.”
NDP MP Nathan Cullen told The West Block the Liberals should have created a more balanced committee as they hold 60 per cent of the seats, but looks forward to working with all parties on the issue.
But do Canadians want actually want change when it comes to how they vote?
The poll found 52 per cent of Canadians “disagree” (15% strongly/37% somewhat) that “Canada’s election system works fine as it is” while 48 per cent agree (16% strongly/32% somewhat) that the current system works well.
“Interestingly enough the places where they are divided on whether or not we need to do anything are the places that were among the least likely to vote for the Liberals, like Alberta for example,” said Bricker.
Global News reached out to the NDP for comment but did not get a response at the time of publication and we will update this story if they respond. The Liberal Party refused to comment on the poll.
Exclusive Global News Ipsos polls are protected by copyright. The information and/or data may only be rebroadcast or republished with full and proper credit and attribution to “Global News Ipsos.” This poll was conducted between May 18 and May 20, 2016, with a sample of 1,005 Canadians from Ipsos’ online panel and is accurate to within +/ – 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
— With a file from Monique MuiseMADISON, Wis. - A legislator is looking for co-sponsors on a bill to redesign the state license plate with the help of the state's youth.
Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) said Thursday that he's circulating a bill to redesign the Wisconsin license plate, removing "America's Dairyland" and replacing with something that would represent to "reflect who we are, not who we were."
Allen said sections of Wisconsin's economy, like technology industries, are left out of the current plate design.
The bill would require the state Department of Transportation to contract with an art-education association to conduct a contest in 2018 open to Wisconsin high school students. The association will narrow entries for consideration and the governor would make the final selection.
"We really want fresh ideas from a new generation of Wisconsinites to influence what the image of wisconsin is going to be long term," said Allen.
The DOT would award a $1,000 scholarship to the winner, and the plates would begin issue in July 2019, according to the bill.
"By 2020 people in Illinois and Ohio and Missouri will be stretching their necks to see the fantastic new license plate on the road and they will think to themselves, 'Wisconsin, hmm, I’ve got to check that place out,'" Allen wrote.
The words “America’s Dairyland” would not be required to be used in the new design, Allen added, but they wouldn't be prohibited from consideration, either.
Dairy farmers want to keep the tradition to represent the strong heritage in the state.
"People across the country, across the world look at this as America's Dairyland," said Mitch Breunig at Mystic Valley Dairy. "People just value the product that we have because it's just simply the best."
Breunig said the $43 industry continues to grow and it's worth celebrating. He said it doesn't compare to the about $10 billion orange juice business in Florida or the $6.7 billion potato industry.
Last year Wisconsin produced a record 30 billion pounds of milk. The state produces 26% of the country's cheese and now makes 600 different types.Long before a lot of us ever touched a pigskin, Willie Fritz was coaching football. His coaching career began in 1982 as a student assistant at Pittsburg State, and that led to a number of high school and college positions before he landed his first head coaching job in 1993.
The college football landscape was much different back then, long before where the game sits today after the Ivy League became the first conference to ban full contact practices during the season. Fritz, in his first season at Tulane after a few years at Georgia Southern, noted at his spring game presser yesterday that he used to be a full-contact, “blood and guts” type of coach years ago, but he had evolved away from tha, noting that much of their tackling drills at Tulane during spring ball will be done with dummies and pop-ups.
Fritz is a believer that you can create a tough, physical football team without tackling during practice. One of Fritz’s goals for his first spring ball at Tulane is to get as many guys out of spring practices as healthy as possible.
“We’re a lot like the Saints and everybody in that we have so many good players, but if you get five or six guys hurt or injured in the same position in particular, you’ve got some issues and some problems.”
“There’s an art to getting your guys as physical as you want them to be, as tough as you want them to be, but also try to keep them out of harms way.”
“That’s something that I’ve changed over the years. I was a blood-and-guts practice guy 20 years ago too when it wasn’t a good practice if you weren’t tackling in the practice. These guys are bigger, faster, stronger now and you want to make sure that they can play for you on Saturday.”
Fritz’s comments come about a week after Stanford’s David Shaw passionately explained why it is impossible to build tough teams without tough, physical practices. Well according to Fritz, it can be done, but you’ve got to be an artist of sorts to do it.This week, nearly two million people watched a woman scream, panic and attempt to kill her zombie attackers. None of those zombies were real and the woman had a big piece of plastic on her head – but it doesn’t really matter, at least to her.
A video went viral this week that showed a woman playing ‘The Brookhaven Experiment’: a virtual reality game that sees the player try to fend off zombies using only a gun. It’s built for HTC’s Vive virtual reality platform – meaning that it’s played by strapping a screen to your face, some headphones to your ears and grabbing hold of a controller.
The women in the video shrieked and flailed, and her hands shook so heavily that the game picked it up and the gun she was holding in the game shook too. The video and its 1.6 million views were perhaps the most potent demonstration yet of virtual reality – the technology trend that everyone is claiming will soon arrive in all of our houses – perhaps because horror is the most visceral experience of all.
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The woman in the video – Renate, who is part of a duo who upload videos of themselves playing virtual reality games – was far from the first to be terrified by the possibilities of virtual reality. And it’s very easy to do at home.
For all of the technological words spilled on it, the components of virtual reality are quite simple. In its most basic form it consists of a screen strapped to your head.
So watching videos in it, and even playing games, is really just an extension of the normal form of those things. Except, all importantly, that screen will follow you around – and the degree of authenticity that adds can be the difference between being mildly, pleasurably scared and truly horrified.
The force of that experience is one of those things that is much harder to show to someone than to tell them about. The word immersive is always used about – but like jumping into the sea, it’s really difficult to explain, and much easier for them just to do it themselves.
Shape Created with Sketch. Gadgets and tech news in pictures Show all 42 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Gadgets and tech news in pictures 1/42 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty 2/42 Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty 3/42 Designed by Pierpaolo Lazzarini from Italian company Jet Capsule. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph Jet Capsule/Cover 4/42 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty 5/42 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty 6/42 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty 7/42 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty 8/42 The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty 9/42 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty 10/42 |
again until January.
This Season’s Matchup
The Flames didn’t make any big splashes in free agency this offseason. They tried for Brad Richards, but ended up as one of the losers in that sweepstakes. They re-signed Anton Babchuk and Brendan Morrison, and recently added defenseman Scott Hannan.
The Devils and Flames trade some spare parts as well. Calgary acquired Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond from New Jersey for a 2012 fifth-round draft pick.
Both teams face off once this season, on January 10 in Calgary.
Stat Pack
In 15 games against the Flames, Martin Brodeur is just 7-5-0 with three ties. He’s carrying a 2.17 goals-against average and a.910 save percentage…In 16 games against New Jersey, Flames’ captain Jarome Iginla has 12 points. Just one of them, however, is on the powerplay.
AdvertisementsIt's been in the works for six years and has retreated to new release dates seemingly every time the calendar draws near, however, the new Friday the 13th movie is very much alive and on its way back to the big screen. But it's been a long return road to camp. Nobody knows that more than Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller, the creative mind who helped bring 2009's Friday the 13th to fruition. And with the next Friday the 13th film due out on May 13th, 2016, Fuller looks to bring Jason Voorhees back to life once again.
Friday the 13th is understandably on the minds of a lot of the franchise's fans on this unique Valentine's Day Eve, and with the fan base being all ears on any Camp Crystal Lake news, Fuller spoke with Esquire about what he's interested in exploring with the next Friday the 13th film, including Jason's seemingly supernatural ability to always come back from the dead.
Speaking with Esquire, Fuller revealed his interest in diving into the reasons behind Jason Voorhees' supposed immortality, a curiosity initially instilled in him by David Bruckner, the director attached to helm the new Friday the 13th movie:
"There's always been this supernatural aspect to these movies. It defies logic that, you see Jason get killed in every movie, including ours, the 2009 one. And then he comes back and no one's ever really investigated what that is. So that's something that I think about a little bit. Like it is supernatural, but what is he? Those are the things that we're toying with. Nothing has been decided. But those type of things: How does he always come back?"
During the interview Fuller also mentioned that the new Friday the 13th film will not be shot found-footage style and will most definitely take place at a summer camp. Filming is expected to begin at an as of yet undetermined existing camp near the end of this summer.
Bruckner (The Signal, "Amateur Night" segment of V/H/S) is still in the director's chair, though the final script that he'll direct from is still not known, with the possible connection to the 2009 film also up in the air.
Though fans will have to wait over another year to see Jason Voorhees back in action on the big screen, it looks like a lot of thought is being put in the new Friday the 13th film. The way it sounds right now, Fuller and fellow producer Andrew Form seem to be cooking up a fresh installment that pays homage to the previous entries while also taking a unique angle into Jason's mythology. Only time will tell what kind of hell Jason will raise when he crashes camp next summer.I pointed to an early version of this in the Free Games of the Week a little while back, but it's worth a bigger mention now that (VVVVVV and Super Hexagon developer) Terry Cavanagh has finished 'Untitled Stealthy Thing' and given it a proper name. You can play Tiny Heist in your browser for free, and you should, because it's a lot of fun.
Imagine Rogue crossed with Invisible Inc. and you're somewhere in Tiny Heist's ballpark, as it's an ascii-style, turn-based, procedurally generated stealth game where you play as the @ symbol (this time with a pair of arms and legs). Find the key, snaffle as many gems and coins as you're able, and hot-foot it to the exit of each floor, while attempting to avoid (or KO) the various guards, alarms and guard dogs that have assembled to keep ne'er-do-wells like you out.
Tiny Heist is quite tough, by the way—if you take too long in your deliberations, extra guards will enter the room, while KO'd enemies will eventually wake up. Can you make it all the way to the game's 15th floor? No. You probably can't. But give it your best anyway.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DRAPER, Utah — An inmate at the Utah State Prison died Sunday after failure to receive scheduled dialysis treatments, officials confirmed Monday.
According to the Utah Department of Corrections, Ramon C. Estrada, 62, was scheduled to receive kidney dialysis in the prison’s onsite treatment center in the Olympus Facility on Friday, but a technician never showed up Friday or Saturday.
“It’s unacceptable. We’re looking at everything to help us understand better what happened and how we can prevent it from happening again,” said Brooke Adams, spokeswoman for the department.
Estrada died at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, as prison medical staff and outside responders prepared to transport him to the University Medical Center for treatment. Early reports suggest the cause was cardiac arrest, due to renal failure.
“Everything from the response and the actions of the treatment provider, our medical leadership’s staff response, is under investigation,” Adams said.
The prison works with South Valley Dialysis through a contract with University of Utah Healthcare. The clinic referred all questions to the university.
Spokeswoman Kathy Wilets said they are now conducting a “thorough review” of what happened and will take any necessary steps to improve communication and practices.
“We are saddened to learn of this prisoner’s death and are concerned about the scheduling error for dialysis services provided at the prison by University of “It’s unacceptable. We’re looking at everything to help us understand better what happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.” ~Brooke Adams, spokeswoman, Utah Department of Corrections Utah technicians. We have a responsibility to provide quality care for patients,” said Wilets, in a statement.
Following Estrada’s death Sunday evening, six other inmates who need ongoing dialysis treatment but had not received it were taken to University Medical Center for evaluation.
Two were found in good condition and sent back to the prison, while four others were admitted. Only one remained at the hospital Monday evening.
“The 8th Amendment of the constitution guarantees prisoners with adequate medical assistance, and what happened is a tragedy,” said John Mejia, legal director of the ALCU of Utah.
While the investigation is only in its early stages, Mejia believes it could very likely end in a courtroom.
“If there is reason to believe the prison has fallen short of its 8th Amendment duties, there is a right of action under the constitution to bring a civil suit against the prison,” Mejia said.
In the meantime, the Department’s Clinical Services Bureau director has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.
According to Adams, the department has also taken immediate action to improve communication with an oversight of the dialysis contract provider.
Those steps include: getting a schedule calendar with contact telephone numbers for dialysis technicians; requiring nursing staff assigned to the Olympus facility to make contact with and receive post-treatment reports from the on-duty technician on dialysis days; improving chart notes about each inmate’s status and condition; and requiring timely notification for the charge nurse when the dialysis schedule changes or a technician fails to show up.
Estrada was convicted of rape and has been incarcerated since Aug. 10, 2005. He had an upcoming parole date of April 21. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service had an active detainer on Estrada, who is a Mexican National.Nepal's parliament picked a social democrat as its new Prime Minister on Monday after a last-minute power-sharing deal ended a deadlock that had lasted since an election two months ago.
Sushil Koirala, the head of the centrist Nepali Congress party, was elected with support from the communist UML party, which holds the second largest number of seats in parliament.
A new leader: Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala. Credit:Reuters
Mr Koirala, who was once jailed for his involvement in a plane hijacking and belongs to a noted political family, faces the task of drafting a new constitution for the Himalayan country.
Nepal, wedged between India and China, has been plagued by conflict, instability and intractable political division for years. It has been running under an interim constitution since the 2008 abolition of a centuries-old monarchy.I am delighted to see that, 10 years after the BBC began offering podcasts, our programmes are being downloaded in record numbers.
The BBC became the first British broadcaster to podcast when it made Radio 4’s In Our Time available to download in November 2004.
Nearly 10 years later, podcasting is being embraced by smartphone users, with record numbers downloading BBC programmes. Latest figures show 24 million UK downloads of BBC programmes in August alone – an increase of 36% on the same time last year.
To mark the occasion, the BBC has released a list of the 30 most downloaded programmes over the period.
Some of the best-known BBC Radio programmes rub shoulders with modern favourites and shows no longer broadcast, in a portfolio that is predominantly speech-based and dominated by Radio 4 content.
The latest monthly podcast figures (August 2014) also show The Archers was downloaded more than 2.2 million times (combined daily and Omnibus editions) and that many programmes are attracting record monthly audiences, with Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review (1.6m) Scott Mills (940k) and Woman’s Hour (783k) all drawing more downloads than ever.
In total, there have been more than 1.1 billion UK downloads of BBC podcasts since 2004.
Helen Boaden, Director of BBC Radio, said: “I am delighted to see that, 10 years after the BBC began offering podcasts, our programmes are being downloaded in record numbers. These figures show audiences' enduring appetite for a wide range of distinctive content and how digital media can bring brilliant programmes to an even wider audience. I hope podcast technologies continue to provide a boost to the whole radio industry.”
Mark Friend, Controller of Radio & Music Multiplatform, said: “These figures suggest that podcasting has been embraced by the smartphone generation and, 10 years on, is in rude health. The range of programmes in the top 30 shows the breadth of podcasting’s appeal and the popularity of a technology some thought would be losing relevance.”
In Our Time was made available in November 2004, before a series of podcasting trials and the launch of a full service in 2007.
See tables below.
JAThere seem to be some concerns about gentrifying Midtown if the Sears Crosstown project is completed.
I say we should be so lucky. Gentrification, a fancy word for raising property values and the quality of neighborhoods, is a good thing, not a bad thing. If the Crosstown planners who want to turn the Sears building into a vertical urban village can't understand that then I don't know why they're fooling with this monster.
My perspective on the Sears building comes, daily, from the front door of my house in the Evergreen Historic District three blocks from Sears, where the summer sun sets behind the tower. My wife and I bought our house in 1984, raised our children here, sent them to Snowden school down the street, and have welcomed and said good-bye to a succession of mostly exemplary neighbors. Friends who live in East Memphis or the suburbs or other cities say we live on a good street. We agree.
We paid $86,500 for the house. The county appraisal we got in March values it at $204,200, an average annual increase of 3 percent over 29 years in which we put on a few roofs and added a new garage, central air, and a bedroom-to-bathroom conversion. This compares to the nearly 9 percent annual return on the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same period of time. If only...
Granted, I have taken pains to keep the county appraisal low because it means lower property taxes, and we don't plan on moving any time soon. On the other hand, this is a big chunk of our retirement plan, and if we did decide to move we would want to get top dollar.
One reason appraisals are all over the place in this part of Midtown is because of the notoriously uneven quality of the houses. There are a bunch of relatively new houses built on the old expressway corridor in the 1990s, several classic bungalows and four-squares that are 100 years old, and quite a few blighted wrecks. Some of them are occupied, some are not. A stone's throw from my place is a rental for college students. Some people would describe them as members of Richard Florida's creative class. The owners of the house, since 1989, own a small business in Midtown. They get rental income. The students are able bodied. But for whatever reason, nobody believes in house or yard maintenance. Every year, the neighbors have to notify code enforcement, which does what it can.
This is the story of Midtown. For every dump, there are four or five houses that are well kept, sometimes at great cost. A couple of fix-ups on our street were featured in the HGTV television program "Best Bang For Your Buck."Bless 'em.
My friend Carol Coletta, a Memphian who studies and speaks about cities for a living, says "cheap cities are cheap for a reason." Memphis is a cheap city. Nashville isn't. We could use some Nashvillization in our neighborhoods. I am not at all sure that Midtown needs more housing on the scale the Crosstown planners envision. A case can be made that it needs less housing. There are good, 1999 houses with 1700 square feet of living space two blocks from Sears Crosstown on the market today for $118,000 and older houses selling for much less than that.
The neighborhoods around Sears Crosstown are affordable. They are not in any danger of becoming unaffordable due to gentrification. That is as wild an exaggeration as the fear-mongering stories about Kroger's at Poplar and Cleveland where many of us shop. Granted, 28 years ago there was a bombing at the old Kroger's across Poplar where Walgreen's is now, but, hey, stuff happens.
Seriously, rising property values, blight reduction, and increased home ownership are good things for neighborhoods and for Memphis at large. If this is gentrification, bring it on.Previously Unreleased DIMEBAG Video Footage, Demos To Be Made Available On 'Dimevision Vol. 2'
With 2006's "Dimevision Vol. 1: That's The Fun I Have", fans of "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and his work with PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN were afforded the chance to see into the world of the legendary guitarist. Compiled from the many, many hours of video footage captured between the mid-'80s and his later years, it was a funny, touching and poignant memorial.
Metal Blade Records has now announced the release of "Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over" — another true celebration of the man and how he lived his life — on November 24. Pre-orders are available at this location. The DVD/CD set — which will include more raw footage, true gems and classic Dimebag moments — will also include five previously unreleased demos, picked from a vast catalog Dimebag accrued since longtime girlfriend Rita Haney gave him his first four-track in 1984.
Beginning today at 3:33 p.m. Texas Central "Dime Time", a PledgeMusic campaign has also been launched to support the release of the set. There, you can also view an official "Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over" trailer. In addition to acting as a pre-order for the set, the PledgeMusic campaign includes an assortment of rare items to buy, including props and costumes that belonged to Dimebag and that you can see in his home videos/"Dimevision" volumes, rare stage clothing, and other merchandise.
Going into making "Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over", Haney worked in collaboration with Daryl "Bobby Tongs" Arnberger, who was not only one of Dimebag's closest friends both on and off the road, but also worked as an official videographer for PANTERA, DAMAGEPLAN and a plethora of A-list musicians, from SLIPKNOT to Dolly Parton, along with film editor Rob Fenn. After cataloguing hundreds of tapes, they chose 43 segments to create "Dimevision Vol. 2".
Arnberger explains: "As we all watched, we envisioned certain segments and ideas coming to life in my head, and rather than it serving as a memorial, this second DVD is more about the vision Dime had in his head for this footage, what he actually wanted it to become. This one is more uplifting, funny, and it stays 100% true to his idea for 'Dimevision'."
Fans of the original know that this way of life involved a lot of whiskey, an insane amount of fireworks and a contagious desire to have fun — and like its predecessor, the title is also drawn from the words of the man himself. Having a habit of latching onto a saying or a phrase, this soon became part of his particular dialect, affectionately dubbed "Dime-bonics." "It comes from something he was saying a lot in 2003 and 2004," Haney recalls. "He'd call from the road and he'd say'man, I'm beat up out here, but that's the highs and lows of rock and roll. You gotta roll with it or get rolled over.'"
"He had a unique way of seeing things, and he always lived with a video camera," adds Haney. "No matter where we went he was always capturing what was going on, and myself and others around him were filming a lot too. In putting out these videos I just want people to see the way he was, 24/7. What you saw on stage and backstage, that was how he lived."
Unsuspecting visitors to the couple's home were regularly drawn in — memorable segments involve girl scouts selling cookies and Dimebag experiencing an "interesting" CPAP machine fitting — and events as mundane as taking a friend to get a pedicure become hilarious, thanks to his particular way of seeing the world. As endlessly entertaining as Dimebag was, there were of course other, deeper sides to his personality, which are also reflected in both volumes. Haney adds: "There were some really touching, deep, heavy and emotional moments in the first one, where he's talking about himself to the camera while in the shower. Filming himself like that was something he did a lot, and you'd have no clue until you're looking through the tapes and come across them, and when you do the goosebumps crawl all over you. People that love and know Darrell are going to be touched by what he has to say, because it's him telling you for the first time."
As for his included demos, Dimebag not only wrote down the lyrics and dates of everything he recorded but also his thoughts on it at the time, which Haney will also be sharing with fans. However, she's quick to point out that no one should expect high production standards ("It's called a four-track for a reason!") and that these are not "lost" PANTERA tracks. "These songs come from his 'off' time; it was entertainment to him. One of them was even inspired by a George Michael solo record coming out back in the '80s!" she laughs. "But he loved making music and he appreciated all kinds of music, whether he was making a joke of it or not, it still caught his ear, and I hope people can enjoy these songs for what they are and the spirit they were made in."
With so much footage left over, fans can rest assured that as fulfilling as "Dimevision Vol. 2: Roll With It Or Get Rolled Over" is, there's still a lot to look forward to. Haney says, "We hope to make ['Dimevision'] an annual thing. It will all depend on if the fans want it and support it!" Via Blabbermouth"What You Leave Behind," the two-hour Deep Space Nine series finale, aired on June 2, 1999, or 16 years ago today. The episode did a remarkable job of closing out the Dominion War arc, addressing Sisko's mission as the Emissary, further restoring Worf's association with the Klingon Empire, and bringing full circle several romances, bromances, friendships and familial relationships: Odo and Quark, Benjamin and Jake, Dr. Bashir and Garak, Sisko and Kasidy, Kira and Odo, Ezri Dax and Dr. Bashir, Kai Winn and Dukat, Quark and Kira, O'Brien and Dr. Bashir, etc. And, of course, there was that great party in Vic Fontaine's lounge, with Sisko uttering these memorable lines: "To the best crew any captain ever had. This may be the last time we're all together. But no matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel, a part of us... a very important part, will always remain here, on Deep Space 9."
To celebrate the 16th anniversary of "What You Leave Behind," we offer you these interesting facts, figures and anecdotes:"What You Leave Behind" was episode 173 of Deep Space Nine.DS9 Voyager Enterprise Endgame These Are The Voyages Back to the FutureDS9DS9 Dark Frontier VoyagerBlue October, Wild Moccasins, Tontons kick off Super Bowl LIVE
Fans at the Super Bowl Live concert downtown Saturday Jan. 28, 2017.(Dave Rossman photo) Fans at the Super Bowl Live concert downtown Saturday Jan. 28, 2017.(Dave Rossman photo) Photo: Dave Rossman, For The Chronicle Photo: Dave Rossman, For The Chronicle Image 1 of / 84 Caption Close Blue October, Wild Moccasins, Tontons kick off Super Bowl LIVE 1 / 84 Back to Gallery
Super Bowl LIVE kicked off nine days of music at with drama, disco and calls for unity.
Houston-bred bands Blue October, Wild Moccasins and The Tontons drew receptive crowds on the main stage after a day of performers in and around Discovery Green. Small stages scattered throughout the area offered everything from dance to brass bands to vocalists.
Blue October veered from thundering synths to crashing guitars throughout its hourlong set. Several songs -- "I Want It," "Sway," "Say It," "Light You Up" -- were aided greatly by expert staging. It was an impressive barrage of lights and smoke and crowd energy.
HOUSTON PROUD: See all the local acts playing Super Bowl LIVE
They clearly adore singer Justin Furstenfeld, who reminisced about "growing up in The Heights" and offered several positive affirmations. He talked frequently about overcoming his own struggles.
The crowd sang along with everything, from "Into the Ocean" to the affecting "Fear" to "Hate Me," the band's highest-charting single. It was all very earnest -- and impossible not to be impressed by the connection Furstenfeld has with the crowd.
The Tontons offered a polished, refined set that showcased lots of growth and earned an increasingly warm reception. Singer Asli Omar's voice has gotten stronger and more textured. And she was giddy about playing to such a large crowd in her hometown.
"I'm so proud of our city this week. Houston doesn't always get the reputation it deserves," she said. "This is a great city."
Guitarist Andrew Lee strummed a guitar with a sticker that read, "He will not divide us." (The word "divide" was represented by a division sign. Very Ed Sheeran.) The camera frequently focused in on it.
CLUB NOMADIC: Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars set for pop-up nightclub
Wild Moccasins turned their set into a full-on dance party with bouncy indie-pop and disco, including Eye Makeup" and "Sponge Won't Soak" from 2014's excellent "88 92" album. Zahira Gutierrez continues to be one of the city's most engaging vocalists.
The band previewed several new songs from a to-be-recorded album that draw from '80s new wave and pop. The only thing missing was glitter cannons.
Super Bowl LIVE continues Sunday with Lyric Michelle and Lecrae.23 April 2009 One Comment
Technology.am (Apr. 23, 2009) — After getting success of the YouTube friend activity feed, now Google plans to launch a new feature called YouTube RealTime.
Google said about the new feature allows you and your friends share in the moment what you’re doing with the site. It means it lets people see what their friends are watching, rating, commenting on, etc.
To watch YouTube video, unlike regular TV, it is often a solitary experience with one person and one computer. However, to find out about videos is very much a social phenomenon as URLs spread over e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and instant messaging.
Though, YouTube is basically trying to combine those two aspects of the YouTube experience into one, creating more of a virtual equivalent of the couch in front of the TV.
This service depends on your choice, so you can invite others to be your friends, and friends can accept or deny the request.The Player Profile series breaks down the 2012 performances of key players at each position in order to project where they should be drafted in 2013. Dig in, read up, and look ahead.
Torrey Smith, WR, Baltimore Ravens
My inkling is that a Super Bowl victory should shoot Smith up draft boards. That makes a ton of sense to me, as public perception is often unfairly swayed by mainstream exposure. Smith was a hot commodity in drafts last year, but I think a few big (and they were big) games last year might make him overvalued. Smith scored 14 or more points in five games last year. In weeks 1-16 (the fantasy season) Smith scored five of fewer points in seven games. If you count Week 17, that’d be eight games with five or fewer points and three games in which Smith scored two or fewer points.
When you dig a little bit deeper, you start to see a lot of the issue – the targets were not quite there for Smith, who had 110 on the season. That put him behind Dwayne Bowe, Mike Wallace, Justin Blackmon, and even teammate Anquan Boldin. Further, Smith caught a mere 49 balls thrown his way, fewer receptions than TY Hilton, Josh Gordon, Jeremy Kerley, and the perpetually injured Hakeem Nicks. In fact, no player with more than 90 targets caught fewer passes than Torrey Smith except for Kenny Britt.
The positive thing is that Smith does not need a ton of catches to make a difference. Smith had the fourth best yards per catch in 2012, and of every player in the top 10 in yards per catch, Smith was tied for the most touchdowns with Vincent Jackson. But, again, in that top 10, Smith was tied for seventh amongst those players in receptions per game (3.1). That’s not a totally fair number, since that counts a zero for Week 17, but even discounting the zero in Week 17 Smith would only be tied for sixth.
My trepidation with Smith, especially if you play in a PPR format, is that the hype is going to outweigh reality. Reality is, in 2012, Smith was not the consistent threat he’s being drafted as. Currently Smith is the 21st wide receiver off the board, or a back-end WR2 in a 12-team league. Receiver is deep, but if you are taking a risk with Smith as your WR2 in a draft, I’d follow that pick up with probably two other wide receivers within the next three rounds. I just am not confident in Smith, and even if he replicates his value from last year, he’s simply not consistent enough. I definitely would not draft him as a middle-tier and certainly not as a higher-tier WR2.
Mike Williams, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Confession: I am probably the biggest Mike Williams apologist that is not a member of his family. That includes JJ, who wrote about how underrated Williams was in 2012. No, Williams is not a top wide receiver in real football, but with Vincent Jackson drawing some of the heat that got to Williams in 2011, Mike Williams was quietly a very good wide receiver in 2012. That largely has to do with his involvement in the offense. In 2012, Williams had more targets than PPR darling and fast-riser Eric Decker.
What was most amazing about Williams in 2012 was his touchdown receptions. Nine touchdowns came for Williams in nine different games. While you can’t rely on this season-to-season, Williams was able to frequently salvage bad-to-mediocre games, and at times turned good performances into great ones. And, as his targets suggest, his play was not a fluke. Williams received fewer than five targets in only two games this season.
I’ve pounded this idea over and over again, but fantasy football is essentially “(opportunity x talent) = value”. I believe that Williams has a decent amount of talent, and he may be a guy who continues to be more and more involved in the offense. Williams is currently going at the tail end of the sixth round and is the 30th wide receiver off the board, putting him in mid-to-low-end flex territory. For a guy that is this explosive, and potentially this involved, I can overlook a fair number of poor games with the lottery ticket for some good ones. If Williams remains around this spot in the draft, and if you can get him while you have some other flex and WR2 options on your roster, I think this is a guy you should get queued up and ready to draft.
Justin Blackmon, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
Early into his rookie season, Blackmon looked absolutely terrible. He struggled to get involved in the offense over the first nine weeks. And during that time, Blackmon had only one game of more than 50 yards, just one touchdown, and exactly zero games with double-digit fantasy points.
The Jags seemed to finally figure out how to incorporate Blackmon over the next seven games, as he scored a touchdown in four different games and had 13 or more fantasy points in each of those four games. But, perhaps more importantly, Blackmon had five or more receptions in six of his last seven games, a number he reached only twice in his first nine games. Blackmon’s targets also shot up, as he had ten or more targets in five of his last seven games, a number he got to only once in his first nine.
I am somewhat concerned about the quarterback situation in Jacksonville, as they seem committed to getting Gabbert some experience. With no franchise quarterback in the draft for the Jags to take at number 2 overall, it seems like it’s Gabbert’s job to lose. That said, it’s not as if Chad Henne is a world beater, and Blackmon still had great numbers down the stretch.
I’d keep an eye on the quarterback situation in Jacksonville. Blackmon is currently the 40th wide receiver off the board, likely a team’s second bench WR. At that position, you could do a whole ton worse than him. The physical skill is there in spades, and when this guy gets an opportunity, he can make defenses pay. I very much like Blackmon that late in drafts in 2013.KABUL (Reuters) - A new Afghan law that has drawn Western condemnation for restricting women’s rights does not allow marital rape as its critics claim, but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, the cleric behind it says.
Afghan cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni speaks during an interview in Kabul in this February 7, 2007 file photo. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood/Files
Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni’s Shi’ite personal status law sparked controversy abroad because of a provision that “a wife is obliged to fulfill the sexual desires of her husband.”
This was read by some as an open door to marital rape, and together with clauses restricting women’s freedom of movement denounced as reminiscent of harsh Taliban-era rules.
The law has been criticized by Western leaders with troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it “abhorrent.”
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who signed the law last month, has since put it under review.
But Mohseni said the law — which only applies to the 15 percent of Afghans who are Shi’a Muslims — has been misinterpreted by critics. Its sexual clauses aimed only to ensure men’s sexual needs were met within marriage, because Islam prohibited them seeking satisfaction with other women.
“Why should a man and woman get married if there is no need for a sexual relationship? Then they are like brother and sister,” he told Reuters in an interview in his recently built central Kabul mosque and university complex.
A man and wife can negotiate how often it is reasonable to sleep together, based on his sex drive, and a woman has a right to refuse if she has a good reason, said the bearded cleric.
“It should not be compulsory for the wife to say yes all the time, because some men have more sexual desires than others,” he said, adding that husbands should never force themselves on their wives and the law does not sanction that.
But women do have a duty to meet their husband’s needs.
“If a woman says no, the man has the right not to feed her,” Mohseni said. The law allows women to work, so they could theoretically refuse sex and support themselves, but in mainly rural Afghanistan most women are dependent on husbands.
The law is milder than the severe restrictions imposed by the Sunni Muslim Taliban, who banned all women and girls from any work or study, and from leaving the home without a male relative. But opponents still consider it a step backwards.
They also want to strike down a provision that says women can leave their home freely for work, education or medical care, but otherwise require their husband’s permission to go out.
Mohseni said this was not a final word — if women want more freedom of movement, they can ask for it to be included in their marriage contract: “If he says no, she can marry someone else.”
But in Afghanistan most marriages are arranged and women’s low social status would make it hard for most to refuse a union.
MAKE-UP ON DEMAND
Another measure in the law described as demeaning by rights groups is a requirement that women wear makeup if their husbands wish. The soft-spoken cleric said this was to protect relationships.
“When men venture outside they see lots of other women with makeup, but he comes home and finds his own wife with a dirty face,” Mohseni said.
“This is mentioned to encourage men to have more interest in a social and personal life with his wife.”
Opponents of the law say it codifies traditional practices that are in fact not required by Islam.
Qazimiya Muhaqaq, professor of Political Science at Katib University and one of a group of women involved in a street demonstration against the law this week, told a news conference on Thursday the law makes women bow to their husbands.
“A woman and man must satisfy each other, it’s natural, they are in a relationship. But this law states that whenever a man wants, the woman is obliged to satisfy her husband,” she said.
Reuters asked Mohseni several times if he could detail the religious reasons for restricting women’s movements, and requiring them to wear makeup, but he did not provide them.
Mohseni has been closely following the international debate about the law, condemning NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer for his criticism and saying U.S. President Barack Obama had spoken in ignorance when he called it “abhorrent.”
The cleric had hoped that after speaking about the law last week its critics would seek him out to get a better understanding of its contents, but said he was disappointed by them.
“After my press conference I was expecting a delegation from the West to come and meet me but they are just playing politics.” “Without proper reading people make their own opinions about the law, which I really regret,” he added.I was asked to do a little session on this the other day. I'd say I'm underqualified to answer the question, as is any single person. If you really needed hard answers to this question, you'd probably look to aggregate data of survey results from lots of developers.
I am a little qualified though. Aside from running this site which requires me to think about front end development every day and exposes me to lots of conversations about front end development, I am an active developer myself. I work on CodePen, which is quite a hive of front end developers. I also talk about it every week on ShopTalk Show with a wide variety of guests, and I get to travel all around going to conferences largely focused on front end development.
So let me take a stab at it.
Again, disclaimers:
This is non-comprehensive These are just loose guesses I'm just one dude
User expectations on the rise.
This sets the stage:
What websites are being asked to do is rising. Developers are being asked to build very complicated things very quickly and have them work very well and very fast.
New JavaScript is here.
As fabulous as jQuery was for us, it's over for new development. And I don't just mean ES6+ has us covered now, but that's true. We got ourselves into trouble by working with the DOM too directly and treating it like like a state store. As I opened with, user expectations, and thus complexity, are on the rise. We need to manage that complexity.
State is the big concept, as we talked about. Websites will be built by thinking of what state needs to be managed, then building the right stores for that state.
The new frameworks are here. Ember, React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, whatever. They accommodate the idea of working with state, components, and handling the DOM for us.
Now they can compete on speed, |
both ethics education and enforcement in the House,” Boehner said. “I am confident that as chairman he will work with the other members of the ethics committee to ensure there is accountability at all times in the people’s House. I look forward to working with him, and I’m grateful for his willingness to serve.”
The House ethics committee staffer manning the phones on Wednesday referred TPM to Blake Chisam, who was not in the office. Chisam announced his resignation earlier this month.We have had an interesting response to the news that F1 in the UK will be behind a paywall from 2019 onwards with many comments from fans suggesting that this will be the point at which they disconnect from the sport.
But a glance at the numbers involved in this deal show why F1 felt it was a deal they had to take.
We always like to showcase the outstanding contributions our readers make to the comments section of this site, with many intelligent and considered points of view. We've picked out one reader's comment below, which sums up the mood among a certain contingent.
This is actually a really fascinating situation, with F1 trying to balance the need to generate income from media rights with the need to maintain mass viewership. Like any media business the monetisation of the sport is based on its scale.
Where the UK is concerned, it's worth remembering that the two recent TV rights negotiations F1 Management was involved in were ITV wanting to pull out in 2008, replaced by BBC and then BBC wanting to pull out in 2015. That's quite a negative for the sport, but also shows how F1 needs to be careful with whom they partner, as both of those partners were unable to fulfil their side of the deal.
Balanced against that in 2015 was the will of Channel 4 to come in and take the BBC's package of 10 races live and the rest highlights. The numbers on this are that BBC paid £15m a year for its package. They needed to exit because of a shortfall in the licence fee revenues and the need to find quick savings. Channel 4's deal is worth £24m a year, reflecting the channel's ability to raise income through advertising. The new Sky deal is a kick in the teeth to them, just days after they broadcast their first F1 highlights show and a week before their maiden live offering.
It means they will host live races only for three years. At best they'll be able to subcontract the highlights from Sky after that.
Now consider that Sky has been paying £45m a year for its rights, during this time of shared rights. With the Channel 4 fee on top that has meant a yield from the UK for F1 of £70m a year. This is roughly twice what ITV was paying 10 years ago and about 80% more than the 2009 BBC exclusive deal.
With the Channel 4/Sky deals in place until the end of 2018, F1 Management wasn't in any particular hurry to secure a longer term deal, but when the ongoing battle between Sky and BT Sport over rights acquisitions moved onto the F1 playing field, they were not about to turn that down.
In recent weeks a bidding war has been taking place between the two broadcasters and it has led to a 150% uplift in the yield from UK TV rights for F1, taking it to almost five times what BBC was paying for its original contract from 2009-2011. Over six years that's roughly a billion pounds.
Looked at in that context, you can see why F1 took the deal. It's a business after all, one that shares 60% of net earnings among the teams (albeit in an unfair split). It is hard to turn down that kind of offer. Fans will have noted a deafening silence from the teams to this news; they realise it's unpalatable to many fans who don't want to pay or who won't engage with Rupert Murdoch's empire due to its distasteful activities in print media or other reasons. But it's a rainmaker deal for the teams.
There is little consolation in any of this to the many F1 fans who have been used to watching F1 free to air, even with adverts. But with that kind of money on offer it's not hard to see why F1 took the deal, just as the Premier League did with its £5bn deal over three years and the Champions League, which is exclusive to BT Sport and no longer live on ITV.
In 25 years no Premier League match has ever been shown live on a terrestrial channel in the UK, but the popularity of the series and the following is greater than ever.
But football is not F1; motorsport is more niche. Compare it to golf, whose Ryder Cup is only shown on Sky. The danger is that it diminishes in importance as the audience consolidates at a much lower level.
The UK F1 fan has been able to watch F1 free to air in some form for longer than fans of most other sports and it's not surprising that they are unhappy to lose that privilege.
The small consolation is that the new Sky deal obliges them to show the British GP live and all highlights on a free platform, available in 90% of homes. At present Sky does not have a platform that qualifies. So they may well sub licence the highlights to Channel 4 or more likely ITV, in the same way as Champions League is live on BT Sport with highlights on ITV.
This is what is know in the industry as 'barker content' - the opportunity to showcase the sport on a free to air platform that lets people know that the event is on and draws some to take up the pay offering to watch more of it live.
This is not to defend F1 Management's deal with Sky, merely to provide some context. As TV fragments and declines in value, quality sport is one of the few things that consumers want to watch live. So there is a real premium on it. One wonders what events will still be free to view by the end of this decade.
Please leave your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Anyway, to our reader reaction piece. It comes from M Pinchbeck, who is one of many that grew up with Nigel Mansell racing on the BBC with The Chain as a theme tune and Murray Walker providing the soundtrack.
M Pinchbeck writes: I started watching F1 as a child in the early 90s when F1 was free to watch on the BBC. The uniqueness of an F1 car and the fact that one of them was driven by Mansell, with a big red ‘5’ on the front was what got me hooked. I went on to become an avid watcher of F1 and a fan of Williams to this day. I’ve bought F1 memorabilia, attended an F1 race, and exposure to sponsorship (on the cars, at the circuits, and on TV when F1 was on ITV) have subliminally affected my choice of purchases and influenced my products of desire over the years. I would say that the free-to-air business model has worked if I am example and especially if I am one of 10 million+ other people with a similar experience. It’s a shame that the F1 powers-that-be think otherwise.
Back in the early 90s F1 didn’t have the same money it has now. It was certainly hard for teams to make ends meet but TV rights and circuit hosting fees didn’t cost what they do now. Today, if an historic circuit can’t afford the latest exorbitant fee it simply gets dropped for another Tilke-drome in a country with no F1 following regardless of the views of the fans and drivers. Perhaps F1 has become a victim of its own success. Right now it can probably afford to sit itself behind a TV paywall with a diminished, but paying, TV audience. I’m not so sure it can afford to so forever though.
If, when I was a child, F1 had been behind a paywall, it would be doubtful that I would have had that initial exposure to generate a lifelong interest. To maintain the interest I did get as a child it relied upon being able to watch each race every couple of weeks which I was able to do. The opportunity to do that would have been distinctly reduced if F1 had been behind a paywall. I’d have been reliant upon parents paying for and choosing the right sports package. From 2019 onwards, where will the new F1 fans come from? Or does F1 no longer care?
It is clear from the other comments here that I’m not alone in not having followed F1 to Sky. Free-to-air works for me and I’m not fussed about the extra F1 content offered by Sky (I’ve got the internet and F1 Racing magazine instead). I don’t often watch the races live due to time of day and having a family but recording the races that are live on terrestrial to then play back later, or watching the delayed extended highlights programs, suits me. I’ll hold full judgement until we see what sort of highlights package becomes available in 2019. However, taking MotoGP as an example, I wouldn’t be surprised if F1 highlights on terrestrial end up becoming a condensed 1 hour program at 7pm on ITV4 on the Monday after the race. If so, F1 will end up a minority sport. And with such a reduced program package, I can see my interest in the sport, and certainly my religious following, waning when that happens.
If F1 does go ahead in sitting behind a paywall then that’s just something loyal F1 fans will have to reluctantly accept but surely there must be a better way than Sky exclusivity. Personally, much as I love F1, I’m unlikely to switch to taking out a Sky Sports package. Having little interest in other sports, I’d have to decide whether or not the fee for Sky Sports is worth it for just 20 or so events a year. At least for football followers they have 100s of games per season they can watch. For F1, I don’t think pay TV works but unfortunately the F1 powers-that-be think otherwise!Did the cartoons really “provoke” this cataclysm of violence, spurring enraged Muslims to action, as so many commentators have suggested? Devoid of context, it certainly looks this way, but then devoid of context violence can pretty much look like anything you want it to look like.
The context, at least as Rose explained it in a Washington Post article published at the height of the controversy, was a climate of “self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam.” “The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously,” he wrote, but rather “to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.” Rose cited the case of a children’s-book author who had trouble finding an illustrator for a book on the Koran and the life of the prophet, such was the level of fear surrounding depictions of Muhammad.
The context also included the dissemination of the cartoons across the Middle East by a group of Danish imams, whose aim was to “internationalize” the issue, “so that,” as Ahmad Abu Laban, then the leader of the Islamic Society in Denmark, expressed it, “the Danish government would realize that the cartoons were not only insulting to Muslims in Denmark but also to Muslims worldwide.” The Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi soon called for “an international day of anger for God and his prophet.” “We must rage, and show our rage to the world,” he thundered in a sermon that aired on Qatar TV. This was on February 3, 2006. The very next day, protesters torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria.
Still, had Rose erred on the side of caution and not published the cartoons, the firestorm would not have happened. Does he regret it? “It happened in a very sudden way,” Rose recalled. “Nobody expected it. So we were not prepared for this fight as a paper.” He also admitted that the decision to commission the cartoons had been instinctive, and that it was only after the fallout from their publication that he began to fully think through his arguments: “As a journalist, as an editor, you do a lot of things based on instincts. … And when it all exploded I had to wind back the movie and find out why did I think this was the right thing to do.”
What about those who died in protests over the cartoons? “I regret that,” he told me. “And I don’t think that a cartoon is worth a single human life. But the dilemma for every one of us is what do you do when other people think that way? Do you bow down because they say, ‘This is so important to me that I want to kill because of a cartoon?’”
Rose left the question hanging. But given the choices he’s made since the publication of the cartoons, his answer is plainly evident: You do not bow down. On the contrary, you confront the bullies and terrorists who want to silence you. You do not give in to fear. As the crisis unfolded, and the threats against Jyllands-Posten and Rose mounted, he could have gone into hiding. But he refused. He could have apologized and sought absolution from his persecutors, but he didn’t. And he could have retreated from public life. Instead, he became a dogged and vocal free-speech advocate.Jerry Rice drove some people around in a Lyft and no one recognized him
As far as PR stunts go, this one had a pretty cool payoff for the people involved.
For Super Bowl week, Lyft had 49ers legend Jerry Rice pick up a few locals who hailed a ride, but no one immediately recognized the G.O.A.T.
One passenger gave Rice a long, hard look before opting to stay silent, while others had no clue at all.
"My dream is to be an actor," Rice tells one rider, who pauses dramatically before saying, "I see." She seems pretty dubious. Poor Jerry.
Jerry Rice struts around on stage with a 49ers Rice jersey on as Chris Carter watches at the Super Bowl 50 Opening Night at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, February 1, 2016. Jerry Rice struts around on stage with a 49ers Rice jersey on as Chris Carter watches at the Super Bowl 50 Opening Night at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, February 1, 2016. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Jerry Rice drove some people around in a Lyft and no one recognized him 1 / 22 Back to Gallery
Two other passengers enthusiastically tell Rice that they're lifelong 49ers fans when he asks if they have a favorite NFL team. To be fair, Rice is sporting a pretty full beard these days and he was equipped with sunglasses and a hat. Couple that with the fact the odds that your Lyft driver is Jerry Rice are pretty small... but damn, guys. It's Jerry Rice!
The rides end with Rice revealing his identity and, in one case, a dance-off with a rider because Jerry Rice is the coolest.
"I hope my passengers gave me good reviews, even though I did force some of them into impromptu dance sessions," Rice said.On the Behavior of the iPhone Mute Switch
Daniel J. Wakin, reporting for the NYT:
The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone marimba ring interrupted the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, did something almost unheard-of in a concert hall: He stopped the performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting increasingly angry shouts in the audience directed at the malefactor.
Ends up there’s an interesting design problem at the root of the incident:
Actually, Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said his company replaced his BlackBerry with an iPhone the day before the concert. He said he made sure to turn it off before the concert, not realizing that the alarm clock had accidentally been set and would sound even if the phone was in silent mode. “I didn’t even know phones came with alarms,” the man said.
As Jim Biancolo notes:
Ouch! I certainly understand the design tradeoff: would you rather put people at risk of public humiliation when their silent phones makes noise, or would you rather have somebody sleep through an important meeting because they silenced their phone, forgetting about their alarm clock? I’d vote for silencing everything when you mute the phone, but pop a warning if you mute the phone with alarms pending. Or maybe a warning that lets you choose whether you want to also silence alarms or not?
I agree with Biancolo that this is a tricky trade-off, but I disagree with his suggestions. Adding alerts and confirmation prompts is seldom a good idea, and would not help at all when you toggle the mute switch without even looking at the iPhone. (I frequently toggle that switch without taking the phone out of my pocket.)
I think the current behavior of the iPhone mute switch is correct. You can’t design around every single edge case, and a new iPhone user who makes the reasonable but mistaken assumption that the mute switch silences everything, with an alarm set that he wasn’t aware of, and who is sitting in the front row of the New York Philharmonic when the accidental alarm goes off, is a pretty good example of an edge case.
Whereas if the mute switch silenced everything, there’d be thousands of people oversleeping every single day because they went to bed the night before unaware that the phone was still in silent mode.WASHINGTON –- The federal government isn't doing enough to ensure it collects a "fair return" for the oil and gas that companies produce from public lands, in part due to policies on revenues for onshore drilling that are nearly a century old, according to a critical report on the Department of the Interior released Tuesday.
The Government Accountability Office, the federal government's internal watchdog, dinged the Interior Department for a continued lack of clear, updated procedures on the collection of royalties on oil and gas that come from public lands. Tuesday's report comes after previous GAO research found that the U.S. government has one of the lowest return rates for federal leases, and that Interior had not updated its assessment of the policy in 25 years.
The latest report notes that Interior has updated its terms for offshore leasing since its last report and has considered -- but not made -- changes to its onshore terms. But the department still does not have a system in place for making sure such updates happen on a regular basis. It has "discontinued its efforts to pursue revised regulations" for onshore drilling, arguing that it "does not have enough information to determine how to adjust onshore royalty rates."
"Without documented procedures, Interior will not have reasonable assurance that it will consistently conduct such assessments in the future and, without periodically conducting such assessments, Interior cannot know whether there is a proper balance between the attractiveness of federal leases for investment and appropriate returns for federal oil and gas resources, limiting Interior’s ability to ensure a fair return," the GAO concluded.
This means that the federal government is missing out on lots of money in royalties from oil and gas operations. Last year, companies made $66 billion on the sale of oil and gas they produced from public lands, and paid $10 billion to the federal government, according to the GAO report -- but it could make a lot more.
According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress' public lands project, the federal royalty rate for oil and gas onshore has been set at 12.5 percent since the 1920s. The revenues are split between the federal government and the states where the production takes place. Some states charge higher rates than the feds; Texas, for example, charges 25 percent. But those states that don't charge higher than the federal rate are bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars less than they could be, each year.
“Oil and gas production is reaching all-time highs, but taxpayers are missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenues because the administration has not taken needed steps to modernize a nearly 100-year-old onshore royalty rate," said CAP's public lands research manager, Jessica Goad. "At the very least, the royalty rate for federal oil and gas leases should be brought into line with those of states so that taxpayers receive a fair return for the use of their natural resources."
Oil and gas drilling continued on public lands during October's government shutdown, while parks were closed to the general public, an issue that irked environmentalists.What a night / morning it has been.
On the undercard, Nathan Cleverly lost his WBA light-heavyweight title, but Savannah Marshall made a winning start to her professional career, before Gervonta Davis won, although he he had lost his IBF super-featherweight title the day before when he failed to make the weight.
And the main event did not disappoint. Many gave Conor McGregor no chance, but he made a bright start, before Floyd Mayweather's experience and skill proved crucial as he stamped his authority on the fight before forcing a stoppage in the 10th round.
Hope you all have enjoyed it as much as we have. Thank you for joining us and for all your comments. That concludes the end of this page, so until next time, bye for now.Spooky ghost (Read from bottom) Puffycheeses Sep 2nd, 2016 227 Never 227Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 12.08 KB TO BE CONTINUED [9:44] Puffycheeses: I passed out what happened [9:44] Puffycheeses Non spooky Puffycheeses come down the trail from his house [9:43] Joe Bumbleface: SUCK IT [9:43] Eradomens: BOW BEFORE YOU SPOOKY POTTERY LOVING GOD [9:43] Puffycheeses begins to take control of Joe but his mum is calling and he has to go [9:43] Robotwizard: i'm close [9:43] Eradomens: WE HAVE BECOME ONE [9:43] Unconscious Tarnaz: canyonside plains [9:43] Joe Bumbleface runs off, stark naked, into a near by field screaming "ALIENS FROM MARS"!! [9:43] Unconscious Tarnaz: I do Wildein [9:43] Eradomens Puffycheese accepts its fate as a new supreme being. [9:43] Puffycheeses disappears forever into joes ass. No one ever sees spooky puffy again (For now) [9:42] Joe Bumbleface: 911 EMERGENCY, ALIENS FROM MARS HAVE ASSIMILATED ALIENS FROM MARS [9:42] Puffycheeses realises he fucked up [9:42] Robotwizard: where are you? [9:42] Robotwizard: y [9:42] Joe Bumbleface: DID YOU ASSIMILATE HIM [9:42] Joe Bumbleface: PUFFY, WHY IS YOUR LAST NAME ERADOMENS [9:42] Unconscious Tarnaz: What's the range of the location chat? the single map room you are in? [9:41] Puffycheeses Eradomens does the exam and turns joe back into a normal man [9:41] YENN: Yes thanks Staub [9:41] Joe Bumbleface: WHAT'S YOUR POINT [9:41] Joe Bumbleface: I ATE HIM 20 YEARS AGO [9:41] Joe Bumbleface: TUKONG? [9:41] Eradomens: And he says you've been avoiding your prostate exam for too kong. [9:40] Joe Bumbleface: FUCKING ALIENS FROM MARS INFILTRATING OUR POLICE [9:40] Puffycheeses turns joe into a spooky ghost too [9:40] Eradomens: The doctors here Joe. [9:40] Puffycheeses says "KYS" [9:40] Puffycheeses picks up his spooky phone and answers joes 911 call [9:40] Eradomens shoves his foot up that ass. [9:40] Joe Bumbleface: 911 EMERGENCY, MY RIGHTS ARE BEING VIOLATED [9:39] Puffycheeses touches tha ass [9:39] Joe Bumbleface: NO TOUCHING THE ASS [9:39] Joe Bumbleface: OI [9:39] Puffycheeses cries and walk to joe [9:39] Joe Bumbleface: OU JUSST DO [9:39] Joe Bumbleface: THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE SO SHIT AT MAKING PUFFCAKES YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO THINK ABOUT BEING SHIT AT MAKING PUFFCAKES [9:38] Puffycheeses is sad, but doesn't remember the puffcake [9:38] Joe Bumbleface: NOT EVEN THE FUCKING DOG WOULD EAT IT [9:38] Joe Bumbleface: WE ONLY..uhhhh.. SAID IT WAS DELICIOUS SO WE WOULDN'T HURT..uhhhh.. YOUR FEELINGS..hic [9:38] Joe Bumbleface: NOBODY LIKED YOUR PUFFCAKE ANYWAY PUFF [9:37] Joe Bumbleface: /mm tries to speak but pukes instead [9:37] Puffycheeses is excited for sexy potery [9:37] Puffycheeses: OOC Im going to have to end this soon wrap up your plot lines thanks [9:37] Joe Bumbleface: BUT YOU'RE DEAD..hic [9:37] Eradomens: And can focus on my sexy pottery time forever. [9:36] Joe Bumbleface: //////HIC [9:36] Eradomens: If you destroy it I don't have to go to work [9:36] Joe Bumbleface: //HIC..uhhhh....hic [9:36] Joe Bumbleface PASSES OUT FOR A MOMENT [9:36] Eradomens: I never liked the world anyway [9:36] Joe Bumbleface passes uut..uhhhh.. for a moment..hic..hic [9:36] Puffycheeses plots his plan to destroy the world [9:36] Joe Bumbleface: MOOTHERFUCKER GONNA DESTROY TE WORLD AT THIS RATE [9:36] Joe Bumbleface: THE FUCKING SPOOKYGEIST KNOWS..UHHHH.. HOW TO USE..UHHHH.. GOOGLE [9:36] Puffycheeses is excited for sexy poetry [9:35] Puffycheeses is saving all of this to a magical document for saving [9:35] Joe Bumbleface was about to say something but accidentally fell into /r/initium..hic [9:35] Eradomens knows there's no exit from sexy pottery time. [9:35] Puffycheeses noes [9:35] Joe Bumbleface: ARE YOU FUCKING DRUNK..hic [9:34] Joe Bumbleface: UFFFFY..hic..hic [9:34] Puffycheeses is exited for sexy potery [9:34] Eradomens: Cause him and I are about to have some sexy Pottery time. [9:34] Vespertine: give me those plated leggings! [9:33] Puffycheeses recites an ancient limerick "there once was a little old pupper, This puppet was small as could be, but why out for a walk, he was in for a shock, he realised he was mol as a pea" [9:33] Joe Bumbleface passes out for a moment [9:33] Eradomens: Clearly Puffy has never seen the movie Ghost. [9:33] Smegmas Shop: [Visit Store] bags scale wepons etc [9:33] Joe Bumbleface: HE WAS A GOOD..uhhhh.. MAN [9:33] Puffycheeses loves this idea [9:33] Joe Bumbleface: RIP BLACK JEWSH GA NAZI [9:32] Joe Bumbleface: SHITTY HAIKUS [9:32] Wildein: Plated Leggings [9:32] aeL: I just found a dead black jewish gay nazi [9:32] Joe Bumbleface: I HAVE THE PERFECT SOLUTIION TO THIS GHOST..uhhhh.. PROBLEM..hic..hic [9:32] Joe Bumbleface tries..uhhhh....uhhhh.. to speak bt pues instead [9:32] Puffycheeses is not afraid of drunk joe. He is a spookster [9:32] Joe Bumbleface: KLL PUFFY WITH POTTERY..hic..hic [9:32] Puffycheeses is interested own the spooky vase [9:32] Wildein: Oh geez. Puffy is pretty spokily [9:31] Joe Bumbleface: PANDEY..hic..hic [9:31] Puffycheeses he watches spokily [9:31] Eradomens takes his shirt off and starts to make vases. [9:31] Puffycheeses realises he said pottery not poetry [9:31] Joe Bumbleface: KILL PUUFFY..uhhhh....hic..hc [9:31] Puffycheeses is upset he can't krill himself because he is already dead. He listens to Eradomens anyway. [9:30] Joe Bumbleface runs off, stark naked, intu a near by field screaming "kkkk"!! [9:30] Psiion: Wow! What a beautiful place. Lots of clean water and fresh air around here. This location is not suitable for a camp. [9:30] Joe Bumbleface: UR NOT ORTHEE.hic [9:30] Eradomens goes to Puffy's corner and starts setting up his pottery making stuff. [9:30] Joe Bumbleface ruuns off, stark..uhhhh.. naked, intu a near by field screaming..uhhhh.. "NOE"!! [9:30] Puffycheeses thinks "I wonder if drunk joe will gove me membership?" [9:30] Joe Bumbleface: something something puffy is eh shtecrabb [9:29] Puffycheeses then realises its joe and goes back to crying [9:29] Joe Bumbleface: SOMETHING SOMETHING PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP..HIC [9:29] Puffycheeses stops sobbing [9:29] Puffycheeses watches as chat dies down. He goes and sits in his naughty corner and menacingly cries [9:29] Joe Bumbleface starts rambling excitedly. Something about premium membership.. [9:28] Puffycheeses: [Visit the'meirl' group page] [9:28] Puffycheeses reminds everyone about his spooky group [9:28] Eradomens: I think Joe needs help going back to his AA meetings. [9:27] aeL: Oh Don Pooners, you super dead son [9:27] Puffycheeses is SPOOKED at the fact that Eradomens can see deaf people. HE SPOOKED THE GHOST [9:27] Joe Bumbleface: BURN THE..uhhhh....uhhhh.. FUCKING WITCCH..hic [9:27] Joe Bumbleface: BURN THE WITCH..HIC..HIC [9:27] Joe Bumbleface: WITCH..HIC [9:27] aeL: Oh Vsway, you ded son. [9:27] Combustiblemushroom thinks cheeses is getting ahead of himself [9:27] Joe Bumbleface: GASP..uhhhh....HIC..hic [9:27] Eradomens:...I see deaf people. [9:27] Joe Bumbleface: THANK R SKELPPUF [9:27] Puffycheeses wonders if this is good enough for the In Jokes wiki page? [9:27] Eradomens: This is crazy but... [9:27] Combustiblemushroom does not listen and instead watches a bear take a shit [9:26] Eradomens: Guys. [9:26] Joe Bumbleface: DOT..UHHHH.. DOOT..HIC [9:26] Puffycheeses explains that he got krilled and is a ghost [9:26] Puffycheeses is happy he is menacing. [9:26] LiamTheGreat: What's going on? [9:26] Combustiblemushroom can smell the pee from yenn's pants [9:26] YENN: AHH! [9:26] Puffycheeses spooks yen [9:26] Joe Bumbleface: MY PASSWORD IS 1234 [9:26] Combustiblemushroom: OH NO [9:25] Nightcrawler: Dropping free leather gear in aera [9:25] YENN: see? [9:25] Combustiblemushroom's password is ASSRAPIER68+1 [9:25] Puffycheeses yells HUNTER2!!! [9:25] Merchant of Spoons: Hey it worked [9:25] Joe Bumbleface: 1V111ME /RR/INITIUM [9:25] Puffycheeses says to everyone menacingly "Your password is automatically censored see *********" [9:25] Merchant of Spoons: My password is ********** [9:25] Eradomens: If you come to haunt me you'll wind up in sexy pottery time ghost bby. ;) [9:25] Joe Bumbleface: U WOT M8..uhhhh....uhhhh....hic [9:25] Moncef Marzouki: typical drunk guy trying ti piss people off [9:25] Joe Bumbleface: I FUCKED UR MUMMM YENN..hic [9:25] Robotwizard: wut [9:25] YENN: mine is ******* [9:25] Robotwizard: password [9:24] Joe Bumbleface: WWE NEED TTO PISS YENN OFF MORE..hic [9:24] YENN: try yours [9:24] YENN: yeah puff, it automaticaly censor passwords too [9:24] Joe Bumbleface tries..uhhhh.. to speak but pukes instead [9:24] Combustiblemushroom's rash was scared away! [9:24] Robotwizard: xD [9:24] Puffycheeses listens [9:24] Puffycheeses is a spooky dermitologist [9:24] Eradomens: Just remember Puffy. [9:24] Joe Bumbleface:..UHHHH....UHHHH....UHHHH.....UHHHH....UHHHH....UHHHH....UHHHH.. [9:24] Combustiblemushroom wonders if Zexal is a dermitologist [9:23] Zexal The Rash Monster Slayer cant belive the language he heard [9:23] Puffycheeses is astounded that ************ is cencored [9:23] Joe Bumbleface: STANDARD..UHHHH....UHHHH....UHHHH.. INN BEARD [9:23] YENN: <3 [9:23] Puffycheeses thinks YENN is a ************ [9:23] Combustiblemushroom says "I want what Joe's having" [9:23] Joe Bumbleface: K [9:23] Joe Bumbleface runs off, stark naked, into a near by field screaming "FUCK YOU YENN..HIC"!! [9:23] Joe Bumbleface: QUICKLY, LET'SPISS OFF YENN [9:23] Zexal The Rash Monster Slayer: [Visit the 'The Reborn' group page] Just cause im bored [9:23] Puffycheeses actually spooked them [9:22] Joe Bumbleface: dun havva deal wit this ddruunk sit..hic..hic [9:22] Combustiblemushroom's customers ran out of the store because of the rancid fart [9:22] YENN: seriosly i started playing few days ago and the things are happening to me related to the community are awesome [9:22] Eradomens is lucky he has no sense of smell. [9:22] Puffycheeses sniffs it menacingy [9:22] Joe Bumbleface: luky asards [9:22] Combustiblemushroom was so spooked he farted [9:22] Joe Bumbleface: naah..hic [9:22] Puffycheeses is exited because he can be 2spooky4u without interference [9:21] Pilkington just became a premium member! Visit your profile page for more details. [9:21] Combustiblemushroom pats Joe Bumbleface on the back [9:21] Joe Bumbleface was abuut to say something but accidentally fell into /r/initium [9:21] Joe Bumbleface: i wouldn't..hic [9:21] Eradomens: I've heard that the Ghostbusters service has really gone down in quality in recent years. [9:21] Combustiblemushroom: @YENN yeah I would agree [9:21] Joe Bumbleface was going to say something but started heaving [9:21] Asathoth: /quick start [9:21] Puffycheeses spooks YENN with a thank you [9:21] Combustiblemushroom: [Visit Store] dirt cheap bronze shields. ONE PAIR OF BRONZE BOOTS LEFT [9:21] YENN: i swear this is the best game community ever [9:21] Asathoth: is there a link to a quick store guide? [9:21] Zexal The Rash Monster Slayer is tramatised [9:20] Puffycheeses agrees menacingly [9:20] Tierel: Call the old ones. Those new ones are just awful [9:20] Puffycheeses is angry [9:20] Nightcrawler: In [9:20] Nightcrawler: Is |
threats for its member companies and has great data, principally maintained by Seth Besse.
PAE Suits (2005-2012)
Credit: © RPX Corporation 2013
Data checks on RPX numbers:
Comparison to 2011: The share of suits brought by PAEs in 2012 grew from 2011. However, the AIA's misjonder rules, which curbed the troll tactic of naming multiple unrelated defendants in a single suit which had artificially deflated troll suit numbers, are responsible. Thus, the increase in the number of troll suits, post-AIA, is most likely an artifact of the AIA.
2. In 2012, PAEs Sued More Non-Tech Companies than Tech Companies
Though the PAE share may surprise some, patented technologies like software are the building blocks of modern commerce. "Low-tech" industries like funeral homes, advertising agencies, and retailers like JC Penny which is testifying today are all taking steps to protect themselves from troll demands. Though historically a "tech" problem, in 2012 PAEs sued more non-tech companies than tech companies, according to the analysis below by Patent Freedom, which provides market intelligence on patent trolls. Retailers are hit the hardest by non-tech PAE suits, followed by automotive like Ford, which has also testified against trolls, financial services, and consumer products. So expect a broadening of the coalition to deal with trolls especially as many in these sectors are likely being sued over their use rather than making of technology.
3. Individual Inventor v. Corporate PAE suits
Not all trolls are created alike. Individuals get injunctions, corporate trolls don't. (See my paper with Mark Lemley, at FIG 3.) The SHIELD act would force corporate losing trolls to pay, but not individuals. "Non-practicing entities" can also include universities and startups, which is why I created the term PAE to apply to businesses that assert patents as their primary business model – universities and startups don't, they are focused on commercializing or transferring technology. (As Justice Kennedy put it in his eBay concurrence, trolls are firms that "use patents not as a basis for producing and selling goods but, instead, primarily for obtaining licensing fees.")
Based on data provided by RPX, 94% of 2012 suits brought by entities that don't practice were brought by corporate PAEs. Individual inventors were another 5% and the remaining 1% universities, based on data provided by RPX. However, PWC's excellent litigation report reports much higher "individual NPE" proportion – of 51% but for the 1995-2011 period and likely using a different methodology (the PWC university share is a bit higher). Because the SHIELD act turns on the individual vs. corporate distinction, it would be good to reconcile these numbers.
The Distribution of 2012 NPE Suits by NPE Type (based on RPX data)
4. PAE defendants comprised 59% of all patent lit defendants
According to RPX Corporation, defendants to PAE suits represented 59% of 2012 patent litigation defendants, or 4,125 out of 6,934. (Patent Freedom counted 3,859 NPE defendants to RPX's 4,125).
PAE Defendants (2005-2012)
Credit: © RPX Corporation 2013
Comparison to 2011: As the graph above shows, the absolute number of defendants named in PAE suits in 2011 shrank about 25% in 2012. However, that the relative share of troll defendants only declined by 4% (from 63% to 59%), supports that this trend reflects a general decline in new patent cases brought by practicing and non-practicing entities, rather than a fundamental shift away from the courts by PAEs.
The Success of the Misjoinder Rules
While the share of PAE defendants has not gone down significantly, I do believe, based on unreported analyses that I have performed, that trolls have changed their litigation tactics in at least one respect – they are less likely, because of the misjoinder rules, to name small defendants in lawsuits where they cannot be joined with other parties. In this way, the joinder rules can be said to be having their intended impact of making life harder for trolls. The small companies that actually are sued, however, are arguably worse off because they have fewer joint defense options. And even if they are not sued, many small defendants are receiving letters (see below).
5. 55% of Unique PAE defendants makes $10M or less
Based on my analysis of RPX's database, 55% of unique PAE defendants make $10M or less in revenue, and 66% make less than $100M a year. (previously I have erroneously reported the 55% number as associated with defendants making "less than $10M", it should be "$10M or less." Apologies for the error!). While small defendants have historically received less attention as troll targets, the patent woes of podcasters and small businesses that use scanners, not to mention bakeries (I love bread) have gotten recent attention.
Notes:
Because small companies are sued fewer times than large companies – e.g. Apple gets dozens of PAE demands whereas a small company may only get a handful – the number of total demands is more heavily skewed towards large companies than the unique defendant count. However, I believe 55% to be a conservative estimate because I calculated it based on actual revenue estimates in the RPX database provided by Dun & Bradstreet and commercial providers, and excluded from both the nominator and denominator companies for whom no revenue is reported. If, on the other hand, we assume that companies without coded revenue likely have limited revenue – an assumption other scholars have made– the share would grow. Longer discussion of methodological issues and approaches to filling in missing data here. Also of note, because of the success of the joinder rules in discouraging suits against individual small cos., the 55% number has likely declined in recent months.
6.At the ITC in 2012, PAE complainants brought about 35% of patent complaints and about half of patent respondents.
337 Patent Investigations & Respondents 2011 2012 New Patent Investigations 69 40 PAE Share 23% 30% New Patent Defendants 226 184 PAE Share 43% 48%
My research assistants worked with me to code the complainants in these cases, using data provided by the ITC. As with district court defendant counts, total ITC investigations and defendants (called "respondents") declined in 2012 from 2011, by about 40% and 20%, respectively. However, the PAE share of investigations and respondents actually increased from 2011 to 2012, from 43% to 48%.
Data checks:
Last summer, the ITC published a report called "Facts and Trends" that tracks NPEs. It reported a combined NPE share of 19% of investigations, and 41% of defendants in 2011, versus my PAE shares of 23% and 43%, respectively (see above). The ITC report also notes that ITC numbers tend to vary greatly from year to year, given their relatively small numbers of investigations, which I tend to agree with. Covington & Burling's Robert Fram and Ashley Miller, in an excellent unpublished paper The Rise of Non-Practicing Entity Litigation at the ITC: The State of the Law and Litigation Strategy (Jan. 5, 2011), tracked the percentage of companies relying on their licensing activities to show a domestic industry from 13% in 2000-2006 to 35% in the first 8 months of 2010 ). Based on an extension of their database they shared with me, the rate in 2011 (through Oct. 1) was 41%.
Legislative reform?: Members of the ITC bar and ex-ITC officials remain deeply skeptical of the efforts to reform the ITC legislatively that tech companies are pushing for. Last summer, I argued that the ITC's decision-making was evolving, and recommended revisiting its record in six months to a year. However, the fewer cases and exclusion orders that the ALJs have issued since then have meant a slower evolution of the ITC's law, despite more attention from government agencies and others.
While we wait, I still find it puzzling that entities like Acacia, Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, Beacon Navigation GmbH of Switzerland, and Intellectual Ventures would put up the considerable funds it takes to bring an ITC case when the ITC can't award the licensing revenues they seek, but only an exclusion order. The best I can tell is that this trend reflects a deeper dissatisfaction of patentholders with the consequences of eBay, rather than a desire to stop unfair importation, particularly since PAEs name domestic defendants more often than foreign ones (see Appendix A).
7. Some High Impact PAE Patents Fit the "Buy and Sue" Pattern
SHIELD has put more emphasis on the provenance of patents, with Joff Wild at IAM estimating that SHIELD might only cover one in four NPEs based on Patent Freedom Data. I really respect Joff's blog and magazine, and recommend it to anyone who is serious about understanding the monetizer perspective (though the magazine is expensive). However, I have a different view of the numbers, that because patent impact is heavily skewed, what matters are high impact patents– that is to say, if just Lodsys and Geotag were discouraged from bringing their suits, many people would have been happy. Through our analysis of "high impact" patents I asked Patent Freedom to put together for another analysis, we found that the nine out of ten were purchased before assertion, rather than owner-asserted.
10 High-Impact PAE Patent Campaigns: 9 out of litigated patents were bought, not owner-asserted
.
Also, I understand that the Patent Freedom folks have a different view of their own data than IAM so if you are interested follow them on Twitter:@PatentFreedom.
8. PAEs are Less Successful than Practicing Entities in Litigation
PWC's excellent annual litigation report is chock full of statistics about patent litigation and in particular, with respect to NPEs, that: they look to juries more (but the differences are declining), a higher median damage award and a lower than practicing company success rate (34% practicing co v.23% NPE ) that is declining (Chart 5B).
John Allison, Mark Lemley, and Josh Walker's paper documents that the "most litigated" (8x or more) NPE patents lose more than 90% of the time in court. Data provided by RPX found that such repeat litigants dominate PAE cases – 61% of defendants named in 2011-2012 were sued by a PAE who had brought the case 8+ times (see page 33).
9. Public PAEs
My research assistant and I have been working on profiling public company PAEs – those which derive a majority or significant revenue from asserting patents. Depending on how you slice it, we have found about 16 of them (ACTG, ASUR, DEMO: OTC, NSSI, OPTI, RMBS, VHC, WIN:TO, VRNG, PANL, DSS: NYSE Amex, WDDD: OTC, BB,PCO, PRKR, UPIP); a number of the stocks are very volatile and live and die by litigation outcomes – invest with caution.
10. What We Need to Understand Better: Demands, Users, the Differential Impact of Interventions
Litigations are only a tiny part of the story. While good data on patent demand letters is lacking, here are a few data points:
In my survey of startups, among companies that had received threats (N=79), in some cases many threats, less than a third had been sued. This survey is being redistributed to a larger and more representative sample which should yield better estimates when it is concluded.
In its RICO complaint against Innovatio, Cisco reported that over 8,000 letters had been sent, even though there were only 26 named defendants, a ratio of 276:1.
We also need to understand how many of these suits are user based ones – in my survey (N=79), 40% of respondents said the demand was based on a technology they were using, not making. Such suits seem hard to justify as anything but nuisance-based.
Some will say that the time has come to act, not to further study the PAE phenomenon but in order to craft interventions that are both narrowly tailored and actually will work requires careful analysis and learning from the past as many interventions like fee-shifting, patent quality control, and maintenance fee tweaking have been suggested/tried before, in related and different contexts — some of them even to trolls of the late 1800s, as detailed in my paper, which also suggests: bolstering protection of and staying cases against users, industry organizations, and collective action.)
11. What Really Counts
What really matters is not PAE litigation itself but the impact it has on businesses, innovation, and the economy, and in particular how these impacts are distributed and also the justice or injustice of the claims – that is why there is so much heat on the PAE issue –because people who are sued feel that had no ability to anticipate or avoid it. My research has documented the positive impacts of a liquid IP market, and that startups are selling to trolls and benefiting from that monetization. However, it also documents a significant emotional toll: people said demands have "invoked rage over the waste of time," made a target "very very angry," "ruined family friends" and caused "stress" and "ill-will generation [sic]": "it was agonizing to hand over all the money we had earned from a product we had invented and created ourselves to a firm that invents nothing and creates nothing. Our founder has since lost his house, car [sic] all his assets." As the numbers of impacted companies and industries continues to grow, don't be surprised if the ranks of those who support curbing most egregious litigation abuses – the practices of going after end-users, rather than manufacturers and extracting from small companies nuisance-based rather than value-based settlements – continues to swell as well.
= = = = =
Notes:Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's square on June 11, 2014 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
Pope Francis said a lot in his recent interview with Spanish-language magazine La Vanguardia. The interview
Here are 8 of the most powerful quotes:
On fundamentalism
"A fundamentalist group, although it may not kill anyone, although it may not strike anyone, is violent. The mental structure of fundamentalists is violence in the name of God."
On making change
"I think that the way to make true changes is identity. You can never take a step in life if it’s not from behind, without knowing where I come from, what last name I have, what cultural or religious last name I have."
On his personal safety
"I know that something could happen to me, but it’s in the hands of God. I remember that in Brazil they had prepared a closed Popemobile for me, with glass, but I couldn’t greet the people and tell them that I love them from within a sardine tin. Even if it’s made of glass, for me that is a wall. It’s true that something could happen to me, but let’s be realistic, at my age I don’t have much to lose."
On poverty
"You can't understand the Gospel without poverty, but we have to distinguish it from pauperism. I think that Jesus wants us bishops not to be princes but servants."
On globalization
"Poorly understood globalization is that which nullifies differences. It is like a sphere in which all points are equidistant from the center. A globalization that enriches is like a polyhedron, all united but each preserving its particularity, its wealth, its identity, and this isn’t given. And this does not happen."
On Christianity and Judaism
"I think that inter-religious dialogue needs to deepen in this, in Christianity’s Jewish root and in the Christian flowering of Judaism. I understand it is a challenge, a hot potato, but it can be done as brothers."
On becoming pope
"I am no illumined one. I don’t have any personal project that I’ve brought with me under an arm, simply because I never thought that they were going to leave me here, in the Vatican. Everyone knows this. I came with a little piece of luggage to go straight back to Buenos Aires."
On his legacy
"I have not thought about it, but I like it when someone remembers someone and says: “He was a good guy, he did what he could. He wasn’t so bad.” I’m OK with that."After months of competition and speculation, Auburn has found its starting quarterback -- at least for the season opener.
Auburn coach Gene Chizik announced Thursday that redshirt junior Barrett Trotter will start for the Tigers against Utah State on Sept. 3.
"Barrett has worked extremely hard to earn the starting quarterback job at Auburn University," Chizik said. "I'm very proud of him for the leadership and hard work he has shown not only during camp but also during his three years at Auburn. Barrett has a great opportunity to represent and lead this football team moving forward. Barrett understands the huge responsibility that comes with being the starting quarterback at Auburn and we are confident in his ability to lead this team."
Trotter spent the spring battling redshirt sophomore Clint Moseley for the starting spot left by Heisman Trophy winner and eventual No. 1 NFL draft pick Cam Newton.
Both quarterbacks ended the spring even and welcomed a third member to the competition this summer with the arrival of true freshman Kiehl Frazier, a dual-threat quarterback rated as the nation's No. 2 quarterback in the 2011 recruiting class.
"These decisions are extremely tough when dealing with such competitive young men who have a strong desire to excel," Chizik said. "Clint Moseley and Kiehl Frazier worked very hard and it's been a great competition that will make our young team better. Clint and Kiehl both have a lot of ability and will continue to improve. We look forward to watching their progress as the years go on."
Trotter is the only one of the three with game experience, appearing in six games in 2010 and completing 6-of-9 passes for 64 yards.
Edward Aschoff covers the SEC for ESPN.com.How Courts Failed the Constitution: Clark Neily on "Terms of Engagement," produced by Zach Weissmueller. Approximately 9 minutes.
Original release date was February 5, 2014 and original writeup is below.
"The judge will actually collaborate with the government in coming up with hypothetical justifications for a law in order to bend over backwards and uphold whatever the government is doing," says Clark Neily, attorney at the Institute for Justice and author of the new book, Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution's Promise of Limited Government. "You don't get a neutral arbiter."
Neily sat down with Reason TV's Zach Weissmueller to discuss what Neily describes as an ongoing pattern of "judicial abdication" in America.The judiciary, he says, was meant to stand as a bulwark against the tyranny of the majority, a defender of individual rights. Instead, it has become a mere enabler of legislators and government agencies. Neily argues that charges of "judicial activism" are overblown in a time when what's needed is greater "judicial engagement," or, a real grappling with the meaning of the Constitution and its application as a check on government power.San Francisco gun control efforts continued Thursday with a proposal to ban the storage of firearms in any unattended vehicle in The City unless they are secured in lockboxes or in the trunk.
Just weeks after the Board of Supervisors adopted gun control legislation that prompted the closure of San Francisco’s last gun store, High Bridge Arms in the Mission, Supervisor David Campos has proposed that all firearms left in vehicles must be in a lockbox affixed to the vehicle or secured in the trunk with automatic release levers disabled.
A violation would be a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $10,000 fine. If approved, it would be the first such law in California.
Alan Martinez, whose nephew Chris Martinez was fatally shot in the 2014 Isla Vista killings, praised Campos’ proposal. “As long as we are going to live with guns, and we are going to live with guns, we have to enact thousands of measures to make owning guns safer,” Martinez said.
The proposal comes as car burglaries are up in San Francisco and amid an “unfortunate trend” of stolen firearms from vehicles being used in murders.
Campos initially proposed the legislation only for law enforcement in the aftermath of the July shooting death of Kathryn Steinle at Pier 14 with a gun stolen from an agent with the Bureau of Land Management in The City on official business. The shooting allegedly by an undocumented immigrant sparked a national debate on immigration policies.
But other stolen firearm cases have since occurred. In October, three drifters allegedly stole a firearm from a tourist’s car parked at Fisherman’s Wharf and used it to fatally shoot a woman in Golden Gate Park and a man in Marin County.
The proposal was supported by the Board of Supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee Thursday. The full board vote is expected in December.
“Hopefully once we pass this piece of legislation in San Francisco, the rest of the state can follow suit,” Campos said.
There were more than 10,000 guns stolen in California in 2012. In 2013, 9,000 Californians were victims of gun violence.
Allison Anderman, an attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, supported the most recent gun control law approved by the board, which required the video recording of guns purchased and the reporting of ammunition sold to the Police Department. That law, on top of the other gun control laws passed over the years, prompted the closure of High Bridge Arms on Oct. 31.
Anderman said that San Francisco has “enacted some of the best gun laws in the country and many of the laws in San Francisco have been replicated at the state level.” She said she hopes the same occurs with Campos’ law.
Click here or scroll down to commentThe massive hack of Hacking Team, a surveillance company notorious for selling spyware to repressive regimes, brought a wave of unrestrained schadenfreude to many social media feeds last week. A mysterious hacker spilled more than 400 gigabytes of the company’s emails, internal documents, source code and more across the Internet, allowing journalists to lay bare the inner workings of one of the most controversial players in the booming government surveillance industry.
Privacy advocates have long been fascinated and appalled by Hacking Team, and for good reason. Its flagship spyware suite, Remote Control System, or RCS, is a flashily advertised “hacking suite for governmental interception” that allows police to quietly take control of electronic devices — reading emails and texts, recording keystrokes, snooping on Skype calls, even eavesdropping on the device’s microphone and webcam. Security researchers at the University of Toronto previously discovered the software targeting activists and journalists from the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Ethiopia, using a hidden network of servers based in 21 countries.
The company’s leaked emails and documents display a disturbing nonchalance about all of this, confirming highly questionable clients including Sudan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Tunisia, among many others. The U.S. government is also a customer: The Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Army have all bought Hacking Team’s spyware, which is sold as a service with software updates and full customer support. The company also has plans for a U.S. branch, and is currently using a front company called Cicom USA to drum up business with other North American agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the New York City Police Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Of course, it’s ironic that none of this would have likely come to light if not for an act of hacking. But if there’s a singular lesson of the post-Snowden era, it’s that extreme acts of transparency are sometimes the only remedy for extreme corporate and government secrecy. Armed with the knowledge that these intrusive tools are being sold to governments around the world, we must now begin a long-overdue debate about how, where and when — not to mention if — governments should be allowed to hack their own citizens.
In the U.S., that debate could not come any sooner. Despite the fact that a lack of security led to the hack of the Office of Personnel Management, compromising a staggering 21 million government employee records, U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the FBI are continuing a campaign of fear against widespread encryption. They’re demanding that companies such as Apple and Google insert backdoors into their products so they can unscramble messages from criminals and terrorists, claiming that their inability to do so is causing investigations to “go dark.”
But one important takeaway from the Hacking Team leak is that government agencies are doing just fine without backdoors.
A key feature of Hacking Team’s software, and targeted surveillance in general, is the ability to overcome encryption by compromising individual “endpoints,” such as a computer or smartphone. But the documents show this capability is sometimes redundant. The FBI, for example, is so fully invested in homegrown hacking tools that it only bought Hacking Team spyware as a “backup” solution, according to leaked emails.Ludmila Pizarro
Com o risco de perder a contribuição sindical obrigatória caso a reforma trabalhista aprovada pela Câmara dos Deputados seja aprovada pelo Senado e promulgada pelo presidente Michel Temer, o Sindicato dos Empregados no Comércio de Belo Horizonte e Região Metropolitana (SECBHRM) amanheceu nessa quinta-feira (4) com uma fila de três quarteirões começando na sua porta. Eram comerciários que foram ao sindicato para desautorizar a cobrança da taxa assistencial.
A taxa assistencial visa custear os gastos do sindicato. Segundo a convenção coletiva da categoria, o valor em 2017 é de 6% dos salários de maio e setembro de 2015, com o limite de R$ 106,78.
“É uma taxa muito alta, e faz diferença no fim do mês”, afirma o vendedor Fernando de Moura, 31. Ele trabalha no comércio há dez anos, mas pela primeira vez resolveu desautorizar a cobrança.
Para a comerciária Susana Orione, 39, o sindicato não é atuante o suficiente para justificar o pagamento. “A gente não tem retorno algum, e quando precisa de alguma coisa tem que pagar mais, não tem nada de graça”, diz.
Taiane Nascimento, 23, que trabalha no comércio há três, avalia que o sindicato não garante benefícios. “O desconto é grande, 6%, e o aumento de salário que eles negociaram foi pequeno, só 4,6%. A última coisa que eles olham é a gente”, diz.
Susana, que trabalha há 16 anos no comércio, enfrentou cerca de duas horas de fila para garantir que a taxa não seria cobrada. “Eles não divulgam direito os prazos para entregarmos a carta que desautoriza a cobrança. Muitos colegas meus não sabiam que o prazo termina amanhã (hoje)”, diz. “O sindicato só avisa na última hora, por isso acaba gerando fila. Eles não têm interesse que o pagamento não seja feito”, acrescenta Mara Magda Macedo, 45.
O presidente do SECBHRM, José Cloves Rodrigues, defende a entidade e afirma que a divulgação foi feita. “Publicamos no nosso site e as próprias empresas, por meio dos departamentos de pessoal, informam à categoria”, diz.
Rodrigues afirma que é difícil dizer que a procura para desautorizar a cobrança cresceu. “Me parece que o movimento está igual aos outros anos”. Porém, ele admite que “a crise pode ter feito alguns trabalhadores optarem por não permitir o desconto em folha”.
O presidente critica a reforma trabalhista. “Não é só apenas o fim da contribuição obrigatória. A reforma não moderniza nada. Pelo contrário, volta a uma condição de que os trabalhadores lutaram muito para sair”, declara. Para Susana Orione, porém, “o sindicato só está mobilizado contra a reforma porque não quer perder a contribuição obrigatória”.Gareth Bale: Scored two stunning free-kicks as Tottenham beat Lyon 2-1
It looked like Bale might just be upstaged when his first wonder goal was cancelled out early in the second half by Samuel Umtiti's stunning strike.
However, the Welshman netted again in the dying seconds to give Spurs a narrow advantage ahead of next week's return leg.
Lyon posed some problems for the home side early on and had a decent penalty shout turned down when Bafetimbi Gomis tumbled under a challenge from Jan Vertonghen.
Tottenham applied pressure down the right through Aaron Lennon and Kyle Walker, while Emmanuel Adebayor fired wide after being released by a terrific Mousa Dembele pass.
Bale then spurned a glorious chance to break the deadlock when he shot wide from close range after Walker's low cross had served up what looked to be the simplest of finishes.
However, Bale made amends with a fantastic 35-yard free-kick on the stroke of half-time which dipped and swerved as it flew past Remy Vercoutre.
Lyon came out strongly after the interval and equalised with a magnificent goal in the 55th minute. William Gallas' clearing header found Umtiti on the corner of the area and he smashed a rasping half-volley into the top corner.
The goal lifted Lyon and Alexandre Lacazette went close to putting them ahead after a weaving run, only for Friedel to tip his shot over.
Tottenham weathered the storm and pressed forward again as Bale was twice denied by Vercoutre.
Bale continued to provide the main threat and, after again being denied by Vercoutre with just a few minutes remaining, he was handed another chance in stoppage time following a foul 25 yards from goal.
Like his first goal, Bale again managed to get his shot over the wall and back down again to beat a despairing Vercoutre.Huddersfield Town have signed Bradford striker Nahki Wells for a club record fee on a four-and-a-half-year deal.
The 23-year-old Bermudan, who has scored 15 goals for the Bantams this campaign, technically joins on loan so he can face Millwall on Saturday and will make his permanent move next week.
Wells joined City in July 2011 after being released by Carlisle.
Last season he helped Phil Parkinson's side to the Capital One Cup final and promotion from League Two.
His achievements and potential meant that he was coveted by a host of Premier League and Championship clubs and I am delighted that he has chosen to join us Huddersfield boss Mark Robins
He scored 26 goals in 54 games last season for Bradford, and 53 in 112 in his two and a half years at the club.
Huddersfield's previous record signing is believed to be £1.2m for Marcus Stewart from Bristol Rovers in 1996.
Terriers boss Mark Robins said: "At just 23 he has huge potential, which he has proven at Bradford in the last two seasons. He fits into our ethos of buying young, hungry players who have experience and that we can develop.
"His goal scoring record over the last 18 months is hugely impressive and we believe that he is ready to make the step up to the Championship. He will excite our fans and has already shown them what he can do with his goal in the Capital One Cup. I believe he will offer our frontline something different and I can't wait to watch him in action for Huddersfield Town.
"For a young man he has already achieved a lot in his career having reached the Capital One Cup final and promotion with Bradford.
"His achievements and potential meant that he was coveted by a host of Premier League and Championship clubs and I am delighted that he has chosen to join us."Mixing tracks together, we’ve done it, we know it, we’ve even become good at it. When you reach this point in your DJing career you may recognize how hard it can be to define a signature sound with your sets, an element that lets your music stand out from the rest of the pack. This guide discusses one tried-and-true technique for making a mix unique: mashing up your tracklist with acapellas and other vocal elements to create something completely new and exciting. Read on to learn about sourcing, ripping, mixing, and other acapella tips that’ll keep your crowds begging for more.
Not to be confused with Barbershop quartets or college glee club, acapella tracks make up the heart and soul of many genres of dance music. On their own, acapellas just account for the lead vocal of a track, the aggressive head-banging refrain or sultry female voice that draws in many dance music fans. Acapellas can be used in your mixes as loops, one shots samples, entire melody tracks, or even remixed as stuttered glitched-out madness to create high energy build ups with. When used correctly, an acapella can become one of the most powerful weapons in your mixing arsenal.
Many times, a DJ mix can feel dry and repetitive if it lacks any sample-based elements like a vocal hit or stab. If fans are coming to your shows, chances are they really enjoy your taste in music. However, nothing in a set will give your audience a more elated surprise, a more unique live concert experience, than hearing a completely out of place vocal (especially a familiar one) being mixed over the latest bass-thumping rump-shaking song of the moment. Whether you are spinning disco house, progressive electro, or mixing drum n’ bass with trance, 85% of the time it works (but do remember to mix in key!).
SOURCING ACAPELLAS FROM THE INTERNET
Luckily for DJs, there are a variety of sources online to, well, source samples and acapella tracks from. First and foremost (and most traditionally), you can sometimes find the acapella you’re looking for by buying the single. Packaged with good remixes and more, the track’s single might be a worthy investment for many digital DJs, whether or not you are hunting down a particular vocal. Websites like Amazon and Apple’s iTunes have made this process even more painless by offering single tracks for purchase across a vast array of music, records your local store (if you still have a local record store) might never have available.
Another sample heavy gem to keep an eye out for are records known as break albums. While mostly scratchers and turntablists will seek these out, break albums (like the Baby Super Seal Kickstarter we mentioned last week) contain a wealth of classic samples and vocal hits sure to please any audience. For other physical copies of an album or single (it’s called digging for a reason) the Discogs Marketplace can do no wrong. Amazon gets a bump here as well with their seemingly endless supply of sellers hawking hard to find discs at bargain bin prices.
Beatport: Besides being able to download the individual tracks off of a single (again courtesy of Amazon and iTunes), exclusively digital-based sites like Beatport can help ease your search. Besides being the #1 place to find tracks online, Beatport offers an entire catalog of DJ odds and ends (AKA DJ Tools) to enhance your mixes with, including an extensive selection of new and classic acapella tracks from your favorite artists. Most tracks can be had for around $1.49, and if you’re lucky, you may be able to find a compilation of tracks (usually sorted by mood or holiday theme) that give you what you’re looking for at a slightly discounted price.
DJTUNES: If Beatport is the Death Star of digital downloads, DJTUNES is the scrappy but fierce Rebellion in the galactic dance track distribution wars. Though DJTUNES pricing isn’t what you might call competitive with Beatport (most songs will run you about $1.99), their deep catalog of well sorted music fills in many of the holes other sites tend to have. With over 800,000 available tracks from 200+ record labels, DJTUNES has positioned themselves nicely as an alternative to the Beatport juggernaut. Particular to vocal tracks and hits, you can find everything you’re looking for in their DJ Tools and Acapellas section.
Looperman: Getting away from the commercial distribution model for a minute, sites like Looperman serve up unique and genuinely underground offerings from artists and music enthusiasts all over the globe. As more than just a site for samples, Looperman offers tutorials on recording as well as an active forum community of dedicated musicians ready to answer questions, collaborate, or even take your recording requests. With 45,300+ loops, 3800+ acapellas, and 94,700+ complete tracks as of writing this article, Looperman is sure to provide you with something fresh and unique to layer on your next remix or live set.
ccMixter: For those in the mood for something a little more “open source”, ccMixter is a fantastic site for finding loops, samples, and acapella tracks, all available for free under a Creative Commons license. You won’t be able to find the latest Top 40 vocal or major label release here, but what you will come across may surprise you. With over 3800 acapellas spanning electro, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and other genres, all from artists you’ve never laid ears on, ccMixter may well provide the mood or hit you’re going for at a fraction of the cost (free!). By using content from ccMixter you’re supporting open non-commercial music online, but take note of each artist’s specific Creative Common license since you’ll be bound by those terms if you ever want to release a remix for profit. Using ccMixter’s content for |
Babylonian version of the epic strengthened "the impression that at one point in the history of the tradition the sun-god was also invoked as an ancestor". In the Sumerian version, Gilgamesh's initial quest is to visit the Cedar Mountain and Humbaba is merely an obstacle that Gilgamesh and Enkidu encounter once they have already arrived there, but, in the Babylonian version, defeating Humbaba is the initial quest on which the heroes embark. In a late version of the Gilgamesh story, Shamash becomes the instigator of the quest, the one who instructs Gilgamesh to go slay Humbaba to begin with. Tigay describes this as the "final and logical development of [Shamash's] role."LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices could rocket to $200- $300 a barrel if the world’s top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is hit by serious political unrest, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani told Reuters on Tuesday.
Yamani said he saw no immediate sign of further trouble following protests last month calling for political reforms but said that underlying discontent remained unresolved.
“If something happens in Saudi Arabia it will go to $200 to $300. I don’t expect this for the time being, but who would have expected Tunisia?” Yamani told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference of the Center for Global Energy Studies (CGES) which he chairs.
“The political events that took place are there and we don’t expect them to finish. I think there are some surprises on the horizon,” he said in a speech.
Saudi King Abdullah offered $93 billion in handouts in March in an effort to stave off unrest rocking the Arab world.
So far, demonstrations in the Kingdom have been small in scale and police were able to easily disperse a Shi’ite protest in the oil-producing eastern province last month.
But Yamani said that the reluctance of people to participate in popular protests was merely concealing underlying discontent.
“Some people relax about the situation in Saudi Arabia because the Saudi Islamic brand prohibits people to go to the street and to talk,” he said in a speech.
SAUDI TIME BOMB
Oil traded at two-and-a-half-year highs above $121 a barrel on Tuesday. Libya’s rebellion has shut its oil exports, stoking fears of disruptions in other major producers.
Yamani, responsible for Saudi oil policy from 1962-1986, famously predicted in 1990 that crude, near $20 at the time, could rise to $100 a barrel if Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait led to war.
In the event, oil peaked at just $41 because Saudi oilfields escaped damage in the first Gulf War and it was another 18 years until oil finally broke the $100 mark.
While some analysts at the CGES conference were skeptical that protests will break out in Saudi on the same scale as Egypt or Libya, Jaafar Al Taie, managing director of Manaar Energy Consulting, said political change in the kingdom was inevitable.
“I don’t think that what the King is doing now is sufficient to prevent an uprising. Saudi Arabia is a time bomb, but one that is constantly being reset,” said Al Taie, whose firm advises foreign oil firms operating in the region.
Saudi Arabia is the effective leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the only country with any significant spare production capacity.
Riyadh has lifted output to replace some of the lost Libyan production but many traders and analysts doubt its potential to expand output further.
Yamani said it was struggling to quickly get extra volumes of a new grade of the low-sulphur low-density “sweet” crude required by European refiners missing Libyan oil to the market.
“It is not that easy when there is an interruption of the supply in oil in Libya...We don’t forget that Libyan oil is very light and it’s a short-haul. There is a replacement, but not without difficulties.”
Leo Drollas, deputy executive director at the CGES, said the kingdom had provided over half or 550,000 barrels per day of the extra barrels pumped by Gulf countries to replace lost Libyan supplies. Kuwait and the UAE have also contributed additional output.A few weeks ago, I attended a conference at Stanford University. We finished in the late afternoon, and as I walked out into the sunlight I noticed groups of people, young and old, all streaming in the same direction. I decided to follow them. We came to a large courtyard where several thousand people were gathered in front of a stage. It was the university's 123rd freshman convocation.
Richard Shaw, dean of admission and financial aid, was at the podium, dressed in academic regalia, telling a story about an American Indian student who had gone from the reservation to Stanford and become a NASA scientist. Dean Shaw announced that the freshman class included students from 49 states—"We miss you, Arkansas"—and 66 countries.
Then he looked out across the crowd of students and parents and said, "We have made no mistakes about your admission." And, in a rising voice, "You all deserve to be here!"
The crowd burst into applause.
I wish he had said something else. Something like this:
I know this is an important day for all of you. You have spent years of your lives trying to get here. Driving into Stanford this morning must have seemed like living a long-imagined dream.
And yet, I know many of you are nagged by something. Here you are, at a moment of unambiguous success and promise, sitting in a campus that looks like an American Versailles, the very best place you could possibly be. But you can't quite let yourself enjoy it, not entirely, because part of you is wondering, "Do I really deserve to be here?"
Well, as dean of admissions, no one is more qualified to answer that question than I am. Let me tell you, definitively, so there is no confusion among us.
You do not deserve to be here. Not yet.
"Deserve" is a heavy word, freighted with a shared sense of obligation. It can be understood only in a context of ethics. It denotes merit earned from service—that's where the "serve" part comes from.
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That means service to others. And no, the nonprofit you founded in high school to shelter abandoned ferrets does not count. We live in a society increasingly defined by winner-takes-all competition. You're the winners. And you won by serving yourself.
You had a lot of help, of course. That story I told about the American Indian rocket scientist is interesting because, and only because, it's unusual. Most of you came here from privileged places. It was hard to miss all of those late-model luxury cars lined up in front of the dorms this morning, disgorging your stuff. You've inherited financial and social capital that the average person can scarcely imagine.
And let me be the first to say that Stanford is no better. This was just another struggling private university until the federal government started flooding the valley around us with billions of Defense Department research dollars after World War II. This palace of learning was built by the labor of less fortunate people, as palaces always are. Our predecessors were smart and diligent and sometimes wise, but most of all they were in the right place at the right time.
So I worry about you. Fate has endowed you with gifts, and instead of becoming humble, you want reassurance that all you have was well earned.
It gets worse from here. You may have noticed that, out past the medical center and the golf course, the campus is bordered by something called Sand Hill Road. If you follow it west for a few miles, you'll come upon row after row of buildings full of money. Vast amounts of money. Even more money than we have here at Stanford. And that, believe me, is saying something.
The men in those buildings are investors, and they will trip over themselves trying to give some of their money to you. They will tell you that your idea for a smartphone app that sends a text message every time your pet ferret updates his Tumblr account is nothing less than a world-changing business plan, poised to sweep aside the tired and the old and replace it with a new generation of leaders. People with the guts and brains and vision to take on the establishment. People just like you.
They will say you deserve it, and I'm afraid you'll believe them.
It's customary during ceremonies such as these to welcome one and all to the university family. I'm not going to do that, either. Universities worthy of the name insist on integrity of meaning. The word "family" means something. You just arrived here today. You are strangers to us, and, in many ways, to yourselves.
Fortunately, you have a chance to think about yourself in a different way. Stanford is best known for extending the boundaries of human knowledge, for uncovering mysteries of science and technology, and for creating and discovering things never known before.
But there are also people here who think very seriously about other things. Human things, like ethics and obligation and desire. Some of them work in our departments of history, literature, and philosophy, while others can be found among our engineers and scientists, too. Their concerns are as old as civilization, always present, never resolved.
Talk to them. Learn from them. You have the rest of your life to create the future, but less time than you realize to create yourself.
Don't mistake my talk of service for an appeal to your selfless nature. That need you feel to deserve what you haven't earned? That is a craving that can't be filled. That kind of desire will consume you in the end. You can choose otherwise.
So I say to you, on this brilliant day, in this lovely place, that while you do not deserve to be here, you could, someday. And I hope that if Stanford accomplishes only one thing on your behalf over the next four years, it will be some small assistance in really understanding what that means.
It won't be easy, and some of you won't make it. But I believe—I have to believe—that some of you will.
When you deserve it, come back to us. Share your service with your peers and your children. Then you'll be part of our family. Then you'll truly belong.
Kevin Carey is director of the education-policy program at the New America Foundation.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
The evacuation of the last Jews of the Syrian city of Aleppo earlier this year has resulted in a conflict between the Jewish Agency and the American- Israeli businessman who engineered their journey.
London’s The Jewish Chronicle revealed last week that earlier this year, Moti Kahana had arranged for an early morning “raid” in which a minibus suddenly appeared to collect members of the Halabi family from their Aleppo home.
The family was reported to have been terrified that those banging on their door were representatives of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but were quickly told that they were being evacuated and that they had to pack their possessions and leave immediately.According to the report, the Halabis had been informed several months prior that Kahana intended to bring them out, but they had wavered and attempted to push off the rescue.Once in the minibus, the Halabis – 88-year-old Mariam, her 50- and 60-something daughters, her Muslim sonin- law and grandchildren – were told by their driver that their ultimate destination was New York.“Of course, the family did not want to leave, because it is so dangerous. So how do you get them out? You scare the **** out of them,” Kahana told the Chronicle.After passing through a series of Al Nusra Front roadblocks, they made their way to Turkey where Kahana pushed them to make the move to Israel.Citing Kahana, the Jewish Chronicle article asserted that once in Turkey, however, the Jewish Agency “refused to allow all members of the Halabi family into Israel,” prompting an angry response from the Zionist body.Only Mariam and one of her daughters ended up making aliya, while the other daughter, her Muslim husband and children were not permitted to immigrate.“The [Jewish agency] took the 88-year-old elderly woman and her non-married daughter to Israel, and they left the one who married a Muslim guy in Turkey. The lease on the house I was renting for them expired. They had no money, no food, they had nothing in Turkey,” Kahana was quoted as saying.The Jewish Agency was quick to respond, telling the paper it had no authority to refuse anyone entry to Israel and that by converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim, the daughter left in Turkey was no longer eligible for an aliya visa under the Law of Return.In a statement to the Chronicle, the Agency said the daughter had provided documents proving she had converted.Speaking with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Kahana said that given that there is currently a 60 percent intermarriage rate in the United States, he wondered how Israel would react to a crisis there that required the evacuation of Jews.“What happens to families in the United States where they marry non-Jews and have a Christmas tree. What do you do in that case,” he asked.Responding to assertions by critics that he lied to get the family to leave Syria, Kahana said that once they were in Turkey he suggested that as Jews they try to go to Israel but that he also offered to help them go to the United States.He went on to claim that the woman left behind had not actually converted to Islam, stating that just because she signed papers to that effect did not mean “she actually converted.”“What was the big deal,” he asked. “That, maybe, she will go back to being Jewish? What is better, to send them back to Syria or to bring them to Israel and she can go back to being Jewish [as] she never went to Islam anyway? “The Jewish agency doesn’t like me because I’m doing their job,” he continued.An Israeli source familiar with the situation, however, told the Post Kahana “endangers people” and that “he made false promises” and “lured” the family.The olim, now in Israel, “hardly talk” and “are terrified,” the source said.The family members left behind in Turkey eventually moved back to Syria.Asked about the controversy, a senior Jewish Agency official told the Post Kahana had “gone on a solo Lone Ranger mission against all the professional advice of people who know better” and that he had called on the Agency to clean up his “mess.”“He ignored all the obstacles and the facts that made it impossible, and tried to force his way on the State of Israel.So blame the Jewish Agency, why not?” the official said.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>Picture: EOSHD Forum, by Orangenz
Panasonic have confirmed that the GH4 (quite amazingly) outputs 10bit 4K 4:2:2 from the onboard micro HDMI port without the YAGH external HD-SDI unit.
However there are still benefits to using the HD-SDI outputs.
Here I have more details on how this whole thing works and what external recorders might be in the pipeline to offer 4K recording on the GH4…
The YAGH accessory box for the GH4 actually takes video entirely from the micro HDMI port on the GH4, which is why it can offer 10bit 4:2:2 through the full sized HDMI port it offers as well as HD-SDI.
Until now I’ve been no great fan of using external recorders. I found the quality gains to be virtually zero with DSLRs, no increase in colour depth or resolution and as for compression even with the Sony FS100 at just 24Mbit/s I was hard pressed to tell the difference between the externally recorded 220Mbit/s footage and internal AVCHD codec in terms of outright quality.
Clearly with the GH4, the 10bit 4K is going to grade fantastically well as there is a signal strong enough to pad out those huge ProRes files. Finally!
I am super excited to get my hands on some of the first GH4 units when they go to version 1.0, which is why I am waiting on Panasonic before I put some footage out there.
At NAB 2014 I fully expect there to be some more affordable 4K external recorder solutions. The Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q does not accept a 4K signal via HDMI, only SDI so I’m going to focus my attention on what arrives at NAB. The Atomos stand should be particularly interesting to GH4 owners.
So what are the benefits of buying the YAGH external box? Well aside from the robustness of the connections compared to the wobbly Micro HDMI port on the camera itself, the box still has a host of advantages. Especially in terms of audio, the balanced inputs, quality pre-amps and phantom power of XLR will be a ‘must-have’ for onboard audio recording. No need to sync from a separate device, just plug the mics straight into the camera side of things.
Then there is the length of the cable runs to a monitor (say for the director or multiple screens in a video tent). On larger productions this will be needed and with SDI you get a range of hundreds of feet compared to HDMI which degrades at anything over 7ft or 2m.
Timecode is not in the HDMI output from the camera, but it IS in the HD-SDI output from the YAGH (data is transmitted through pins on the bottom of the camera).
So if you want to run long cables from robust connections, with timecode – then the YAGH is for you.
If you need the best quality professional audio recording and don’t want to sync in post from a separate recorder, the YAGH is also for you
If you just want to shoot the highest quality 4K from the GH4 then you can just buy a monitor with built in 4K recorder. But I urge you to wait a until after NAB to choose one. I think a little patience could be very useful. Remember that file sizes are going to be HUGE with the 10bit 4K files, but at least with the GH4 unlike the Blackmagic Production Camera we have the CHOICE of a thinner 8bit 4:2:0 codec which offers great quality with much smaller file sizes if you don’t need the higher colour accuracy or more robust image for grading.
The GH4 really does offer everything doesn’t it?Sgt. Cecil Moss (Oklahoma City Police Department)
A district attorney in Oklahoma filed a felony gun charge on Monday against officer Cecil Duane Moss, a 12-year veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department, KFOR reports.
In his filing this week, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater states that, during a domestic dispute in April while Moss was off duty, the officer “willfully, knowingly, and without lawful cause, pointed a firearm” at two adult victims and a child “for the purpose of threatening and intimidating them.”
Kurt Ward, one of the adults toward whom Moss raised a gun, is boyfriend to Moss’ daughter and the father of Moss’ grandchildren. Upon returning home one day in early April, Ward discovered Moss already in the residence. Fearful of Moss, Ward “ran from the house” and “jumped into a vehicle driven by his mother and told her to leave,” according to the affidavit. Ward’s 13-month-old son was in the car at the time.
This is when Moss went outside in pursuit of Ward, pulled out his firearm, pointed it at the car, and “reportedly kicked the door and hit the vehicle with the gun.”
Paulette Henson, Ward’s mother and the driver of the vehicle Moss was aiming at, wonders, “Why would you point a gun at somebody driving a car that had your grandchild in it?”
Moss filed a police report first, alleging Ward’s pickup was driving toward him and the officer pointed his gun toward the oncoming vehicle to keep from getting run over, NewsOK reports. Moss’ April 6 attempt at securing a victim protective order “was dismissed.” But, “the same day, Ward filed one against Moss. The hearing is set for July.”
“He’s a dangerous man,” Ward says of Moss to KFOR. “I don’t think he needs to be a cop. I think he is a loose cannon.”
As of press time, Moss remains on paid, administrative leave.Home / Housekeeping / General / How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies
How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies
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These tiny, pesky critters are brown and appear to have no fear of people (often it seems they’re trying to get up your nose and in your mouth) but they’re mostly just clumsy fliers. The good news is that getting rid of and killing them is not difficult, you just need to do some cleaning, find their food source so you can remove it and lay out a trap to bait them with.
Below I have a few cleanup and prevention tips plus a handful of easy & natural homemade traps you can make that will capture and kill them–no need to run out for supplies since it’s likely you have all that’s needed in the kitchen already.
Fruit flies love sweets, ripe vegetables and fresh fruit, especially if it’s overripe (the fermenting process is a strong attraction for them).
If they’re in your house, they’ve found a food source to feed from and lay their eggs on. To effectively get rid of them, you need to find their food source and remove it immediately.
Wash kitchen counters and surfaces daily with soap and water. Wipe up sauces and spills immediately, look under heavy appliances.
Make sure to keep kitchen sinks and drains clean, if dirty the residue can attract them. If you think your kitchen sink drain is where they’re gathering, pour boiling water down the drain each day.
Make sure all food dishes are washed and put away (do not leave dirty dishes out). If food is eaten throughout the house rather than just at the kitchen table, look for dirty plates, pits, rinds and peels that may be left out in another room. Look under furniture.
Don’t leave beverage bottles, cans and glasses filled with juices, soda pop, wine, sweet liquors or beer sitting out–these are big attractions.
On hot summer days, tie up and remove garbage from the kitchen daily, the refuse and kitchen scraps start turning faster in the heat and the smell attracts them. Or make sure the garbage bin has a tight fitting lid to keep them out.
Make sure to rinse out all cans and bottles before placing in the recycling bins.
Keep food wrapped in plastic or in the refrigerator (especially overripe fruit, this is like a magnet to the little pests). These guys love to lay their eggs on food.
Watch the pantry, bags of potatoes and onions are quicker to turn in the heat and this will attract them. Keep pantry shelves clean of all drips and spills.
Homemade Traps
These are one of the easiest little pests to bait and kill, no elaborate setups required. Here are a handful of DIY ideas you can try, all of them are free from harsh chemicals.
Quick & Easy
An easy & effective trap is to set out a bowl of vinegar with a couple drops of citrus smelling liquid dish detergent. This attracts them and they drown. Lay a fresh bowl out each day to keep the smell strong enough to keep them coming.
Cider Vinegar
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp dishwashing liquid
Directions: Pour into a jar or bottle and set out close to fresh produce. The smell will attract them and they will come investigate, getting themselves covered with soap and then drown.
Fresh Bait
Place a piece of cut fruit in a jar (use a ripe/overripe banana if you can, this seems to be their favorite). Roll a piece of paper into a funnel (cutting the bottom tip so there’s an entry) and place into the top of the jar to trap them. Make sure the bottom opening of the funnel doesn’t touch the food (you don’t want them to have an easy exit) and that the sides of the funnel fill the jar opening completely (no cracks for them to escape). Make sure to remove and replace the fresh produce every two days to avoid breeding new critters. You could also skip the funnel and just cover the jar with plastic wrap, poking a few small holes in the top for them to enter.
Coca-Cola
Leave an inch or two of Classic Coke in the bottom of a pop bottle and twist on the cap. Take a hammer and nail or drill to make a small hole in the cap (about 1/4″ diameter). Set the bottle in the room where the flies are heaviest. They will crawl in and won’t be able to get back out.
Beer (Works With Wine Too)
Fill a mason jar about 2″ to 3″ deep with beer, cover opening with a piece of plastic wrap secured with a rubber band. Poke a few holes in the top of the plastic so they can get into the jar to get at the beer–they won’t be able to get out.
Yeast
In a mason jar, sprinkle active dry yeast over 1/3 cup warm water. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and stir.
Once the yeast is activated and starts to foam, cover the jar top tightly with plastic wrap (try to keep the surface wrinkle free), secure with a rubber band.
Make a small hole in the top so they can find their way in, most will be unable to get out.
TipsThe National Security Agency reported its own violations of surveillance rules to a U.S. intelligence court and promised additional safety measures to prevent similar missteps over and over again, according to more than 1,000 pages of newly declassified files about the federal government's controversial program of collecting every American's phone records during the past seven years.
According to court records from 2009, after repeated assurances the NSA would obey the court's rules, it acknowledged that it had collected material improperly. In one instance, the government said its violations were caused by "poor management, lack of involvement by compliance officials and lack of internal verification procedures, not by bad faith." In another case, the NSA said it improperly collected information due to a typographical error.
The intelligence court judge, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, said in the 2009 case that since the government had repeatedly offered so many assurances despite the problems continuing, "those responsible for conducting oversight at the NSA had failed to do so effectively." Bates called his conclusion "the most charitable interpretation possible."
The Obama administration published the heavily censored files Monday night as part of an ongoing civil liberties lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the government's collection of phone records, which the White House has said is important to countering terrorism. The files published Monday night were so heavily censored that one of the two justifications for the government to search through Americans' phone records was blacked out.
The latest release reflects the administration's strenuous efforts to maintain its legal authority to collect Americans' phone records amid opposition on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, in a legal victory for the administration, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene in the NSA controversy. It rejected a call from a privacy group to stop the agency from collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers in the United States. While the justices on Monday declined to get involved in this issue, other lawsuits on the topic are making their way through the lower courts around the country.
In the new disclosures, some files were declassified ostensibly to show that even when NSA employees collected records improperly or improperly shared material among themselves, those problems were reported to the intelligence court and new procedures were put in place to prevent them from happening again.
Similar documents about the U.S. collecting phone records were previously declassified and published in response to a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Obama administration has revealed others to convince Congress to allow it to continue collecting the phone records.
After the NSA began the bulk collection program in 2006, one NSA inspector general's report said rules already in place were "adequate" and "in several aspects exceed the terms" of what the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had required. But it recommended three additional practices be formally adopted. These included such obvious ideas as not allowing analysts who searched phone records in the terror database also to approve which numbers can be searched, and periodically checking the phone numbers that analysts searched to make sure they had actually been approved.
Despite the assurances in 2006 that rules were adequate, problems surfaced in 2009 that were so serious that the intelligence court temporarily shut down the surveillance program.
One of the newly disclosed files was a slap -- intentionally or otherwise -- at Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who is leading the fight on Capitol Hill to reign in the government's phone records collection. In a ruling to justify the program by the then-chief judge of the intelligence court, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, she quoted a 2001 floor speech by Leahy to explain that Congress believed that phone records could be collected under U.S. laws.
Leahy has proposed ending the NSA's sweep of phone records, allowing the government to seek only records related to ongoing terror investigations.
The documents included training materials for NSA analysts, who were warned that they should only search the database of all phone records for numbers they suspected were associated with terrorists: "Analysts are NOT free to use a telephone selector based on a hunch or guess," according to a 2007 training presentation. It added that the NSA's legal standard for picking a phone number for a terror suspect required "some minimal level of objective justification."
The training slides noted that the government shouldn't snoop on the phone records of Americans whose only suspicious behaviors were protected by the First Amendment, such as speaking or writing in opposition to the U.S. government, worshipping at a mosque or working as a journalist.
"A telephone selector believed to be used by a U.S. person shall not be regarded as associated with (censored) solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment," it said.
The administration has been under pressure to reveal more details about the government's domestic surveillance program since a former intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, released documents showing massive trawling of domestic data by the National Security Agency.ORLANDO, Fla. -- For months the Orlando Magic have been trudging through the aftermath of a preseason trade request by Dwight Howard that sapped the life out of the franchise as internal team issues quickly affected the product on the floor.
Now after easily one of the most tumultuous seasons in their history, they made the first in what promises to be a huge offseason shake-up.
The Magic fired coach Stan Van Gundy on Monday and agreed to part ways with general manager Otis Smith, severing ties with two of the architects of one of the most successful runs in franchise history.
Smith and Van Gundy's relationship with Howard was the centerpiece of drama the team faced all season, and following their second straight first-round playoff exit, CEO Alex Martins said the shift was warranted.
"It's time for a new leadership and a new approach," Martins said at a news conference to discuss the moves. "We simply came to the decision that we were not on the right track,"
Martins wouldn't go into many specifics about what he is looking for in replacements, saying only that he and ownership want to fill the general manager post by June's NBA draft.
He said he would sit down with ownership on Tuesday to begin ironing out the details of both searches.
Phone and text messages left with Van Gundy and Smith by The Associated Press were not immediately returned Monday.
On Tuesday, however, Van Gundy spoke with Orlando TV station WESH and said he's "not sure what I'm going to do or when," in relation to what's next for the veteran coach.
In the television interview Van Gundy said that getting fired is "just part of the NBA."
Orlando went 37-29 in the regular season but was eliminated in five games by Indiana after a rash of late-season injuries that included back surgery for Howard. Orlando went 5-12 without him.
Martins said those consecutive first-round playoff exits were "simply not good enough."
In early April, Van Gundy claimed top-ranking team officials had told him that Howard had asked management to fire Van Gundy as a condition of the center signing a long-term contract beyond 2013. Howard denied it.
Martins addressed that dispute directly, saying "At no time during that time did Dwight ask me to have Stan fired."What began as a family’s call to police for help in calming a schizophrenic teenager armed with a screwdriver and a mouthful of threats ended with police gunfire and heartache.
The killing of Keith Vidal, 18, of Boling Springs Lakes, NC, over the weekend has spurred a state investigation into the teen’s death and a family’s call for answers as they say police shot Vidal in cold blood.
Family of Vidal said they called police on Sunday afternoon to help subdue the 90-pound teen who was holding a small screwdriver and threatening to fight his mother during a schizophrenic episode. Two officers responded to the family’s home and restrained Vidal. Then, a third officer arrived and soon thereafter reportedly shot Vidal, Mark Wilsey, Vidal’s step-father, told reporters during a press-conference on Monday.
According to Wilsey, as the first two officers were restraining Vidal, the third officer walked into the family’s house and said “I don’t have time for this. Tase him. Let’s get him out of here,” Wilsey said. At that point, one of the officers used a stun gun on Vidal. The young man hit the ground and “this guy shot him,” Wilsey said.
Vidal was taken to a local hospital where he was declared dead.
When Wilsey asked why the officer had shot the teen, he said the officer replied, “Well, I’m protecting my officers.”
“He reached right up, shot this kid point-blank, with all intent to kill,” Wilsey said. “Keith was not threatening anybody, Keith did not want any part of it. He was having a bad day,” Wilsey said. “He was flat out murdered, there was no need for deadly force. No reason.”
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the killing, standard practice in police-involved shootings, and prosecutors have vowed to seek the truth of the matter “wherever the truth leads.”
“The public deserves to have a process put in place that will lead to the most just resolution,” Brunswick County District Attorney Jon David said.
One of the three officers involved in the shooting, Detective Byron Vassey, a nine-year veteran with the Southport police department, has been placed on administrative leave, according to Chief Jerry Dove, who spoke during a press conference with prosecutors on Monday. Dove would not say whether or not Vassey was the officer who pulled the trigger in the boy’s death.
Officers from two other agencies, the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office and the Boiling Spring Lakes Police Department, were on the scene at the time of Vidal’s killing. But Vassey so far is the only officer to be placed on leave.
Vidal’s family was not invited to Monday’s press conference, but they showed up nonetheless, with placards adorned with the teen’s face, photos that gave no indication of his troubles and struggles with mental illness.
In one of the placards, Vidal is seen in a selfie, holding a cell phone in front of a mirror with the word “why,” printed in big black letters over his left shoulder.
“Why, why did this child have to die?” said Mary Wilsey, Vidal’s mother, holding a photo of the teen hugging someone in a large, furry Gumby costume. “We want justice for my son’s death. This officer who shot my son needs to be behind bars, he needs to die the way my son died.”
A family friend, Anthony Owens, told the Star News that he hopes the officer who killed Vidal “lies in bed at night and cries like we have to.”
Vidal’s death comes just weeks after his 18th birthday, on a Sunday afternoon that by all accounts had gone off without much ado. But soon that would all change. The cops had come to the home before, family members told the Star News. Vidal was schizophrenic and depressive, they said. But he was never violent. The cops would usually come and talk with him until he calmed down.
On this day Vidal was sweeping the floor, holding a screw driver. At some point he threatened to fight his mother. At 12:31 p.m., according to records, Mark Wilsey called 911.
“We wanted him to put the screwdriver down because he does have schizophrenia and we didn’t know if he was gonna hurt himself,” Wilsey told the Star News.
The first officers arrived on the scene at 12:34. Less than 15 minutes later, Vidal had been shot, killed just seconds after the Vassey arrived on the scene. There remain more questions than answers in the teen’s death. And as investigators, prosecutors, and the teen’s family try to unpack just why a stun gun and eventually lethal force was needed to subdue a 90-pound teenager with no apparent history of violence, the business of mourning goes on.
An aunt of Vidal’s who was reached by telephone by MSNBC on Tuesday morning said the family was grieving, and that their focus is on answers but also on burying Vidal.
“We need to address Keith and take care of those arrangements,” the woman said just above a whisper. “We just ask, please, don’t let this happen again.”The Stack Archive
Canonical and e-shelter announce managed OpenStack private cloud initiative
Wed 6 Jul 2016
Ubuntu is teaming up with major European data centre provider e-shelter to launch an end-to-end private cloud solution entitled ‘Hosted BootStack’, leveraging Ubuntu’s own implementation of the OpenStack framework.
The launch was announced yesterday at Ubuntu Insights, and the project was apparently devised in response to considerable customer demand for a managed private cloud platform.
Hosted BootStack leverages Juju, Canonical’s application modelling service, with BootStack clouds maintainable on-premises or in e-shelter’s dedicated co-location resources within its data centres.
Canonical’s product manager Arturo Suarez observed “Hosted BootStack will allow customers to bypass time consuming, costly decisions of datacenter location, hardware and management solutions, instead choosing a fast, reliable and fully managed by experts, cloud infrastructure for their business.”
E-shelter will also bundle its carrier-neutral e-connect platform into the project, offering scalable connectivity that traverses e-shelter DC locations.
BootStack also utilises Canonical’s bare Metal as a Service (MaaS) implementation, which allows zero-touch deployment of Windows, Ubuntu, RHEL, SUSE and CentOS builds, whilst bundling a REST |
all sorts. Make sure to dice them up nice and small for the perfect consistency!
While the cauliflower mixture is boiling, you can saute the onions and mushrooms. The browner, the better.
You’ll know when the cauliflower is done when the sides of the pot begin to have little pieces of cauliflower on them just like the picture shown on the right.
Puree the cauliflower mix, add it to the sauteed mushroom mix and stir. Place back on the heating element and cook until desired consistency is met. The longer you cook, the thicker it will be. We like ours really rich, so I simmered the soup for 10 minutes.
Serve as is, or with a side salad.
Oh man, this is so good. Authentically, amazingly good.
Whether you’re vegan, dairy-free, or just looking to add some variety into your meals, you’ll be hard-pressed to ever have the real thing again.
Other deliciously fantastic vegan soups on the web:
Pasta & Bean Soup with Kale by 86 Lemons
Reverse Universe Soup by My New Roots
Kale and Lentil Soup by Girl Makes Food
This entry was tagged: mushroom, mushroom soup, onion, soupEven before a new coalition could emerge, Israel's latest election was historic. It marked the collapse of Labor, the party that can plausibly claim to have founded Israel and produced its most celebrated prime ministers, from David Ben-Gurion (as head of Labor's predecessor, Mapai), through Golda Meir to Yitzhak Rabin. The last vestige of old Labor is Shimon Peres, who--with fitting irony--is the country's president only because he quit the party. Israel's political spectrum is now dominated by three right-wing groups: Likud, Kadima (the Likud offshoot founded by Ariel Sharon) and Yisrael Beytenu, a party of Russian immigrants. But while most commentators focus on the future of the peace process and the two-state solution, a deeper and more existential question is growing within the heart of Israel.
It's a question posed by the election's biggest winner: Avigdor Lieberman. His Yisrael Beytenu party won 15 seats, placing third but gaining enormous swing power in the Israeli system. Whether or not the new government includes him, Lieberman and his issues have moved to center stage. As fiercely as he denounces the Palestinian militants of Hamas and Hizbullah, his No. 1 target is Israel's Arab minority, which he has called a worse threat than Hamas. He has proposed the effective expulsion of several hundred thousand Arab citizens by unilaterally redesignating some northern Israeli towns as parts of the Palestinian West Bank. Another group of several hundred thousand could expect to be stripped of citizenship for failing to meet requirements such as loyalty oaths or mandatory military service (from which Israel's Arabs are currently exempt). The New Republic's Martin Peretz, a passionate Zionist and critic of the peace movement, calls Lieberman a "neo-fascist... a certified gangster... the Israeli equivalent of [Austria's] Jörg Haider." No liberal democracy I know of since World War II has disenfranchised or expelled its own citizens.
Today's Arab Israelis are descendants of roughly 160,000 Arabs who stayed in the lands that became Israel in 1948. Their number now stands at 1.3 million, 20 percent of Israel's total population, and demographers predict that by 2025 they'll be a quarter of the country's people. Aside from their military exemption, they have the same legal rights and obligations as all other Israeli citizens. But they face discrimination in many aspects of life, including immigration, land ownership, education and employment. "This inequality has been documented in a large number of professional surveys and studies, has been confirmed in court judgments and government resolutions, and has also found expression in reports by the state comptroller and in other official documents," retired High Court justice Theodor Or concluded in an official investigation of the second intifada. "Although the Jewish majority's awareness of this discrimination is often quite low, it plays a central role in the sensibilities and attitudes of Arab citizens. This discrimination is widely accepted... as a chief cause of agitation."
The antipathy is mutual. "The people who stayed here did not immigrate here, this is our country," declared Azmi Bishara, a former Arab member of the Knesset, after being charged with sedition for his expressions of support for Hizbullah. "That is why you cannot deal with us on issues of loyalty. This state came here and was enforced on the ruins of my nation. I accepted citizenship to be able to live here, and I will not do anything, security-wise, against the state. I am not going to conspire against the state, but you cannot ask me every day if I am loyal to the state. Citizenship demands from me to be loyal to the law, but not to the values or ideologies of the state. It is enough to be loyal to the law." For decades Israel's Arabs remained loyal to the law--and loyal to the country during its many wars with its neighbors. Now that loyalty is waning. Israeli Arabs--even those who are Christian, rather than Muslim--no longer vote for Israel's mainstream parties. Despite low turnout, the Arab parties fared well in this election, winning some 11 seats in the Knesset. The Arab parties have never been invited into the government, which limits the influence of the Arab population in Israeli politics.
For Israel, handling the relationship with its Arab minority is more crucial even than dealing with Hizbullah or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel needs to decide how it will deal with the Arabs in its midst. As extreme as it may sound, Lieberman's call to disown them seems to have resonated with many of his fellow Israelis. Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel's Arabs constitute a demographic time bomb. He calls it unacceptable. Benny Morris, the once dovish historian who chronicled the forced expulsion of most Palestinians from the Jewish state in 1948, has turned to arguing that Israel needs to protect itself from the Arabs now living within its borders. "They are a potential fifth column," he warned five years ago in an interview with Haaretz. "In both demographic and security terms they are liable to undermine the state... If the threat to Israel is existential, expulsion will be justified." It's a dangerous spiral: the worse the distrust gets, the less loyalty Israel's Arabs feel toward their country--and vice versa. Last week's election has brought the issue into the open. Its resolution will define the future of Israel as a country, as a Jewish state, and as a democracy.Trophy Guide – Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2 has 51 trophies to collect.
(1 platinum, 2 Gold, 10 Silver, 38 Bronze)
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
Complete Discography (Platinum): Wow! You’ve gotten all the trophies in Rock Band 2.
-Collect all other trophies in the game.
Solid Gold, Baby! (Silver): Gold Starred a song.
-This can be done with The easiest song to do it on is “So Watcha Want” by Beastie Boys while playing Bass.
Flawless Fretwork (Bronze): Scored 100% notes hit as a guitarist on Expert.
-I recommend choosing an easy song like “Charlene” to accomplish this. The song is free from the PS Store and is pretty short.
Flawless Drumming (Bronze): Scored 100% notes hit as a drummer on Expert.
-I recommend “Poly” by Nirvana. There are only a handful of notes to hit. You will have to purchase it from the PS Store though. If you don’t want to spend the money then I suggest you use “Charlene” for this too.
Flawless Singing (Bronze): Scored a 100% rating as a vocalist on Expert.
-The easiest way to do this is to choose “So Watcha Want” by the Beastie Boys and just hold the mic up to the speaker. This will give you 100% without having to actually sing the song. If you want to do it the right way than I would go for “Visions” by the Beastie Boys. This is one of the last songs you will unlock so you may have to wait awhile.
Flawless Groove (Bronze): Scored 100% notes hit as a bassist, up-strums only, on Expert.
-“So Watcha Want” by the Beastie Boys seems to be the easiest song for this. There is probably 20 notes total in the song and they are all green. Just remember to only up-strum.
Flawless Guitar Solo (Bronze): 100% on a guitar solo on Expert, using only the solo buttons.
-Foor this trophy you have to get a 100% on a solo on Expert using only the solo buttons. This means that you can’t strum the notes either. I used the song “El Scorcho” by Weezer. If you don’t feel like buying it you can use any song with an easy solo.
The Bachman-Turner Award (Bronze): Maintained deployed Overdrive for 90 seconds.
-This can be done with a whole band. I managed to do it with just two people. I used the song “The Kill” by 30 Seconds to Mars. Just make sure that someone is in Overdrive for 90 seconds. This counts the time for all members of the band. So as long as Overdrive is active for someone for 90 straight you will get the trophy.
Million Point Club (Bronze): Earned more than 1,000,000 points in a single song.
-You will need a full band to get this on most songs. A great song to use is “So Watcha Want” by Beastie Boys on Expert. If you are not up to playing on Expert go online and try to find three other players who can play on Expert.
Victory! (Bronze): Defeated a player in either Score Duel or Tug of War.
-This can be done online or offline. If you do it offline just make sure you both use the same instrument.
Comeback Kid (Bronze): Defeated the last player that defeated you in either Score Duel or Tug of War.
-This must be done online. Just play with a friend and lose to them. On the next song make sure you win.
Band Savior (Bronze): Was a savior 3 times during a single song.
-You must have three or more members in your band. One member should be designated as the savior. The other members should take turns failing until you have done it three times. Note: A single person can only fail twice before the whole band fails the song.
Hello Cleveland! (Bronze): Deployed Vocal Overdrive 4 times in a single song.
-This is very easy to do. Just deploy Overdrive 4 times during a song. All you have to do is say anything when the section scrolls across the screen.
Overdrive Overdose (Bronze):Achieved an 8x Band Multiplyer.
-You must have a complete four member band and deploy Overdrive at the same time. The bassist and guitarist should wait until the drummer and vocalist have used Overdrive because they do not have a choice of when to use it.
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
The Bladder of Steel Award (Gold): Complete the Endless Setlist 2 without pausing or failing.
-You have to play all the songs in the game in a row without pausing or failing. I recommend playing it on Medium to avoid failing. You might also want to set it up so you can switch off with a friend in between songs.
Clothes to the Edge (Bronze): Bought over $100,000 worth of items from the Rock Shop.
-All you have to do is spend $100,000 on stuff in the Rock Shop.
Needs more Umlauts! (Bronze): Made a band logo.
-Enter the “Band Profile” section and select “Band Logo” and create a logo.
The San Dimas 4th Annual Award (Bronze): Competed in a Battle of the Bands event.
-Enter the “Battle of the Bands” section of Tour Mode and select a battle to compete in. Finish the battle to get the trophy. You don’t need to win the battle for the trophy.
You’re Hired! (Bronze): Hired a staff member.
-At a certain point during Tour mode you will be asked to hire a manager.
You Killed the Radio Star (Bronze): Made a music video in World Tour.
-At a certain point during Tour mode you will be prompted to create a music video.
Got Wheels (Bronze): Won a Van in World Tour.
-Complete the setlist with the Van as the reward.
Open Road (Bronze): Won a Bus in World Tour.
-Complete the setlist with the Bus as the reward.
Jet Setter (Bronze): Won a Jet in World Tour.
-Complete the setlist with the Jet as the reward.
Worldwide Sensation (Bronze): Gained the ability to play around the world.
-This requires you to unlock all 24 cities.
West Coast Performer (Bronze): Played a set on the West Coast of North America.
-Play a set on the West Coast of the U.S.
God Save the Band (Bronze): Played a set in the United Kingdom.
-Play a set in the U.K.
Heartland Performer (Bronze): Played a set in Middle America.
-Play a set in the middle of the U.S.
Western Europe Performer (Bronze): Played a set in Western Europe.
-Play a set in Western Europe.
East Coast Performer (Bronze): Played a set on the East Coast of North America.
-Play a set on the East Cost of the U.S.
Eastern European Performer (Bronze): Played a set in Eastern Europe.
-Play a set in Eastern Europe.
World Tourer (Bronze): Played in every venue in the world.
-Play a set in every venue of all 24 cities in Tour mode.
One Million Fans (Silver): Reached 1,000,000 fans in World Tour.
-Just keep playing until you reach 1,000,000 fans.
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
Rock Immortal Inductee (Silver): Joined the Rolling Stone Rock Immortals list.
-Complete the Rock Immortals setlist. Requires all modes of transportation and all managers to be unlocked.
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
Vinyl Artist (Bronze): Finished the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Medium.
-See Platinum Artist
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
Gold Artist (Silver): Finished the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Hard.
-See Platinum Artist
[Hidden] Highlight below to view.
Platinum Artist (Gold): Finished the Endless Setlist 2 in World Tour on Expert.
-Complete the Endless Setlist 2 on Expert difficulty. This will also give you the Vinyl/Gold Artist trophies.
Along for the Ride (Bronze): Beat an instrument-specific challenge while playing another instrument.
-Play a specific instrument challenge and have a friend join in with a different instrument. Complete the challenge for the trophy.
Challenge Novice (Bronze): Completed either 25 Challenges on Medium, 10 Challenges on Hard, or 5 Challenges on Expert.
-See Challenge savant
Challenge Master (Bronze): Completed either 25 Challenges on Hard, or 10 Challenges on Expert.
-See Challenge savant
Challenge Savant (Silver): Completed 25 Challenges on Expert.
-Got to the Band Challenge section of World Tour and complete 25 challenges on Expert. Stick to the instrument that you are best at.
The Final Countdown (Bronze): Unlock an Impossible Challenge.
-Keep working your way through the challenges until an Impossible challenge is unlocked.
Stage Igniters (Silver): Beat the Impossible Band Challenge.
-Beat the Impossible Band Challenge. This can be done on any difficulty.
Lord of the Strings (Silver): Beat the Impossible Guitar Challenge.
-The Impossible Guitar Challenge is unlocked by working your way through the other challenges. This can be completed on any difficulty.
AN-I-MAL!!! (Silver): Beat the Impossible Drum Challenge.
-The Impossible Drum Challenge is unlocked by working your way through the other challenges. This can be completed on any difficulty.
Virtuoso (Silver): Beat the Impossible Vocal Challenge.
-The Impossible Vocal Challenge is unlocked by working your way through the other challenges. This can be completed on any difficulty.
Groove Assassin (Bronze): Beat the Impossible Bass Challenge.
-The Impossible Bass Challenge is unlocked by working your way through the other challenges. This can be completed on any difficulty.
Buy a Real Instrument Already! (Silver): Beat any Impossible Challenge on Expert.
-Beat any impossible challenge on Expert. Stick to the instrument that you are best at.
Beat It! (Bronze): Completed all beats at 60BPM or higher, or half of the beats at 140BPM or higher.
-See The Beat Goes on
The Beat Goes On (Bronze): Completed all beats at 100BPM or higher, or half of the beats 180BPM or higher.
-Go to the Drum Trainer Beat section and complete all beats at 100BPM or higher, or half of the beats at 180BPM or higher.
Fill Me In (Bronze): Completed all fills at 60BPM or higher, or half of the fills at 140BPM or higher.
-See Fill Legend
Fill Legend (Bronze): Completed all fills at 100BPM or higher, or half of the fills at 180BPM or higher.
-Go to the Drum Trainer Fill In section and complete all fills at 100BPM or higher, or half of the fills at 180BPM or higher.PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Catholic bishop of Phoenix on Tuesday stripped a local hospital of Catholic affiliation after it ended a woman’s pregnancy to save her life.
Bishop Thomas Olmstead said he had no choice but to sever ties after St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center violated church teachings in the November 2009 case. He called the surgery involving the 11-week pregnancy “an abortion.”
Linda Hunt, St. Joseph’s hospital president, said she is saddened by the Olmstead’s announcement but stands by the decision.
The patient suffered from pulmonary hypertension that could limit the functioning of her heart and lungs, the hospital said. Allowing the pregnancy to continue could have exacerbated the condition, it said.
Hunt said the medical procedure to end the pregnancy was performed only after consulting with the patient and her family, doctors and the hospital’s ethics committee. Olmstead later ex-communicated one member of the ethics committee, Sister Margaret McBride.
Olmstead, at a news conference, said the hospital failed to adequately address “the scandal caused by the abortion” and that it has for years violated other ethical and religious guidelines set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He told reporters the violations included offering contraceptive counseling and supplies, providing voluntary male and female sterilization, and performing abortions due to a mother’s mental or physical health or when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.
“The faithful of the Diocese have a right to know whether institutions of this importance are indeed Catholic in identity and practice,” he said in a prepared statement.
Olmstead, who has presided over the nearly 765,000-person Phoenix diocese for seven years, negotiated for months with St. Joseph’s and its parent company, Catholic Healthcare West, to try to resolve the differences. His original deadline was extended as talks continued.
The practical impact of the bishop’s decision is that the 697-bed hospital, the Phoenix area’s oldest, will no longer be able to hold mass at its chapel and communion wafers will be removed.
Hunt said that the 115-year-old hospital has no plans to change its name or mission.
“Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save,” she said.SBS has done it again. It has commissioned a terrific, groundbreaking drama that takes audiences inside the world of a misunderstood Australian minority community.
This time it’s Sunshine, a four-part miniseries set in the South Sudanese community in the western suburbs of Melbourne.
The cracking yarn started on SBS on Wednesday night. It’s told by terrific actors – new and experienced – and beautifully realised by some of the country’s best drama creatives.
It fits snugly alongside The Principal, Deep Water and East West 101, as well as all the amazing international drama on SBS On Demand.
Sunshine tells two interwoven stories.
The first is about Jacob Garang – beautifully played by first-time actor Wally Elnour – who dreams of making it to the NBA.
The second story follows fellow basketballer and endearing bad boy, Santino Dut, played by Autiak Aweteek, who’s implicated in the assault of a young girl.
Aweteek’s also a first-timer who sometimes steals the show with his captivating portrayal of Santino.
In Sunshine, art mimics life for the fledgling actors.
“Jacob is … he’s basically just me,” Elnour told SBS Online.
“It’s my everyday life. It really is. He plays basketball like me, and he’s trying to go to America, which I did. And he’s the humble kid. And I’m a bit humble.
“So when I came in, I just played myself. I didn’t have to do much acting.”
Aweteek told SBS News he began drinking at the age of 12.
“Drink, drink, drink. Then when the liquor kicks in, look for an excuse, getting in trouble with the police, getting involved in fights, brawls,” he said.
His 22nd birthday last year was the first he had not been arrested since his 13th, thanks to a mentoring program set up by Ez Eldin Deng, the cultural liaison consultant for the series.
Deng’s main job was to help find authentic actors – difficult in the white-dominated Australian industry.
“The African diaspora is very different, and we look different,” Deng told SBS Online.
“People from South Sudan, they’re a bit darker than people from Uganda – they’re a bit lighter. Kenya, even lighter. Nigeria, darker. It was an eye-opening experience for the casting director.”
Established actors support the newbies well.
Anthony LaPaglia plays a blinder as reluctant coach and former basketball star Eddie Grattan, and Melanie Lynskey returned from the US to play lawyer Zara Skelton.
Director Daina Reid (Secret River and The Wrong Girl) says she was “a little daunted” by taking on the series.
“I was taking on the responsibility of telling the story of another culture’s experience in Australia – a culture that, at the time, I had very little experience with.”
It was filmed on location in Sunshine – often on the tabloid front pages because of gang problems or violence.
“I live in the western suburbs of Melbourne, and I find it very vibrant and culturally diverse, and sure, it has its industrial areas, but I wanted to shoot it with that warmth and with a sense of home to it,” Reid says.
This series proves again that SBS drama knows its reason for being. To acquire and use their tiny commissioning budget to deliver rarely told, quality community stories.
Sunshine certainly delivers on that score.The City Council is drafting legislation to let noncitizens vote in New York City's municipal elections, a move that could bolster the clout of recent immigrants in races across the five boroughs.
The policy, if enacted, would make the city one of just eight jurisdictions in the nation, and by far the largest, where U.S. citizenship isn't required to cast a ballot, according to iVote NYC, a coalition of immigrant advocates and allied groups that supports the change.
"I believe that in a democracy, everybody should participate, and I don't see how you call something a democracy when you don't give everybody that opportunity to participate," said Councilman Daniel Dromm, (D-Queens), earlier this month. He is pushing the latest effort.
Dromm said a bill is being readied and conversations with the mayor's office would begin soon. The change would cover only New York City residents with legal immigration status.
A past version of the bill was favored by a council majority, but it languished for years. Then-Speaker Christine Quinn did not bring it to the floor and Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposed it. It died in 2013. Current Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan), who backed the effort two years ago as a rank-and-file councilwoman, called for "more inclusive voting" in a major policy speech last month.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he did not support past legislation but is open to a "conversation" with proponents. The council's Republican minority would oppose any such bill, spokesman Peter Spencer said.
"The right to vote is a privilege and a sacred obligation that citizens have enjoyed. It should only be for United States citizens," said Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), one of three Republicans in the 51-member body. "It's also a reason for people who are on a path to citizenship to aspire to citizenship. It's something for them to look forward to."
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The liberal Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that the voter franchise extension could make up to 1 million noncitizens eligible to vote, and experts say it could have a profound impact on voter demographics. There were 4.6 million registered voters in the city last year, according to the state Board of Elections.
"Noncitizen voting would probably enhance the power of Democrats -- not that they particularly need it in this city," said Doug Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College. Registered Democrats already outnumber Republicans 6 to 1.
Enfranchising noncitizens could be consequential in at least 20 of the 51 City Council districts, helping primary- and general-election candidates who appeal to immigrant ethnic groups, said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant who analyzes voter lists. "It would probably help a Hispanic candidate in a citywide race," he said.
For much of the country's first 150 years, 40 states and federal territories allowed noncitizens to vote, but more restrictive laws came amid anti-immigrant fervor in the 1920s. New York City allowed parents regardless of immigration status to vote in community school board elections from 1969 to 2002, when the Board of Education was abolished.
The proposal has the potential to remake the electoral landscape, said Ron Hayduk, a Queens College professor and author on immigrant voting.
"Part plain arithmetic, part electoral calculus, if there's a potential 1 million new voters, the candidates and the parties might want to capitalize on that potential and attract those folks to them," he said.
The last version of the bill called for enfranchising legal immigrants who have lived in New York for at least six months. It would have permitted them to register in parties and cast ballots in local races including those for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president and the council.The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an action role-playing open world video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth installment in The Elder Scrolls action role-playing video game series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Skyrim's main story revolves around the player character's efforts to defeat Alduin, a Dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. Set two hundred years after Oblivion, the game takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim, upon the continent of Tamriel, and the planet of Nirn. The game continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.Ever since Vista, Windows’ Control Panel has been a little difficult to navigate. Windows 10’s new Settings app is better, but not as feature filled. Here’s an easier way to get to the page you want: Use these shortcuts and the Windows Run menu.
Why These Shortcuts Save You Time
One of the first things most people do when booting up a new computer (or after a fresh install of Windows) is head over to the Control Panel to make changes to the way Windows looks, the way their mouse and keyboard functions, and to otherwise personalize their Windows experience. This is usually, thanks to the way Microsoft shuffles the location of things within the Control Panel, when people immediately (and understandably) start complaining about how they can’t find anything.
While we’re sure there’s a design reason behind something as trivial (but annoying) as moving the location of the “Power Options” or “Time and Date” menu between Windows versions, it’s incredibly annoying when you navigate the Control Panel in what should be a familiar route, only to find you can’t locate the thing you’re looking for.
RELATED: Seven Ways to Open the Windows Task Manager
Now, in fairness to Microsoft, even though they move stuff around all the time they have done a pretty good job making it relatively intuitive to type search terms into the search box in the Start Menu to find them (even if where those items end up being is different from where you recalled). Nonetheless even then it can be a bit of a guessing game to get to exactly where you want to go. Plus, these will work great if your Start menu is borked for some reason.
Fortunately there’s a handy little geek trick (and we like geek tricks) you can call on that makes it entirely irrelevant where the item you’re looking for is buried in the Control Panel (or even what the menu it’s buried under is named). Unbeknownst to most people, the Control Panel is merely a big panel of shortcuts pointing back to a collection of individual Control Panel tools parked in the Windows directory. Every one of these tools, all of which end in the file extension *.cpl, is directly accessible via the Run Dialog box and command line.
Even better, there is very little change in names of these files over time–many of the *.cpl entries haven’t changed since the days of Windows 95. If you get in the habit of jumping to the Control Panel entry you want with the shortcuts, then it doesn’t matter if the entry moves significantly between Windows 7, 8, 10, and whatever updates come with Windows 10 or further Windows iterations–you’ll never waste time looking for entry you want again.
How to Use Control Panel Shortcuts
To use the *.cpl Control Panel shortcuts all you need to do is simply type the shortcut for the Control Panel tool you need into either the Run Dialog box (accessible in Windows via Win+R) or into the Start Menu command box (available on the Start Menu of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10).
Although we’re listing the *.cpl shortcuts for Windows 10 in this article, the majority of them, as we noted above, are backwards compatible. For reference (and a bit of historical fun) here are the Microsoft help files pertaining to Control Panel shortcuts for Windows 95/98 and Windows XP. You’ll find nearly all of them in our list.
You can run any of these commands either by typing them into the Start Menu search bar, pressing Win+R to open the run dialog box and entering them there, or even from the command line by using the command “control [shortcutname.cpl]”. In very rare cases, the shortcut will only work via command line (noted below by the inclusion of the “control” prefix in the command listing.
control access.cpl : Accessibility Options
: Accessibility Options appwiz.cpl : Add/Remove Programs
: Add/Remove Programs bthprops.cpl : Bluetooth Devices
: Bluetooth Devices timedate.cpl : Time/Date Properties
: Time/Date Properties desk.cpl : Display Properties
: Display Properties inetcpl.cpl : Internet Properties
: Internet Properties joy.cpl : Joystick Properties
: Joystick Properties main.cpl : Mouse Properties
: Mouse Properties main.cpl keyboard : Keyboard Properties
: Keyboard Properties mmsys.cpl : Multimedia/Sound Properties
: Multimedia/Sound Properties ncpa.cpl : Network Connections
: Network Connections powercfg.cpl : Power Options
: Power Options sysdm.cpl : System Properties
: System Properties wscui.cpl : Windows Security Center
: Windows Security Center firewall.cpl : Windows Firewall
: Windows Firewall hdwwiz.cpl : Device Manager
: Device Manager intl.cpl : Windows Region Settings
: Windows Region Settings telephon.cpl : Phone and Modem Settings
: Phone and Modem Settings tabletpc.cpl: Tablet Settings (unavailable on non-tablet PCs)
In addition to the above shortcuts, there are a few command line tricks that will take you directly to relevant folders like “control printers” to jump to the Printers folder and “control fonts” to jump to the fonts folder.
By and large, we managed to get by these days with using the actual Control Panel (or, more frequently, the search function within the Start Menu) but with a little effort to memorize a few key terms, you can zip right to where you want to go with ease.It appears Lorde has been running a secret onion ring review Instagram account, which has been abruptly shut down following questions Newshub sent to her management.
The account could be best described as clandestine. There are no names or faces posted to the account at all and management hasn't confirmed it is an official Lorde project.
But while there's no official word, there is a digital trail of evidence that builds a compelling case.
1. The followers
Before it was taken down, the @onionringsworldwide account amassed a grand total of 24 followers. One of them is Lorde. In fact, @onionringsworldwide is Lorde's most recent follow. This is our most immediate clue, and the tip-off that alerted a 17-year-old "big Lorde fan" to this account.
Other followers include Lorde's friends and associates Justin Warren, Jimmy Mac and Maddy Budd.Ohio State student organizations and resident advisers can now apply to receive free pizzas for events due to a collaborative effort between Donatos and the Office of Student Life.
The partnership began last year when Donatos provided free pizza for university-sanctioned events such as convocation and BuckeyeThon.
As part of the grant, student organizations can apply to get up to five pizzas for an event or meeting each semester. Donatos is calling it “the pizza bank.”
“We’ve worked through the years to formalize relationships with the Student Life department,” said Donatos spokesman Tom Santor. “The student grant was kind of a cooperative idea that we came up with.”
The grant does not provide an unlimited amount of pizzas. Fifty pizzas will be provided each semester. Once maximum amount is reached, no more pizzas will be given away until the following semester.
“To have Donatos on board supporting those students and student organizations is very gratifying,” said Dave Isaacs, a spokesman for the Office of Student Life.
Registered student groups can apply to get the free pizzas from Donatos and there is no selection criteria for those receiving the free pizza.
Groups wishing to apply need to submit a detailed proposal describing how the pizzas will benefit the group or event.
Those who are selected to receive the free pizza from Donatos must agree to send Donatos a handwritten note, tag Donatos in a social media post and display a sign at the event recognizing Donatos’ contribution.
Student organizations and resident advisers interested in receiving pizza for fall semester events can do so by filling out the online request form available on the Office of Student Life website by Oct. 20.Hackers published two million passwords online, security experts have said (Picture: Alphaspirit/Getty)
Two million passwords for social media and email accounts have been released online by hackers, IT security experts have discovered.
The passwords for the compromised accounts are believed to have been collected by a botnet which uses infectious software to take note of the keystrokes of its targets.
Thousands of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts were hacked with details published online by what are believed to be cyber criminals.
Of the passwords there were 318,000 Facebook, 70,000 Google (including Gmail, Google+ and YouTube), and 60,000 Yahoo accounts – though their age is unknown.
‘We don’t know how many of these details still work,’ security researcher Graham Cluley told the BBC.
318,000 Facebook passwords were released as part of the sweep (Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty)
‘But we know that 30-40 per cent of people use the same passwords on different websites. That’s certainly something people shouldn’t do.’
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It was the ‘investigators and researchers’ at SpiderLabs who uncovered the database of passwords and detailed how the attack was a global effort.
The group also looked at how people create passwords using the data published and found that the most frequent passwords are still rather obvious.
‘123456’ was the most widely used, while ‘password’, ‘123,’ and ‘111111’ were also among the top entries.
The information gathered can be used by criminals or sold on, particularly as one of the sites hacked was adp.com, a payroll website dealing with the salaries of thousands of people worldwide.
ADP, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn told CNN Money that they have notified affected users and reset their passwords.
MORE: 9 stupid ways to choose your Twitter, Facebook and Gmail passwordsThe Pending Kodak Patent Auction May Create Weapons Of Business Destruction
from the loose-nukes dept
Yet, while there was general agreement that an overhaul was badly needed, the law that was eventually passed did little to fix what is widely seen as the current system’s chief weakness: that it leads to the issuing of too many patents that lack real innovation and that clog up the legal system once their holders seek to enforce them against alleged infringers.
The Sketchy History of Recent Patent Auctions
When the OSI first learned of this proposed transaction, we were alarmed that four companies with dominant market positions and a mixed attitude towards open source software could redeploy what the open source community had considered to be a friendly asset–Novell’s patent portfolio–into a weapon against open source software. We are delighted that you have made clear that the [german antitrust regulator] cannot allow a transaction that would create or strengthen a dominant position on markets in which such investors are active, and we are happy to provide the additional information you have requested about the proposed restructuring of this transaction.
The division’s continued monitoring of how competitors are exercising their patent rights will ensure that competition and innovation are unfettered in this important industry.
All three of the transactions highlight the complex intersection of intellectual property rights and antitrust law |
uru
Investment: $6.4 million, from investors such as Accel Partners, Axilor Ventures, IDG Ventures, pi Ventures, Endiya Partners, VH Capital and Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal.
The team: Started by former American Express executives Rohit Kumar Pandey, Tathagato Rai Dastidar and Apurv Anand.
Intelligence factor: SigTuple is helping hospitals and healthcare centres improve the speed and accuracy of blood reports.
Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
In medicine and healthcare, accuracy and time are important factors. A delay of even half an hour can result in loss of life; and a wrong diagnosis could prove tragic. SigTuple is looking to address both these issues through its AI-powered Manthana platform, which can, among other things, analyse blood samples and generate medical reports in less than 10 minutes—and with complete accuracy, according to Pandey, who is also the chief executive officer.
“From the moment someone reaches the labs and provides a blood sample, the total time taken for the generation of a report and review by a pathologist is less than 10 minutes," says Pandey.
Manthana is being used by a number of mid- to large-sized hospitals, diagnostics labs, and eyecare and healthcare chains. Among their prominent clients is Anand Diagnostic Labs, one of Bengaluru’s biggest chains, which uses one of SigTuple’s digitization tools to analyse blood samples.
Now the team is working towards making Manthana available for a complete diagnosis.
Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
At present, Manthana can analyse blood, semen and urine samples—Pandey says the platform is capable of generating complete blood reports, which typically analyse 21 different parameters, including red and white blood cell count and platelets. For example, SigTuple has used the AI-powered platform to analyse a blood sample to catch a malarial parasite, says Pandey.
Accuracy is another area that the team hopes to improve on—currently, SigTuple’s accuracy rates differ for different solutions. For instance, accuracy rates for urine samples stand at around 85-88%.
For SigTuple, evolving from traditional analytics to machine learning was a crucial pivot, since it wanted to create tools that could analyse medical cases, just like a doctor would.
“Earlier, the algorithms that were being used, as soon as they saw new data, the results used to get skewed. With the advancement of AI, as more and more new data keeps coming in, the machine continues to learn—like humans. And it starts generating solutions, which was not possible with traditional algorithms," says Pandey.
The limitations of traditional algorithms were addressed by machine learning, where a machine is trained to mimic a human brain—somewhat like IBM’s Watson.
For example, a hospital chain which wants to open a lab in a tier-II or tier-III city usually has to spend hundreds of crores of rupees on hardware, equipment and medical experts.
With SigTuple’s platforms such as Manthana, hospitals can scale up in smaller cities and towns. Since it also eliminates the need for labs to ship blood samples to different locations, it helps diagnostic chains save on logistical costs and, more crucially, time.
“There is no need for a manual review by a pathologist by putting a slide under a microscope. Second, remote diagnosis is made possible, because the pathologist need not be sitting next to the microscope or blood slide. No shipping is required—the pathologist can be anywhere," says Pandey.
SigTuple gets most of its data from the labs and hospitals that it works with. Over the next year, a top priority for the company is to gather more data through more such partnerships to improve the accuracy of Manthana.
—By Anirban SenApparently NASA’s James Hansen has been as secretive over at NASA as the UK climate warming scientists caught up on Climategate were, refusing to release data by which NASA had made its calculations puruant to a Freedom of Information Act request. A lawsuit is being filed. From the story:
The fight over global warming science is about to cross the Atlantic with a U.S. researcher poised to sue NASA, demanding release of the same kind of climate data that has landed a leading British center in hot water over charges it skewed its data. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and would explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data going as far back as the 1930s. “I assume that what is there is highly damaging,” Mr. Horner said. “These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this.” The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed that data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for first, with 1934 slightly cooler.
Throw open the books! This issue is one of the most important of our times and “the scientists” have no right to keep the data secret or the methods of coming to conclusions. Indeed, if global warming is so obvious and beyond debate, they would want us to see all the data. All of it! I mean, what better way to prove one’s position than letting the data speak for itself?Ah, but if it isn’t, or if it has been wildly exaggerated, well, secrecy becomes a needed protection, doesn’t it? I have always thought this was the case: Gore’s refusal to debate has been more than just a matter of being imperious.And Congress? You can hear the crickets chirping among the majority. As I have said before, they know what they don’t want to know.https://highdrag.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/doctor-greygal-and-mr-hyde.mp3
Doctor Greygal and Mr Hyde
Hey there High Drag Listeners! Episode 63 was a LOT of fun to record! Not only did we have Greygal, an incredible lady from Redemption Road join us but we also got hot dropped by CSM candidate Mr. Hyde113. Granted, by the time this episode gets posted, it will be some time after the CSM elections, but nonetheless, we had a very nice discussion over all about pvp in a couple of different flavors! We go into a Yin of Fin bonus with a big news drop (no, he’s not leaving the stream) and THREE ship fits from our guest panel members!
You guys are going to love this episode!!
Panel Members:
Random McNally
Fintarue
Fishbone
RoAnnon
Greygal
Mr. Hyde113
Music this Episode:
Dance Til We Die by Patent Pending
Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones
Mr. Hyde’s Hyperion
[Hyperion, Dual Rep March 2016]
Large Ancillary Armor Repairer
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Damage Control II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Large Armor Repairer II
500MN Microwarpdrive II
Stasis Webifier II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Heavy Stasis Grappler II
Warp Scrambler II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Heavy Energy Neutralizer II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Ion Blaster Cannon II
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Hybrid Metastasis Adjuster II
Ogre II x5
Hornet II x5
Warrior II x5
Void L x1440
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge L x2160
Nanite Repair Paste x364
Navy Cap Booster 800 x24
Greygal’s Suicide Griffin
‘Hypnos’ Signal Distortion Amplifier I
‘Hypnos’ Signal Distortion Amplifier I
5MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Gravimetric ECM II
Gravimetric ECM II
Ladar ECM II
Ladar ECM II
Salvager I
Small Particle Dispersion Augmentor I
Small Particle Dispersion Augmentor I
STAY TUNED!! The REST of the fits will be posted soon™The Pentagon said on Friday that it had no supporting information to confirm reports from Moscow that its forces may have killed the leader of the Islamic State group in an airstrike last month.
“We have no information to corroborate those reports,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told Reuters on Friday, after Russia said it was verifying whether Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in the raid targeting a meeting of IS leaders just outside the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry said other senior group commanders may have also been killed, adding that the information about his death was still “being verified through various channels.”
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Asked about that claim at a news conference in Moscow, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100-percent confirmation of the information.”
The Defense Ministry said the air raid on May 28 that targeted the meeting may have also killed about 30 mid-level militant leaders and about 300 other fighters.
The ministry said the IS leaders were gathered to discuss the group’s withdrawal from Raqqa. It said the military began planning the hit after getting word that the group’s leadership was to meet in order to plan IS’s exit to the south.
The Russian military sent drones to monitor the area and then dispatched a group of Su-34 bombers and Su-35 fighter jets to hit the IS gathering.
“According to the information that is being verified through various channels, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also attended the meeting and was killed in the airstrike,” the military said in a statement.
The Defense Ministry added that it had warned the US of the coming strike.
Syrian opposition activists reported airstrikes on May 28 south of Raqqa that killed more than a dozen people.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s war, said airstrikes on the road linked the villages of Ratla and Kasrat killed 18 people while the activist-operated Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said 17 civilians were killed in the airstrike on buses carrying civilians.
The Observatory said the dead included 10 Islamic State group members. It did not elaborate at the time.
The Russian ministry said that among other militant leaders killed in the raid were IS leaders Abu al-Khadji al-Mysri, Ibrahim al-Naef al-Khadj and Suleiman al-Shauah.
Al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June 2014 days after his fighters captured Mosul, the largest city they ever held. The group has since horrified the world with its atrocities in areas they held as well as attacks they claimed around the world that killed hundreds.
Al-Baghdadi is a nom de guerre for a man identified as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai. The US is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.
There had been previous reports of al-Baghdadi being killed but they did not turn out to be true. The IS leader last released an audio on Nov. 3, urging his followers to keep up the fight for Mosul as they defend the Iraqi city against a major offensive that began weeks earlier.
The spokesman for the US-led anti-IS coalition said in a statement Friday he could not confirm the Russian claim.
The report of al-Baghdadi’s death comes as IS suffers major setbacks in which they have lost wide areas of territory and both of their strongholds — Mosul in Iraq and Syria’s Raqqa. Both are under attack by various groups who are fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition.
As the militants take a pounding in their eroding strongholds, US officials and Syrian activists say many commanders have fled Mosul and Raqqa in recent months for Mayadeen, a remote town in the heart of Syria’s IS-controlled, Euphrates River valley near the Iraqi border. Their relocation could extend the group’s ability to wreak havoc in the region and beyond for months to come.
Most recently, the group claimed responsibility for attacks in Iran’s parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 50. It also claimed responsibility for the June 3 London attack that killed eight people. Both attacks would have taken place after al-Baghdadi’s alleged killing.
Lavrov, at the press conference, added on a cautious note that if al-Baghdadi’s death is confirmed, its importance mustn’t be overestimated. Lavrov said that “past examples of similar actions to strike the leadership of terrorist groups were presented with much enthusiasm and pomp, but the experience shows that those structures later regained their capability.”
The claim of al-Baghdadi’s possible demise also comes nearly three years to the day after he declared himself the leader of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria, from a historic mosque in Mosul.
If confirmed, al-Baghdadi’s death would mark a major military success for Russia, which has conducted a military campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad since September 2015.Is Canada the most tolerant place in the world because Canadians are more enlightened than others? The answer is no. Accidents of geography and history account for our blessings.
Some may dispute the premise of the question above, but I do believe that Canada can make an honest claim to being the most open-minded and open-hearted place on earth. For two decades now, a land once occupied by descendants of European settlers has been importing just under 1 per cent of its population annually – 258,000 in 2012, more than five million in total – with most new arrivals coming from Asia and the Pacific. No other country on earth has done such a thing. No country brings in as many immigrants as we do, on a per capita basis, from as many different places. And we all get along with each other amazingly well.
Many developed countries have a pro-immigration party and an anti-immigration party. In Canada, each of the national parties claims to be more pro-immigrant than the other two. To the best of my knowledge, Stephen Harper leads the only conservative party in the developed world that is strongly supported by immigrant voters. He owes his majority government to new arrivals in the suburban cities outside Toronto who supported him in the last election.
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Our tolerance goes beyond race. Not only was Canada among the first countries to legalize gay marriage, Ontario just elected Canada's first lesbian first minister. Far more important, Kathleen Wynne's sexuality wasn't an issue in the election. It seems not even to have crossed people's minds. What a way to celebrate World Pride, which Toronto hosted last week.
So how did we get this way? We lucked out.
Canada is bordered by three oceans. We are very, very far away from anywhere except the United States. Few illegal migrants seep through our undefended southern border; few boat people land on our shores; few refugee claimants arrive at our airports. (Even fewer, since the Conservatives tightened up the refugee laws.) It's easier to be tolerant when you don't have millions of people next door, desperate to get in, as the United States and Europe do.
We are as lucky in our cultural geography as we are in our physical. Canada was originally a union of French and English, who had been at war with each other in Europe for much of the past 800 years. The only way to make the dominion work was for each to give the other plenty of breathing room. That respectful distance made it impossible for Canada to gel as a nation, but it also prevented immigrants from feeling they were outsiders in some nationalist club. Multiculturalism is the greatest gift of our Constitution, even though the Fathers of Confederation hadn't the faintest clue they were bequeathing it.
That same culture of accommodation makes it possible for sexual minorities in Canada to feel safe, even welcomed. There is not a city, town or village in Canada where my husband Grant and I would hesitate to live.
Of course, things are far from perfect. The legacy of intolerance and abuse by the Europeans toward the aboriginal community is Canada's shame.
But even on this front, there are signs of hope. I write this column in Inuvik, NWT, population 3,500. Like all resource-based towns in the Far North, Inuvik goes through booms and busts, as the prospects of offshore oil development wax and wane.
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But in many conversations, the story I heard was the same. The Inuvialuit, Gwich'in and non-aboriginal populations (the town is about one-third each) get along remarkably well. Yes, there are tensions, yes there is misunderstanding, yes there is the occasional bit of bad blood.
But for the most part, Inuvik is a (very) small and (very) northern version of Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver: a place where people of different cultures live together peacefully. This fall, 120 children from all backgrounds will learn and play together in the new day-care centre. There are 100 Muslims in Inuvik, with their own mosque. (Where else in the world can you step out of an airport in a High Arctic town and hear two taxi drivers chatting in Arabic?) If aboriginal and non-aboriginal can get along in Inuvik, then why not everywhere else?
Happy circumstance made Canada the vibrant, cosmopolitan, peaceful, creative and delightful hodge-podge of languages and cultures it has become. It's our job to keep it that way. In the wake of another Canada Day, and in the final years before the 2017 sesquicentennial, the example of Inuvik suggests we just might be up to the task.
John Ibbitson is a CIGI senior fellow, an award-winning writer and leading political journalist in Canada. Currently on a one-year leave from The Globe and Mail, John is researching, writing and speaking on Canadian foreign policy at CIGI while he works on a new book.
Along with other CIGI experts, Mr. Ibbitson will be contributing at www.cigionline.org/blogs, where this post was originally published.Fake OxyContin pills like those pictured above usually contain fentanyl. However, when pills like this were seized during a bust last year in Calgary, Health Canada found a different deadly substance within: W-18. Photo via RCMP
Health Canada is now rushing to regulate W-18, a drug that was first found being sold as counterfeit blue-green OxyContin pills last year in Calgary.
Though the first confirmed drug bust in Canada of W-18 was carried out in August 2015 and yielded 110 pills that were originally thought to contain fentanyl, it took about four months before Health Canada released its analysis confirming the existence of the unregulated, previously little-known deadly drug, which is 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine. Though this comparison in potency might be difficult for someone who has not used opiates to quantify, you can also think about it in following way: trafficking a substance that is much more powerful than another is going to make it significantly easier to smuggle or put in the mail. In that sense, W-18 could be more lucrative for drug traffickers than fentanyl.
On April 20, police in Edmonton confirmed that they had made the second seizure on record in the province of W-18. Four kilos of W-18 in powder form were found in the Alberta city back in December 2015—once again, four months had gone by before the public was notified.
In neighbouring British Columbia, which has a notable history with the opiate trade, RCMP also confirmed last week that W-18 had been found in the province.
"We believe W-18 would be coming from China," Martin Schiavetta, Staff Sergeant with the Calgary Police Service Drug Unit, told VICE earlier this year. "Certainly organized crime is behind the importation of fentanyl, and I would make the connection that W-18 would be the same."
Last month, a man in Miramar, Florida was sentenced to ten years for importing fentanyl, but even though he also was caught with about 2.5 pounds of W-18, he was not charged in relation to it since the drug is currently unregulated in the United States. This situation is similar to the conundrum Canada is currently facing, since the drug has yet to be regulated under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Though W-18 seems to be used similarly fentanyl, it is not an analogue of fentanyl. Fentanyl and its analogues are already regulated under this act in Canada. Health Canada currently plans to make W-18 a Schedule 1 drug, which would make its unauthorized use illegal.
W-18 may currently be coming from China, but it was actually first developed in Canada by a scientist named Ed Knaus at the University of Alberta in Edmonton in the 1980s. Knaus's patent expired in 1992, and now, the drug he helped to create is on the streets of the same city in which it was developed. "We were really looking to make a non-addictive analgesic or painkiller; that was kind of our goal," Knaus told Maclean's in February. "It doesn't make me feel good that people have picked this up."
In 2014, there were 120 deaths for which fentanyl was held responsible in Alberta. Last year, that fatality number nearly doubled, prompting the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team to deem fentanyl the "biggest drug trend" of the year. However, now that the deal W-18 has been proven to exist in the province and elsewhere, the opioid crisis affecting Alberta and other parts of North America has become even more complex.
Follow Allison Tierney on Twitter.London Irish and Scotland centre Joe Ansbro has suffered a broken neck while playing in a pre-season match against Munster.
Ansbro, 26, is in hospital in Cork but is expected to be flown home later this week.
"He's got a triple fracture of the C1 vertebrae at the top of his spine," Ansbro's father Paul told BBC Scotland.
"They've put a metal halo on his head that's got to be in place 24/7 for three months."
Ansbro Snr said there was "nothing malicious" about his son's injury, adding that he dived into get the ball and came off worse.
Your blood runs cold when you hear about it and it's something every parent worries about Paul Ansbro
"They did a CAT scan and an MRI scan, and they've had a neurosurgeon looking after him," Ansbro Snr said.
"He was really lucky that it was what they call a stable fracture and there's no nerve damage. That was the thing they were most concerned about; Joe's still got movement in his hands and feet."
Ansbro Snr said he was shocked at the news of his son's injury.
"Your blood runs cold when you hear about it and it's something that every parent worries about," he added.
"It's a fantastic, rough game and these things, unfortunately, cannot be ruled out."
Centre Ansbro has scored three tries in his 11 Scotland matches, having made his debut against South Africa in the 2010 Autumn Test series.
Born in Glasgow, he joined London Irish last summer after beginning his club career at Northampton.
Scotland team doctor, James Robson, said: "The management of the injury Joe has sustained typically involves a period of between six to eight weeks immobilisation, then a further four-six weeks of rehabilitation before he can look at a return to the game."
Follow Geoff Webster on Twitter.Students pass through the Sather Gate entrance to the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. (CBS)
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — Undergraduate students at the University of California may face a tuition increase for the first time in six years under a proposal to be considered by the university’s board of regents this month.
UC officials unveiled the plan Wednesday, saying that proposed increases in tuition and fees represent a modest way to help pay for better mental health services, financial aid and faculty hiring after years of rising enrollment and declining state support.
In-state undergraduates currently pay $12,294 a year in tuition and fees. The proposal calls for a $282 increase in tuition and $54 increase in fees for undergraduates at nine campuses, bringing the new total for California residents to $12,630 for the 2017-18 school year.
UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said financial aid would cover the increases for two-thirds of the system’s California undergraduate students.
“We’ve reached the point where it is critical that we make these investments in UC’s academic excellence,” Klein said in a statement posted on the system’s website.
The money would be used to hire faculty, beef up tutoring and mental health services, and provide more financial aid for undergraduates and fellowships for graduate students, the university system said.
Critics said the tuition increase would put too much of a burden on students already struggling to finance their educations.
The UC Board of Regents meets Jan. 25-26.
© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.“A Modern Marriage” by Mark & Christy Kidd is a pervy, must-read memoir
Testing78378 Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 10, 2017
People with dramatically fun sex lives are underrepresented in the larger culture, and Mark & Christy Kidd’s A Modern Marriage: A Memoir is an antidote; let us start with a pornographic quote in media res at a sex party: “Isabelle was also being fucked doggie-style by a man behind her. With the passion injected into her by the other man, she was sucking Mark’s cock. It was aggressive and hard, and Mark was rolling his head in pleasure. Isabelle was obviously not one of those women who felt obligated to do a blow job; she was someone who truly loved it.”
Whatever censoriousness Christy might’ve harbored is gone. Instead of jealousy she admirably feels admiration. She feels pleasure. The descriptions of mutual pleasure kept us reading and will keep you reading.
As couple number one kept going, the man from couple two started softly stroking the arm of the woman from couple one. She responded by allowing him to keep stroking, and eventually by stroking his hand back. That was all the man in couple number two needed. He almost imperceptibly shifted his hips so his crotch was within reaching distance of the woman and, sure enough, in a few seconds she moved her hand to his dick and started lightly feathering it with her fingers, even as she was being fucked by her man. Emboldened or excited by this, the woman in couple number two started feeling the man in couple number one. Everyone was getting more and more into it. It was all very … good-natured. And generous. Instead of the usual proprieties of exclusion that defined most private sex acts, this one felt giving. In the most literal sense, they shared themselves and each other.
The word “crotch” is a mistake here, but ignore it and the scene works. “Generous” describes our experience: while so much of sexuality is about guarding, limiting, stopping, and policing, the sex party goers we’ve met have a sense of limitless possibility and little fear that we’ve not found in most sexual circumstances. That attitude is one we wish more people had and that makes us feel giddy after sex parties. Sharing is literal and figurative at them. Like digital goods, sex is not totally exclusionary, and one person having sex at one point doesn’t stop another person from having it at the same or another point. In economic and legal jargon sex is non-rivalrous, if we choose to make it so.
Christy & Mark feel more tightly connected post-experience, as we are told many times:
Even though Mark was having his separate experience, he and I were so intimately bonded that I could tell what it was like for him, and I’m certain he could tell what it was like for me. It was almost like we were making love to each other, through other people. We were both in heaven.
If their experience is heavenly, why don’t more couples try? Don’t we want heavenly experiences on earth? Group sex is not hard to find for those who have considered finding it.
Jealousy is the most obvious barrier, along with fear, and other parts of the dark side. Regarding Christy & Mark specifically, we can say they have greater empathy than most couples, though they also witness their share of swapping couples disintegrate. But it’s hard to say how many couples would’ve disintegrated without sex parties or swapping; most couplings don’t end in death, regardless of the wedding vows most feel free to disregard with impunity.
Swapping is at least a willing alteration of the traditional vows rather than a discarding of them. The Protestant age is the age of the individual’s interpretation in defiance of lofty authorities; the Kidds don’t point this out, but their own interpretation is of a piece with a line of Western thinking that goes back at least to Martin Luther and that pervades our society. Everything is up for negotiation. Including pleasure. They negotiate pleasure into their relationship, when for a surprisingly large number of people marriage sucks it out and replaces it with the vacuum of boredom.
Group sex and partner swapping rarely if ever “fixes” already broken relationships. Neither do babies. Broken relationships can only be repaired by the effort of the partners involved in them. Couples who go into group sex thinking they’ll get over jealousy or affairs or whatever are likely to not find what they’re seeking. Christy & Mark hit the emotional complexities that many if not most couples encounter.
There is a strong girl-on-girl ethos in sex parties. Christy writes from the first-person perspective:
I had been developing a real taste for beautiful women, and I saw that about 90 percent of other women were into each other, as well.
That comma between “other” and “as well” is misplaced. And we get this: “You didn’t always know who was touching whom in a menagerie o f people. That’s what makes it so much better than a threesome. It’s like sensual chaos, and the usual injunctions didn’t apply.” They don’t, and that’s hot.
There are other revelations. On average group sex people are more into health than the average population. Don’t be surprised if you hear conversations about the evils of carbohydrates and the joys of the squat. Marathoners are overrepresented. Seeing other people fuck also creates a rapid bond that it would take a lot of coffee and shopping dates to reach. Being able to speak of anything can be good or bad, but the rapid plunge into a special bond can be harrowing for some. We’ve seen couples flee sex parties. It happens. Pleasure can be painful.
The bad news, however, is that “A Modern Marriage” is not nearly as well written as Toni Bentley’s The Surrender or Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden (the latter is amazingly available for free as Kindle book). Both are erotic winners; even a non-erotic memoir like Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club is far better written. A journalist who goes by the pseudonym named “Timothy Flapp” is responsible for the freshman-year writing errors.
Read it instead for the book’s information value and some hot passages, rather than for its aesthetics. Try to excuse the references to Mark as a “wild boar,” or the moments when Christy indulges her inner fifteen-year-old girl by saying “OMG” or “Eww, shiver time.” That the memoir was published at all, regardless of quality, is amazing to us. Still, we encourage you to forgive the authors for saying that “Enrique was a stocky Latin guy from Venezuela, so testosterone fueled he was like a silverback gorilla who deserved a harem of his own.” The authors have probably not thought through what comparing Enrique to a gorilla implies, either in term of violence or in terms of racially insensitive commentary. The word “Mandingo” doesn’t appear but wouldn’t be out of place in a world of lazy stereotyping and neuro-nonsense (the phrase “accountant brains” is odious too).
Maybe we’ll write a better memoir one day, and include voluminous dirty pictures. For now we’re firmly in the closet. Sorry. We’re avatars for fun sex to our friends in real life and you strangers on the Internet, but we can’t yet publicly merge those identities. Too bad. It’s a shame to read a somewhat good book and think, we can do it better.
We approve of pervs and encourage perivness in our readers, but there’s no reason to sacrifice style in the process of getting wet or hard. Nonetheless that has happened here. You should still read it. The book is surprisingly short, at just 277 small pages of widely spaced text, and not terribly analytical, but it may become one of those books that’s widely and silently passed from member to member of the secret society that is becoming less secret thanks to the Internet.
This conversation is Exhibit A.KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A mother who drowned her newborn son in a sink before leaving her home to write a university exam has avoided time behind bars, though a judge described her actions as “abhorrent.”
Courtney Saul, 19, was sentenced to two years’ probation in provincial court in Kamloops, B.C.
Saul was a student at Thompson Rivers University when her baby, George Carlos, was born on Dec. 15, 2011.
Court heard Saul gave birth alone in the bathroom of a basement suite where she was living.
“She held the baby for some time, but she had an exam that day,” Crown lawyer Will Burrows said. “Because she had the exam, she didn’t know what to do. She finally decided she should drown the baby. She did that in the sink and then she went to her exam.”
Afterwards, Saul wrapped the baby’s body in a T-shirt and a shower curtain and placed it in an empty computer box. She put the box inside a backpack, which she placed in the trunk of her car.
It is an abhorrent act.
Saul would later tell investigators she hoped to bury the baby in her hometown of Lillooet.
The body was discovered three weeks later, when she loaned her car to an acquaintance, who was involved in a collision.
Firefighters opened the trunk to cut power as a safety precaution. A police officer noticed a backpack in the trunk and opened it, revealing a computer box with an odd bulge. He opened the box and found the baby’s body.
Saul was later arrested. While in custody, police recorded a conversation she had with her mother.
“During her meeting with her mom, Ms. Saul admits she’d had the baby,” Burrows said. “She said she didn’t know she was pregnant until very late in the pregnancy.”
Saul confessed to police and was charged with infanticide. Court heard the charge was stayed a short time later and, in 2015, Saul was charged with second-degree murder.
In August, following a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada earlier this year, Saul’s charges were downgraded back to infanticide.
She told police the pregnancy was the result of a sexual assault. She said she’d passed out at a party and woke up without her clothes on.
“She believed someone had sexual intercourse with her while she was unconscious,” Burrows said.
Saul and her mother cried in court as the offence was detailed.
I know I made a mistake.
Defence lawyer Murray Armstrong noted the circumstances.
“This is certainly a tragedy in all senses of the word,” he said, adding Saul remains troubled by the events but is moving forward.
“Nothing is going to change what happened, but certainly now Ms. Saul is not a risk to anybody,” he said. “In terms of punishment, there’s no punishment greater than the guilt and remorse she feels.”
When asked by Judge Len Marchand whether she had anything to say, Saul, who has since moved back to Lillooet, managed six words before crying.
“I know I made a mistake,” she said.
Marchand noted Saul’s remorse, but also the seriousness of her offence.
“It is an abhorrent act and it was inflicted on a vulnerable and completely helpless person,” he said.
But Marchand said mitigating factors — including Saul’s lack of a criminal history and the circumstances of how she became pregnant — were powerful.
In addition to her two-year probation term, Saul was ordered to surrender a sample of her DNA to a national criminal database.
Kamloops This WeekWith HIV/AIDS infection rates reaching pandemic levels within the African-American community, some Black churches have stepped in to fulfill a role greater than spiritual guidance. Merging science and religion, AIDS ministries serve both body and soul as captured by the documentary film “The Gospel of Healing Volume 1: Black Churches Respond to HIV/AIDS”.
“The Gospel of Healing” debuted in Washington, D.C., which boasts the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the nation, this past July. Aptly screening during the 2012 International AIDS Conference, the foremost gathering of HIV/AIDS medical professionals, scientists, and activist in the world, the film chronicles Black Christian community responses to the growing need for primary care and prevention services.
We talked with the film’s director, writer, and producer Paul V. Grant about “The Gospel of Healing” and how faith without works is dead.
EBONY: “The Gospel of Healing” tells a very inspiring story of faith and community, what was the inspiration behind this documentary?
PVG: I began working on the project in late 2006/early 2007 and its inspiration came from my father was a reverend in South Carolina who suffered from a heart condition but believed his faith could cure him. My father had a faith that he believed could move mountains and therefore he didn’t take his medication. Subsequently, his ailment deteriorated to the point that my sisters and I had to stage an intervention to urge that taking his medicine as prescribed would not disrupt or challenge his faith. It was a very emotional and difficult conversation.
From that experience I was driven to direct “Tangy’s Song,”a short BET documentary about HIV-advocate and gospel singer, Tangy Major, who defined healing as God giving her the strength to live with HIV daily. I became interested in producing a follow-up project that looked at how churches were actively responding to the epidemic, by facilitating regular testing, needle exchange and even primary care services for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The BET project provided valuable lessons that led to identifying churches and learning about the local models used in their AIDS ministries.
EBONY: Tell us about the churches and models of care featured in the documentary.
PVG: We documented the Black church |
on a live network with a higher protocol block size limit? Watch and learn. This opportunity for the addition of progressive sequences of reality checks on the respective chains might be positive in itself. The “test” this represents is highly imperfect, as discussed below, but is still probably better than unmitigated talk.
The misleading conventional understanding of innovation is that practice follows theory; that “basic science” comes first and then begets technological innovation. The historically far more common process of innovation has very often followed the opposite pattern. Some fundamental innovation attempts occasionally succeed (mostly they fail). After the rare successes, new theory and research come along to try to explain and formalize what entrepreneurs and tinkerers had already done (after the best pontifical efforts of old theory to prove that what had been done could not have been).
Descendants with modifications
The minimum requirement for a process to be called evolutionary is descent with modification. Thus far, Bitcoin has gradually evolved as a single chain with modifications to its software. This split, in contrast, is Bitcoin’s first speciation event. Both BTC and BCH build on and carry forward the Bitcoin chain in a valid unbroken lineage of blocks tracing back to the genesis block.
The best chain in Bitcoin is defined as a chain of valid blocks with the greatest accumulated proof-of-work difficulty. In this model, the validity test comes first, followed by the total difficulty assessment. The software variants behind each chain have recently implemented certain substantial rule changes that are not now recognized as valid on the other chain. The BTC chain, for example, does not recognize the BCH chain’s modified block size limit, and the BCH chain omits SegWit, which recently activated on the BTC chain. Bitcoin block history diverged after block #478558, which is the last “common ancestor” that the two chains share.
The term “altcoins” has been used to denote cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin. Both of these chains, however, are valid Bitcoin chains as defined above. From this standpoint, the commonly expressed opinion that BCH is a new altcoin may be viewed as a use of language for rhetorical and emotional, rather than cognitive and elucidative, functions. Sharing almost all specifications and over eight years of transaction history, each is far more Bitcoin than either is altcoin. Some new term may be required. For example, in a public draft article, Daniel Krawisz, a long-time altcoin critic, has quite recently suggested the term "bitcoin child" to specify any chain that traces its history back all the way to the Bitcoin genesis block, a category that now includes BTC and BCH, but no others.
Proponents of each chain will naturally want to claim the banner of “true” succession, much as most religious sub-sects story themselves alone as the one truest representative of the ancient founder’s original teachings (rarely acknowledging the odd coincidence that all of the other sub-sects likewise tell just such a story about themselves). Regarding coin names, it is sufficient if the tradable units of the two chains are named in such a way that those using them now or in the future do not encounter any practical confusion. Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) appear sufficient for this. For continuity, Bitcoin dominance indices might choose to sum the valuation estimates for the two post-split Bitcoin chains, perhaps after trading normalizes and if it appears that both will persist for some time.
Of most practical relevance now is the quality and prospects of the existing chains, as they have actually come to exist, moving from the present into the future. Practical measures of their prospects center on hash rate and unit price trends.
Rather than relying primarily on such ever-shifting market criteria, however, I prefer to begin by examining what defines the respective chains themselves. If we are talking about mining, mining what? If we are talking about price, the price of what? Identification properly precedes evaluation. In this case, a comparative identification is natural given the context of descent with modification, in which common features far outnumber differentiators.
Which chain is the “truer” successor is, in principle, not especially important in direct analytical terms. It might be useful as sociological research into the study of the development and spread of beliefs, or somewhat more useful than that as a source of hints for investors as to likely relative popularity based on belief frequencies in relevant user populations (meme frequency).
Nevertheless, BCH’s critics have taken to consistently labeling it an altcoin (which it is not), and moreover asserting that it is impossibly distant from being any true and proper successor of the one real bitcoin, which they believe the BTC chain unquestionably is. In this context, it should at least be noted in counterpoint that from a strictly content standpoint—rather than a popularity standpoint—BCH is arguably a nearer successor to 2009–2015-6 BTC than a post-SegWit BTC.
First, the BCH chain block size limit functions for the time being as a high upper-end traffic-burst defense, which matches the originally stated role and years-long practical function of this limit. This is more consistent in economic terms with the former BTC throughout the majority of its historical development until relatively recent times. In contrast, it was a significant new development when the particular height of the block size limit began to function for extended periods as an economic output ceiling on the industrywide production of Bitcoin transaction-inclusion services. Regardless of one’s opinion on whether this new economic effect is desirable, it remains that it was a significant departure from most of Bitcoin’s past viewed in functional economic terms.
Second, BCH does not implement SegWit. Again, regardless of one’s particular opinion on the net desirability of SegWit, it will in fact arrive on the BTC chain—but not on the BCH chain—as a significant data-structural departure from the organization of the former Bitcoin’s blocks.
Both BTC (with the new SegWit and some other recent changes) and BCH (with its revised block size limit and some other recent changes) are direct successors of the Bitcoin that came before them and each differs in some substantive way from that former Bitcoin. Against a backdrop of continuous Bitcoin software modification and innovation over the years, this stands out as the first time protocol choice options have elicited sufficient sustained disagreement among participants that a chain split has in fact resulted. For the lower block-size limit camp, the key factor was the limit change being unacceptable to them; for the higher block-size limit camp, it was the failure to revise the limit, and for some SegWit activation as well, being unacceptable to them.
Some observers have expressed concern that this first Bitcoin chain split could set a precedent for additional splits in the future. This seems possible, but somewhat doubtful to me. First, it is unclear the extent to which this first split will prosper, and if it does quite poorly, this might discourage future attempts rather than encourage them. Second, months and years of debate, effort, proposals, and campaigns, all primarily centering around the block size limit issue, preceded this first chain split. This suggests this step has by no means come about lightly. Most importantly, I view the block size limit as quite unique and distinctive among Bitcoin protocol issues and think it unlikely that other issues are likely to rise to the level of sustained disagreement that would be required for another similar split. [That said, the 2MB hard fork already planned for November could lead to another split, but that plan predated the current split and some believe this split might even reduce the probability of the other one rather than enhance it.]
A poorly designed experiment, but all we get
The emergence of these two daughter variants of the former Bitcoin, which diverged from a common ancestor block on 1 August 2017, enables a certain evolutionary test in that both represent descent with modification following a speciation event. However, it is by no means a “clean” experiment, able to test the effect of changing a single variable. Alas, real-life evolutionary tests are usually “dirty,” reflecting the net effects of a complex interplay of context and interdependence. Even a single genetic change in an organism that does have some practical effect seldom has a simple, singular effect, but instead results in a certain cascade of effects, interactions, and adjustments.
As an experiment in the scientific sense, then, this chain split is badly confounded due to the many major variables differentiating the two chains. This includes, at least: the block size limit height difference, the presence/absence of SegWit, the respective quality levels and reputations of software development teams and software testing processes, differences in user traffic, and the extent and stability of relative hashing power. Most of these variables can impact both general user confidence (subjective) and bug probabilities (more objective). A good experiment, in contrast, would seek to change one variable at a time. This development does not do this—not even close.
A reasonable case can be made that the BTC/BCH split, such as it is, may be a net positive for holders of the previous “single bitcoin.” Bitcoin’s evolution continues for the time being along paths that have diverged into two chains differing across a set of multiple variables. This may well bring a certain marginal shift toward more practical experience opportunities and away from talk and modeling, which could in itself represent net value added from the event. Relative hashing power, unit prices, development efforts, and software quality levels are all likely to shift over time to various extents and directions not easy to predict (though always easy to “predict” afterwards). The complex sequence of outcomes to ensue must now be seen in practice and over time.
[Update: The original version used BCC for Bitcoin Cash, but this code was already in use by another cryptocurrency. Since that time the Bitcoin Cash community has clearly shifted to BCH.]The Ramapo Police Department is investigating two disturbing incidents in which swastikas were spray-painted on the election signs of David Fried and Christopher St. Lawrence.
David Fried is running for Rockland County executive in the Tuesday, Nov. 5th General Election. Fried is running on the Democratic, Working Families and Independence party lines. He is running against Ed Day who is running on the Republican and Preserve Rockland party lines.
Christopher St. Lawrence is running for reelection as Ramapo Town Supervisor.
This year, Ramapo has been hit by scandal that has included an FBI raid on Town Hall under the administration of Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence in May and federal corruption charges also in May against Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret. No charges have come out of the FBI raid at Town Hall.
(YWN Monsey Newsroom)red3blog:
pardonmewhileipanic:
notcuddles: nesft: #CROW NO Crow: CROW YES! It’s actually impossible to measure how many fucks a corvid give because there is no device sensitive enough to register such a tiny amount. science/animal side of tumblr… explain to me the birb thing
Tail Pulling is a behavior noted in many corvids. The practical application is to create a distraction that will allow the birb to make off with the target’s food. Imagine being in the lunch room and a large fellow has a Twinkie you covet. You can’t just take it from him because he’ll defend his Twinkie. But if you thwap him on the back of his neck and then dash around to snag the Twinkie while he investigates, you stand a decent chance of enjoying spongey goodness. This is basically that in birb form.
Except corvids don’t only do this as a distraction. Sometimes they seem to just being doing it to mess with other animals/birbs. But to use my lunch room analogy, there are times you might thwap someone sneakily on the back of the neck just for amusement. Primates exhibit behavior that appears to be just be annoying other animals for amusement. Given how intelligent crows are, its not unlikely that this is a manifestation of an innate desire to just fuck with someone else for the fun of it. Such as this from the link above:FOR a few days last year it looked as if Japan would phase out nuclear energy entirely. After an earthquake and tsunami created a creeping nuclear catastrophe two years ago the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) said it would get the country out of nuclear energy by 2040. Although it quickly backtracked, almost all of Japan’s 50 commercial reactors are still lying idle.
In February this year, Shinzo Abe, leader of the then incoming Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said the new government would restart reactors after they passed a forthcoming set of new safety tests. The country’s “nuclear village”, a cosy bunch from industry and government, cheered. But now the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is starting to alarm the public once more. On April 15th the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN body, flew in to investigate a series of dangerous incidents.
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A power outage in March left four underground pools that store thousands of the plant’s nuclear fuel rods without fresh cooling water for several hours. A rat, it later emerged, had gnawed through a cable. Workmen laying down rat-proof netting caused another outage. Then this month regulators discovered that thousands of gallons of radioactive water had seeped into the ground; the plant’s operator had installed a jerry-rigged system of plastic sheeting, which sprang leaks. The quantity of contaminated water has become a crisis in its own right, the manager has admitted. And now the pipes used to transfer water to safer storage containers are leaking too.
All this will further darken the public’s view of nuclear power, says Hideyuki Ban, secretary general of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Centre in Tokyo, an anti-nuclear group, “because it looks like still more bungling”. That is no mean feat.
Experts who examined the causes of the 2011 catastrophe reckon the LDP has paid too little attention to what went wrong. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the chairman of a parliamentary investigation, says the country may be moving “too hastily back towards nuclear power, without fully regaining the trust of the Japanese public and the international community”. Yoichi Funabashi, a former editor of Asahi Shimbun newspaper who headed a private-sector investigation, says it is unfortunate that the 2012 election, which brought the LDP back to office, did not include a proper debate about the future of nuclear energy.
Now the set of policies known as “Abenomics” is making a return to nuclear power ever more pressing. The LDP is expected to push hard to restart plants if it wins a crucial election for the upper house of parliament this summer. Mr Abe’s focus on the economy has given greater say to the voice of business, including the big utilities whose plants are idle. Smaller firms clamour for cheaper power too.
Japan’s broader economic future may be at stake. The trade deficit widened to 8.2 trillion yen ($83 billion) for the fiscal year 2012, nearly double the gap of 4.4 trillion yen in 2011, after decades of surplus. This leads to worries about the overall current-account balance; its deterioration could affect Japan’s ability to keep funding its huge public debt domestically. A big cause is the cost of energy imported to fill the gap left by nuclear power. A weaker yen, the result of the central bank’s radical loosening of monetary policy, is further pushing up the price of imported oil and gas. “Of course the public would prefer to get rid of nuclear power, if it were economically possible,” says Toichi Tsutomu, an adviser to the Institute of Energy Economics Japan, “but people are realistic.”
Realistic or not, the public is still afraid of nuclear power. A nationwide poll in February found that around 70% of respondents wanted either to phase out all the plants, or to shut them down immediately. Opposition is likely to be strongest at the local level, as regions move to switch their reactors back on. This week an Osaka court ruled on a suit brought by local residents to have Japan’s only two operating reactors, at the Oi plant in Fukui prefecture, shut down. They lost, but their suit looks like only the first of many battles.CLOSE Here's some key information on the 2017 Ohio election. Wochit
Buy Photo Candidate Yvette Simpson awaits a new question during the 2017 Mayoral Forum hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP and Prince Hall Masons at the Community Acton Agency in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati on Tuesday, March 28, 2017. (Photo: The Enquirer/Sam Greene)Buy Photo
Yvette Simpson is getting good at making last-minute decisions that upset people.
The Cincinnati mayoral candidate has backed out of a Monday night debate hosted by EmpowerU, a fiscally conservative group formed by tea party members.
The group slammed Simpson in a press release Monday morning, referencing an email from her campaign manager sent at 9:30 p.m. Sunday informing EmpowerU about the progressive Democrat backing out. EmpowerU suggested Simpson backed out because she didn't like the questions that were scheduled to be asked.
"Cancellation of tonight’s debate falls squarely on Candidate Simpson," according to the release.
MORE: After rebuke, Cranley will join NAACP debate
Simpson's campaign sent Politics Extra a statement saying it had "deep regret" about backing out of the debate, which was scheduled to be in Delhi Township. But the city councilwoman's schedule has changed, campaign manager Amanda Ford said.
"With only 15 days remaining until Election Day, we feel it is important for Ms. Simpson to be in the city of Cincinnati talking with voters," Ford said in the statement.
The campaign said it had nothing to do with the questions that were to be asked early in the debate.
Those questions, which EmpowerU said were given to candidates in advance, focused on high property tax rates, the struggling streetcar and Children's Hospital's expansion project.
Here's a partial sampling of the first three questions:
• What will you do to lower taxes in the City of Cincinnati?
• The streetcar has proven to be an expensive project with many people calling it a "boondoggle." Knowing this, are you now in favor of expanding the streetcar, or should we turn our attention to more pressing transportation needs of the 52 neighborhoods?
• Discuss the role that the mayor plays in economic development for the city.... Please discuss Amazon.com and Children's Hospital in your answer.
The questions undoubtedly were aimed at Simpson, but they're fair. She's a staunch streetcar supporter and has been under fire since August for her role in the debate over Children's Hospital's $550 million expansion project.
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MORE: Cranley's ad puts Children's Hospital issue 'back in the news'
The criticism has mostly been aimed at her decision to introduce a last-minute motion demanding Children's hand over millions of dollars to the neighborhood in exchange for her support of a zoning change.
In fairness, PX asked Simpson's campaign to provide answers to those questions when we reached out for comment Monday morning. The campaign declined to answer the questions. She has answered questions repeatedly about her Children's decision and the streetcar in other debates, forums and media interviews.
It's also not like voters haven't had a chance to see Simpson and Mayor John Cranley on the same stage this fall. They've participated in over a dozen debates and forums so far, but neither candidate has made it to all the events. Cranley was a no-show at Mount St. Joseph University's candidates' forum on Oct. 16 in Delhi Township.
RELATED: Cranley, Simpson to meet in Enquirer-Fox19 'virtual town hall' Thursday
Look, PX isn't sure why Simpson and Cranley originally agreed to this debate. They're both Democrats, and it's odd they agreed to a debate hosted by a conservative group. But EmpowerU has held debates for several years on local races with Republicans and Democrats. In addition, the debate was scheduled to be held outside the city limits.
But they did commit, and folks were counting on this debate. It's crunch time, and the candidates are really under the microscope this close to Nov. 7. What message does it send to voters when it looks like Simpson is avoiding answering tough questions?
Politics Extra is a column looking inside Greater Cincinnati and Ohio politics. Follow Enquirer political columnist Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy and send email to jwilliams@enquirer.com.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/2gEpZiSGlobalist Emmanuel Macron, who favors open borders and is backed by Rothschild bankers, has won a resounding victory in the run-off election for the French Presidency. Current estimates project that he will win around two-thirds of the vote. Marine Le Pen, his nationalist challenger, has unsurprisingly conceded.
Yet is there a much bigger story looming? Against the backdrop of this very sad day, which will probably seal France’s fate as an Islamized colony of Arabia and North Africa, the French media was banned from publishing news about a very embarrassing set of email leaks.
Rebel Media’s Jack Posobiec became the first well-known figure to tweet about supposed Macron revelations from 4chan’s /pol/ forum. These revelations include that the new President is gay, gets drugs bought for him by aides, and has offshore bank accounts for the purposes of tax evasion.
“We can’t talk about the hacking details, but Russia certainly did the hacking”
The most common response by the mainstream media about the leaked emails, if you exclude the French outlets prohibited by law from discussing them, has been to blame Russia directly or insinuate that it is responsible. Accompanying this has been an extreme unwillingness to talk about what the emails actually say.
NPR, for example, has continued its woeful record as a biased source. It was quick to carry the leftist torch with this article. Yet despite having easy access to 4chan’s /pol/ section, it mentioned none of the damaging allegations against Macron discussed in the forum, let alone covered the in-depth analysis undertaken by contributors there.
Even far less unreliable outlets like Britain’s The Telegraph have somewhat jumped on the bandwagon, quoting such disgraced “sources” as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, Robby Mook. Having been beaten by Donald Trump, who never had the powerful support of the media, Wall Street, or academics, cronies like Mook have every reason to say that Russia heads a global conspiracy to discredit leftist Western politicians. Again, this article and others like it lacked any consideration of the substance of the leaked emails.
Surprise, surprise… one of the allegations is that Emmanuel Macron is gay
GotNews, whose founder Chuck Johnson was instrumental in unveiling the UVA rape hoax, has seized upon news that the new French President may be on a gay dating email list. Called Vestiaire Gay, the website appeared in the trove of leaked messages. If authentic, Macron’s homosexuality would prove correct the insistence of many of his detractors that his marriage to a woman a quarter of a century older than him is a sham.
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Macron possibly lying about his sexual orientation and the reason for his marriage would also raise serious questions about both his character and integrity. France faces close to insurmountable problems, especially of the Islamic and demographic varieties. A candidate already supported to the hilt by high finance who can’t even be open about which orifice he likes the most is one everyday Frenchmen and women not only do not need but should greatly fear.
Macron has taken legal action to counter claims he has offshore bank accounts, but the leaks suggest otherwise
Just prior to the dumping of emails, Emmanuel Macron initiated legal action against Marine Le Pen for her comments about others’ allegations he has an offshore bank account in the Bahamas. Le Pen, however, did not come close to accusing him of this.
Weirdly enough, one of Jack Posobiec’s key disclosures has been 4chan’s work on suspected offshore financial assets held by Macron at, you guessed it, a Cayman Islands bank in the Caribbean:
/pol/ – Verification of Macron Cayman Bank Accounthttps://t.co/AneQmuHsmZ pic.twitter.com/11sZjqgbU4 — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 5, 2017
If verified fully by the authorities (presuming they are even interested), this would be a supreme irony. Why? Because until he started his own movement, Macron was a key architect of the superficially anti-corporate Socialist government.
Why did the French people vote for more of the same?
After the Paris nightclub massacre and the Nice truck rampage, Return Of Kings hoped that a more sensible man than François Hollande (or even a woman in the form of Le Pen) would become the next President of France. But, alas, the French people have voted in an establishment figure, a globalist who up until recently was one of the top advisors to the Hollande regime.
While the Macron emails purportedly show top aides buying criminalized narcotics online and references to getting the boss some “c..” (cocaine?), it seems the French people have their own drug of choice: denial. Only this can explain the turn of events unfolding in France over the weekend.
Let’s face it: France is in for a tough five years–five years which in all likelihood will lead to a very miserable half-century. Be warned.
Read More: France’s Cucked Presidential Frontrunner Is Married To A Woman 24 Years Older Than HimPin 33 Shares
GV aka God’s Voice is a up and coming emcee who brings a unique, personal touch to his music and then some. After spending some time in New Jersey and Tampa, Florida, the young artist used said time to develop his artistic skills which led him to release his first video “Power Of Now”. He went on to drop 2 singles “Exhale” and “Another Hit” as he prepares to make a profound statement with his art.
Today- GV’s heartfelt new single, “Tunnelz” is his most personal effort to date. Written in the style of a confessional, this artist seamlessly weaves social issues and the day-to-day life of a starving artist into the fabric of the song. Making use of a dark, cinematic/gritty soundscape, surrounded by fluttering keys and a fat bass which provides a profound nostalgia inducing feeling for the listener. The old school vibe juxtaposed with GV’s signature futuristic delivery makes for a truly memorable sonic landscape. Video production company, A1 Vision has become the visual keystone of “all things GV.” This dream team have created a cinematic masterpiece to accompany “Tunnelz” with a visual that speaks directly to the zeitgeist gripping urban centers across the country. GV goes hard, spits a solid flow, his message is clear…. and he’s impossible not to root for.
Keep up with GV | Soundcloud : Twitter : Instagram : WebsiteOf all tools in your shed, you probably never think about replacing your buckets until they start to leak. But Home Depot might have you weekend renovators readily upgrading to its new Leaktite Big Gripper bucket—designed by Herbst Produkt's Scot Herbst—that features a bunch of ergonomic innovations that the lowly bucket should have had since day one.
A more asymmetrical design and the addition of molded grip handles on the back and bottom of the Big Gripper make the bucket much each easier for one person to lift and empty—even when full of heavy materials. And a redesigned pour spout helps ensure that liquids only pour out where you want them too.
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Finally, the 3.5 gallon container features measurement markings on the inside so it's easier to properly mix cement or other ingredients in the right proportions. And while at $7.50 it's slightly more expensive than your run-of-the-mill plastic bucket. Think of the extra money you're spending as an investment in a healthy spine and back muscles. [Home Depot via Wired]There's a big delay going on at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Washington Heights, and it has nothing to do with the commute. Renovations of the more than 50-year-old transit hub are nearly two years behind schedule, and local leaders are getting frustrated. Manhattan reporter Michael Scotto has the story.
A trailer at the Port Authority's Upper Manhattan bus station was supposed to be around for just one year.
But nearly three years after a $200 million renovation of the station began, construction crews are still working and local leaders are wondering when it's all going to end.
"This has been sort of a blight on the community, because we have a boarded up terminal," said Shahabuddeen Ally, the chairperson of Community Board 12.
"It takes up a great deal of space," Ally continued. "It's used by thousands of day, so it's not something that goes unnoticed."
5 million people a year use the hulking George Washington Bridge Bus Station, many of them commuters to and from New Jersey.
It's a stepchild of sorts to the Port Authority's Bus Terminal on 42nd Street, which is used by a staggering 67 million travelers a year.
The George Washington Bridge Bus Station's long-delayed overhaul finally began in early 2014 to create a more inviting waiting area and better retail space.
But the work was supposed to have been completed 18 months ago.
"I believe this project could be done sooner," Manhattan City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez said. "I believe that they should have a better community engagement in this project."
The delays have been frustrating for local merchants who have signed leases to open up new shops in the station. They've been wanting to move in now for almost the last two years, instead having to put their business plans on hold.
Sarina Prabasi and her husband own a coffee shop, Cafe Buunni, 10 blocks away. They have been planning to open a location in the new station.
"It's hard. It's especially hard as a small business," Prabasi said. "We put our eggs in one basket and we're waiting."
The delays have cost the developer penalties of $5,000 per working day since April.
The developer blames having to work above a busy network of highways and around passengers and buses that still use the station.
The project now is projected to wrap up in April. But residents are not convinced.
"Unless something happens in the next 30, 60 days, I don't see it opening in April," Ally said.
A community used to waiting for buses, now waiting for a bus station.Mark your calendars, ladies and gentleman.
The LA Galaxy will officially open the 2018 Major League Soccer season 7 p.m. Sunday March 4th at the StubHub Center vs. Landon Donovan MVP Diego Valeri and the Portland Timbers. The match will also serve as the managerial debut for new Timbers manager Giovanni Savarese.
During the 2018 MLS regular season, each club will play 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. Teams will face each of their conference opponents (10 in the East, 11 in the West) twice during the season with one game at home and one game away. Western Conference teams will play one additional intra-conference game and Eastern Conference teams will play two. All teams will face each non-conference opponent once.
If the idea of a home opener vs. Portland fills you with dread, its because LA were dominated by the Timbers in their home debut last season, giving up an early Valeri goal before a 34th minute Jelle Van Damme sealed the Galaxy’s fate. However, Portland will be without at least two influential pieces: Skillful midfielder and fan favorite Darlington Nagbe was traded to Atlanta United, and longtime manager Caleb Porter has also left the club.We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern and outrage over both the recent demand for the retraction of Rebecca Tuvel’s article, “In Defense of Transracialism,” which was published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy (29 March 2017), and Hypatia’s temporarily acquiescing to this demand by removing the article in its online form for a period of time.
The open letter to Hypatia (published 30 April 2017), which garnered over 800 signatures of academics from universities within the US and elsewhere in addition to a handful of writers, was a mean-spirited mischaracterization of a scholar’s work that was conspicuously lacking in any attempt to engage with the primary argument offered therein. Instead, the letter demanded a retraction based on spurious and, in some instances, demonstrably wrong assertions regarding the content of the work. We agree with Jessie Singal’s overall assessment in This Is What a Modern Day Witch Hunt Looks Like and we share his suspicion that despite calling for its retraction, many of the signatories had not read Tuvel’s article before adding their names to the letter. In fact, one must wonder if some of the signatories had even read the open letter to Hypatia given the petition’s absolute defiance to critical inquiry and academic deliberation.
Most of the signatories to the Hypatia letter enjoy both the intellectual and practical benefits of free and open debate and discussion within their institutions. A vast majority of the signatories also directly benefit from the mechanisms of fairness of review processes within publishing in order for their ideas and words to see the light of day. This letter is then addressed to the heads of the universities and publishing houses of those who signed the Hypatia letter, which not only set out to have an article disappeared, but contributed to a cultural climate in which debate is stifled and individuals are demonized. These signatories participated in a purposeful, modern-era witch hunt whereby some of the most privileged in academia and publishing created a groundswell of opprobrium for a junior scholar--one that can be reasonably expected to have serious ramifications for her career and reputation.
Many of us have watched in astonishment and horror over the last few years as identity politics has been used as a cudgel to disappear the material condition and facticity of the world, be it social or scientific. Instead of nurturing dialogue with one’s interlocutor, a climate of taking irrational, unscientific, and reactionary dogma has been championed by the academy and the general media. And anyone who has dared to question, critique, or even—as in the case of Tuvel—subject it to rigorous logical scrutiny in an effort to expand its application, has been met with shaming at best and abuse at worst. This alarming call for the silencing of an academic who made a good faith argument has left little room for doubt that the proponents of this dogma will brook no questioning of it. We believe that the signatories to the Hypatia letter have engaged in a call for de facto censorship and deep intellectual dishonesty to intimidate not just Tuvel, but anyone else who might consider offering a contrary opinion or perspective.
The signatories sent a clear message: no inquiry into the function and precepts of the prevailing philosophy of gender will be tolerated. We unequivocally reject this message and affirm our right to question, critique, and rebut any and all philosophies or viewpoints, regardless of how much academic support they may have. We recognize the Hypatia letter as an egregious example of a growing authoritarian trend when it comes to engaging certain topics. We refuse to bend to it. We condemn the attempts of academics and others to silence and erase from public view an opinion solely because it does not fall within the discursive parameters that they have taken it upon themselves to set. We assert that the academics who signed on to this letter betrayed their fundamental duty as scholars to encourage—even demand—rigorous examination and robust discussion of ideas.
It is supremely ironic that Tuvel’s acceptance and application of many of the core arguments used to buttress one of the prevailing views of a certain type of identity, when applied to another social domain has, conversely, sparked such outrage. It is difficult for us to draw any conclusion other than that Tuvel--however inadvertently--has shown the hollowness of such ideas and that those who expound them can proffer no credible defense. The letter and the demand for retraction show nothing as much as a thorough inability to logically rebut Tuvel’s argument.
And there is a glaring paradox at the centre of this affair—that one of the better known signatories has previously written the following:
This attempt to purify the sphere of public discourse by institutionalizing the norms that establish what ought properly to be included there operates as a preemptive censor. Such efforts not only labor under a fear of contamination, but they are also compelled to restage in the spectacles of public denunciations they perform the very utterances they seek to banish from public life.
We find it difficult to fathom how this individual can reconcile these sentiments with a letter that calls for the silencing of a scholar without even a cursory attempt at counter-argument. We again note the irony. This professor and her co-signers have advanced an onslaught of harassment towards an individual whose ideas are merely an application of their own theories and belief-systems. This amounts to an abuse of power on the part of influential individuals ensconced in powerful institutions. In endorsing this call for the silencing of a good faith and rigorous effort on the part of a scholar, they have shown themselves to be inadequate models of scholarly integrity and intellectual honesty.
We are not all scholars or academics. Our political affiliations and outlooks vary in numerous ways. We are professionals and laypeople; workers and readers; some of us are activists and some are not. Many of us do not agree with the premise of Tuvel’s article in fact, but we wholeheartedly support open debate and the freedom of intellectual exchange through the medium of publishing. We believe that we must confront three distinct issues:
The growing academic trend, particularly evident when it comes to gender, to stifle debate and shame, harass, and defame anyone who does not mindlessly parrot the prevailing orthodoxy; The logical and political shortcomings inherent in much of the currently popular theory concerning gender; The elision of feminist politics and the troubling sidelining of sex over gender “feelings,” ultimately contributing to institutional sexism whereby only those who toe the genderist ideology are rewarded while all mention of material reality of females is pushed aside in both academic and editorial structures (i.e. the disappearance of women's studies departments over the past two decades in favour of gender studies programs and the conterminous decrease of publications related to the material and experiential reality of females and sex-based oppression).
We are a diverse group of people who understand that ideas matter and that intellectual trends impact the society at large. They affect law, media, medicine, culture, language, and politics; they affect how we are educated and how our workplaces function; and, as this episode has made abundantly clear, they can even determine who is allowed to express an opinion and who isn’t. Because of this, vigorous and open debate and discussion is essential. We see in the Hypatia letter a clear attempt to incite fear in anyone who dares to |
of the most normal things in the world, sports, manages to attract the most autistic sperglords on the internet. There's draconian censorship and then there's deleting shitposts from autists on /sp/.I don't understand how one of the most normal things in the world, sports, manages to attract the most autistic sperglords on the internet.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:55:24 20e567 No.375 never forget the importance of well programmed game mechanics, Mr. Kern. there is nothing more important in a video game than good gameplay. interactive movies, "retro" indie hipster garbage, and simple addictive freemium shovelware may be great ways to get easy money from brainless casual gamers, but if you care more about making the best video game you can than making fat profits, put everything you've got into making the gameplay as fun as possible. that is how all the very best video games are made. that is how vanilla WoW was made.
the current state WoW is in saddens me. all that remains are a few buggy private servers emulating vanilla, TBC, and WotLK. Blizzard officially killed retail WoW with the release of MoP. but you can learn from past mistakes and the mistakes of others in the industry and use that knowledge when creating a new MMO. no development has come close to creating a masterpiece like WoW, every other MMO since then has fallen short, usually because they just tried to copy WoW.
it is possible to create a better virtual reality. use the power of your mind and your penis. put everything you've got into creating the best virtual reality that has ever existed. dedicate your life to it. the rewards will be greater than anything any man has ever felt before in the history of the world. you will be a god.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:55:28 20e567 No.376 File: 1424760928460.png (189.64 KB, 517x316, 517:316, he.png) >>319
>Playtesters are all children, yes, chained to desks in China.
I knew it.
>>353
>But now, I think everybody knows that's where the marketing power really is.
Why are they still using news sites then? I knew it.Why are they still using news sites then?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:54:42 20e567 No.377 >>319
Who have "scared" women most? The trolls, men in the industry or the people screaming about how horrible it is to be a woman in the industry? Who have "scared" women most? The trolls, men in the industry or the people screaming about how horrible it is to be a woman in the industry?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:55:43 20e567 No.378 >>334
>>337
>>346
>>356
>>363
Mark I think you need to clarify if the children in China comment was sarcasm or not, its very hard to tell
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:56:18 20e567 No.379 Hey Mark.
Besides Video Games, do you watch any sports?
If so what is your favorite baseball team?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:55:40 20e567 No.380 >>240
>>248
You might find this video interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmILqAEJd5w You might find this video interesting:
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:56:00 20e567 No.381 >>319
>Playtesters are all children, yes, chained to desks in China.
That explains a lot.
Are you able to share any info about that MMO you're working on? The only impression I got from it is that it's a Minecraft MMO or some shit like that. I hope that's not the case.
And a minor question about it, will it be playable without Oculus Rift or not? That explains a lot.Are you able to share any info about that MMO you're working on? The only impression I got from it is that it's a Minecraft MMO or some shit like that. I hope that's not the case.And a minor question about it, will it be playable without Oculus Rift or not?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:56:09 20e567 No.382 File: 1424760969349.jpg (Spoiler Image, 732.22 KB, 1125x1270, 225:254, 191060.jpg) >>372
just tried reverse image searching my crop and nothing came up so I'll spoonfeed you anon
god-tier taste btw
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:15 20e567 No.383 Mark the Kansas City Royals are 35/1 odds to win the 2015 World Series. Do you think this is a good future to take? I am thinking of laying down at least $100 on that.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:42 20e567 No.384 File: 1424761062438.png (226.39 KB, 500x375, 4:3, 1390365324280.png) >>382
you're gonna scare mark off ya shitbird you're gonna scare mark off ya shitbird
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:45 20e567 No.385 >>134
Petition is, as we say in software "working as intended." Its highlighting an issue and getting some commentary going in a different direction.
I've heard from a handful of devs and at least one CEO. So far they expressed thanks for my petition. Petition is, as we say in software "working as intended." Its highlighting an issue and getting some commentary going in a different direction.I've heard from a handful of devs and at least one CEO. So far they expressed thanks for my petition.
Anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:56:57 20e567 No.386 >>382
MARK KERN, DO NOT CLICK ON THIS SPOILER
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:56:57 20e567 No.387 File: 1424761017665.gif (814.91 KB, 500x360, 25:18, 1422174655086.gif) >>378
It's definitely sarcasm mate. It's definitely sarcasm mate.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:52 20e567 No.388 >>378
It was very obviously sarcasm, the "yes" gives it away. It was very obviously sarcasm, the "yes" gives it away.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:04 20e567 No.389 >>378
>SJW shills detected
Calm your social justice jimmies. How the hell are Chinese children gonna playtest something like SC2?
He's obviously kidding. Everyone knows it's Korean children doing the playtesting there. Calm your social justice jimmies. How the hell are Chinese children gonna playtest something like SC2?He's obviously kidding. Everyone knows it's Korean children doing the playtesting there.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:58 20e567 No.390 File: 1424761078223.jpg (38.2 KB, 730x487, 730:487, 1424550720234.jpg) hey mark do you watch baseball? have you any interest in making an MLB videogame with RPG mechanics?
anonymous SAGE! 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:56 20e567 No.391 >>382
ah damn, it's just a trap. Kinda hoped it was a succubus forcing a trap to suck her off
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:58:39 20e567 No.392 >>382
Don't post porn, it's against the board's rules. Don't post porn, it's against the board's rules.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:57:52 20e567 No.393 >>384
>>386
I'M SORRY MARK I LOVE YOU
but I especially Diablo 2
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:58:05 20e567 No.394 >>393
*especially love *especially love
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:03 20e567 No.395 File: 1424761143689.jpg (45.58 KB, 1280x720, 16:9, 489350540961.jpg) >>385
What's the next step of your plan? What's the next step of your plan?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:33 20e567 No.398 >>385
That's good news. Anything you can share on their responses? That's good news. Anything you can share on their responses?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:58:45 20e567 No.399 >>382
>posting porn on here
cmon son
even ebin maymays are better for everyone cmon soneven ebin maymays are better for everyone
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:38 20e567 No.400 >>379
So I grew up overseas…and when I came here for college I didn't know anything about sports.
I tried going to a Hockey game and got whacked by a stray puck in the kidney…making me have to leave the game…so that was a no go.
Then I tried football. I was in Rochester NY so I was all about the Bills…but after losing so many superbowls, I gave up.
So, no sports for me. Plus I'm so uncoordinated that most of my teenage coaches gave up on me. So I grew up overseas…and when I came here for college I didn't know anything about sports.I tried going to a Hockey game and got whacked by a stray puck in the kidney…making me have to leave the game…so that was a no go.Then I tried football. I was in Rochester NY so I was all about the Bills…but after losing so many superbowls, I gave up.So, no sports for me. Plus I'm so uncoordinated that most of my teenage coaches gave up on me.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:58:53 20e567 No.401 >>323
Why the fuck did this post come pack 10 minutes later?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:45 20e567 No.402 >>384
>>386
What if he likes girly dick? Ever think of that? What if he likes girly dick? Ever think of that?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:58 20e567 No.403 >>336
Do you think that the women who are smart enough to be concerned about their safety and sharp enough to program also realize that they could just as easily work in another field without having to worry about getting death threats? Do you think that the women who are smart enough to be concerned about their safety and sharp enough to program also realize that they could just as easily work in another field without having to worry about getting death threats?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:58 20e567 No.404 What is your opinion upon more and more games becoming short of "interactive movies" instead of actual games?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:59 20e567 No.405 File: 1424761199829.jpg (77.91 KB, 609x626, 609:626, 3333.JPG) >>385
Nice.
A follow-up question: you do realize Patrick Garratt was insulting your intelligence with that "polite e-mail exchange," right?
I mean no disrespect, of course. Nice.A follow-up question: you do realize Patrick Garratt was insulting your intelligence with that "polite e-mail exchange," right?I mean no disrespect, of course.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:00:28 20e567 No.406 File: 1424761228581.jpg (50.46 KB, 251x231, 251:231, 1422338534491.jpg) >>399
I'm sorry, I thought I was on 8chan and not 4chan so I figured spoilered pr0n was okay. I'm sorry, I thought I was on 8chan and not 4chan so I figured spoilered pr0n was okay.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:00:30 20e567 No.407 >>370
That sucks. Can you answer me this; Why did Diablo go from being a dark dungeon crawler akin to a more casual Roguelike, to a loot explosion grindfest?
I'm not talking about D3, I'm talking about going from D1 to D2. Not saying D2 is bad, but why did you guys decide to focus more on loot? That sucks. Can you answer me this; Why did Diablo go from being a dark dungeon crawler akin to a more casual Roguelike, to a loot explosion grindfest?I'm not talking about D3, I'm talking about going from D1 to D2. Not saying D2 is bad, but why did you guys decide to focus more on loot?
Smegma!C0cks51q.s 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:56 20e567 No.408 File: 1424761196668.png (264.2 KB, 1063x2172, 1063:2172, emancipation.png) >>374
We came to 8chan so that we would no longer be prosecuted for our creative moments We came to 8chan so that we would no longer be prosecuted for our creative moments
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 06:59:57 20e567 No.409 >>404
Case in point: The order whatthefuckevernumber Case in point: The order whatthefuckevernumber
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:01:07 20e567 No.410 File: 1424761267495.jpg (23.55 KB, 499x499, 1:1, 0e9.jpg) >>400
Yeah, teenaged coaches are pretty inexperienced Yeah, teenaged coaches are pretty inexperienced
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:00:18 20e567 No.411 >>383
Did you see my last reply on sports? No? Yes, def lay down $100..hell, $1000 on that. Did you see my last reply on sports? No? Yes, def lay down $100..hell, $1000 on that.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:01:59 20e567 No.412 >>408
There's a time and place for shitposting, it's not here and it's not now. There's a time and place for shitposting, it's not here and it's not now.
Anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:01:59 20e567 No.414 >>406
It's not against global rules, it's against these specific boards rules. Learn how 8chan works first before crying, fag. It's not against global rules, it's against these specific boards rules. Learn how 8chan works first before crying, fag.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:02:02 20e567 No.415 Mr. Kern, do you have any advice for an amateur game designer who works with engines such as Unity, Source, and Unreal 4? It seems design jobs are difficult to get into.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:01:31 20e567 No.416
>>384
We can only hope Mark Kern isn't that much of a fucking pussy, to be "frightened" away from the oh so spooky 8chan imageboard by a drawing of an incubus. What do you think of Torchlight 2?We can only hope Mark Kern isn't that much of a fucking pussy, to be "frightened" away from the oh so spooky 8chan imageboard by a drawing of an incubus.
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:02:59 20e567 No.418 >>388
Yep, I was joking about China. I prefer to use flying monkeys. Yep, I was joking about China. I prefer to use flying monkeys.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:02:17 20e567 No.419 File: 1424761337890.jpg (30.49 KB, 500x333, 500:333, a8c.jpg) >>411
>tfw Mark Kern is shitposting with us
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:02:19 20e567 No.420 >>411
Mark, what's your honest opinion on the indie scene circa the last 5 years?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:03:12 20e567 No.421 File: 1424761392912.jpg (14.5 KB, 640x480, 4:3, 1381678864101.jpg) Oh shit doubles better put down everything you own on that
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:03:25 20e567 No.422 >>391
considering the sameface that plagues inCase works, your confussion is understandable. considering the sameface that plagues inCase works, your confussion is understandable.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:03:27 20e567 No.423 Sup Mark
Do you remember how many hours have you spent playing Diablo 2 outside of developing it?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:02:39 20e567 No.424 >>187
Wow, that's actually pretty cunning, mate Wow, that's actually pretty cunning, mate
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:03:33 20e567 No.425 >>411
I have a real question this time.
Were you familiar with chan culture before? If not, how do you like it so far? I have a real question this time.Were you familiar with chan culture before? If not, how do you like it so far?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:03:46 20e567 No.426 >>412
Hosting an AMA on an imageboard is, dare I say, "asking for it". Hosting an AMA on an imageboard is, dare I say, "asking for it".
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:06 20e567 No.427 >>418
FLYING MONKEYS CONFIRMED!
WHAT ELSE IS THE GOVERNMENT HIDING?
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:12 20e567 No.428 >>416
Didn't play it. Was it good? Didn't play it. Was it good?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:50 20e567 No.429 >>428
9/10 it was OK. Pretty much improved on the first TL in every way, but did nothing to go beyond what Diablo 2 did. 9/10 it was OK. Pretty much improved on the first TL in every way, but did nothing to go beyond what Diablo 2 did.
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:53 20e567 No.430 >>425
Culture seems fine, but I'm probably not seeing it "native." Software is um…hard to use…on purpose? Culture seems fine, but I'm probably not seeing it "native." Software is um…hard to use…on purpose?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:10 20e567 No.431 >>425
There have been a lot of devs on /v/, fuck, many even got their start on /v/. There have been a lot of devs on /v/, fuck, many even got their start on /v/.
Acid Man 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:11 20e567 No.432 RULE CLARIFICATION
I said no porn dumping. Spoiler and warn, and keep it limited.
Mr. Kern is aware of our ways. Carry on.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:15 20e567 No.433 >>428
Please disregard all this shitposting.
It comes with the territory. Please disregard all this shitposting.It comes with the territory.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:29 20e567 No.434 File: 1424761469198.jpg (7.21 KB, 250x250, 1:1, 23780778-image[1].jpg)
>>416 Yeah lets just post shit tons of porn and stuff, while trying to ask mark kern questions, great idea m8
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:21 20e567 No.435 >>319
Thanks for answering my previous question Mark! I have another if I may, how do you feel the development side of the industry feels about journalism and their actions over the past few decades? Do you think the time is nearing where they can't just live with it's current state and real change is pushed forward? Thanks for answering my previous question Mark! I have another if I may, how do you feel the development side of the industry feels about journalism and their actions over the past few decades? Do you think the time is nearing where they can't just live with it's current state and real change is pushed forward?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:04:31 20e567 No.436 >>428
Mark, I actually have a serious question now, what made the team want to make the paladin in Diablo 2 be black yet still have a European aesthetic to his armour? Mark, I actually have a serious question now, what made the team want to make the paladin in Diablo 2 be black yet still have a European aesthetic to his armour?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:29 20e567 No.438 >>428
It was good. Much better than the first Torchlight. I prefer it over Diablo 3, actually. Especially with mods. It was good. Much better than the first Torchlight. I prefer it over Diablo 3, actually. Especially with mods.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:44 20e567 No.439 >>428
It got a 9/10 from IGN, so I guess it was okay. It got a 9/10 from IGN, so I guess it was okay.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:58 20e567 No.440 Hey Mark, As someone who plays Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, I think it has interesting qualities that 1-up'd alot of the classic mmo systems, What do you think of square enix's progress in their game? Also If you dont mind, What is your favorite single player game of all time?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:05:20 20e567 No.441 >>429
>>428
I thought it was boring as fuck. Path Of Exile was a lot better. Still doesn't touch D2 though. I thought it was boring as fuck. Path Of Exile was a lot better. Still doesn't touch D2 though.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:06:55 20e567 No.442 Hey Mark. What is your favorite kind of game?
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:06:57 20e567 No.443 >>423
Maybe 40-80 hours max. I was pretty burnt out since I had to run through the game about a billion times during development…in development…like when stuff was still broken or unfun. Kinda drains ya. Maybe 40-80 hours max. I was pretty burnt out since I had to run through the game about a billion times during development…in development…like when stuff was still broken or unfun. Kinda drains ya.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:02 20e567 No.444 >>428
Hey do you know why everyone in the industry pretend that indie games start in 2007-2008 despite the fact that indies have existed since early PC days. Hey do you know why everyone in the industry pretend that indie games start in 2007-2008 despite the fact that indies have existed since early PC days.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:14 20e567 No.445 >>59
Hello Mark, I have a few questions if you'd be obliged.
Firstly, is it really true that Blizzard deleted the source code/server data for Vanilla WoW? I find it hard to believe considering it was such a huge and popular game, and it's not locked in a vault somewhere.
Secondly, did you create the mechanics of the Vanilla honor system to deliberately suck the lives of all those that participated in it? We're talking 3 months of continuous 18 hour days for Rank 14.
Thirdly, did you realise the dishonorable kill mechanic added later on would completely kill world PvP? Hello Mark, I have a few questions if you'd be obliged.Firstly, is it really true that Blizzard deleted the source code/server data for Vanilla WoW? I find it hard to believe considering it was such a huge and popular game, and it's not locked in a vault somewhere.Secondly, did you create the mechanics of the Vanilla honor system to deliberately suck the lives of all those that participated in it? We're talking 3 months of continuous 18 hour days for Rank 14.Thirdly, did you realise the dishonorable kill mechanic added later on would completely kill world PvP?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:13 20e567 No.446 >>430
>Software is um…hard to use…on purpose?
It's probably designed that way so that sane people don't come here. It's probably designed that way so that sane people don't come here.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:06:25 20e567 No.447 File: 1424761585321.png (1.03 MB, 1000x809, 1000:809, 1399251890728.png) Where do you see websites like Kotaku, Polygon, Gamasutra etc in 5 years?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:23 20e567 No.448 Re-asking a question I asked earlier:
What do you think of VR, Mark?
Is it something that actually has staying power or is it a fad, like motion controls?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:30 20e567 No.449 File: 1424761650585.jpg (44.14 KB, 229x231, 229:231, 1419208328307.jpg) >>438
Agreed.
Torchlight definitely filled the intense void of disappointment from D3 Agreed.Torchlight definitely filled the intense void of disappointment from D3
anonymous SAGE! 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:18 20e567 No.450 >>434
>>433
You're some special kind of faggots. You're some special kind of faggots.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:11 20e567 No.451 >>145
>Commie tell anybody Babby Straya to go fuck a sheep
You shut your dirty whore mouth. You shut your dirty whore mouth.
Anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:24 20e567 No.452 File: 1424761644845.jpg (39.81 KB, 601x701, 601:701, 1424283536964.jpg) >>430
>not seeing it native
Oh, boy, you're right about that. Oh, boy, you're right about that.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:22 20e567 No.453 >>448
He's making a VR MMO right now, so you tell us what he thinks :^) He's making a VR MMO right now, so you tell us what he thinks :^)
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:41 20e567 No.454 >>447
>implying those sites will survive 5 years of gamergate
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:39 20e567 No.456 >>430
It's mostly plagued with a lot of legacy stuff from old imageboard software that people insist to use and hates to let go.
I still remember the outrage about making FRAMES optional around 2008. That should give you an idea. It's mostly plagued with a lot of legacy stuff from old imageboard software that people insist to use and hates to let go.I still remember the outrage about making FRAMES optional around 2008. That should give you an idea.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:07:57 20e567 No.457 Okay, serious question.
Mr. Kern, do you realize by openly posting on a chan, people against GamerGate will demonize you now?
Do you think that will impact your efforts to help bring some kind of fix to game journalism?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:00 20e567 No.459 >>445
>>443
While on the subject of WoW, who wrote the stuff around the Scarlet Crusade in Vanilla? Can you tell him that was awesome? While on the subject of WoW, who wrote the stuff around the Scarlet Crusade in Vanilla? Can you tell him that was awesome?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:49 20e567 No.460 >>443
I really need to know this;
What made you guys focus so much more on loot in diablo 2 compared to the first game? I really need to know this;
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:30 20e567 No.463 >>443
Care to share any memorable bugs from development? Care to share any memorable bugs from development?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:28 20e567 No.464 File: 1424761768210.gif (1001.18 KB, 500x291, 500:291, i so fag.gif) >>319
>Playtesters are all children, yes, chained to desks in China.
I love you I love you
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:30 20e567 No.465 >>436
No clue. We didn't think that way. It was just like "Black Paladin?" "Cool!" Armor was whatever looked cool. No thought beyond that. No clue. We didn't think that way. It was just like "Black Paladin?" "Cool!" Armor was whatever looked cool. No thought beyond that.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:35 20e567 No.466 >>430
It takes a bit of getting used to, but it works as something of an entry barrier to prevent the "facebook crowd" from moving in.
But once you've been here for a few months, other community sites will feel clunky, archaic, and restrictive.
You should check out
>>>/adgd/
and
>>>/v/ It takes a bit of getting used to, but it works as something of an entry barrier to prevent the "facebook crowd" from moving in.But once you've been here for a few months, other community sites will feel clunky, archaic, and restrictive.You should check outand
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:35 20e567 No.467 File: 1424761775142.jpg (19.96 KB, 443x360, 443:360, Xenia.JPG) >>418
I have a feeling your quite experienced at shit posting. I have a feeling your quite experienced at shit posting.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:52 20e567 No.468 File: 1424761732324.jpg (Spoiler Image, 11.42 KB, 430x263, 430:263, 4232334.jpg) >>452
> my OC donut steel is used on the Mark Kern thread
I regret nothing. I regret nothing.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:08:54 20e567 No.469 >>455
>Implying a based and smart guy like him would like any one other than Fluttershy
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:48 20e567 No.471 File: 1424761788845.png (18.67 KB, 183x232, 183:232, w5zktfG.png) >>455
oy vey ban this filth
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:01 20e567 No.472 File: 1424761801149.jpg (28.57 KB, 460x346, 230:173, 1389531027857.jpg) Do you know of other high-profile game developers (Or any profession in the games industry) that are quietly supporting Gamergate?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:21 20e567 No.473 >>465
This is a fantastic way of thinking when trying to make games fun. This is a fantastic way of thinking when trying to make games fun.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:20 20e567 No.474 >>466
>>>/agdg/
Fixed.
That's the board we have for amateur and indie game devs. Fixed.That's the board we have for amateur and indie game devs.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:39 20e567 No.475 File: 1424761778919.jpg (133.07 KB, 550x500, 11:10, GTFO.jpg) >>455
http://8ch.net/pone/index.html
And stay there. And stay there.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:09:39 20e567 No.476 >>460
Diablo was always about loot m8, D2 just dropped way more useless grays and blues Diablo was always about loot m8, D2 just dropped way more useless grays and blues
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:47 20e567 No.477 This is my problem with Early Access, besides the obvious risks. Why do you think of Early Access and Pay-Only betas?
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:51 20e567 No.478 >>411
SP FOUND A WAY SP FOUND A WAY
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:10:31 20e567 No.479 Do you visit any specific websites for general gaming news? Just to get updates of industry going-ons?
Anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:11:23 20e567 No.480 MARK
I'm tired and about to go to bed, can you wish me goodnight, please?
Anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:11:49 20e567 No.482 >>474
>>>>/agdg/
Our Amateur Game Dev board is top tier. I've learned more there than all the time I spent on /vg/-/agdg/. Our Amateur Game Dev board is top tier. I've learned more there than all the time I spent on /vg/-/agdg/.
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:11:13 20e567 No.483 >pll bullying the brony
anonymous 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:12:32 20e567 No.484 >>447
>>454
Game journo sites are all but dead at this point.
As Mark pointed out, it's very clear that Twitch and Youtube have taken their place. Game journo sites are all but dead at this point.As Mark pointed out, it's very clear that Twitch and Youtube have taken their place.
Mark Kern!aMKk.VjbeE 02/24/15 (Tue) 07:11:49 20e567 No.485 >>442
Adventure games. Thats what I wanted to do. Working on Warcraft Adventures when we brought in Steve Meretzky of Infocom fame was a fond memory. We sealed ourselves in a room for a week with Bill Roper and Chris Millar and redesigned the whole game.
But by then it was hopelessly outdated compared to Grim Fandango with its 3D graphics so we canned it. Adventure games. Thats what I wanted to do. Working on Warcraft Adventures when we brought in Steve Meretzky of Infocom fame was a fond memory. We sealed ourselves in a room for a week with Bill Roper and Chris Millar |
for Computer Network Operations Specialists... In cyber security, operations specialists may find themselves working in a team detecting and preventing attempts to attack the critical national infrastructure, or seeking to defend government systems against criminals seeking to steal information, identities or money.
“Cyber intelligence specialists might need to develop software to access the computers of a terrorist group, or carry out operations to retrieve vital online clues about the location and identity of members of an organised crime ring.”
A quick translation: those intelligence specialists will be tasked with creating the malware and hacking techniques similar to those detailed in the Edward Snowden documents. Indeed, they will form part of a team that has been very active in the state-sponsored hacking arena.
GCHQ has been accused of creating sophisticated malware called Regin, which infected servers at Belgacom, an internet service provider supplying infrastructure for key governing bodies, such as the European Union. It was also said to have targeted leaky mobile apps, including Angry Birds, and attacked SIM provider Gemalto. Human rights organisation Privacy International has filed legal complaints against GCHQ for its many malware-led operations. In March, the group said responses from the intelligence services in those cases included an admission British snoops could spy on anyone, regardless of their connection to a criminal case.
"The government has been deep in the hacking business for over a decade. They have granted themselves secret powers to break into our phones and computers that are so integral to our lives. What’s worse is that without any legitimate legal authority or justification, they think they have the authority to target anyone they wish, no matter if they are suspected of a crime," said Eric King, deputy director at Privacy International, in an email sent to FORBES today.
"GCHQ have never been held accountable for their actions, and while they are openly recruiting for more people to invade our privacy, they are telling the courts that confirming they undertake CNE operations would harm national security. Rather than claiming they can neither confirm nor deny, they should come clear and allow the courts to properly test the legality of their actions, only then can the agencies be brought under the rule of law."
The announcement of Computer Network Operations Specialists recruitment amounts to a rare comment from GCHQ on its offensive work. And it’s interesting timing given the recent shift in political power. Britain, previously reticent on anything to do with spying, wants the world to know it is building its online surveillance capabilities.Comcast yesterday launched an online streaming video service for its Internet customers; the $15-per-month "Comcast Stream" will include live TV from HBO and broadcast networks as well as on-demand videos.
In a first for Comcast, the package will not require a cable TV subscription. But it still has a major limitation. Live TV channels can only be watched while customers are on their home Internet connections. When customers are on the road, they'll be able to watch on-demand and recorded videos but not live TV through Comcast's service.
Comcast Stream may end up providing a good amount of out-of-home video, though. Like a cable TV account, a Comcast Stream subscription will still let users sign into channel-specific apps such as HBO Go from any Internet connection.
Comcast also promised Stream customers access to its existing cloud-based DVR service that lets you "record all your favorites and watch them later." The cloud DVR stores recorded TV on Comcast servers and lets customers access it anywhere, but the recordings are managed by the home Internet gateway. This limits customers to recording two channels at once and storing 20 hours of video.
Besides HBO, supported networks will include ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS, Telemundo, and Univision. Local channels will vary by market.
Comcast describes the new service as "streaming cable." This apparently isn't just semantics—a Comcast spokesperson told Ars that Comcast Stream is delivered as a managed service over the Comcast IP gateway in customers' homes. This should ensure a quality of service similar to what's provided by cable TV. But it won't be on your TV, because Comcast Stream works on phones, tablets, and computers, but doesn't have an application for set-top boxes like the Apple TV or Roku.
You could hook a laptop up to your TV or sign into channel-specific apps on any number of set-top boxes, but that's not as convenient as it could be. Comcast has also controversially taken its time striking deals to authenticate applications on third-party devices such as the PS4.
Comcast Stream is "unlike anything we’ve ever offered: no extra device or additional equipment required… or even a TV," the company said in its announcement. "With Stream, Xfinity Internet customers can watch live TV from about a dozen networks—including all the major broadcast nets and HBO—on laptops, tablets and phones in their home. It includes thousands of on demand movies and shows to watch home or away and even comes with access to TV Everywhere and a cloud DVR so you can record all your favorites and watch them later."
Comcast’s previous streaming efforts were unpopular
A previous Comcast service called "Streampix" launched in 2012 but required a cable TV subscription—except in one trial area where it was available to a small number of broadband-only customers.
Comcast's previous streaming video attempts have been failures by the company's own admission. Comcast's streaming ambitions became a key topic when the company attempted to purchase Time Warner Cable; that deal was thwarted by regulators who said they worried a bigger Comcast would use its control of customers' Internet connections to squash competition from online video services that market to Comcast broadband subscribers. Comcast had tried to convince the government that it would pose no threat to online video companies because its own streaming products were unpopular.
The new service will be available to any Comcast Internet user. That's more than 22 million subscribers, giving the country's largest ISP a new way to compete against Netflix and other online video companies in its own territory. Comcast has revealed no plans to offer the service to users of other Internet access providers.
"Stream will be available to our Xfinity Internet customers for only $15 per month and will first launch in Boston at the end of the summer," Comcast wrote. "We’ll take it to Chicago and Seattle next, with plans to make it available everywhere in our footprint by early 2016. To find out when Stream is available in your area just email us here."
Comcast Stream is cheaper than Dish's Sling TV, which also offers live TV channels, but Sling TV doesn't require a subscription to any specific cable or satellite provider and works anywhere in the US. The basic Sling service is $20 per month and comes with channels such as ESPN and AMC, which aren't available on Comcast Stream. But Sling TV charges $15 per month extra for HBO.
If purchased separately, HBO's online service HBO Now costs $15 per month, but it works on any Internet connection. TV viewers can also get broadcast networks for free after buying an over-the-air antenna.
Channel offerings for Comcast Stream could expand, but for now the service doesn't offer ESPN or regional sports networks, so customers with extensive sports watching habits will still want to buy a much pricier cable TV subscription.
Comcast customers will be able to sign up for the new service without calling the company, and they can also cancel online. That can only be viewed as a positive, given how difficult it can be to sign up for other Comcast services and how difficult it can be to cancel them. Comcast Stream has no long-term commitments or contracts.Disney’s long awaited Finding Dory and Warner’s Central Intelligence will both arrive in the marketplace on June 17. BoxOffice Pro expects Finding Dory to be one of the biggest films of this summer and also expects a strong performance from Central Intelligence.
Finding Dory (Disney)
PROS:
– 2003’s Finding Nemo is one of Pixar’s most beloved films and one of its strongest box office performers. Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, Finding Nemo opened with $70.3 million and went on to gross $339.7 million in its original run. With the addition of a theatrical re-issue in 2012, Finding Nemo has grossed $380.8 million in its lifetime domestically.
– While being a sequel is likely to inflate its online activity, Finding Dory has been performing especially strong on Twitter for a family film this far away from release.
– Disney and Pixar have had great success in the recent past with long awaited sequels. 2010’s Toy Story 3 opened with $110.3 million and went on to gross $415.0 million domestically, while 2013’s Monsters University opened with $82.4 million and finished its domestic run with $268.5 million.
– Finding Dory was recently voted as the most anticipated family film of the summer in Fandango’s annual Most Anticipated Summer Movies Survey.
– Disney has been on an absolute roll as of late with the breakout performances of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Zootopia and The Jungle Book. The studio’s current hot streak is expected to continue into the summer with Captain America: Civil War and Finding Dory.
CONS:
– Holding power for Finding Dory could be affected a bit by Universal’s highly anticipated The Secret Life of Pets, which opens just three weeks later on July 8.
– While it likely isn’t a reflection of how future Pixar films will perform at the box office, Pixar is coming off its lowest grossing film ever in The Good Dinosaur, which finished its domestic run with just $123.1 million.
– Finding Dory will represent the third Pixar release to enter the marketplace in a year’s time (joining The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out). This could diminish overall demand slightly for Finding Dory; as could the recent break-out performances of Zootopia and The Jungle Book with family audiences.
Central Intelligence (Warner Bros. / New Line)
PROS:
– The combination of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart provides a high amount of star power and is likely to go over very well with moviegoers.
– Warner Bros. and Johnson saw San Andreas exceed expectations in a big way last summer with a debut of $54.6 million and a final domestic gross of $155.2 million.
– Central Intelligence should benefit from being a non-sequel in a summer full of sequels.
– Central Intelligence was recently voted as the second most anticipated comedy of the summer in Fandango’s annual Most Anticipated Summer Movies Survey.
CONS:
– Central Intelligence has been performing softly on Twitter thus far, though it should be noted that San Andreas generated very modest online activity leading up to its release last year.
– Hart’s most recent film, this year’s Ride Along 2, performed below expectations with a $35.2 million three-day start and a final domestic gross of $90.9 million. There is also a risk of Central Intelligence coming across as too similar to the Ride Along films to stand out.
– In its second weekend of release Central Intelligence will be facing direct competition from Fox’s Independence Day: Resurgence.
Check out our complete long range forecast in the table below.
Title Release Date Distributor Opening Weekend Cumulative Finding Dory Jun 17, 2016 Disney $108,000,000 $390,000,000 Central Intelligence Jun 17, 2016 Warner Bros. / New Line $52,000,000 $155,000,000 The Conjuring 2 Jun 10, 2016 Warner Bros. / New Line $45,000,000 $105,000,000 Warcraft Jun 10, 2016 Universal $35,000,000 $78,000,000 Now You See Me 2 Jun 10, 2016 Lionsgate / Summit $23,000,000 $65,000,000 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Jun 3, 2016 Paramount $53,000,000 $145,000,000 Me Before You Jun 3, 2016 Warner Bros. / New Line $15,000,000 $45,000,000 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Jun 3, 2016 Universal $10,000,000 $25,000,000 X-Men: Apocalypse May 27, 2016 Fox $115,000,000* $240,000,000 Alice Through the Looking Glass May 27, 2016 Disney $70,000,000* $170,000,000 Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising May 20, 2016 Universal $46,000,000 $120,000,000 The Angry Birds Movie May 20, 2016 Sony / Columbia $43,000,000 $140,000,000 The Nice Guys May 20, 2016 Warner Bros. $16,000,000 $60,000,000 Money Monster May 13, 2016 Sony / TriStar $11,000,000 $32,000,000 The Darkness May 13, 2016 High Top / BH Tilt $6,000,000 $13,000,000 Captain America: Civil War May 6, 2016 Disney $200,000,000 $550,000,000 Keanu Apr 29, 2016 Warner Bros. / New Line $20,000,000 $50,000,000 Mother’s Day (2016) Apr 29, 2016 Open Road $11,000,000 $40,000,000 Ratchet & Clank Apr 29, 2016 Focus / Gramercy $7,000,000 $17,000,000
* indicates a prediction for a four-day holiday weekend.
Daniel Garris, Shawn Robbins and Alex Edghill contributed to this report.RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat (PTI Photo)
RSS sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday called for a reassessment of Hindu religious values, saying that values that did not conform to scientific bases should be given up.
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Bhagwat, who was here to participate in a columnists’ conference on “Indian perspectives on women’s issues”, said, “There is a need to assess the prevalent Hindu religion along scientific lines. Those values that do not conform to scientific standards should be given up.”
Indian society, he said, had maintained a tradition of rejecting redundant traditions and accepting “good things from all over the world” based on eternal life values.
All issues and problems should be viewed through the Hindu life philosophy, Bhagwat also said.
“The Hindu life view looks at men and women as two expressions of a single element. It therefore lays stress on unity instead of equality.”
The values and significance of the Indian family system, Bhagwat said, stood strong despite numerous challenges, which was a testimony to the power of the Hindu society. “Recognising our roots and strengthening them will empower the society to combat westernisation and numerous such attacks,” Bhagwat said.
The RSS chief said only the Hindu religion had the ability to move “creation” forward in a balanced way.
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Bhagwat is on a nine-day tour of the desert state. The two-day columnists’ conference, that concluded on Sunday, was part of his Jaipur itinerary. He will now head to Jodhpur for the remainder of his tour, participating in Sangh meetings till September 20.NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) -- A corrections officer escorting an inmate to his cell was beaten to death Wednesday at a far northeast Texas prison, Department of Criminal Justice officials said. NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) -- A corrections officer escorting an inmate to his cell was beaten to death Wednesday at a far northeast Texas prison, Department of Criminal Justice officials said.
The officer was escorting the inmate from a dayroom at the Telford Unit when he was attacked with an object, prison agency spokesman Jason Clark said. Officials did not immediately identify the weapon.
"It's still under investigation," Clark said.
The officer, Timothy Davison, 47, was taken to a hospital in Texarkana, about 20 miles east of the prison, where he died, Clark said. Davison, who lived near the prison, had been with the agency since December.
"Our hearts are deeply saddened by this tragic loss of life," Brad Livingston, executive director of the prison system, said. "This dedicated correctional officer came to work each day determined to make Texas a safe place to live."
The inmate involved was identified as Billy Joel Tracy, 37.
Prison records show he has at least seven convictions dating back to 1995 and is serving a life sentence for robbery and aggravated assault from Rockwall County, a suburban county east of Dallas. He has other convictions from Tarrant and Potter counties, including possession of a deadly weapon while in prison. At least three convictions are for assaults on corrections officers.
"We will see that the offender who is responsible for this murder will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Oliver Bell, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, said.
Police officers killed on-duty:
1 PHOTOS Police officers killed on duty in 2014 See Gallery Texas corrections officer killed in inmate attack JERSEY CITY, NJ - JULY 18: Police carry the flag-draped coffin of slain Jersey City police officer Melvin Santiago, 23, following a funeral mass on July 18, 2014 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Police from the New Jersey and New York area took part in a procession and for Santiago, who was shot and killed in the line of duty during an armed robbery. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
Clark said the Telford Unit was properly staffed and had not been the scene of recent serious security problems.
"Of course, any time there's a serious incident like this, there will be a review," he said. "That's standard procedure."
Investigators from the agency's Office of Inspector General were at the prison and "processing the crime scene," Clark said.
It's the first slaying of a Texas corrections officer since 2007, when 59-year-old Susan Canfield suffered fatal head injuries during the chaos and gunfire as two inmates broke away from a work detail outside a Huntsville-area prison. Both inmates were recaptured. One of them convicted of her death has since been executed.
The Telford Unit in Bowie County can hold nearly 2,900 inmates.This post continues where Intro to Unintrusive JavaScript with Django left off. In the first segment we persisted against writing custom views to service the Ajax aspects of the app, and it lead to a lot of ugly code and awkward functionality.
In this second segment we're going to make that plunge and write two custom views to handle the Ajax, and open up a world of simple JavaScript with 90% less awful.
Updating notes/urls.py
First we're going to update the notes/urls.py file to include two new urls. Once updated, the file should look like this:
from django.conf.urls.defaults import * from models import Note notes = Note. objects. all () urlpatterns = patterns ( '', ( r'^$', 'django.views.generic.list_detail.object_list', dict ( queryset = notes )), ( r'^note/(?P<slug>[-\w]+)/$', 'django.views.generic.list_detail.object_detail', dict ( queryset = notes, slug_field ='slug' )), ( r'^create/$', 'notes.views.create_note' ), ( r'^ajax_create/$', 'notes.views.ajax_create_note' ), ( r'^note/(?P<slug>[-\w]+)/update/$', 'notes.views.update_note' ), ( r'^note/(?P<slug>[-\w]+)/ajax_update/$', 'notes.views.ajax_update_note' ), )
All we did here was add the ^ajax_create/% and ^note/(?P<slug>[-\w]+)/ajax_update/$' urls.
Writing the ajax_create_note view
Next we have to actually write our two new views: ajax_create_note and ajax_update_note.
Because it's easy, we're going to go ahead and keep passing them the same data in the same format as we were before.
The big difference is that we'll be returning our responses serialized into JSON, which is the recommended diet for all JavaScript lifeforms.
First add these imports at the top of the notes/views.py file:
from django.utils import simplejson from django.http import HttpResponse
And then add this function as well:
def ajax_create_note ( request ): success = False to_return = {'msg' : u'No POST data sent.' } if request. method == "POST" : post = request. POST. copy () if post. has_key ('slug' ) and post. has_key ( 'title' ): slug = post ['slug' ] if Note. objects. filter ( slug = slug ). count () > 0 : to_return ['msg' ] = u"Slug'%s'already in use." % slug else : title = post [ 'title' ] new_note = Note. objects. create ( title = title, slug = slug ) to_return [ 'title' ] = title to_return ['slug' ] = slug to_return [ 'url' ] = new_note. get_absolute_url () success = True else : to_return ['msg' ] = u"Requires both'slug' and 'title'!" serialized = simplejson. dumps ( to_return ) if success == True : return HttpResponse ( serialized, mimetype = "application/json" ) else : return HttpResponseServerError ( serialized, mimetype = "application/json" )
As mentioned, the only big difference between ajax_create_note and create_note is that we're serializing the output.
If we were sufficiently industrious, we could refactor the two methods pretty far, but for this tutorial we'll leave them are they are.
Now we need to update the JavaScript in the notes/note_list.html template to take advantage of this changes.
Updating the notes/note_list.html template
First we need to modify the create_note JavaScript method to send data to the new url.
Change this line from:
var args = { type : "POST", url : "/create/", data : data, complete : done };
to this:
var args = { type : "POST", url : "/ajax_create/", data : data, complete : done };
After that, the only change we need to make here is to strip the regex crap out of done and replace it with some blissful simplicity (and a security vulnerability, ahem).
The new done function looks like this:
var done = function ( res, status ) { var txt = res. responseText ; var data = eval ( '(' + txt + ')' ); if ( status == "success" ) { var newLi = $ ( '<li><a href="' + data. url + '">' + data. title + '</a></li>' ); $ ( "#notes" ). prepend ( newLi ); $ ( "#title" ). val ( "" ); $ ( "#slug" ). val ( "" ); } else display_error ( data. msg, $ ( ".new" )); }
The first thing we do is convert the incoming JSON into a JavaScript datastructure via the eval function. This is the simplest way to convert JSON into a usable1 JSON.
This isn't safe, because you are literally executing the recieved JSON, and if there were any malicious instructions contained within it, you'd execute those as well.
For the time being we're going to skim over that problem, but you can take a look at this article under the header 'JSON Via Parse' to get an idea of how to be more secure.
Now you can go ahead and run the development server and test out the front page.
It's going to work the same way as before, but isn't relying on the haphazard regular expressions to strip out necessary content.
Writing the ajax_update_note view
Next we're going to create the ajax_update_note view in our notes/views.py file. Once again there will be a lot of overlap between the Ajax and non-Ajax update views, and the big difference will simply be serializing the output.
Open up notes/views.py.
def ajax_update_note ( request, slug ): success = False to_return = {'msg' : u"No POST data recieved." } if request. method == "POST" : post = request. POST. copy () note = Note. objects. get ( slug = slug ) to_return ['msg' ] = "Updated successfully." success = True if post. has_key ('slug' ): slug_str = post ['slug' ] if note. slug!= slug_str : if Note. objects. filter ( slug = slug_str ). count () > 0 : to_return ['msg' ] = u"Slug'%s'already taken." % slug_str to_return ['slug' ] = note. slug success = False else : note. slug = slug_str to_return [ 'url' ] = note. get_absolute_url () if post. has_key ( 'title' ): note. title = post [ 'title' ] if post. has_key ( 'text' ): note. text = post [ 'text' ] note. save () print success print to_return print request. method serialized = simplejson. dumps ( to_return ) if success == True : return HttpResponse ( serialized, mimetype = "application/json" ) else : return HttpResponseServerError ( serialized, mimetype = "application/json" )
Read through and make sure you're comfortable with everything there, and then we're off into JavaScript land once more.
Updating the notes/note_detail.html template
Open up notes/note_detail.html.
In the perform_upate function, we'll once again change the args dictionary. This time it will end up looking like this:
var args = { type : "POST", url : "ajax_update/", data : data, complete : done };
We only changed the url we're posting to. Now, however, we're going to change things up a bit more. One of the biggest problems with our first implementation was that it would send unnecessary updates.
We couldn't improve upon it easily because we were lacking some crucial information, but no longer. The ajax_update_note view is returning us all the information we need to maintain a simple history of the data, and to only submit changes when changes have actually occured.
Further, for the field where errors are likely to occur (slug) we have enough information to rollback failed updates, and also redirect to the note's new url when the slug is successfully updated.
We'll begin with the history. Delete the initialTitleChange and initialSlugChange values, and replace them with this code:
var history = { title : $ ( "#title" ). val (), slug : $ ( "#slug" ). val () };
Next we'll need to update the title_to_span and slug_to_span functions to check against the value stored in the history before sending an update.
var title_to_span = function () { var title = $ ( "#title" ); if ( title. val ()!= history [ 'title' ]) { perform_update ( "title", title. val ()); history [ 'title' ] = title. val () } var span = $ ( '<span id="title"><em>' + title. val () + '</em></span>' ); span. hover ( title_to_input, function () {}); title. replaceWith ( span ); }
The changes are at lines 3 through 5. Before sending an update we check that it differs from the current value. If we do send an update, then we update the current value stored in history.
We'll also do the same for slug_to_span.
var slug_to_span = function () { var slug = $ ( "#slug" ); if ( slug. val ()!= history ['slug' ]) { perform_update ( "slug", slug. val ()); history ['slug' ] = slug. val (); } var span = $ ( '<span id="slug"><em>' + slug. val () + '</em></span>' ); span. hover ( slug_to_input, function () {}); slug. replaceWith ( span ); }
We could do the same for the textfield as well, but we'll skip on that for the time being.
Finally we need to update the done function a bit.
var done = function ( res, status ) { var txt = res. responseText ; var data = eval ( '(' + txt + ')' ); if ( status == "success" ) { display_success ( "Updated successfully.", $ ( ".text" )); if ( data. url ) { window. location = data. url } } else { display_error ( data. msg, $ ( ".text" )); if ( data. slug ) { history ['slug' ] = data. slug ; $ ( "#slug" ). text ( data. slug ); } } }
We begin by evaluating the returned JSON into a JavaScript datastructure. Then we have the standard logic for displaying success and error messages, as well as some custom logic for handling updates to the slug field.
Specifically, if we successfully update the slug, then we use JavaScript to redirect to the new url where the note exists, and if we fail to update the slug, then we revert the value in the slug field (and history.slug ) to its actual current value (instead of what we attempted to change it to).
With those changes, the Ajax on the note_detail.html template evolves from a burdensome mess of awfulness into something that provides a quicker and more pleasant experience than that provided by the original non-Ajax version.
Download
You can download the Git repository for part two here.
Moving Forward
By writing these two extra views we were able to really simplify the JavaScript, as well as improve the usability of the app. Although it's too bad we can't gain the same benefits using only one view, with great Ajax comes great reponsibility.
Or something like that.
In the next segment we're going to take a look at how authentication has to be reexamined for Ajax applications.Share. New novels and short stories on the way. New novels and short stories on the way.
On September 4, the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens publishing program launched. The first wave of titles, including Aftermath, Shattered Empire, and Lost Stars, explored the canonical Star Wars galaxy post-Return of the Jedi for the first time. The program shows how the universe is changing -- the books and comics contain clues and easter eggs that subtly hint at the future -- and that will continue with new novels and short stories. Lucasfilm's Michael Siglain moderated a panel at New York Comic Con with Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens authors Jason Fry, Greg Rucka, Claudia Gray, Chuck Wendig, Adam Bray, and Pablo Hidalgo, and they looked back at the program so far and announced new titles.
The new titles will continue to look ahead to the next film. Hidalgo, also a member of Lucasfilm's Story Group, said when they knew where the publishing program was headed, they made a plan. He said once the story line for The Force Awakens really solidified, they had an offsite day and mapped out conceptually what had happened in-universe in the the 30 years since Return of the Jedi. Hidalgo said what they constructed was informed by notes and stories from George Lucas, from ideas developed by Michael Arndt, and using thoughts Rian Johnson had in mind for Episode VIII. Hidalgo then wrote a document depicting the universe leading to the Battle of Jakku. He called it a "seismic event." They built their road map around that watershed moment and built the road map to service different formats and media.
Upcoming novels and short stories will inch closer to The Force Awakens. Siglain pulled up a slide showing the image of alien denizens of Maz Kanata's palace and announced the woman in the middle -- the one in black who sort of looks like a court jester -- is named Bazine and that she'll start in a short story by Delilah Dawson. Alan Dean Foster will release a short story about the alien Bazine is sitting on. Both stories will be out in November and December. Landry Walker will have a collection of short stories available on December 1: High Noon on Jakku (a western), The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku (a pirate story), All Creatures Great and Small (a fable), and Face of Evil (a horror story).
In the novel department, Claudia Gray is writing Star Wars: New Republic: Bloodlines. It will be released in spring 2016 and is set six years before The Force Awakens. Chuck Wendig s working on the next books in the Aftermath trilogy. The second book is called Aftermath: Life Debt, and the third and final book is called Aftermath: Empire's End.
Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe.Matthias Schlitte has become a superstar arm wrestler (Picture: Imgur)
You’ve probably never heard of arm wrestling (is that actually a sport?!) world champion Matthias Schlitte, but you really should.
The 27-year-old German is the sporting world’s newest superstar, having turned a childhood disability into a weapon of dominance.
He was born with his right arm 33% bigger than his left, which caused him problems as a child, but he then decided to become a super human arm wrestler. And he’s amazing.
Schlitte, who has nicknames such as ‘Hell Boy’ and ‘Popeye’, has won the last 14 arm wrestling world championships and is now a star all over the world.
He’s now making regular appearances on TV shows…
He’s a star baby (Picture: Imgur)
And is staring in amazing adverts like this for power tools…
JUST LOOK AT THAT POWER TOOL (Picture: Twitter)
Plus this one for… alarm clocks?…
WHO NEEDS ALARM CLOCKS ANYWAY? (Picture: YouTube)
Remember the name.The fake book in Columbia University’s Butler Library seemed like a too-obvious clue from an old detective novel. When opened, the hollowed-out copy of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles revealed a box full of forms branded with an eagle. “Topics interested in,” the ominous questionnaire asked, “Post-Democracy,” “Nationalism,” and “Alternative Right.”
The book appeared to be a secret recruiting document for members of the alt-right, hidden in the sprawling stacks of a liberal college, until a library worker discovered it and reported it to the student publication Bwog this week. But the book’s alleged owners told The Daily Beast they waited all semester for a stranger to stumble on the tome. They claimed to represent members of the “Dark Enlightenment,” a grandiose name for a racist, anti-democratic, conservative movement that helped fuel the rise of 2016’s alt-right, neo-Nazi trolls.
They’re recruiting on college campuses across the country, they said. But they won’t show their faces; they need a safe space.
The Dark Enlightenment or “neoreaction” is a loose collection of anti-democratic, conservative ideas popularized in the early 2010s by writers like Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin (who writes under the name Menicus Moldbug). The movement, beloved of forums like Reddit and 8chan, calls for the upheaval of democracy and liberal ideology, and a return to a more autocratic rule. Believers often preach rigid race and gender binaries, and yearn for authoritarian leadership, be it at the hands of capitalist technocrats, monarchs, or politicians who appear fascistic in all but name.
But their alleged on-campus clubs are very touchy about being called fascists, or even being identified.
The Columbia University branch’s spokesperson used the screen name “DarkEn” to communicate with The Daily Beast and refused to give their real name, saying they didn’t harbor a “a death wish.”
“The Dark Enlightenment and certainly our group is opposed to fascism and ‘Nazism,’” DarkEn told The Daily Beast, in response to fellow students likening them to fascists and Nazis. To associate them with Nazis is “total journalistic irresponsibility,” DarkEn wrote.
The Dark Enlightenment takes itself more seriously than the anime Nazi sprawl of the alt-right, which Columbia’s alleged club maintains is an offshoot of Dark Enlightenment thinking. “That label came after ‘Dark Enlightenment,” DarkEn said of being called alt-right. “[T]hat is like calling a Tiger or a Lion a Liger.”
The Dark Enlightenment doesn’t even have good memes. But while these neo-reactionaries might consider themselves more philosopher-kings than meme-lords, they share the same slush of illiberal ideology as their alt-right cousins.
The group wants to stamp out “secular progressivism,” which they see “as a religion,” DarkEn said, referring to “The Cathedral,” a Dark Enlightenment concept that describes liberal, pro-democratic ideology as it exists in higher education.
In the language of the alt-right and much of Donald Trump’s base, this idea translates to the phantom menace of “political correctness.” So that’s how the Dark Enlightenment branded their college putsch.
Like a fraternity, the group’s pledge drive began in September, when students at Columbia University and New York University reported posters for the “Dark Enlightenment Club” hanging in their libraries. “Are you politically incorrect? We are,” the posters read, boasting of “weekly meetings.” The posters encouraged readers to contact the schools’ respective chapter heads on a secure messaging app.
The Daily Beast contacted the Columbia and NYU chapter heads, who claimed to be different people. They claimed to have branches at “some of the Ivy’s [sic] and a few others” including “NYU, Stanford and Yale [sic].” Both refused to disclose their identities or provide evidence of a Dark Enlightenment Club whose members met weekly.
Previous alt-right campaigns have hoaxed the city’s colleges, including NYU. In November 2015, a Facebook user created a page for an “NYU White Student Union,” sparking indignation and mockery on campus until the group was revealed to be the work of trolls from white supremacist websites, who did not attend the school.
But the alleged “Dark Enlightenment Club” had at least one member with access to Columbia’s and NYU’s libraries. (Columbia and NYU share some library privileges, so a student at one campus could have access to the other.)
The hollow book discovered at Columbia contained manila envelopes with what appeared to be application forms, Bwog reported. The outside was emblazoned with a stylized eagle, reminiscent of those adopted by fascist regimes. The inside asked applicants to complete a form with their time availability and whether they were interested in “leadership position[s].”
The form also asked about the respondents’ interests from a list of “post-democracy,” “nationalism,” “HBD,” “alternative right,” “cultural Marxism,” “‘The Cathedral,’” “economic systems,” and “other.”
“HBD” stands for “human biodiversity,” a faux-scientific concept that claims races are inherently distinct and have different characteristics like intelligence and values, and is used to justify racial inequality by attributing it to genetics rather than structural racism.
(DarkEn argued that HBD does “not make the claim that any race is superior,” then suggested that high IQ scores among Asian people could be attributed to Chinese genetic programs, and that races might have inherently different values.)
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in the New York and Washington offices of the various Zionist bodies in October and November.One of Silver’s sons wrote: “My dad would not compromise. He simply demanded that they press for an independent Jewish state, which eventually they got. My father was a shrewd political strategist, very single-minded in developing political pressure in the United States so Congress and the president would do what was necessary to allow a Jewish state to exist.”November 29, 1947 is a day which will be remembered in modern Jewish history and in the history of Israel. The vote on the partition plan should have been held earlier in the week, but it was clear to Silver and his forces that the two-thirds vote necessary for passage had not been reached. The actual vote was postponed to Saturday, November 29. There are YouTubes depicting that day in the UN. There are videos of what Jews here were doing as they listened into the night. Finally, the decisive tally for statehood became a reality. Throughout the world and especially here celebrations erupted.WAS EVERYTHING Silver’s doing? Probably not. However, all of his efforts from 1943 through the final declaration of Israel in May 1948 were superhuman.He was a leader who believed that a Jewish state must arise following the terrible destruction of our people in World War II. When he said amid his tears on May 14, 1948 that “the age-old dream of Israel to be reestablished as a free and independent people” has occurred, he knew that his untiring work had been a major force in making statehood possible. On this November 29, the 63rd anniversary of the UN vote, it is fitting to recallSilver’s monumental achievement.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>The federal government's push to reduce the number of Roma refugees from Hungary appears to be working, with a drop of hundreds to only dozens of Hungarians filing for asylum since the crackdown late last year.
Hungarians, who claimed asylum in Canada more than any other nationality from 2010 to 2012, are now being deported back to their home country where many Roma say they face poverty, stigmatization and intimidation by extremist groups.
The number of Hungarian asylum seekers declined to just 33 between January and March this year, compared with 724 for the same period last year.
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Local Roma and experts say people are now choosing instead to go to Britain, where, as citizens of the European Union, they have a right to live and work without needing to file for refugee status.
In Miskolc, an industrial city in northeastern Hungary where 40 per cent of Hungarian refugees to Canada originate, billboards informing residents of the new asylum rules were erected by the Canadian government in January.
In December, Hungary was placed on a list of "safe countries," meaning refugees will now have their claims assessed much more quickly. They have no right to appeal decisions to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) and failed claimants are deported faster.
The government says reducing the number of claims from countries determined to be safe will save resources and help prioritize refugee claimants who are in most need of protection.
Jason Kenney, then the immigration minister, visited Miskolc last October on a fact-finding mission to determine why so many refugees originate from one city.
Many Roma from this city say the new system unfairly targets their community.
Attila Varga, a Hungarian Roma from Miskolc, fled to Canada with his family in 2009 after his neighbour had a Molotov cocktail – a common weapon used in anti-Roma attacks – thrown into his house. Mr. Varga says the police advised him and his neighbours at the time to keep buckets of water in their houses, in case they faced a similar assault.
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Around this time, a series of violent attacks targeting Roma were carried out allegedly by a group of right-wing extremists. Between 2008 and 2009, six people were killed and several were injured. On Tuesday, four men were convicted of carrying out the racially motivated attacks and three of them were given life sentences without parole.
Extremist groups have been a source of fear for minority communities in Hungary, where there are an estimated 750,000 Roma. Members of these groups march through neighbourhoods, often dressed in military-style uniforms shouting anti-Roma slogans and claiming they are fighting "Gypsy criminality."
One paramilitary group, the Hungarian Guard, was disbanded in 2009 but others with similar ideologies and rhetoric have emerged.
The existence of these groups is one reason why human-rights activists say Hungary is not a safe country for everyone.
"We feel that the newly introduced immigrant law is openly against Roma," said Attila Tamas, a Roma advocate in Miskolc. Word is spreading in the Roma community, he said, that "it's not a good time" to go to Canada.
For Mr. Varga, who has five children, the attack on his neighbour persuaded him to move to Canada and claim asylum.
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"[My] life changed completely just by being in that situation there [in Canada]," he said. Mr. Varga worked as a waiter in Toronto, a job he said he could never hope to get at home.
"[I've] never been in such a good country."
However, in 2011, he was deported after going back to Hungary to visit his wife's sick sister. Mr. Varga said he believed he had permission from immigration authorities to visit Hungary and does not know why he was deported.
Now back in Miskolc, he said he encounters prejudice routinely. He said people will often change seats on the bus if he sits next to them because he is Roma. "It's always like this. This is a different life here."
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Hungarians can still apply for asylum and receive a full IRB hearing.
A CIC spokesperson stated in an e-mail, "Like every country on the DCO [designated countries of origin] list, Hungary was determined, on balance, to respect human rights, offer state protection and have mechanisms for redress if these are infringed."
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Jozsef and Erika, who live in Miskolc and would not give their full names, were deported from Canada with their two children in March. They do not know whether their asylum case was affected by the new policy but they say Hungary is not a safe country. They say that, from their children's school to the local shop, prejudice is a fact of life.
They say they did not experience this kind of intolerance in Canada, where they lived for three years.
For residents of Fecskeszog, a Roma settlement in the town of Sajoszentpeter near Miskolc, applying for asylum in Canada has been commonplace – many have similar stories of short-lived stays followed by deportation. One woman, named Beatrix, lives in Fecskeszog and said she thinks half of the people in this settlement have been to Canada. Most were deported or voluntarily returned.
She herself went to Canada with her husband in 2010. The reason, she says, was not to escape persecution but to join her husband's family which was already there. The ethnic tension present in Miskolc is less evident in the close-knit Fecskeszog – people here are mostly concerned with their livelihoods. The divergence between the two communities is evidence of the varying sense of security for Roma in Hungary.
According to Beatrix, after seeing so many friends and family return from Canada, many people are now choosing to escape to England instead. They have gotten the message that, in Canada, deportation is their likely fate.On June 11, Tyler Kreighbaum caught a 37.55-pound lake trout from Lake Michigan, breaking the previous Indiana state record by about 8 pounds. His catch comes just weeks after Bill Roy’s 25 pound, 7 ounce Massachusetts record, caught on June 1.
Kreighbaum, owner of Tightline Fishing Charters, was trolling near the Michigan state line with his wife and first mate, Britney, and five clients. He, just like Bill Roy, did not realize his fish was special when he first hooked it.
“I caught it by accident,” he told the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. “I thought I was hooked on bottom. I was trying to break the line off.”
Luckily, he failed to break his line, and he landed the fish. Recognizing its exceptional size, he took it to be weighed on a certified scale, and the Indiana DNR approved it as the new state record.
At 25, Kreighbaum is the youngest known charter captain in the state of Indiana. His fish, on the other hand, has a clipped fin distinctive to lake trout stocked in Lake Michigan during the late 1970s. It was probably at least a dozen years Kreighbaum’s senior.
Photograph courtesy FIN FIRE Fishing Charters, via FacebookMal Meninga has named a host of fresh faces for the upcoming World Cup, the dawn of a number of promising careers in the green and gold. Only thing is, it could bring down the curtains on a few veteran’s rep careers.
Meninga has named debutants Jordan MacLean, Wade Graham, Dane Gagai, Tom Trbojevic, Cameron Munster, Felise Kaufusi and Regan Campbell-Gillard, along with a host of other youngsters just beginning their international careers.
But while these young guns achieve their dream in the World Cup, injured stars Greg Inglis, Matt Scott, Jonathan Thurston and Darius Boyd watch on from the sidelines, wondering if they’ll run out in that jersey again.
Thurston has already confirmed he won’t be returning to the international side, solely focusing on the Cowboys from here on out. But for the rest of the crew, they remain in limbo.
Both Inglis and Scott tore their ACL’s in the opening rounds of the season, while Boyd’s hamstring caused him grief leading into the finals. All three are set to return to full health by next season to captain their respective clubs, but club footy could be as far as these stars get.
Inglis especially has left a legacy in the Kangaroos’ jersey, scoring 31 tries in 39 games for the green and gold. Having switched between wing, centre and fullback for Australia, Inglis may be bumped from the side in favour of the young brigade rising through the ranks.
Debutants Gagai and Trbojevic join fellow rookies Valentine Holmes and Josh Mansour in the squad, while Origin stars Jack Bird, James Tedesco and Corey Oates surely weren’t far off selection.
It’s so hard to deny a legend like Inglis a spot in the backline, though how can you deny an up and comer their shot for him?
Scott has featured 22 times for the Roos, starting the match in 21 of them, a cornerstone of Australia’s forward pack. But at 32 years old and coming off a knee reconstruction, it’s hard to Scott returning to the international side with so many young front-rowers pressing their claims.
If Boyd never pulled the jersey on again, he’d claim a very rare achievement – undefeated in his decade-long, 23 game career representing his country. Though like Inglis, there are simply so many superstars coming through the ranks.
Mal Meninga has already shone this year that players past or reputation doesn’t matter when it comes to selection, it’s form that decides if they earn the privilege to wear the jersey.
Sam Thaiday and Blake Ferguson found that out the hard way this year, both dropped after featuring for Australia in last year’s Four Nations tournament.
If Inglis, Scott or Boyd are to ever wear the Kangaroos jersey again, it’s going to take some extremely strong form early in the season to break back into the team, though at least for now, the ball is in the young gun’s court.Researchers in Britain have shown for the first time how a computer virus can spread through Wi-Fi “as efficiently as the common cold spreads between humans.” The 'Chameleon’ Wi-Fi AP-AP virus infiltrates dense networks and spreads at an alarming rate.
Chameleon was designed by a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool, and displayed a ‘remarkable amount of intelligence’ in its capacity to spread in a similar way to the common cold.
The virus “was able to avoid detection and identify the points at which Wi-Fi access is least protected by encryption and passwords,” according to a release published on the university’s website. The areas which are generally ‘least protected’ are public access points – such as free Wi-Fi in cafes and airports.
Network Security Professor, Alan Marshall, stated that the virus doesn’t attempt to damage existing networks but instead infiltrates the data of all users connected to a network via Wi-Fi.
“WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus,” said Marshall.
“It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack Wi-Fi networks but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly. We are now able to use the data generated from this study to develop a new technique to identify when an attack is likely,” he added.
Chameleon’s success lies in the means by which it avoids detection – the majority of anti-virus software packages looks for infections which are present on computers and the Internet, rather than publicly-used Wi-Fi networks.
“When Chameleon attacked an AP (access point) it didn’t affect how it worked, but was able to collect and report the credentials of all other Wi-Fi users who connected to it. The virus then sought out other Wi-Fi APs that it could connect to and infect,” Marshall said. That the virus doesn’t disrupt the network itself, but instead those connecting to it, makes it all the more subversive and dangerous.
The virus was found to travel the most quickly between access points which were within a distance of 160 feet, prompting the ‘common cold’ comparison.
“As demand drives up the availability and use of WiFi, the geographical area that an attack can exploit increases exponentially,” the study noted.
There are plans in place to examine the data generated by the study “to develop a new technique to identify when an attack is likely,” according to Marshall.This isn’t a proper writeup of the Readercon panel of this name that I was on this weekend, it’s more a series of reflections of things around it. The description of the panel was:
Where science fiction once looked to the future as the setting for speculation, nowadays the focus seems to be on alternate pasts, fantasy worlds, or consciously “retro” futures. We’re no longer showing the way to what things might be like. We discuss whether this is connected to the general fear of decline and decay in the English-language world—or has science fiction simply run out of ideas?
Jim Cambias, the moderator and proposer, had stats from recent Hugo nominee lists compared to older ones that did show a decline in actual future-based SF. I think this combines with futures we can’t get to from here—steampunk, John Barnes’s The Sky So Big and Black, Ken MacLeod’s The Execution Channel, Stirling’s Lords of Creation series, etc.—to reflect an actual problem in current SF.
But of course, it’s more interesting than that.
It’s possible to exaggerate how optimistic and positive and future-looking SF was in the past. In fact, when you look at them, often the worlds were really pretty horrible. I’ve written about the dystopic Earths of Heinlein’s juveniles, overcrowded, guild-ridden, short of food, in a perpetual nuclear deadlock… but of course the point was to leave. The message was to get into the new frontier of space, where a man could stretch his legs and there was a looseness about things.
Steven Popkes suggested that it was the technical difficulty of space travel in reality and the emptiness of the solar system combined with the excellence of computer graphics that had led to a withdrawal from a space future. (This may be true for movies, but how much of a budget for CGI did Poul Anderson need?) Paul Park thought on the other hand we’d lost the will to the future. There was some hand-wringing about U.S. decline.
I think there used to be a science fiction consensus future in which we’d expand slowly out from Earth and colonize the moon and Mars and the Belt, which would be full of independent-minded asteroid miners, and outward to the stars, at first slower and then faster than light, meeting aliens and ending with galactic empires. The Cold War, naturally, would still be going on in the twenty-sixth century, and if not there would be some Cold War analog dividing humanity into big ideological blocs. Lots of the SF written between 1930 and 1989 fit into this rough future outline. It didn’t belong to anyone. Everyone could set things within this rough future and make their own specific corner of it shine. Details differed, but this was The Future we were headed for, this was almost destiny. Leviathan Wakes is set in this future, but I can’t think of anything else written this century that is.
I remember reading Bruce Sterling’s short story “We See Things Differently” in 1991 in a Dozois’s Best SF, and having the same feeling I had when the Berlin Wall came down. This wasn’t the future I expected to be living in. We were off track for that SF consensus future. And we sent robots out to explore the solar system for us, and there weren’t any Martians, and it seemed as if maybe space wasn’t the U.S. frontier with a different atmosphere.
When I’m writing here about older SF, I often laugh at their hilarious huge clunky computers and add “But where is my moonbase?”
During the panel I mentioned Arthur C. Clarke’s examplary little boy who would read SF and say “When I grow up, I’m going to the moon.” I was that little boy, I said, and of course everyone laughed. There are ways in which this future, the one we’re living in, is a whole lot better than what we imagined. It has women in it, and it has women who are not just trophies and are not manipulating their way around because they have no power. This future has women with agency. It has men and women who aren’t white and who aren’t sitting at the back of the bus or busy passing. It has gay people out of the closet, it has transgender people, and all over the place, not only in the worlds of Samuel Delany. Beyond that, unimaginably shaping the future we couldn’t imagine getting, it has the internet.
So this is my question. If, when you were twelve, somebody had given you a straight choice for 2012, which would you have chosen, moonbase or internet? (Let’s assume they could have explained fully what the internet was and how it would affect your life.) Moonbase, or internet? It really isn’t easy.
Because the future’s still there. The moon’s there and people have walked on it, the stars are there and extra-solar planets, and I still believe we’ll get there. We won’t get there the way we imagined, but the future is never the way you can imagine. After the panel, I was talking to a group of four fifteen year friends who had been in the back of the room and asked interesting questions. They were local, they had come to the con on their own after one of them had come last year. They didn’t think that we’d lost the future, far from it. They thought it was just that we had too limited an idea of what the future could be.
We make our own futures—it doesn’t have to be a binary choice, we have the internet and we can keep working towards a moonbase too.
As for SF—I don’t think it has run out of ideas. I do think it’s a betrayal of the future to write things set in futures we can’t get to. And I always want more books with spaceships and aliens. But I recently read M.J. Locke’s Up Against It, which is set in space in our future and is wonderful and just the sort of thing to give me faith that there’s a lot of juice in the genre yet. And there’s plenty of future coming for it to work out.
Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published two poetry collections and nine novels, most recently the Nebula winning and Hugo nominated Among Others. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here regularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.We got our first taste of MaLLy and The Sundance Kid's killer new album, The Last Great..., back in March when they dropped the snarling, braggadocio-laden lead single, "Shine." Since then, their musical stock has continued to rise and MaLLy, the rapping half of the duo, landed hosting duties at the upcoming Soundset Festival.
Today marks the release of their biggest statement to date, The Last Great..., a 12-track collection of fresh, sample-free, and technically stunning boom-bap. MaLLy's liquid, dexterous flow is the perfect complement to the Sundance Kid's synth and keys-driven production and it makes for a combination that further cements Minneapolis, Minn.'s place on the hip-hop map.
Featured vocalists include K.Raydio, Claire De Lune, Truth Be Told, and Brother Ali, the last of whom absolutely rips his guest verse on "Unplugged." You can download and stream the album below or purchase it at Fifth Element.
MaLLy & The Sundance Kid The Last Great [DOWNLOAD]Plan 9 from?
I have been saying for years that I am seeing the same phenomonon today that I saw thirty years ago when the microprocessor was first invented. At that time I argued a lot with all the computer scientists. They insisted that microprocessors were not really computers because they did not run the same software that these people had on their large timesharing computers.
I argued that microprocessors would revolutionize computing because they were cheap. Within a few years certain models would become cheaper than mechanical switches or a bundle of wires and would replace mechanical control circuits in many appliances. I also argued that they would make personal computers possible, machines that you wouldn't have to timeshare.
Microprocessors did revolutionize computing. The embedded computer market grew to billions of units a year, and high end micros go into tens of millions of personal computers each year. But in that same time the high end microprocessors and personal computers have become bigger and faster than the large timesharing systems from the past. Many even run software that became the most popular software in the world for large timesharing computers.
I find it strange that after all the work done to make personal computers faster and more user friendly that for the most part their power is wasted by using the most inefficient software available. For the most part personal computer operating system software comes in three popular flavors, Unix, Windows, and Mac. Microsoft Windows has the largest market share, the most apauling performance, and is the most unstable and buggy of the three. It is a common joke in the industry and it is looked down upon by the people who use what they consider industrial strength software, Unix.
The place that brought us 'C' and Unix, Bell Labs, has developed a new system called Plan 9 to replace Unix and operate more effectively with new computing paradigms such as distributed networks of PCs, servers, and the internet. In a document first published in 1995 they explain the reason for the development of Plan 9. The document is available online at Plan 9 from Bell Labs
From the first few paragraphs of that document:
"By the mid 1980's, the trend in computing was away from large centralized time-shared computers towards networks of smaller, personal machines, typically UNIX `workstations'. People had grown weary of overloaded, bureaucratic timesharing machines and were eager to move to small, self-maintained systems, even if that meant a net loss in computing power. As microcomputers became faster, even that loss was recovered, and this style of computing remains popular today.
In the rush to personal workstations, though, some of their weaknesses were overlooked. First, the operating system they run, UNIX, is itself an old timesharing system and has had trouble adapting to ideas born after it. Graphics and networking were added to UNIX well into its lifetime and remain poorly integrated and difficult to administer. More important, the early focus on having private machines made it difficult for networks of machines to serve as seamlessly as the old monolithic timesharing systems. Timesharing centralized the management and amortization of costs and resources; personal computing fractured, democratized, and ultimately amplified administrative problems. The choice of an old timesharing operating system to run those personal machines made it difficult to bind things together smoothly."
After the thirty years that it took to build up microprocessors beyond the power of old mainframes people in the mainstream of computing are finally beginning to realize that microprocessor based computers are not large multiuser timesharing systems. They are beginning to think about using something other than the old software for large multiuser timesharing computers where things were done in batch mode and real-time response for the one user of the computer was not the idea.
A very different approach to software, Forth, is about a year older than Unix. It was designed to use a virtual machine concept and to get high performance by doing things as simply and quickly as possible. Forth become most popular on small, resource starved microprocessor based computes where it could provide high performance. On small machines that simply were not big enough or compilcated enough to run 'C' and Unix effectively very high performance could be achieved in Forth. These small machines that were not big enough for Unix and one user could support hundreds of users like the large timeshareing systems. This was possible because the idea of the design was to reduce as much overhead as possible to get the fastest context switches and multitasking possible. Forth's performance is so much higher than popular mainstream software on this that many people have dismissed it as too good to be true.
Forth became somewhat of a niche language used by people in engineering to get some combination of the fastest development, smallest code footprint, and fastest realtime response possible. For the most part most languages are specialized in what they do and are good at and don't directly compete with one another too much for a specific niche. But Forth and 'C' have some things in common and are both often viable choices for language when ease of development, portability and performance are the goals. Forth can also act as its own operating system and so also provides an alternative to Unix for some things where Unix is too big or too slow to be practical.
Forth has been widely used in a lot of embedded applications, and it has been particularly successful in high performance, and mission critical embedded applications where there is no operator to fix runtime errors and where old multiuser software models just cannot provide the needed performance or reliability. The Forth virtual machine and common multitasking implementation strategies provide the fastest context switches, interrupt handling, and threading of any enviroment. Typically only a few register need be swapped or copied to and from memory in Forth. This is in strong contrast to 'C' and Unix environments where these things are typcialy far more involved.
In discussions between Unix and Forth programmers the former will be talking about milliseconds while the latter will be talking about microseconds. In other contexts the former will be talking microseconds and the latter will be talking nanoseconds. The Plan 9 document from Bell Labs explains that they are seeking a higher level of performance in Plan 9 than that delivered by Unix on the same machine. I have added the timings available in Forth to the table. One should note the microsecond vs nanosecond units.
Performance Test IRIX Plan 9 Forth Context switch 150us 39us 120ns System call 36us 6us 60ns Light fork 2200us 1300us 100ns Pipe latency 200us 100us 100ns
Of course this dramatic one hundred to one, or one thousand to one, ratio is only part of the full picture. The full picture involves other issues like using standard "canned" code solutions. When programming is difficult and performance is not important these are important issues. The reduction in the overal complexity in the Forth approach can make the programming much easier and faster and deliver performance. Our experience is that when done properly writing code is not only easier than finding and pasting other people's code from a library, but faster, cheaper, higher performance and easier to debug and maintain.
Forth has a long history of competing with 'C' and Unix on many projects. We have many examples of Forth coming to the rescue of projects where 'C' just could not do what was needed. We have many examples where the smaller team of Forth programmers finished the project much faster than the larger team of 'C' programmers. The typcial ratio in required man-months is about ten to one. There are also many examples where the resultant code generated in 'C' was simply too slow or too big or too power hungry to meet the application requirements and where Forth came to the rescue.
When people are only exposed to large timesharing computer methods these are the only methods that they are aware of or consider using. If they hear about a different approach that can deliver programs in one tenth the time or cost, and deliver much higher performance they will tend to be very skeptical. They may have a very hard time understanding these other methods if they have never been exposed to anything outside the mainstream popluar software enviroments that even the folks from Bell Labs who invented it describe as "an old timesharing system." In that same document on Plan 9 they go on to say, "The problems with UNIX were too deep to fix,..."
Besides software another factor in the computing equation is hardware. People facing a given computer platform often think of the hardware as something that is fixed and not one of the variables in the computing equation. This is often the case in the desktop environment where the a programmer may be facing a particular machine. But 98% of the microprocessors made do not go into desktop machines but rather go into embedded computer applications. 98% of computers are embedded computers where the cost of the hardware is far more important than the cost of the software because the cost of software is spread accross many units. In these machines it is vital that the software be fast and efficient so that the device can meet its require specifications with a minimal amount of hardware.
The attitude in the desktop environment is often that program size or speed are not important because more memory and a faster processor is a cheap investment. In embedded applications the goal is zero cost or zero power consumption. Minimizing the cost of the hardware, the size of the hardware, and the efficiency of the software is most of the game. This is where Forth has traditionally been able to most effectively compete. Instead of upgrading the hardware from a $100 processor to a $500 processor to make up for inefficient software the goal in Forth is often to make the software so efficient that the same job can be done with a $10 processor. If you want to sell a lot of widgets making them work with 1/10th or 1/50th as expensive hardware will be a big advantage.
In this area Forth has a special advantage. For the last fifteen years people have been developing Forth hardware based on the same concepts that made Forth work so well in software. These machines can be incredibly small, cheap an low power. For the most part the manufacture cost and power requirement for a microprocessor will be proportional to the number of transistors int he design. Traditional small designs had low performance and to increase performanc and deliver the features that the 'C' compilers wanted to exploit the machines got bigger and bigger until they drarfed the mainframes from the old days.
Intel's first introduced the 4004 microprocessor in 1971 and it had only 2300 transistors and only performed 60 thousand instructions per second. By 8086 they were up to 29 thousand transistors and performance was up to 330 thousand instructions per second. Today Intel is up to 28 million transitors and approaching a billion instructions a second. They have increased transistor count by a factor of one thousand and performace by even more. But one must remember that for 98% of the computers made the goal is zero cost or zero power consumption and that cost and power consumption are proportial to the transistor count.
The first machine to use the Forth language as its instruction set was intoduced in 1985. The Novix microprocessor used only 4000 transistors yet it was considerably faster than the fastest Intel chip at the time, 80386, on many realtime problems. Today we have machines that run at speeds compeditive with the current Intel machines on our problems, but which have fewer transistors than the antique 8086. The idea is to reduce the hardware cost and power consumption by a factor of 1000 over conventional designs for executing Forth programs.
While many other people insist that effiency and cost are not longer issues with personal computers the people working in embedded computers know that all computers have limited memory and limited computing power. Our goal is to minimize cost, power consumption and to maximize performance, efficiency, and the effectiveness of the development effort.
When we try to explain what we are doing, to reduce the cost of hardare by a factor of 1000 and increase efficency of software by a similar factor by using Forth instead of Unix and 'C' we are usually immediately dismissed with some comment like "I don't want to get into a language war." It seems that sticking with what they know, and not even considering an alternative, is more important to them than anything else. They will not even consider the possibility that there could be way to improve the performance/price factor by about one million.
I haven't talked about Microsoft's software on Intel's hardware. The Unix folks think efficiency and reliabilty are important when they compare Unix and MS software. They enjoy a much more stable and higher performance environment than those using the Microsoft alternative. To bring Microsoft's approach to software into the equation means more zeros since they are much slower and less efficient in their software than Unix. Microsoft's software makes using an old timeshareing operating system on a PC look really great in comparison.
In conclusion the world of computing is much larger than Microsoft, Unix, and Forth combined. There are embedded systems ranging from tiny four bit processors that resemble the first microprocessor ever made to multiprocessors with the largest processors avialable. In addition to embedded computing there are handheld computers, wearable comptures, laptop computers, desktop computers, network servers, minicomputers, mainframe computers and supercomputers. Each have their own characteristics and no single operating system or programming language is ideal over the whole range of macines and application domains.
Jeff Fox 7/24/00This year’s AFL grand final entertainment will see one iconic Australian band re-form for the occasion. Hunters & Collectors will join another Australian band, Birds of Tokyo, at one of Australia’s most important sporting events – Birds of Tokyo pre-game and Hunters & Collectors at half-time.
Formed in 1981, Hunters & Collectors were one of Australia’s most popular bands between 1986 and ’94. Their hit Holy Grail became synonymous with football’s biggest day. They disbanded in 1998, but will re-form for this special occasion.
Premiership Cup ambassador Shane Crawford and Greg Williams with the Norm Smith Medal. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou hailed the line-up. "It’s a coup having bands from two different eras," he said.
"It’s fitting Australia’s Game has Australia’s music as its soundtrack on the biggest day of the year. Both Hunters & Collectors and Birds of Tokyo are hugely popular Australian acts and I know how much they’ll add to what is the most important day on the AFL calendar."The biggest news in Yahoo! fantasy this week was Florida forward Jonathan Marchessault gaining eligibility on the left wing. This should show you the state of the wing position depth in fantasy hockey. It is not good, nor anywhere near even decent.
In the official AATJ league, Marchessault bounced around from the waiver wire, but nobody was aching to grab him at center. I had him on my bench, but with the depth at center available on the waiver wire, with guys like Derek Stepan, Adam Henrique, Dylan Strome and Leon Draisaitl all available, there wasn't a huge rush to see if Marchessault could keep it going. But just a day or so into his left wing odyssey, he was gone.
The names available currently at the top of the left wing list don’t quite strike the same fear into the hearts of your opponents. J.T. Miller is fine but not great. Richard Panik is a mirage with his 54.5 shooting percentage and when Thomas Vanek can turn the clock back to 2007, I’ll add him despite the hot start for Detroit.
On the right side, it's a little better. Brendan Gallagher is somehow still a free agent in our league, but probably should be on a roster. After that, it’s not too great. Draisaitl is available to play at RW, but beyond him there isn’t much unless Reilly Smith or Cam Atkinson are your jams. Maybe you really believe in Brandon Pirri. I don’t, but hey what do I know.
The quality of the waiver wire is clearly a little better at center, as you can tell, but not hugely. Stepan and Strome have more potential than Miller and Vanek, but not by a wide margin. Where you can really see this difference is comparing mid-tier owned centers to mid-tier owned wingers.
The thirteenth ranked center, Ryan Getzlaf, has eight points. Zach Parise is the thirteenth ranked left winger, but is ranked 24 spots lower in the overall rankings. Right wing isn’t the same wasteland, with Charlie Coyle ranked just two spots overall behind Getzlaf as the thirteenth right winger.
If you go down a little farther in the rankings, Tyler Toffoli is the 20th ranked center and 59th overall. Tomas Hertl is 20th at LW and is ranked 77. At RW, it’s still Toffoli at number 20.
Just based on these numbers and who’s currently available as a free agent, you can see it’s a little harder to get a quality left winger than either of the other two positions. If you dig down even further, you can see that the balance kind of evens out around the 50th ranked left and right wingers, but the centers stay about 20 spots ahead at that position.
And it makes sense. The best players play center. Players have the most influence in the middle |
porn. I did what I knew would help me gain “fame” in the industry.”
That’s just one reality of the porn industry. What is another?
It’s All About The Money
In the same article mentioned earlier, the producer (who is on payroll at a major porn production company) goes on to say that when porn studios have “ethical workplace regulations”, it is a step toward legitimacy, which affects whether banks and credit card companies will do business with them. The producer goes on to say, “There’s an entire generation of people—and I work with college-age people—that believe porn is free and has always been free. There needs to be a re-education that says, ‘If you want more porn, especially from people whose work you really like, you have to pay for it. Because if you don’t, then we can’t make more.'” The article then goes on to encourage paying for porn as a great way to support the labor that is part of making and consuming pornography. To end the article, the interviewer asked the producer what he recommends for “ethical” porn viewing. His response?
“Pay for your porn! When you pay for porn, you’ve got credit card processors looming over the shoulders of producers to ensure that porn is done legally and that all the paperwork and those checks and balances are in place.”
So, to boil it down, viewers should be sure to give money to the $97 billion industry and you’ll be safe. Sounds more than a little self-serving doesn’t it?
This just shows yet another unveiling of the true side of the porn industry. Porn is a $97 billion global industry, according to Kassia Wosick, assistant professor of sociology at New Mexico State University. With this amount of money being the case, the porn industry’s bottom line is much more important than any concern for the well-being of viewers or performers. Just take into account this quote from former porn actress Anita Cannibal:
“I have been a performer now for 14 years in the adult film industry in many countries, states... all over the place. I have worked for most of these companies, and I was around for the once-a-month HIV-positive outbreak in ’98. Yes, I was, and I got to see those performers that nobody knows about—that nobody claims that got HIV, that are not a part of the statistics—walk out the door as non-performers, not to be counted.”
“Yeah, there are a lot of cover-ups going on. There is a lot of tragedy. There are a lot of horrible things.”
Related: 10 Popular Ex-Porn Stars Share The Raw Reality Behind Their Most Famous Scenes
Starting to get the picture? Not only does the porn industry damage the lives of those who produce it, but it is extremely harmful to those who view it as well. Porn is inseparably linked to sex trafficking and is even shown to be as addictive as hard drugs. So we think it goes without saying that the delusional ideal of “ethical porn” is simply a marketing tactic but a corrupt industry with one singular objective: making money.
What YOU Can Do
If you’re not okay with these harms of pornography, SHARE this article. Spread the facts and help change the conversation about porn.One of the biggest questions surrounding the Gators football team entering the spring was which quarterback would begin practices working with the first-string offense. On Wednesday, redshirt sophomore walk-on Luke Del Rio earned the nod, as he took the first snap with the first team during UF’s 11-on-11 fastball drill.
Following Florida’s Wednesday practice, UF head coach Jim McElwain had plenty of good things to say about the 6-foot-1, 216-pound signal-caller.
"You know, I think one of the things that I love about him is he's kind of a gym rat type of guy,” McElwain said. “You can tell he obviously grew up around the game. He's a guy who enjoys watching film. He enjoys, around the guys, he's does a great job as a leader. I think there's a lot of intangibles there. Not only is he a good quarterback, but just the qualities you want at that position. You can tell he spent a lot of time around the game."
Del Rio spent his freshman season at Alabama in 2013 and then transferred to Oregon State in 2014. After a year with the Beavers, he joined the Gators – his third team in as many years. Del Rio sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules but now has three years of eligibility remaining after receiving a waiver from the NCAA.
During the 2015 campaign, Del Rio spent plenty of time growing accustomed to the Gators offense and better learning McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier’s system. Based off the open portion at the start of Wednesday’s practice, one could tell from the get-go how comfortable Del Rio looked operating UF’s pro-style offense.
“I just remember even when he was in high school and I had him in camp when he was an eighth grader actually," McElwain said. "Of course, when I was in Colorado he was a senior out there playing. You could just tell, the guy has got something to him. There’s a lot of things that have to go along with that. There’s a real confidence when the guy takes the field and takes command of the huddle. It’s kind of those little things that you notice. Just maybe I kind of notice more so how to play the position. It’s good to see."
Linebacker Jarrad Davis was pleased with what he saw out of Del Rio on Wednesday and offered up some praise.
“I love Luke Del Rio,” Davis said. “I’ve been watching him work out throughout the winter and I’m watching him do his thing out there today. He looked natural and very comfortable. I’m excited to see how the competition is going to play out this spring.
“He’s just real cool. He’s not a guy that’s really going to panic. He’s real laid back and he’s dropping back in the pocket real smooth with everything that he does. His reads are perfect. He does a lot of things to separate himself from other guys on the team.”
When asked about Del Rio, Ahmad Fulwood shared the same sentiment – but not without teasing the fellow Jacksonville, Fla., native.
“I’ve known Luke since we played ball back in Jacksonville,” Fulwood said. “You could tell Luke I said this - when Episcopal played B.K. we beat the hell out of him, probably had four picks in the first half. Those are days I don’t like to remind him of because I know he’s gotten a lot better since then. I always tease him about that. We lived right down the street from each other, so we’re pretty close. On the field, he’s the same way. We just feed off of each other’s energy.
“We were kind of opponents before we got here. Not like I hated him, he hated me, but I never really got to know him until he got here, so knowing his name, his dad is a big guy around Jacksonville. It’s kind of helped, but I’ve still got to get to know the guy still.
“Kid is smart,” Fulwood added about Del Rio. “He can make the passes. They didn’t have the playmakers we had on our defense, so that’s probably why he threw us a little bit more interceptions. But I will say, he brought back his team even though we still beat him. He did put his team in position to win. So, I know he’s got some fight in him.”Mountain Tree House
Project Description
The Mountain House was built five years prior. It is an inside-outside place. Half screened porch and outdoor courtyards, half inside house and glass walls. Set for gardening and reading, it is a weekend retreat into the vertical poplar trunks among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
But now the family has grown with grandchildren and friends, and a little more space is needed for things like tractors and dogs. The new project is a concrete garage, a steel bedroom and a bamboo deck. It, too, is an inside-outside thing, but also an up-down and heavy-light thing.
The garage is for working and gardening, the storage of tools and the occasional car. It is walled by unfinished concrete, with plain doors and long windows. The bedroom above is cantilevered over the work-yard, as open with glass walls as the garage is closed below. The little bathroom is solid, clad in steel. The walls swing wide open for outdoor showers and spring cleaning. The bamboo starts in planters on the ground and grows up through narrow slots in the deck above. The space is for sitting and viewing, in and among the fast growing canes.
The structure is wood and steel framing atop reinforced concrete walls. Deck surface and interior flooring is black slate. The ramp and handrails are self-weathering steel. Panels of the same steel, lap-jointed and welded, clad the upper room. Glass walls are either clear tempered or translucent laminated.
Images
Drawings
ProcessGLASSBORO, NJ (CBS) — When it comes to the buildup for Monday’s solar eclipse few have had more to do than Amy Barraclough director of Rowan University’s Edelman Planetarium.
She has been guest lecturing for months on solar eclipses and preparing for a big event Monday at the university to celebrate the eclipse, which has become a national obsession.
READ: Poll: Americans’ Eclipse Viewing Plans Take Shape
“Eclipses are actually all not that rare, they happen about once a year on average but what’s rare about this one is that it’s in the US which has not happened for almost 40 years,” says Barraclough.
The Edelman Planetarium, which has a 40-foot dome screen and seats about a hundred people, is a great place to learn about astronomy year-round.
Monday Rowan expects to have more than a thousand people at their event.
They’ll be doing shows on eclipses in the planetarium starting at 12:30 p.m., kids activities and then the main event outside watching the solar eclipse at 2:45 p.m..
ALSO READ: Gas Prices Rising Along Solar Eclipse Route
Rowan will give out 1,000 eclipse glasses on a first come first serve basis.
Astronomers like Barraclough say they’re more than happy to welcome eclipse-lovers into new realms of learning.
“The eclipse opens up the conversation about other topics within astronomy too so it’s a great teaching tool for us,” says Barraclough.12 - 17 April, 2017
Zurich, Switzerland
8 players
7 rounds new classical chess and 7 rounds Blitz
Average rating: 2720
Time control: 45 min + 30 sec / move ; Blitz 10 min + 5 sec
Players
Kramnik Vladimir (RUS) 2811
Anand Viswanathan (IND) 2786
Nakamura Hikaru (USA) 2793
Nepomniachtchi Ian (RUS) 2751
Svidler Peter (RUS) 2747
Gelfand Boris (ISR) 2724
Oparin, Grigoryi (RUS) 2604
Pelletier Yannick (SUI) 2541
Rank Players Country Points 1 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 15 2 Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 14 3 Anand, Viswanathan IND 13.5 5 Svidler Peter RUS 12 6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 11 6 Gelfand Boris ISR 9 7 Oparin, Grigoryi RUS 5.5 8 Pelletier Yannick SUI 4
Rank Players Country Points 1 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 10 2 Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 10 3 Anand, Viswanathan IND 9 5 Svidler Peter RUS 8 6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 8 6 Gelfand Boris ISR 5 6 Pelletier Yannick SUI 3 8 Oparin, Grigoryi RUS 3
Classic: 2 points for the win, 1 point for the draw.Blitz: 1 point for the win, 0.5 point for the draw.About
The dish is over 10,000 years old recipe! BTW, this dish is not any miracle dish that will make you be young for ever etc.. It is very difficult to make it and it name is "Everlasting Youth Dish" I tried it before 35 years ago when my Grandma made it and it was really, really tasty, you cannot stop yourself from eating that dish, you just cannot say enough!
Risks and challenges
I have to travel a half of the world to get the all nutrition's I need!
The recipe is secret. If this project fail then we are never going to know what benefits it have....BTW, this dish is not any miracle dish that will make you be young for ever etc.. It is very difficult to make it and it name is "Everlasting Youth Dish" I tried it before 35 years ago when my Grandma made it and it was really, really tasty, you cannot stop yourself from eating that dish, you just cannot say enough!Speaker John Boehner’s shocking decision to resign from Congress is a sorry measure of how far right-wing extremism has immobilized the Republican Party and undermined the process of healthy government.
In abruptly quitting the arena, Mr. Boehner may have headed off the latest threat of a government shutdown. But he did so by yielding to the attack on his leadership that is being waged by some of the same Tea Party zealots and conservative naysayers who supported his ascent to speaker nearly five years ago.
Though he is deeply conservative himself, he has been tormented ever since by right-wing malcontents who have condemned any hint of the sort of political accommodation needed for legislation.
Mr. Boehner said that putting members through “prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution,” so he is yielding the gavel and quitting the House of Representatives after 25 years on Oct. 30.Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons, by Getty Images (2).
Every year, the editors of the Futurist magazine identify the most provocative forecasts and statements about the future that we’ve published recently and we put them to into an annual report called “Outlook.” It’s sprawling exploration of what the future looks like at a particular moment in time. To accompany the report, we draft a list of our top 10 favorite predictions from the magazine’s previous 12 months. What are the criteria to be admitted into the top 10? The forecast should be interesting, relatively high impact, and rising in likelihood.
In other words, it’s a bit subjective.
There are surely better methods for evaluating statements about the future, but not for our purposes. You see, we aren’t actually interested in attempting to tell our readers what will happen so much as provoking a better discussion about what can happen—and what futures can be avoided, if we discover we’re heading in an unsavory direction.
The future isn’t a destination. But the problem with too many conversations about the future, especially those involving futurists, is that predictions tend to take on unmitigated certainty, sounding like GPS directions. When you reach the Singularity, turn left—that sort of thing. In reality, it’s more like wandering around a city, deciding spur of the moment what road to take.
In that spirit, we offer these 10 forecasts to you. With each, I’ve attempted to explain our reasoning for its inclusion and present a countertrend that could derail the forecast’s realization. The future is more interesting when it’s treated precisely as what it is: a set of potentialities and probabilities.
Without further ado, here are the Futurist’s top 10 forecasts for 2014 and beyond.
1. Thanks to big data, the environment around you will anticipate your every move.
The forecast: “Computerized sensing and broadcasting abilities are being incorporated into our physical environment, creating what is sometimes called an ‘Internet of things.’ Data flowing from sensor networks, RFID tags, surveillance cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, and geo-tagged social-media posts will telegraph where we’ve been and where we are going. In the future, these data streams will be integrated into services, platforms, and programs that will provide a window into the lives, and futures, of billions of people.”
From “Mapping the Future with Big Data,” July–August 2013.
Why it’s in the top 10: The threshold factor. The world reached a significant but unremarked upon turning point between 2008 and 2009 when the number of devices—sensors, phones, computers—connected to the Internet outnumbered the human population. By 2020, when an estimated 7.6 billion people will be running around on the planet, there will be 50 billion machines communicating to one another … about us. As a population, we generate 1.8 million megabytes of data on a yearly basis related to what we listen to and stream, where we are, where we’re going, what we buy, and how we feel about it.
Data brokerage companies like Acxiom send that information to marketers and companies looking to pitch products to you. Services like Google Now and Osito can deliver you traffic and scheduling recommendations based on an understanding of data you give them. Companies like California’s Esri combine all that information into geographical information services and capabilities to show how all of these people and objects are interacting in our physical world. In the decades ahead these different data streams will combine, forming a much more anticipatory environment.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photos by Getty Images (2).
Why it may not happen: Potential privacy backlash. When your environment gathers information about you, it has to share that information. People are beginning to ask a lot of questions about that. In a recent Pew poll, 68 percent of respondents said that they believed current laws related to Internet use don’t adequately protect consumers’ privacy.
The entire vision of the Internet of Things is evolving as quickly as it’s forming. In a recent speech at the World Future Society conference in July, One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte pointed out that the vision of the Internet of Things that he long nurtured at the MIT Media Lab, one where objects in our surroundings react to us with intelligence, has “almost gone by the wayside.” What’s replacing it is an app-based ecosystem that allows for the remote control of everything from iPhones and Androids.
We can either turn our world into a sensing, intelligent, living space, or into one big extension of a device not everyone owns, says Negroponte.
2. We will revive recently extinct species.
The forecast: The passenger pigeon, for example, may be brought back after 100 years. In our September–October issue, geneticist Ben Novak describes a strategy for “de-extincting” the passenger pigeon, which died out in 1914.
The project, dubbed the Great Comeback, involves five research phases:
Sequencing and analyzing pigeon genomes to understand passenger pigeon biology.
Producing cells that could be used to engineer a living passenger pigeon.
Creating the genome from synthesized passenger pigeon DNA.
Using altered cells to create breeding chimeras (combinations of rock and passenger pigeons) that would ultimately create pure passenger pigeons.
Reintroducing new passenger pigeons back into the wild.
From “The Great Comeback: Bringing a Species Back from Extinction” by Ben J. Novak, September–October 2013.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Passenger_pigeon.jpg)
Why it’s in the top 10: The last-great-hope factor. If current rates of species loss continue, we will see a mass extinction event within a few hundred years, according to Anthony D. Barnosky, a UC–Berkeley biologist, and his colleagues, writing in the journal Nature. In this sixth great die-off, more than 75 percent of the Earth’s biota could vanish. But the loss of just a few critical species, such as pollinating birds and insects and organisms that keep watersheds safe, could be extremely disruptive to humans and come much sooner (see item No. 7). De-extinction might be a do-over button.
In his recent piece for National Geographic Carl Zimmer tackles the Michael Crichton-esque hype surrounding de-extinction science. Dinosaur DNA is just too old to reanimate the T-Rex. A mammoth is a better contender but still poses enormous challenges. The best candidates for de-extinction, for reasons technical, ethical, and practical, are species that vanished recently at the hand of humankind—like the American passenger pigeon.
Why it may not happen: As Novak writes in his essay: “Of my nearly 500 million DNA sequences, about 50% of it is bacteria. A small fraction is human. And a small fraction is unknown in origin—a problem we won’t solve until we manage to sequence the DNA of every life-form on Earth.” This is a big-data problem, and there is a big-data labor shortage. Not many people know how this stuff works, and the ones who do have more lucrative work to do than playing Dr. Frankenstein with birds.
Furthermore, conservationists have very mixed views on the subject of de-extinction. As Frank Swain wrote in Slate, “to focus on de-extinction as a conservation strategy communicates the idea that species loss defines environmental degradation, rather than exists as a symptom of it.”
3. By 2020 populations will shrink, and wealth will shrink with them.
The forecast: “By 2020, half of the human race will live in countries where the birthrates have fallen below the death rates, and consequently, populations are shrinking. The cause is the combination of older adults living longer and fewer children being born. The countries will grapple with shrinking tax bases and workforces despite widening pools of retirees demanding social-security and health-care payouts. Society will survive, but GDPs will fall markedly throughout the world and probably never fully rise back up.”
From “In Search of the ‘Better Angels’ of Our Future” by Kenneth Taylor, November–December 2012.
Why it’s in the top 10: The big narrative on population has changed relatively little since the publication of Limits to Growth in 1972. The story goes like this: Global population rise is unsustainable and will lead to a calamity of resource exhaustion before the end the century. The most recent United Nations forecast has the human population reaching 9.6 billion people by 2050. If these people consume resources the way Americans do today, it will certainly be beyond the Earth’s natural carrying capacity.
The question that seems never to come up when discussing population forecasts is: Why does population grow in some places and decline in others?
Here’s a very simple answer: As the West moved from an agrarian economy to an industrial one and finally to a system based on knowledge work, children have gone from being an economic asset to … something else. Wired’s Kevin Kelly has described the transition this way: “[T]he more technologically developed a society becomes, the fewer offspring couples will have, the easier it is for them to raise their living standards, the more that progress lowers their desire for large families. The result is the spiral of modern technological population decline—a new but now universal pattern.”
The technologically advanced nation of Japan is, in many ways, the embodiment of this trend. It has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world (1.39) and is also the second oldest nation on earth, demographically speaking, with more than one out of five people over the age of 65.
Population projections such as the U.N.’s 9.6 billion figure are the bread and butter of futurism because they’re stable and slow moving. (Futurists hate updating their PowerPoints.) But the future isn’t fixed, even for the United Nations. To arrive at a different conclusion, just imagine the same social and economic pressures that are present in Japan spreading to Africa as quickly as the spread of technology, because the two are linked. (Jeff Wise has also made the case for a declining population in Slate.)
Why it may not happen: After you are done imaging Africa becoming like Japan, wrap your head around the current projections. About 42 percent of Africa and 48 percent of sub-Saharan Africa still will not have access to electricity in 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That fact bodes poorly for the rapid spread of information technology in the region. But Taylor’s forecast for the developed world still applies.
4. Doctors will see brain diseases many years before they arise.
The forecast: “Brain scans can warn doctors if a patient will suffer Alzheimer’s, dementia, Lou Gehrig’s, or a number of other brain disorders as many as 10–15 years ahead of physical symptoms. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are learning to identify distinct chemical biomarkers within patients’ body and brain functions. Doctors could then slow the progression of the diseases if they start administering treatments years earlier.”
From “The Brain as Health Forecaster,” by Rick Docksai, January–February 2013.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Shutterstock.
Why it’s in the top 10: The this-affects-your-dad factor. Figures suggest that in 2050, half the U.S. population aged 85 and older will have Alzheimer’s disease. That’s an estimated 13 million people, unless you believe forecast No. 3. It’s one of the clear consequences of a longer-living population. Steps we can take today to manage Alzheimer’s could have huge benefits for what will be an incredibly strained health care system. “We’re currently trying to treat the disease in the last few years of the disease, and that’s probably not the best therapeutic strategy,” one of the study’s lead researchers, Randall Bateman, told the Futurist.
Why it may disappoint: Detecting Alzheimer’s decades earlier is very different from curing it. While some experimental treatments have proven effective in slowing the progression of the disease, actually getting rid of it still seems far away.
5. Buying and owning things will go out of style.
The forecast: “The markets for housing, automobiles, music, books, and many other products show a common trend: Younger consumers opting to rent or subscribe to pay-per-use arrangements instead of buying and owning the physical products. Shared facilities will overtake established offices, renting units will become more common than owning a home, and sales of books and music might never become popular again.” From “Consumption 2.0,” by Hugo Garcia, January–February, 2013.
Why it’s in the top 10: The megatrends factor. This is the story of two major phenomena colliding: an abundance of underemployed young people leveraging technology to create a new sharing economy.
One of the key consequences of the 2008 recession is that nearly half of recent college graduates in the United States are unemployed or underemployed. Those who went to college have better prospects than their peers but are carrying around record amounts of debt—an average of $27,000 per grad. Variations of this story are playing out in Europe, where student debt is lower but unemployment among young people is higher. For instance, in Spain nearly half of the population under the age of 25 have no jobs at all. We are creating a generation of young people with less disposal income than their parents had. Yes, there are lines around the corner to buy a new Apple iPhone, but millennials aren’t lining up to buy houses.
This high unemployment is being met by a second trend: social startups that make sharing a lot easier. Consider Getaround, an app-based car share service that allows anyone to rent out her car. You select the renter and send your customer a code to unlock your car and turn on the engine. When the contract expires, the code no longer works.
Why it might not happen: The economy is supposed to be recovering, which could lead to more disposable income for young people and the end of the sharing fad. But economists predict unemployment to stay above 6.5 percent through 2015, and young peoples’ lower earnings today may still show the effects of underemployment well past the time when we call them “young people.”
6. Quantum computing could lead the way to true artificial intelligence.
The forecast: “Conventional computers cannot make decisions, as humans do, but quantum computers eventually might, says Geordie Rose, creator of the D-Wave One quantum computer. They use programs based on quantum mechanics to see multiple possible outcomes to any given problem and combine information from each to formulate solutions. With another 10 to 15 years of enhancement, they might cross the threshold to true machine consciousness, Rose predicts.”
From “Dream, Design, Develop, Deliver: From Great Ideas to Better Outcomes.” November–December, 2012
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Hulton/Getty Images
Why it’s in the top 10: The breakthrough factor. We don’t know the full applications of quantum computing aside from some very clear ones in encryption. Consider, however, that the D-Wave One consumes much less energy than a server farm but can do just as much work. In the spring of 2013, independent analysis revealed from researchers at Amherst and Simon Fraser found that the D-Wave system was 3,600 times as fast as a conventional system. Check out Quentin Hardy’s piece on the New York Times’ site for more. It’s possible that quantum computing could remake the entire field of computer science and move us past silicon-based transistors, which will reach an innovation endpoint by 2022, according to Robert Cowell, who has been both Intel’s chief architect and the director of DARPA.
Why it might not happen: Side-by-side performance measurements are one thing, but we don’t know what questions to ask about quantum computing to assess what’s really going on. For instance, with conventional bits, numbers and values are represented in a clear binary form. The qubits (or quantum bits of information that make up quantum computation) can represent ones, zeros, or both at once. Understanding how qubits are interacting with one another, with information, and with the universe is a far murkier business. And D-Wave has its detractors.
7. Phytoplankton death will further disrupt aquatic ecosystems.
The forecast: “The tiny marine plants are sensitive to temperature changes, so global warming poses a major threat to their populations. A University of Michigan study projects that up to 40% of the world’s phytoplankton will die out by this century’s end.”
—From “Climate Disruption and Plankton Destruction” by Rick Docksai, March–April, 2013
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo courtesy NASA.
Why it’s in top 10: The you-didn’t-know-this-mattered-but-it-does factor. Phytoplankton are like the rain forests of the sea, converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on a massive scale. So their decline, as a result of global warming, will further exacerbate … global warming.
Oceans have already absorbed 23 percent of the carbon dioxide that our species has produced, which is part of the reason we have yet to really feel the impacts of climate change. But we can’t keep using the oceans as a carbon dump, because as they get warmer, their capacity to carry carbon goes down.
Why it might not happen: Oceans are an extremely dynamic system, and we don’t know the sum total of the effects we’re having on them. Not long after we published this forecast, NASA satellites discovered huge areas of phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Make no mistake, phytoplankton are still important and are still extremely sensitive to temperature changes. But we have a bit more of the stuff than we thought.
8. The future of science is in the hands of crowdsourcing amateurs.
The forecast: “So-called ‘citizen science,’ which uses networks of volunteers in scientific research, is on its way to becoming the favored twenty-first-century model for conducting large-scale scientific research.”
From “The Rise of Citizen Science” by Kathleen Toerpe, July–August, 2013
Why it’s in top 10: The people-power factor. The American Gut Project, the Cornell University Ornithology Lab, the United States Rocket Academy, the U.S. Navy, and NASA are just a few of the outfits and agencies that are using citizen science to reach new findings at low cost, which could accelerate scientific discovery.
What could go wrong: In one instance where citizen scientists were compared with expert systems, the amateurs underperformed—but not by much. In a contest to determine who could better identify land cover on Google map images of 53,000 locations, experts were accurate 69 percent of the time, while citizen scientists got it right compared to 62 percent of the time. You can read the paper here.
Science has become more cross-disciplinary, but individual fields are, today, much more specialized than they were back when Charles Darwin used his understanding of botany, psychology, and a wide host of other fields to reach novel insights about evolution. As disciplines become increasingly complex and require ever more specific knowledge, citizen scientists will be contributing mostly labor to the fight—but not necessarily insight. You can call yourself a scientist and spend your weekend tagging chromosome data, but someone else’s name will go on the final paper. Also, absent some hands on instruction in research methods, citizen scientists can introduce bias into the results.
9. Fusion-fueled rockets could significantly reduce the potential time and cost of sending humans to Mars.
The forecast: “Space exploration is limited to how much fuel our vehicles can bring with them and fuel weighs too much to get us very far. That may soon change. A University of Washington team has devised a type of plasma encased in its own magnetic field. The magnetic field causes metal rings around the plasma to implode and converge to create a shell that ignites the fusion reaction.”
From “Rocketing to Mars with Fusion Power” by Cynthia G. Wagner, July–August, 2013
Why it’s in the top 10: Cool pop-sci factor. A trip to Mars and back would take 500 days, at least. University of Washington aeronautics researcher John Slough says that with a fusion propulsion system, travel time shrinks to something like 30–90 days. The magnetic field would protect the passengers inside the rocket from the large amounts of radiation unleashed in the explosion, according to Slough.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo courtesy NASA.
Why it might not happen: Fusion is a great topic for magazine writing. But if you’re willing to throw money at it, might I interest you in a bridge as well? Charles Seife has done a wonderful job documenting reasons to be skeptical of fusion breakthroughs. Though this meets the criteria of being interesting, important, and more realistic than it was a few years ago, that doesn’t mean the same thing as being truly realistic. Other researchers working along similar lines have forecast 2020 as the earliest date we may be able to use magnetism to shield us from high doses of space radiation. So managed expectations are in order. As Rutherford Lab researcher Ruth Bramformd told Physicsworld a few years ago, “Getting in a tin can with a rocket on your back and flying to Mars is never going to be a safe thing to do.”
10. Atomically precise manufacturing will make machinery, infrastructure, and other systems more productive and less expensive.
The forecast: Atom-by-atom production of everything from solar panels to computers will allow for extraordinary improvements in manufacturing all things.
From “A Radical Future for Nanotechnology” by K. Eric Drexler, September–October 2013
Why it’s in the top 10: The quiet-revolution factor. K. Eric Drexler first came up with the concept of nanotechnology in this paper. But the real benefits of what he has renamed “atomically precise manufacturing” will be both far less conspicuous and much more pervasive than the nanotech hype that we all endured in the 1990s and 2000s. Imagine a future where every product, and every part in it, is made of cheaper, lighter, stronger, more durable, and conductive material than what we’ve got today. As a result, machines become safer and more efficient, emissions go down, computer performance improve and the machine uses less power. The way we make, sell, and buy changes as global supply chains collapse. Before long, garage entrepreneurs with 3-D printers are bringing world-class electronics to market, at scale, and overnight.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
This is one of the reasons why McKinsey & Co. has forecast atomically precise manufacturing as a one of the most disruptive technologies of the next decade.
Why it might not happen: History repeats itself. No area of inquiry and research lends itself to hype, overpromise, and overreach and in quite the same way as does nanotechnology. As Drexler tells it, the early 1990s were a time when labeling your research “nanotech” almost guaranteed you funding, even if you had no idea what it was. “The concept had become closely linked with promises and dangers that seemed (and often actually were) absurd, and atomically precise fabrication machines— which were all seen as the same—had morphed into imaginary swarms of tiny, threatening, atom-juggling robots.”
Yes, we could absolutely fall for that again.
So there you have it, a quick tour of the future from the banks of the present. If we’ve accomplished anything with this exercise, hopefully we’ve relieved some of you of the notion that the editors of the Futurist claim to know what the future will be. The most we can hope for is to ask better questions of ourselves, of one another, and of technology.
Futurist magazine editors Cynthia Wagner, Rick Docksai, and Keturah Hetrick contributed to this piece.
More from Slate’s series on the future of exploration: Could caves hide a medical miracle? Is the ocean the real final frontier, or is manned sea exploration dead? Why are the best meteorites found in Antarctica? Can humans reproduce on interstellar journeys? Why are we still looking for Atlantis? Why do we celebrate the discovery of new species but keep destroying their homes? Who will win the race to claim the melting Arctic—conservationists or profiteers? Why don’t travelers ditch Yelp and Google in favor of wandering? What can exploring Google’s Ngram Viewer teach us about history? Why did some of America’s best scientific minds gather in 1961 to discuss extraterrestrial life?A/N: Only one more chapter to go after this! Thank you so much for reading, reviewing and commenting.
Chapter 9 – The Arendellian Folk Festival
Two weeks after one of the grandest weddings Arendelle had ever seen, shots rang out in the dead of night all around the Arendellian capital city, and shouts of angry officers ordered their soldiers to lay siege |
patented kick and won easily. He covered his last 400 in 54.3 seconds and split a 3:57 for his 1600-meter leg.
It was a bit overly dramatic, but that is how these relays often play out. Even when a team has a big lead, they don’t want to lead. The closing speed is a good sign for Manzano, particularly considering it was his third race of the week. This season will be an interesting year for him. Manzano’s trademark is running well in championship races and there aren’t of those to be found in 2014.
-Aman Wote
Remember Pre’s first race at Hayward Field in Without Limits? Two Oregon runners are soaking their feet in the steeplechase pit when Pre streaks by. Nobody else follows. One of the guys turns to the other and asks, “Hey, where’s everybody else?”
Friday, was Wote’s “where’s everybody else?” race. The World Indoor Championships silver medalists opened up a gigantic lead early in the race and nobody gave chase. His lead was around 70-80 meters at some points and he cruised to victory in 3:53.39. Very impressive for an almost solitary run.
Behind Wote, a second pack formed and ran a tactical race. Nick Willis placed second in 4:00.71. After the race, Willis told Lewis Johnson that he couldn’t have stayed with Wote even if he tried.
-Christian Taylor
In terms of track and field doubles, Christian Taylor seems to be a class of his own. His accomplishments in the triple jump are well known, but what he is doing in the 400 this spring is remarkable. At Drake, he finished in front of Jeremy Wariner, Josh Mance and Tony McQuay and set a personal best of 45.17. Three of the men who beat him (Lashawn Merritt, Kirani James and Luguelin Santos) are probably the three best quarter milers in the world right now. Taylor stepped into a Diamond League field and ran like he is a 400-meter specialist.
With his new personal best, he certainly should be considered for one of the spots on the American 4 x 400 team for the World Relay Championships. Can you think of three Americans you would definitely take over Taylor right now? Excluding collegians, my list stops after Merritt.
Slowing….
-4 x 4 Handoffs
With all the nightmares American track fans have about 4 x 100 handoffs, it’s not fair to torture them with the 4 x 400 too. In my time following track I’ve seen dropped batons, thrown batons, forgotten batons and mysterious floating batons. Until Saturday, I never had seen the shared baton phenomenon.
On the final exchange, America’s anchor, Manteo Mitchell, lost track of the baton and actually grabbed the baton of the Bahamas.
The mix up resulted not just from an intense love of sharing, but because of the confusion at the exchange zone. The passes were crisscrossed with incoming runners not lined up with the outgoing runners. Mitchell stuck his left hand out to receive the pass, but took his eye off the baton and ended up grabbing Bahamas’s stick with his right hand. By the time he realized it, Mitchell had to go back and grab the baton from David Verburg. Bahamas won the race easily and the Americans held on for second.
One more time. I think this is the exact moment Mitchell realized there was a problem.
Under the radar
-Kenyan 4 x 1500
Rest assured, the Kenyan women has plenty of practice in the ever crucial baton exchanges for the 4 x 1500 relay. In a qualification meet for next month’s World Relay Championships, the quartet of Irene Jelagat, Ann Karindi and Perin Nenkampi and Mercy Cherono set a world record of 17:05.72 in Nairobi.
After the meet, Kenya announced their full squads for the championships. The biggest omission is in the 4 x 800, where David Rudisha is not listed. The meet won’t be made by one athlete, but Rudisha was one of the marquee names that I hoped to see compete. This is the struggle with relay meets. They are incredibly compelling to watch, but there are often too many competing interests to get the best races. As was clear with the Penn Relays, it doesn’t take many runners to really dilute the level of competition.
While the 4 x 800 may not shape up the way we wanted, the 4 x 1500 is developing into a great race. Kenya will bring their top talent in that event, including Asbel Kiprop and Silas Kiplagat. Rudisha is scheduled to make his debut on June 14th in New York
-Eaton Hurdling
Ashton Eaton ran his second 400-meter hurdles race in as many weekends on Saturday in San Diego. He won the race in 50.01, equalling his time from his debut in Mt. SAC. Here is video last two hurdles. Looks like Eaton’s competitiveness really kicks in when he is challenged after the last hurdle.
How much can Eaton improve? Let’s look at another event. In the pole vault he went from somersaulting the wrong way over the bar to clearing 16’9 in the span of 18 months.
-Derek Drouin
The Canadian set a national record in the high jump, clearing 7-10 ½ at the Drake Relays. Drouin is a known commodity, but his performance just adds to an absurdly deep men’s high jump field this year. Bohdan Bondarenko was dominate outdoors in 2013, Ivan Ukhov approached the world record indoors and Mutaz Essa Barshim won the World Indoor Championships. Throw in American Erik Kynard and it looks like 7-10 may not win many of the Diamond League meets this summer.
-Greg Rutherford
More field events! Rutherford set a British national record in the long jump last Thursday in San Diego. The 2012 Olympic champion jumped 27-11, bettering the old mark of 27-5 ¾. What is it going to take for the long jump to have a high jump-like renaissance?
Spring Marathon Grades
The spring marathon season has officially concluded. Let’s assign some arbitrary grades.
–Meb Keflezighi: A
There isn’t much left to add about Keflezighi’s win in Boston last week. His career has been built around rising from the dead. When I looked back at his marathon career as a whole, I found four different times when it looked like he would never win another major marathon.
-21st at the 2006 New York City Marathon.
-2008 Olympic Trials he suffered a serious injury and placed 8th.
-6th in the 2010 and 2011 New York City Marathon.
-Withdrew from 2013 Boston Marathon and and placed 23rd in New York City.
That was supposed to be it. Until Monday happened.
With all the analysis of the splits and tactics of the men’s race, I tried to chart the average American’s fan reaction of Meb’s race. All splits listed are in relation to second place finisher, Wilson Chebet.
-Wilson Kipsang: A
At the moment, he is the most consistent of the top tier of marathoners. Kipsang set a course record in London and beat most of the world’s best in the process. The only thing missing from his resume is a win in a non-paced race. Right now, he holds the tenuous crown for the best marathoner in the world.
-Rita Jeptoo: A
Like Kipsang, her performance this spring makes her the best in the world. She dominated the last several miles of Boston and beat the toughest assembled women’s field of all the spring marathons. Her winning time of 2:18:57 isn’t equivalent to Geoffrey Mutai’s course record of 2:03:02, but the winds weren’t nearly as helpful on Monday as they were when Mutai ran in 2011.
-Edna Kiplagat: A
After seeing Jeptoo’s time from Boston, Kiplagat’s 2:20 in London isn’t as remarkable, but she was able to beat Florence Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo. The youth movement in the marathon has been well-documented, but between Kiplagat (34), Jeptoo (33) and Keflezighi (38) veterans fared well this spring.
-American field in Boston: A
They get points for strategy and for their performance. Four American men finished in first 11 places and three were in the top eight. Early in the race, they also played a role in ensuring that the chase pack of Kenyans and Ethiopians didn’t hunt Meb down sooner. Incredible coordination on the fly from a group that does not train together.
-Tirunesh Dibaba: B
Aside from a mishap with one of her water bottles, Dibaba looked at home in her first marathon. She ran with the quick pace, made a strong move in the later miles and held her place when the Kiplagats took off.
-Kenenisa Bekele: B
I can’t give him a higher grade because he was not challenged in his debut at the Paris Marathon. His time was a course record, but if he wanted to avoided the murder’s row of London he could have opted for Boston. This looked too much like the star sophomore runner opting out of the varsity race so he could win the frosh/soph championships by a 100 yards.
-Eliud Kipchoge: B
Probably the most overlooked of the spring marathon winners, Kipchoge posted his third sub 2:06 clocking of his career in the Rotterdam Marathon. Like Bekele, he doesn’t get an A until he wins a race that isn’t built around him. Marathons are too interesting to have non-competitive fields.
-Shalane Flanagan: B
She set a massive personal best, but was only able to finish 7th. In a weaker year, she definitely would have been on the podium, but that is the nature of the marathon. Does she stick with the front-running strategy in her next race?
-Mo Farah: C
Strangely enough, Farah ended up somewhere between ‘certain world record holder’ and ‘complete hack who should never run another marathon.’ Eight place in London when nobody else faltered in front of him isn’t a disaster. Neither is finishing within spitting distance of Geoffrey and Emmanuel Mutai. No doubt he is disappointed in the time, 2:08:21, but it is far to early to offer a definitive evaluation of his potential at the distance.
-Ryan Hall: D
He played an integral role in the slowing of the chase pack, which gave Meb Keflezighi a little more breathing room. Hall’s own race wasn’t as successful. He ran 2:17:50 and finished 20th in his first completed marathon since January 2012.
-Haile Gebrselassie: D
I’m still wondering what he was thinking when he was rabbiting the first few miles of the London Marathon. 14:21 only sounds good to the guy who can bail at any point. Also, he withdrew from this weekend’s Hamburg Marathon where he was attempting to run an age group record.
-Dennis Kimetto, Lelisa Desisa, Priscah Jeptoo: DN(F)
Three of the favorites didn’t make it to the finish line. Kimetto was especially surprising considering the tear he was on in 2013. He will need to regroup in order to defend his title in Chicago this fall. Ditto for Jeptoo, who is the reigning New York City Marathon champion.Braincrack: (n) an idea you would rather plan about than execute.</blockquote>
First used by Ze Frank, braincrack is one of those ideas that gets lodged in your brain. That you just never quite get around to creating or executing, but always tell yourself you’ll get back to. Maybe it is your eternally unfinished novel, or maybe a funny site about cats in sombreros, or maybe it is a complex web application. In the end the problem is often the same, making things is hard. Let’s look at this process both generally and for my hypothetical cat photosharing site.
What
At heart everything starts as an idea somewhere, an idea we are committed to not allow to become the fabled braincrack. Often this is just a given, you have an idea you want to share with the world but don’t know how to proceed. For those that want to practice but don’t have a specific plan, we have special gatherings that celebrate starting an idea from scratch. Weekend hackathons have become increasingly common as a marketing vehicle, and online game jams like PyWeek and Ludum Dare encourage coming in with nothing but a passion for making things.
In the end, though, ideas are the easy part. Executing every passing concept would take many lifetimes, filtering down to just the most worthy of time and attention takes experience that paradoxically only comes from choosing poorly many times. Make wrong turns, and try to see when to put down your tools and work on something else for a while.
For my photosharing site I was fortunate to have a serendipitous realization that the world needs a dedicated place to share photos of cats in sombreros. The outline from there flows naturally. I can look at existing photosharing sites for inspiration on the interface, as well as places like PatternTap.
Who
Even the best of concepts generally needs to be grown and honed before you can jump into building it. Here is where having a social network to tap can truly shine. Posting your idea to Reddit or Hacker News can get of eyeballs on it (ex. hyperloop with over 45000 votes), however it can be both demoralizing and time consuming to tease apart the useful input from the overwhelming wall of noise.
Organizations like PyLadies have worked hard to create safe spaces to explore new ideas, though these can be few and far between. Community hackerspaces are also a good place to seek safe input. I am happy to have seen rapid growth and proliferation in these kinds of communities, and look forward to them being more available to everyone. To slightly misquote John Green, we need to keep “making places where people can fall and get caught”.
Generally when talking about functions within a team (in the context of something this early in its life cycle) you would hear about three main roles: designer, developer, and sysadmin. These three silos have far more in common than they differ, but they do often remain unfortunately far apart. Make sure to balance your own skills with those of others, and cultivate relationships with as many other domains and domain experts as you can, your second drafts will thank you.
Back to my brilliant idea. A quick IM with some friends revealed that catsinsombreros.com was available and is a natural fit. We quickly brainstormed some ideas about how to run the service and what kind of community it would be. We quickly iterated on a logo to share in the hopes of rallying others to our cause. All of these things rely on having a community to work with, that you trust to provide good feedback and be honest with you.
Where
If your idea is entirely or largely informational, something you just want to share with the world, there is now some good news. Between WordPress and Tumblr, it is easier than ever to launch a site with some quick content. If these don’t address your needs, unfortunately the path ahead drops out from under you very quickly. Many Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS, ex. Heroku, Google App Engine) services offer robust free tiers which can be an enormous boon to a nascent project. As before though, these services have a very proscribed way of doing things and deviation will lead to an even sharper drop than last time. After that the next place to look is generally a public cloud vendor, some of which offer limited free resources but in general you will have to be willing to put up some money in one way or another.
Beyond just hosting options there are a lot more moving pieces in just getting something up where people can see it. Domain registration, DNS configuration, mail server records, all of these can present serious roadblocks as you need to integrate many disparate moving pieces.
The emergence of well-supported and clearly defined free tiers has been a colossal leap forward in allowing people to play with ideas. If you are a service provider of any kind, I would strongly encourage you to look in to offering one.
For catsinsombreros.com my first stop is my domain registrar, Hover. My registrar offers free DNS hosting, as do many others, so I don’t have to find a separate host for that though I do have to configure it myself. For an application this simple, and given that I expect my launch to be small with the current surplus of photosharing sites I can easily start with a free tier application on Heroku and either scale up there when my service takes off, or migrate to my own servers.
How
HTML, CSS, Javascript, Objective-C, Java, Django, Rails, Express, Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Fabric, Nagios, Graphite, PagerDuty, Git, Logstash, NPM, Rubygems, Bunder, Pip, Setuptools, PyPy, Nginx, HAProxy, Apache, Linux, Docker, Illumos, FPM, Omnibus, ZooKeeper, Subversion, Mercurial, Perl, C, Python, Ruby, PHP, Go, Scala, Clojure, Postgres, MySQL, Redis, Riak, MongoDB, EC2, Rackspace, OpenStack, HTTP, TLS, bcrypt, SHA2, HMAC, OAuth, REST, Jenkins, Travis, Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, TextMate, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Reddit, Hacker News, Marketing, Sales, Support.
We have built an astonishing number of tools, frameworks, and communities around making things with computers. This is not an indictment of any of them, but the fact remains that mastering even a small subset can take decades, by which point your skills will surely be outdated. Most people, myself included, advocate one particular stack of tools or another, sometimes to the point of dogma and fanaticism. Ignore us, all of us. Do it wrong, ruin your first deploy because you forgot to rebuild your CSS, get woken up at 3AM because you didn’t setup automatic fail-over on your database, but get something up there.
Will you regret not doing it the “right way” during that 3AM outage when your customers or friends are annoyed at you? Absolutely, but you will regret doing nothing far more, and the world will be lesser for it. Don’t forget all those pain points either, share them, make sure we all keep talking about them so when it is the next maker’s turn, they have an easier time of it.
For my site I can pick some simple components to build up from. Heroku provides a hosted Postgres database, so that is a natural fit for data storage. For storing the actual pictures I can use Amazon S3, and for the web application I can use Django. There is a lot not covered in this, things like SSL or monitoring or off-site backups can realistically wait until after the main site is up and running, but be sure you don’t leave it for too long or you are in for one of those nasty 3AM phone calls.
The Exception
In a complete 180 from the above, there is one place where “don’t worry, just fail” can’t usually apply: security. While you don’t have to immediately deploy TLS Perfect Forward Secrecy or DNSSEC, you do need a certain baseline to ensure you don’t put data from users at risk. One option is to just not have any data from users, thus sidestepping any hazards. Another is to make use of the password and user data storage options in a popular framework, which often gives you the current best practices for things like key derivation functions. Unfortunately getting experienced help with internet security concerns can be very difficult, even I only have a few resources so my only suggestion is that if you are at all unsure if you are about to do something unsafe please ask me. I don’t claim to be an expert, but hopefully I can point you at one if needed.
When
Now. Let go of the braincrack. It won’t be perfect the first time around, or probably even all that good, but it will be real. Only there can you start the journey towards awesomeness.
Why
I am a maker, and I think you should be too. I can’t help you write that novel or finish that painting, but I can help you put all these and more on the internet. As time goes on, we are moving closer and closer to ideas being the true currency of the world, but an idea must be made manifest before you can show it to others. One of the original goals of the OLPC was to create a whole generation of makers, to unleash upon the world children that had no preconceptions about it being difficult to make and share things across the room or around the world. Much progress has been made, and we build on the shoulders of giants.
As I lead off with, making things is hard. Specifically of interest to me is that launching a website is at least an order of magnitude harder than it needs to be. I am going to fix this. If you want to fix this too, maybe you should hire me.My blogpost about the treatment of Batgirl in Batman: The Killing Joke had plenty of readers asking why I didn’t get upset about depictions of men getting hurt. But there’s a crucial difference
Whenever you mention that a piece of art shows violence against women, you can be sure that the comments section will reply, with confused gusto, “What about the men?!” Men get shot in movies too, after all; why doesn’t anyone complain about that? Hurting men, the argument goes, should negate hurting women. As long as everyone is being treated with equal violence, gender is irrelevant, and we can go back to enjoying murder and mayhem untroubled by conscience, or, indeed, thought. So goes the argument.
Earlier this week, I pointed out that the treatment of Batgirl in The Killing Joke is sexist. Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl, in the original 1988 comic by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, is gut shot, stripped naked, and photographed by the Joker as part of his plot to terrorize her father. Sexualized violence against women as a way to motivate men is a wearisome misogynist trope – only compounded in the recently released Bruce Timm cartoon version by further “character development”, which presents Batgirl as emotionally unstable and incompetent.
Batman: The Killing Joke and why you can't just 'update' sexist source material Read more
Inevitably, some folks leaped to defend gut-shooting as egalitarian entertainment. After all, Barbara is not the only person killed or humiliated in the original comic. The Joker casually kills numerous men over the course of the story, as the Joker is wont to do. He strips Gordon naked and forces him to view pictures of his nude daughter with a gaping wound in her stomach. Men are killed; men are tortured. The brutal violence against Barbara Gordon is, therefore, simply par for the course in a brutal comic book world. It doesn’t have anything to do with gender.
It’s certainly true that The Killing Joke, and pulp entertainments in general, are replete with instances of violence against men. Batman and Superman spend most of Batman v Superman beating the crap out of each other. A 38-minute supercut of all of James Bond’s murders shows him slaughtering his way through bad guy after bad guy, punning cheerily all the while. In the shark attack film The Shallows, numerous men are bloodily devoured. And so forth. Men dying: audiences love it.
Violence against men and violence against women are both common in genre entertainment. But – as The Killing Joke demonstrates – that doesn’t mean that the violence is the same.
When women are targeted for violence, that violence is overwhelmingly sexual. The Joker doesn’t just shoot Barbara; he strips her and takes nude, voyeuristic photos, transforming the violence into a symbolic rape. In the cartoon version, the main male antagonist of the first half hour keeps up a steady stream of sexual remarks directed at Batgirl. As a result, their physical confrontations are suffused with sexual threat – a threat almost never present when male heroes like Batman fight villains.
Sexualization makes violence against women exciting, important – and motivating. The Joker violates Barbara to humiliate her father. Batman, in the cartoon, becomes protective when the villain sexually threatens Batgirl – and not just protective, since the villain’s lewd comments lead, not very indirectly, to Batgirl and Batman having sex. Women are sexual objects; violence against them creates conflict between men, because men have an interest in controlling women’s sexuality. That’s a good thumbnail definition of patriarchy.
Heroes and villains suffer violence stoically, to show how tough they are. For women, violence is sexual and exciting
Violence against men works differently. When men are the target of violence, the violence is not generally sexualized, and, indeed, it’s mostly not even emotionally fraught. Heroes or villains kill other men casually, as a way of showing how tough they are. And heroes and villains suffer violence stoically, also as a way of showing how tough they are. For women in media, violence is sexual, exciting, and defines them – as when Barbara is shot and permanently crippled. For men, violence is nonsexual and establishes their strength – as when Commissioner Gordon endures horrific punishment, only to emerge unbroken and unbowed, his commitment to law and morality unshaken.
Violence in The Killing Joke is directed at both men and women. But the violence is not equal. Instead, it is apportioned out according to gender stereotypes. Women are the victims of sexualized violence, which means they’re seen as innately vulnerable and unheroic. Violence is done to them and for them. They are the erotic stimulus to someone else’s story.
Men, on the other hand, are not victims – even when they are on the receiving end of violence. They have to be stoic and strong. Gordon can’t break down under torture, because he’s a guy and a hero. The Joker, before he is the Joker, does break under mental strain – but when he does so he becomes a monster, more unmanageably violent than ever, piling up bodies like cordwood to affirm him as tough guy male villain. Meanwhile, men who aren’t the protagonists die without comment or fuss. Even when they’re superheroes, women aren’t allowed to be heroes, only victims. Even when they’re violently murdered, men aren’t allowed to be victims – only heroes or nonentities.
The sexist distribution of violence hurts women, who are told, over and over, that they are first and foremost sexual objects, that they are constantly endangered, that they must rely on men for protection, and that they aren’t able to be heroes on their own account.
But the sexism also hurts men. Onscreen, men are rarely allowed to be vulnerable; they’re always supposed to great violence with indifference, and/or with greater violence. Men are told, over and over, that violence, by and against men, is natural, and not to be remarked upon. Men die, onscreen and in war, and that’s just the way of things. Men, if they’re men, don’t protest.
Women can’t be heroes; men can’t be anything but heroes. That’s the logic of The Killing Joke, and not just of The Killing Joke. Throughout popular culture, gender reinforces violence, and violence reinforces gender. Representations of violence against men don’t negate representations of violence against women. Rather, they compound and enable each other. The sensational, sexualized violation of Barbara makes the violence by and against men in the rest of the comic natural, necessary, logical. The punchline is always the same: gender is the joke that can kill.This stunning giant onion had one green-fingered guest crying tears of laughter at a flower show.
The massive vegetable, bigger than most people's heads, caused a storm at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show.
It was entered in the giant onion competition and looks likely to beat off all the other entrants to first place.
And this woman visitor (pictured below) was stunned when she was walking among the vegetables and spotted the huge onion.
She needed both hands to pick the weighty onion up from the table.
And she was so amazed by the size of the vegetable that she found it hard to put it down again.
The woman spent a few minutes staring at the onion in disbelief as other guests flocked to get a glimpse of the creation.
She lifted the onion above her shoulders and was amazed to see that it was so big that it covered the whole of her head.
One visitor said: 'She was really taken by the large onion and could not get over how big it was.
'It was without doubt the main attraction of the show.'
Know your onions: The woman clasps the huge onion in the air and realises it's bigger than her head
Gardening enthusiasts have been descending on Harrogate in their thousands over the three-day Autumn Flower Show, which began on Thursday.Steam Commands, Autojoin, Links And Bookmarks With the Toribash now being on Steam there are a few new cool things that we can do using Steam commands.
Q : How can I open Toribash from a Steam command?
A : If you enter the code below into your url bar, hit enter and choose to open with Steam then Toribash will open up. Cool right?
Code: steam://run/248570
Q : How can I open Toribash straight into a multiplayer room?
A : If, for example you wanted to join the room judo2, you would use the code below. It simply chains the command to run the game with a command to join that room.
Code: steam://run/248570//+connect join judo2
Q : And for any room other than judo2?
A : The above is applicable to all rooms. So if your friend made a room called 'testroom' you could easily connect from your browser or copy and paste it out of a Facebook chat or similar. All you need to change is the room name at the end of the Steam command from 'judo2' to 'testroom'.
Q : Hmmm, ok. What's this about shortcuts then?
A : You can make a shortcut for your computer that, when opened like any other program, takes you straight into a Toribash room of your choosing.
I have only done this for Windows so for other operating systems your mileage may vary.
To make a Toribash room shortcut first go to your desktop or any other location. Right click and then select 'new' from the menu that opens.
It will give you various options for new things to create. Click on shortcut.
It will then ask you for the link to the shortcut. Simply enter the command to connect to the room of your choosing as was established above.
Then click save. You can now go on to set an icon and do whatever else you want with it.
Double click the shortcut and it will open you into the Toribash room.
Q : Can I make these commands into links on the forum here?
A : You certainly can. It is done like linking anything else. The only difference is that instead of putting in a web address to a different page you put in the Steam command.
For example: [url=steam://run/248570//+connect join judo2]Text goes here[/url] gives us a nice neat link to that charming judo2 room from before. It looks like this:
Text goes here
Q : So I can make links and desktop shortcuts. How about web browser bookmarks?
A : That is possible also. The only way that I've found possible to do this at the moment is to wrap your command into a link like the question directly above. Then right click on the link and select the bookmark option. Then do with it what you would any other bookmark. When you click on it the command will be carried out. Use this to save your favorite official rooms or make a link to the room 'gmtourney' to quickly connect to the room when you see the global at the top of the forum.
Q : Any other cool things I can do with this?
A : As a matter of fact, yes! I haven't tested this extensively yet and neither has anyone else to my knowledge but I'll update this FAQ as I learn more. You can do more with commands than simply open the game and connect to a server. The code below will open up Toribash but when you click free play, the mod aikido.tbm will already be loaded. Change the name of the mod to whatever you want it to open with. So far this is the only command that I can get to work and I have not found out how to chain commands to, for example, set the mod and then set turnframes. Again, this will be updated as more is discovered.
Code: steam://run/248570//+lm aikido.tbmThe New Republic: The Palin Women And Feminism
Enlarge this image toggle caption Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
Michelle Cottle is a senior editor at The New Republic.
God, what is it with the Palin women? Every time they do something stupid, their immediate response is to blame someone else.
Forget Mama Grizzly's obsession with the media haters. What is up with Bristol's pity-me puling about her latest split with Levi? Boo hoo hoo, he lied to me about his trip to Hollywood. Boo hoo hoo, he admitted he might have knocked up another teenage girl. Boo hoo hoo, he tricked me into appearing on all those magazine covers with him. Boo hoo hoo, he cares more about the spotlight than me -- says Wasilla's most famous baby mama, in her EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with People magazine.
(Not to doubt Bristol's distress, but a cynic might suspect that her slap at Levi's fame-mongering stems less from a desire for a normal life than from envy that he's milking his unwed-parent status so much more spectacularly than she. Bristol may be raking in the bucks, but Levi is clearly having all the fun.)
But just when I'd written off young Bristol as too tiresome even for late-night tabloid reading, a throwaway quote from her lawyer in Wednesday's WaPo made me reassess her whole relationship with Levi. Offering his armchair analysis of the lovebirds' most recent troubles (beyond Johnston's being a juicy slice of trailer trash, of course), attorney Rex Butler mused: "[Bristol] doesn't want him in Hollywood.... She wants him to sort of be like Todd Palin in the background while she does the running around. Levi, on the other hand, is not ready to settle into that role."
I ask you: How awesome is that? It seems Bristol Palin has been raised to assume that a man's role is that of supportive helpmeet, that it is Dad who's supposed to keep the home fires burning while Mom goes out and sets the world on fire. If that's not a progressive perspective on gender roles, I don't know what is. Way to fly that feminist flag, Sarah! And, oh yes, you too Todd.
I'm serious here. Sarah Palin may be the worst thing to happen to reasoned political discourse since Joe McCarthy, but teaching her daughter that women aren't born to play second fiddle is an impressive feat -- particularly in the macho environs of rural Alaska -- and one that many conventional feminists still have plenty of trouble with.
Sure, it's entirely possible that Rex Butler is talking out of his bum. (That is one of the first things they teach you in law school.) But his theory rings true. Parents can lecture their offspring about this or that world view all day long, but kids are stubborn about that whole-do-as-you-do-not-as-you-say approach to absorbing life lessons. And you gotta give Palin props: She offers one of the most striking examples of a gal who kicked ass and clawed her way to the top while relying on her hubby to be the family's quiet, supportive rock.
This in no way suggests that Todd is an emasculated girly man. Commercial salmon fishing and working the North Slope oil fields are the stuff of many a manly legend. By traditional guy standards, the strong but silent Todd is more macho than the legions of cigar-chomping peacocks strutting around the steak houses of Washington. Which makes him an equally valuable role model, especially for the tradition-minded right-wingers who comprise the bulk of Palin worshippers: See, guys? Just because your wife is a bigger deal than you doesn't mean you're a wuss.
So, while Bristol is still young and foolish and clearly has plenty of adolescent angst left to work through, I remain optimistic about her future. Whatever else she may have learned from mom (and dad), it's cheering to think that she absorbed at least one revolutionary lesson: Behind every great woman there is a great man.For-profit colleges face federal crackdown
The industry has seen growing criticism of its high-powered marketing and the heavy debt many students incur, as well as doubts about the value of the degrees it offers.
"I got completely taken advantage of, and now I'm struggling to pay the bill for it," said Miller, now 26. "I got sold my degree by a used-car salesman. I got a lemon."
It wasn't until after she graduated in 2008 — two years and $30,000 in student loans later — that Miller learned the state university wouldn't take her credits from Everest, a unit of Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc.
The single mother in a small town near Salt Lake City wanted an associate's degree as a first step toward medical school. She said she chose Everest, a for-profit college, after a recruiter guaranteed that she could apply her credits toward a higher degree at the University of Utah.
Chelsi Miller was managing a burger joint when she saw an ad for Everest University promising a better life.
For-profit colleges have expanded rapidly in recent years, with enrollment nearly tripling in a decade to more than 1.8 million students in 2008. But amid growing criticism of its high-powered marketing and doubts about the value of the degrees it offers, the industry faces a federal crackdown that casts a shadow over its future.
"Rightly so, the industry is going to have to shift focus" from maximizing profits to ensuring student success, said Jeff Silber, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "That means slower growth and less profitability."
Among the companies most vulnerable to stiffer rules is Corinthian, which already has undergone |
the end of the year." Developer headsets will be available this spring.People often talk about second children receiving less attention than first children, but in my family our first child is more neglected than our second. Our first child, a fluffy 30-pound Sheltie mix, arrived in our home five years ago. She became our precious pup and was treated like canine royalty. We bought her premium bones, organic treats, and chewable toothbrushes. We took her to the dog park several times a week. She went on doggie playdates and attended doggy Easter egg hunts. (I’m fully aware of how crazy that last one sounds.)
Our spoiled pooch slept in our bed, lay with us on the couch, and received endless belly rubs. But then life changed. A whopping 10-pound baby boy entered our lives, and our first child was bumped off her throne. Now the treats are limited, dog park trips are rare, and belly rubs have decreased. Our family dog went from the center of our world to the periphery. It’s not that we love her any less; she will always be our first baby.
I feel guilty for the lack of attention we give her, but I don’t know of anything we can do to make amends for the radical changes. All I know to do is to apologize. So, here are a few regrets I should express to her after the birth of her brother. I hope she will forgive me.
1. For starters, I’m sorry. I know you didn’t see this coming. You probably thought you would always be the center of our attention. Maybe I should have showed you Lady and the Tramp. This is a natural change in the life of a family. Regardless, you will always be our first child, even though we just can’t afford to buy you fancy dog bones from the boutique dog shop anymore. I hope you will understand.
2. I know you have been neglected the last two and a half years. Your ball tosses and walks around the neighborhood have decreased. You get fewer toys. Oh, and I’m deeply ashamed of the time we forgot to let you outside for 12 hours, and you got a bladder infection. I feel terrible about that. To be fair, your brother was a month old, and I was so sleep-deprived I couldn’t remember my name, much less your bathroom schedule. I know there are no excuses. Sorry.
3. I appreciate you practicing non-violent resistance in the face of your brother’s aggression. I know this takes the patience of a saint, and you have proven you are a flexible pup. In the face of hostile hair-pulling and eye-gouging (and don’t worry buddy, we’re working on putting an end to this), you don’t even growl. Intuitively, you seem to understand this smelly ball of flesh is your sibling and important to us. This is pretty amazing. Much gratitude.For years one of the great mysteries in American political history was what President Nixon said in the missing 18-½ minutes of tape that was “accidentally” erased before it was given to investigators. A new book may just answer that question.
According to Nixon’s story, his personal secretary Rosemary Woods erased the missing section of tape when she was trying to transcribe the details of the conversation for the Watergate Hearings. In a new book, “Knowing Dick: My Mother’s Time Under President Nixon”, Petey Woods, Rosemary’s eldest son, claims that she revealed to him that Nixon had detailed discussions about assassinating members of the metal band Black Sabbath on the deleted section of the tape. He also claimed that his mother was asked by the President to destroy the section because he worried about “a wave of heavy metal coming over to the U.S. from England and spreading lawless, godless communism.”
The book claims, Nixon, who has also been rumored to have encouraged the assassination and overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, wanted to see a similar fate for Bill Ward, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. Nixon was much less concerned about Ozzy, who he felt was a drag on the talents of the rest of the band. However, Nixon was concerned that “Sabbath might go ahead and get someone like that fellow Dio from the band Elf. Then, they’d all have to go or they’d be unstoppable.”
Nixon believed the CIA could be enlisted in plans to get rid of Sabbath. “After all, we used them to overthrow Mossadegh in Iran and Arbenz in Guatemala. They helped get rid of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Diem in Vietnam and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. They even tried to kill Castro 8 times for god sakes. Getting rid of a bunch of angry, power-chord obsessed Brits should be no trouble whatsoever for the boys over at Langley.”
“The President was deeply concerned about the potential dangers of a style of music that loud and that intense,” says Woods in his book. Apparently, most of the 18-½ minutes is an anti-metal rant that featured the President raving about the future of metal. “Eventually they’ll be bands that play a style called speed or thrash metal. They’ll have names like Slayer and Demolition Hammer and they will corrupt the young. I can envision a world where kids run into each other in a dance they like to call “moshing”. They’ll be encouraged to kick their friend in the head and have a ball. Is this the type of America you want, Haldeman?”
One of the most shocking revelations about the tapes is Nixon’s Nostradamus-like ability to accurately predict the path of heavy metal. At one point, he allegedly referred to a style of metal from Scandinavia that he believed would be called “bleak metal” and would feature band members wearing corpse paint and playing fast, angry metal filled with high pitched screams. He then allegedly went into graphic detail about his concern that there might be a so-called “death metal” scene in Florida in the early 1990s where bands like Death and Morbid Angel “could completely warp the minds of an entire generation with satanic imagery and blast-beat drumming.”
Nixon even went as far as saying that if Black Sabbath isn’t killed, we’d see a future with bands like “Suffocation, Pig Destroyer, and Goatwhore telling our kids god knows what”. By “taking out Sabbath”, Nixon believed he could strike a final and decisive blow against the forces of heavy metal. “All we need are a few bullets, a little arsenic in their beer and a car bomb or two. Then the kids will start listening to positive stuff like Anita Bryant and Bing Crosby again. And just what the hell is a Goatwhore anyway?”
However, if Sabbath was successful in their metal mission young people would “fall like dominos” and eventually America would be filled with a majority of “black tee-shirt clad, long-haired maniacs who live to thrash all night and sleep all day.”
Later in Nixon’s life, he slowly began to accept heavy metal and even was rumored to have listened to Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates” on his deathbed. However, his willingness to use the power of the Presidency to kill members of a heavy metal band is deeply troubling for the remaining twenty or so Americans who believe that America doesn’t have the right to go around the world murdering people who are a perceived threat.Visit our Re-post guidelines This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2015
Originally published on Kelly Brogan MD.
When it comes to pregnancy, this intervention has slipped stealthily into the experience of nearly every pregnant woman alive today. But is it safe for expectant mothers or their babies?
We want to trust. We want, almost need, to believe that medical and pharmaceutical interventions have been vetted. When our doctors tell us not to worry, we want to take their word for it.
Unfortunately, history has shown us that every recalled drug, every banned intervention, from Vioxx to shoe-store foot x-rays bore government-approved claims for safety and efficacy before they were pulled from the market.
Ultrasound may be no different.
Even the name seems gentle, doesn't it? Ultrasound. It evokes the spa-like experience of the dark, quiet room, the painless glide of the wand over the skin.
When it comes to pregnancy, this intervention has slipped stealthily into the experience of nearly every pregnant woman alive today.
Who doesn't want to see their baby? Who wouldn't want to pass the test? Why bother engaging some woo-woo quest for spiritual communion with your unborn child when you can just sit back and watch the evidence on the TV screen?
This is how insufficiently studied medical interventions grab hold of our consciousness:
They over-promise on outcomes that appeal in theory (you can learn about the health of your baby with a harmless device!)
They play on fears (if you don't look, you may not learn about problems)
Their intensity/frequency/general application is ramped up without evidence to support increases
They become so routine that controlled human studies are deemed unnecessary
This is the outline of operations behind so many exposures facing our children today, many of which are synergizing to account for the >50% incidence of chronic disease and the 34th ranking for infant mortality world wide.
The Slippery Slope
Our grandmothers were x-rayed in their pregnancies. Sounds like a bad idea, right? Well, x-rays were advocated as safe for decades before the tide turned, and now the American College of Obstetrics (ACOG), states:
"Ultrasonography involves the use of sound waves and is not a form of ionizing radiation. There have been no reports of documented adverse fetal effects for diagnostic ultrasound procedures, including duplex Doppler imaging...There are no contraindications to ultrasound procedures during pregnancy, and this modality has largely replaced X-ray as the primary method of fetal imaging during pregnancy."
Grandfathered into FDA clearance, ultrasound studies largely ceased in the 1980s despite the fact that the FDA raised limits 8 fold in 1992 and current machines employ significantly stronger signals and are not standardized by any regulations. In the past several decades, ultrasound technology has evolved in terms of peak exposure and intensity (from 46 to 720 mW/cm2), and newer versions remain largely unstudied, frequently defective, and without federal requirements for operator training.
What Are They Good For?
In 2001, 67% of pregnant women had at least 1 ultrasound, and in 2009, that percentage jumped to 99.8% with an average of 3 per woman. A 2006 study found that pregnancies determined to be high-risk undergo an average of 4.2 ultrasounds.
The FDA admits that long-term effects of ultrasound "cavitation" are unknown. They self-sanction, however, by stating that "medically indicated" ultrasounds performed by obstetricians allow for benefits that outweigh the risks. Is this evidence-based?
With regard to "efficacy," multiple Cochrane reviews have demonstrated a lack of perinatal mortality benefit for routine ultrasound in a normal pregnancy, and an increased risk of cesarean section with third trimester screening. A review of outcomes literature condemns ultrasound when used for dating, second trimester organ scan, biophysical profile, amniotic fluid assessment, and Doppler velocity in high and low risk pregnancies.
We want to believe that this intervention is improving the health of pregnancies, but that is not what has been demonstrated. False positive rates are significant on routine scan, and anxiety-provoking at best, and at worst, result in terminations for anomalies less severe than perceived by ultrasound as was the case in 1 in 200 ultrasound-influenced abortions.
Given the conspicuous lack of evidence for ultrasonography's role in improving pregnancy and birth outcomes, one might ask why The International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG) unilaterally recommends that all pregnant women have routine obstetric ultrasounds between 18 weeks and 22 weeks gestational age? One might also consider that ISUOG suffers from profound conflicts of interests, as evidenced by their public acknowledgment of partnership with the leading global obstetric technology companies, such as GE Healthcare, Phillips, Samsung Medison, Toshiba, and Siemens.
How Do We KNOW They're Safe?
Proving safety with any modern diagnostic intervention with any empirical certainty is by principle impossible. If an adverse effect does not manifest for years to decades, or worse, is transgenerationally passed down, it would take lifetimes of what amounts to non-consented human experimentation to properly assess for safety in humans. The precautionary principle compels the manufacturers and regulators of a product to prove safety before it is released into the marketplace.
Ultrasound's effects on biological tissues are widely acknowledged, according to Plaksin et al who state:
"Not only is ultrasound (US) widely used for imaging; its interaction with biological tissues is known to induce a wide variety of nonthermal effects ranging from hemorrhage and necrosis to more delicate manipulations of cells and their membranes such as permeability enhancement, angiogenesis induction, and increased gene transfection."
Animal data has been dismissed as having limited application to human pregnancies, including a recent study demonstrating behavioral abnormalities in mice exposed to 30 minutes of ultrasound in utero, and older data showing prenatal exposure to ultrasound impacts neuronal migration in mice. At least since 2008 it has been known that ultrasound wavelengths as low as 28 W/cm2 are capable of causing temperature increases at various depths in the brain of living fetal guinea pigs during in utero exposure between 1.2-4.9 degrees C. Clearly, a plausible mechanism for ultrasound-induced brain changes including changes to neuronal migration implicated in autism have been proposed.
According to Jim West, who has compiled the largest bibliography of human ultrasound studies:
"Unknown to Western scientists, the hazards of ultrasound have been confirmed in China since the late 1980s, where thousands of women, volunteering for abortion, thousands of maternal-fetal pairs, were exposed to carefully controlled diagnostic ultrasound and the abortive matter then analyzed via laboratory techniques."
Involving 100 scientists and 2700 mother-fetal pairs, the data from approximately 65 studies do not appear on the NIH's Pubmed, but can be found on Chinese databases. The studies employed electron microscopy, flow cytometry, and various biochemical analysis (immuno- and histo-) with results compared against those of sham-exposed pregnant women (exposed at zero intensity). Assessing brain, kidney, cornea, chorionic villi, and the immune system, researchers determined the amount of ultrasound exposure required to produce damage to the human fetus to be very low.
Jim West cites Professor Ruo Feng of The Institute of Acoustics, Nanjing University, and editor of The Chinese Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, and member of the World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology:
"Ruo Feng, who reviewed many of the studies, stipulated that routine ultrasound be avoided. Only if there were exceptional medical indications should ultrasound be allowed, and at minimum intensity. Sessions should be very brief, no more than 3 minutes, 5 minutes at most. Multiple sessions should be avoided because hazards are cumulative. Human studies had found sensitive organs damaged at 1 minute exposure."
The New Normal
Today's pregnancies and today's children are bringing the concept of evolutionary mismatch to life. Just because a lifestyle and an approach to health have become normative does not make them consistent with what our genomes are expecting to see, based on millions of years of evolution. Antibiotics, psychiatric drugs, processed food, pesticides, industrial chemicals, vaccines, and ultrasound, couple with surgical birth and bottle feeding - this is not the way to make a healthy child. While we are looking for the smoking gun to explain why 1 in 6 of our children are learning disabled, we would be best served to reconcile our thinking with what the evidence is showing. Science is demonstrating the relevance of concepts like allostatic load, genetic snps, dysbiosis, and nutrient deficiency that render a pregnancy full of ultrasounds the loading of a gun shot by that Hepatitis B vaccine at birth, or perhaps 8 at a catch up visit a year later.
Even if ultrasound didn't load the gun, clinicians like Dr. Sarah Buckley argue that the very existence of ultrasonography opens up a psychic chasm within pregnant women, transforming the seamless experience of "being with child" into the possession of a scannable medical object, a locus of risk instead of a future healthy child. For these reasons and more, seek out pregnancy support that honors the unfolding of this largely enigmatic process and supports the mother-fetal dyad by sending an evolutionarily recognizable signal of safety through nutrient dense food, movement, calm. Homebirth midwives and doulas know just what this means.Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne issued this news release today:
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) released the following statement today about the action taken at the Purdue University Board of Trustees meeting regarding the future name of the Fort Wayne campus:
"During the Purdue Board of Trustees meeting earlier today, the trustees approved a resolution to designate 'Purdue University Fort Wayne' as the new name for the campus that will arise from the realignment process, pending approval of the realignment by the Higher Learning Commission. The campus will be commonly known as 'Purdue Fort Wayne' on the realignment effective date of July 1, 2018.
"We continue working with Purdue and IU to implement the realigned structure with a view toward making it a success for our students, our campus community, our city, and the northeast Indiana region. Today’s action brings us yet another step closer to solidifying the future of our campus.
"What is important for everyone to remember is this: Purdue Fort Wayne will have the same mission that sustained IPFW for more than 50 years: an unmatched commitment to student success and the community, its employers and our alumni. Now, with a clearer focus and as the region’s premier comprehensive public higher education institution, we are better positioned to provide a differentiated, unique experience to our students and contribute to the many endeavors in northeast Indiana aligned with our areas of impact.
"This university is proud of its legacy, optimistic about the future, and remains committed to working to remove barriers and develop innovative ways to provide a world-class education that makes an impact in northeast Indiana — and beyond. As we move forward, we seek to collaborate to make this change successful and ensure our work remains rewarding and fulfilling."
Additionally, the Indiana University Board of Trustees also recently approved the name of Indiana University Fort Wayne for its health science programs. The naming will take effect with the July1, 2018 realignment.
For more information regarding the future of Purdue University Fort Wayne and Indiana University Fort Wayne, please visit ipfw.edu/future and ipfwtransition.iu.edu
About IPFW
Established in 1964, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) is the largest university in northeast Indiana. As the state's Multisystem Metropolitan University, we are uniquely positioned to serve the region as a crossroads of intellectual, social, economic, and cultural advancement and continue to expand our global reach through research, scholarship, and creative expression. IPFW combines challenging academics with a focus on student success across many prestigious degree programs, taught by nearly 350 full-time faculty. More than 8,300 degree-seeking students of diverse ages, races, and nationalities pursue their education on our nearly 700-acre campus. More than half of our students are first-generation college students and 15% are from underrepresented populations. And 73% of IPFW students receive some form of financial assistance to achieve their academic and career goals. A majority of IPFW's growing alumni network of 57,000 live and work in northeast Indiana, contributing to the region's economy, vitality, and intellectual strength."Revenge should have no bounds," Shakespeare wrote.
A bit harsh, but after last season ended in infamy for every team outside of Baltimore city limits, everyone's looking for justice.
With Thursday's release of the NFL regular-season schedule, we've gone ahead and circled five revenge-fueled affairs dipped in bad blood.
1. Wes Welker vs. New England Patriots, Week 12:
The Tom Brady cutaways on "Sunday Night Football" promise liquid gold. The Patriots quarterback will attempt to keep it under control as Welker hauls in pass after pass from Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Bottom line: Welker's split with New England was personal, and this arguably is the game of the year. The NFL did a nice job slating this for late November at Foxborough, when the Peyton-to-Welker psychic connection will be fully operational.
2. Green Bay Packers vs. Colin Kaepernick, Week 1:
Last time we checked in with the Packers, they were being outplayed, outsmarted and exposed by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional playoffs. Perhaps you've heard by now how Kaepernick blasted the Packers for an otherworldly 181 yards on the ground? Packers coach Mike McCarthy has dedicated this offseason to solving the read-option and we'll find out right away in San Francisco if he's done his homework.
3. Peyton Manning vs. Baltimore Ravens, Week 1:
Manning's triumphant comeback season ended in despair at home against the Ravens in the playoffs. In a bit of a mischief, The Ravens are stuck traveling back to Denver (thank you, high-maintenance Orioles). Doesn't seem fair, but returning to the scene of the crime gives this year's NFL Kickoff some edge.
4. Andy Reid vs. Philadelphia Eagles, Week 3:
Forget Reid's pretty words as he was shuffled out of Philly. The schedule-makers have dug up an early-season gem, sending the Chiefs into the Linc for a Thursday night tilt with Chip Kelly's Eagles. From Reid to Alex Smith to Michael Vick to custom-made-Eagles-smoothies, this one's drenched in subplots.
5. Greg Jennings vs. Green Bay Packers, Week 8 and Week 12:
The Packers didn't want to pay Jennings, but the Vikings did. We'll find out over the course of two games who got it right.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.After teasing us for a few days, Maitreya has finally released the adorable tunic and boots this morning. I love the casual, laid back style both have so I wanted to shoot them in or near a field of some sort. I found Abduction Alley which is on the Nestlefire sim on Koinup Places. I fell in love with this place immediately because it was so interesting. It has a mix of an old hometown feel but then of course a big gaping alien landing hole behind the diner. It’s really nicely done and definitely a fun explore.
Anyhow, I found this field of wheat with the scarecrow and the windmill and I just felt it was the perfect place to take a picture, however there was one issue. There was a huge amount of glow coming from the wheat so it was totally destroying the picture. So then I asked my friends on plurk because I couldn’t remember the debug setting to turn glow off again and of course, as always, they came through.
So that gave me the idea to share some of my favorite debug settings with you guys, figured it would help me remember them next time too. Debug settings include unsupported hidden features that are not exposed in the standard user interface, in addition to settings that are exposed through the PREFERENCES window. To access debug settings, go to the Advanced menu > Debug Settings.
These are the settings I always setup (or try and remember to anyways) whenever I install a new viewer.
RenderGlow – Set that to false and it will disable glow. However I noticed it didn’t take ALL the glow away from the wheatfield. I also had to fiddle with RenderGlowResolutionPow. I knock that down from 9 to 5 and it got rid of glow completely. RenderVolumeLODFactor – This one makes all my prims and sculpts look 100 times better. The default is usually set to 2 and they say you should at least put it on 4, however I keep mine on 14, cuz that’s my lucky number. 😛 RenderUnloadedAvatar – This one saves me every time I’m stuck as a cloud. Just set that one to true and it will show avatars which haven’t finished loading. The following are my three favorite mesh settings, I was having a lot of problems with mesh and I just set these and it fixed a lot of issues for me:
Meshbytespertriangle: 128
Meshmaxconcurrentrequests: 128
MeshminimumByteSize: 1 YawFromMousePosition – This one helps a bit with photography when sometimes in certain poses if I’m moving my mouse around my head follows the mouse and I don’t necessarily want that. The default to this is 90.0 so if you set it to 0 it’ll fix that.
What are your favorite debug settings?
Click here for the Debug wiki page for a full list of all of the settings and what they do.
EDIT: Torley Linden has a great Photo checklist up on the SL wiki that also covers some debug settings.
» For more of my tutorials, check out my tutorials page.
Credits:
*Skin: [PXL] FAITH OLIVE RC.16 MEB by Hart Larsson (Not released yet)
*Hair: ::Exile::Quiet Dream:Brownie by Kavar Cleanslate
*Tunic: Maitreya Xarra Tunic – Flamingo S+ by Onyx LeShelle
*Boots: Maitreya Stagioni Boots * XS-S Sand by Onyx LeShelle
*Necklace: [ glow ] studio – Key to my Heart necklace (no bow) by Jocelyn Anatine
Wheat in mouth: Contreverse Epi de Ble For Mouth by Ameno Heron
*Pose: Geez by Grazia Horwitz
Location: Abduction Alley on the Nestlefire sim (Found on Koinup Places)
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Like this: Like Loading...Reprinted from LobeLog with permission of the author.
I’m supposed to be editing right now, but I’ve discovered something wonderful enough to put aside my responsibilities for a moment and write about it here.
The short film posted above is part of videographer Patrik Wallner’s skate documentary, the Visualtraveling series, which features countries that people wouldn’t normally associate with skateboarding. In “The Persian Version,” an international group of professional skateboarders offer a truly unique way to see Iran, where I was born.
The two Americans, Kenny Reed and Walker Ryan, were granted tourist visas to Iran, but they were prohibited from skating, except for once, when they visited a skatepark. So, while their colleagues glided through one of the oldest and restrictive countries in the world, the Americans had to travel with a 67-year-old tour-guide.
“Just being told what you can and cannot do, 24-hours a day. I mean, we had a babysitter the whole time,” said Ryan, who is shown smiling throughout the film, featured this week on GlobalPost.
French skater Michael Mackrodt saw the Iranians as engaging in tit-for tat behavior, “They want to show the Americans that you give Iranians a hard time when they come to America, so we do the same…”
While Iranians who are lucky enough to get visas to the US are able to travel there freely, Tehran has a list of historical grievances against Washington, which its sees as responsible for the strangulating international sanctions regime Iranians have been enduring for years.
Washington claims that Iran’s nuclear program is not purely peaceful, something which Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), adamantly denies. Negotiations on a comprehensive solution to this issue are in process.
It’s not clear exactly what Mackrodt had in mind before expressing his observation. Regardless, the film allows viewers to arrive at their own conclusions about whether the limitation imposed on the American skateboarders was fair, unjust, or completely expected from Iran, a country filled with contradictions.
It also demonstrates how some of Iran’s contradictions are beautiful.
Here’s what M.J. Rahimi, a pioneering Iranian skateboard manufacturer, had to say after hanging with the professionals:
This is the best ten days of my life…I’m really excited about your trip and to see professional skateboarders here. My biggest dream is one day, I can make a skateboard for a professional skateboarder. Made signatured for them, especially for Walker.
Skateboarding, rooted in rebellion, is an American sport that has spread around the world. Despite decades of hostility between the governments of Iran and the US, this film shows that skateboarding is also now an Iranian sport, and the stuff of some Iranians’ dreams. Who could overlook the beauty in that?
Reprinted from LobeLog with permission of the author.On Feb. 5, Sony announced the World Photography Awards shortlist of finalists in both professional and open categories. From over 120,000 submissions, this list of 43 images has been curated from submissions spanning 170 countries— a record number of entries to date.
Astrid Merget, creative director of the World Photography Organisation, said. “The World Photography Organisation is dedicated to finding the best international contemporary photography from across the world. The shortlist is a clear indication of the exciting photography which is out there and, as we do every year, we are looking forward to presenting this collection of photographers to a global audience.”
The photographers' work will be exhibited at Somerset House, London, from April 26 to May 12 as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, and published in the 2013 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards book.
The Open and Youth category winners will be announced on March 19. Professional category winners will take home $25,000 and will be announced at a gala ceremony in London on April 25.
1. Jens Juul, using the six degrees of separation theory, took a series of photos depicting connections in Copenhagen. (©Jens Juul, Denmark, Finalist, Portraiture, Professional, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
2. (©Torsten Muehlbacher, Austria, Shortlist, Low Light, Open Competition 2013 World Photography Awards)
3. (©Sandipan Mukherjee,India, Shortlist, Smile, Open, Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
4. (©Anurag Kumar, India, Arts and Culture, Shortlist Arts and Culture, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
5. (©Peter Mysticdidge, Plorin, Germany, Shortlist, Architecture, Open. 2013 World Photography Awards)
6. (©Agurtxane Concellon, Norway, Shortlist, Travel, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
7. (©Fausto Podavini, Italy, Finalist, Lifestyle, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
8. (©Pawel Uchorczak, Poland, Shortlist, Panoramic, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
9. (©Paulo Mittelman, Brazil, Shortlist, Smile, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
10. (©Paolo Mezzera, Italy, Shortlist, People, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
11. (©Ng Chai Hock, Singapore, Shortlist, Arts and Culture, Open competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
12. (©Nathan Wills, Australia, Shortlist, Travel, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
13. (©Michel Lagarde, France, Shortlist, Enhanced, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
14. (©Markus Reugels, Germany, Shortlist, Split Second, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
15. (©Maciej Makowski, Poland, Shortlist, Travel, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
16. (©Louise Porter, USA, Shortlist, People, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
17. (©Kazi Riasat Alve, Bangladesh, Shortlist, Split Second, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
18. (©Hiep Nguyen Hoang, Vietnam, Shortlist, Nature Wildlife, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
19. (©Frederick van Heerden, South Africa, Shortlist, Nature Wildlife, Open Competition 2013 World Photography Awards)
20. (©Florian Breuer, South Africa, Shortlist, Panoramic, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
21. (©Elmar Akhmetov, Kazakhstan, Shortlist, Low Light, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
22. (©Danny Cohen, Australia, Shortlist, Enhanced, Open Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
23. (©Myriam Meloni, Argentina, Finalist, Arts and Culture, Professional Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
24. (©Edurne Aguinaga, United Kingdom, Finalist, Conceptual, Professional Competition 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
25. (©Ernest Goh, Singapore, Finalist, Nature Wildlife, Professional Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
26. (© Ryan Pierse, AustraliaFinalist, Sport, Professional competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
27. (©Satirat Damampai, Thailand, Shortlist Campaign, Professional Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
28. (©Danish Siddiqui, India, Finalist, Arts and Culture, Professional Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
29. (©Oliver Weiken, Germany, Shortlist, Current Affairs, Professional Competition, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
30. (©Delfosse Colin, Belgium, Shortlist, Current Affairs, Professional Competition 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)
31. (©Pete Muller, USA, Finalist, People, Professional, Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
32. (©Paolo-Pellegrin, Italy, Finalist, Current Affairs, Professional Competiiton, 2013 World Photography Awards)
33. (©Samuel James, USA, Finalist, Contemporary Issues, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
34. (©Daesung Lee, Korea, Finalist, Contemporary Issues, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
35. (©Christian Aslund, Sweden, Finalist, Campaign, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
36. (©Scout Tufankjian, USA, Finalist, Campaign, Professional Competition 2013 World Photography Awards)
37. (©Michael Schnabel, Germany, Shortlist, Campaign, Professional, Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
38. (©Gali Tibbon, Israel, Finalist, Travel, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
39. (©Daniel Duart, Spain, Finalist, Travel, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
40. (©Agnieszka Rayss, Poland, Shortlist, Portraiture, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
41. (©Adam Pretty, Australia, Finalist, Sport, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
42. (©Reinis Hofmanis, Latvia, Finalist, Architecture, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)
43. (©Kuni Takahashi, Japan, Finalist, Lifestyle, Professional Competition, 2013 World Photography Awards)To show our appreciation for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) and all that it has helped to accomplish, we’d like to share this new infographic! Click on this thumbnail to see the full image:
Looking at the statistics for breast cancer can be scary. This disease is the second leading cause of cancer related death in women, and it’s estimated that nearly 1 in every 8 women will develop breast cancer over their lifetimes. Although, when you look at the big picture, there are a lot of positives to consider as well.
For starters, the death rates from breast cancer have been on the decline for the last two decades. The growing success of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month has helped teach more women about effective screening practices, healthier lifestyle habits, and their available treatment options if diagnosed.
Brief History of Breast Cancer
Last year, we looked at how breast cancer may be one of the oldest forms of cancerous tumors known to man. This year, we wanted to remember some of the more important developments to take place in the last 40 years:
Our Bodies, Ourselves is published by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective in 1971. This one book helped to foster a new sense of control over one’s own health care for many women.
First Lady, Betty Ford, is diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974. Instead of hiding her illness from the public eye, she chose to talk openly about her disease and inspired many other survivors to do the same.
Susan Love publishes The Breast Book in 1990. Another very influential book that became a reliable source of information for an entire generation of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer.
In what became a very eye opening act, the model Matuschka poses with her mastectomy scar exposed on the cover of the New York Times in 1993.
Thanks to the growing prevalence of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the White House is illuminated in pink hues for the first time in 2008.
Don’t forget that men can get breast cancer too! In 2009, the third week of October is officially established as “Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week”.
2013 Breast Cancer Statistics
An estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed this year.
39,620 patients expected to succumb to this disease in 2013
As of this year, there are at least 3 million survivors living in the U.S.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in American women (excluding cancers of the skin).
Just about 1 in every 8 (12 %) of women in the United States will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
The annual cost of breast cancer is estimated to be $16.5 billion.
From 1999 to 2005, the incidence of breast cancer for women over the age of 50 decreased by about 2 % annually across the country.
For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates exceed every other type of cancer except lung cancer.
Breast cancer mortality rate has been decreasing steadily since 1990, with an average decline of roughly 1.7% per year.
Breast Cancer Mortality Rates in the U.S.
The states with the highest breast cancer mortality rates:
District of Columbia
Louisiana
New Jersey
Maryland
The states with the lowest breast cancer mortality rates:
Hawaii
Colorado
Arizona
Idaho
Prominent Women who beat Breast Cancer
Breast cancer has affected many women over the years. While this disease has claimed many lives |
Language: JavaSource: https://github.com/phoglenix/ScExtractor Description:Author: HeinermannLanguage: C++Source: https://github.com/bwapi/bwapi Description:Author: JCALanguage: C++Source: http://tec27.com/bwchart-source.zip Description:Author: JCALanguage: C++Source: http://bwchart.teamliquid.net/us/bwlib.php Description:Author:?Language: PHPSource: http://repasm.net/download.php Description:Author:?Language: C++?Source: http://repasm.net/rx/download.php Description:Author: l2k-ShadowLanguage: Visual BasicSource: https://github.com/xboi209/SC-Beta-Gate Description:Author: R1CHLanguage: C++Source: https://github.com/xboi209/CPU-Savior Description:Author: xboi209Language: C++Source: https://github.com/xboi209/CD-Key-Protector Description:Author: András BeliczaLanguage: JavaSource: https://code.google.com/p/bwhf/wiki/Downloads?tm=2 Description: http://www.reddit.com/r/broodwar/
castleeMg Profile Blog Joined January 2013 Canada 607 Posts #2 hi, what does CPU savior do exactly, i read the description and im not sure i understand, does it basically reduce the amount of memory to run broodwar? AKA: castle[eMg]@USEast/ iCCup
NovemberstOrm Profile Blog Joined September 2011 Canada 15958 Posts Last Edited: 2015-06-18 02:57:29 #3 On June 18 2015 11:55 castleeMg wrote:
hi, what does CPU savior do exactly, i read the description and im not sure i understand, does it basically reduce the amount of memory to run broodwar?
It reduces your CPU usage when running BW. It reduces your CPU usage when running BW. Moderator lickypiddy
outscar Profile Joined September 2014 1496 Posts #4 It looks like you double posted BWRepLib.
Wow, this is awesome collection! Most of them sound well known to me, some of them I never heard. I really like works of MasterOfChaos and mca. ShittyPlugin is the most useful nowadays plugin even if name sounds juicy. I run it without launcher by injecting that dll into Infected StarCraft. Hoping for description update for each of it. sunbeams are never made like me...
No_eL Profile Joined July 2007 Chile 1431 Posts #5 What about starcraft HD? I think that its maybe the most important development for the future of our beloved game. Its not open source? Anyway, all these projects are awesome and deserve our hype and support.
Beat after beat i will become stronger.
xboi209 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 1173 Posts #6 On June 18 2015 13:52 No_eL wrote:
What about starcraft HD?
[...]
Its not open source?
[...]
umm....no? umm....no? http://www.reddit.com/r/broodwar/
awerti Profile Blog Joined February 2011 175 Posts #7 This topic is so awesome! Kudos for creating it. For Aiur!
outscar Profile Joined September 2014 1496 Posts Last Edited: 2015-06-18 12:11:13 #8 On June 18 2015 14:04 xboi209 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 18 2015 13:52 No_eL wrote:
What about starcraft HD?
[...]
Its not open source?
[...]
umm....no? umm....no?
He meant Resolution Hack. I know apart from that hack there is if I'm not mistaken another hack which is called Resolution Expander? So, we got two types of that, but the common used is RH. Author: hellinsect. He meant Resolution Hack. I know apart from that hack there is if I'm not mistaken another hack which is called Resolution Expander? So, we got two types of that, but the common used is RH. Author: hellinsect. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-war/485666-watching-broodwar-replays-in-hd sunbeams are never made like me...
xboi209 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 1173 Posts #9 Can you link me to the source code? http://www.reddit.com/r/broodwar/
TaShadan Profile Joined February 2010 Germany 1938 Posts #10 Thanks for listing all those tools and projects. Total Annihilation Zero http://www.moddb.com/mods/total-annihilation-zero
GGzerG Profile Blog Joined January 2010 United States 9295 Posts #11 Adv (Advanced) Launcher was my favorite, AdvLauncher was the first time we saw after game APM / EAPM / micro / macro stats in the channel screen immediately after game. AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
tec27 Profile Blog Joined June 2004 United States 3350 Posts Last Edited: 2015-06-19 04:07:22 #12 On June 19 2015 04:44 GGzerG wrote:
Adv (Advanced) Launcher was my favorite, AdvLauncher was the first time we saw after game APM / EAPM / micro / macro stats in the channel screen immediately after game.
But is not open source and therefore doesn't qualify for this list
I have the source to my RWA plugins sitting around somewhere, I'll upload them to github later.
Also I believe you made an error copy-pasting for CPUSavior. It's most definitely C++ and not Visual Basic But is not open source and therefore doesn't qualify for this listI have the source to my RWA plugins sitting around somewhere, I'll upload them to github later.Also I believe you made an error copy-pasting for CPUSavior. It's most definitely C++ and not Visual Basic Can you jam with the console cowboys in cyberspace?
Chef Profile Blog Joined August 2005 10670 Posts #13
+ Show Spoiler + http://lmrb.net/doc.php?f=lmrb.htm
Award for most useful but unknown Brood War tool. Lets you search replays by build orders, sort through massive libraries of replays etc. Has special functionality to download replays with massive indexed packages, which I'm pretty sure still works for no good reason (the packages are things like all wgtour replays from x season (wgtour you had to upload the replay of every game you played, iirc). The below is really cool but I don't think open source (._. Maybe you could email the guy about his 12 year old bw project lol. LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
xboi209 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 1173 Posts #14 On June 19 2015 13:06 tec27 wrote:
Also I believe you made an error copy-pasting for CPUSavior. It's most definitely C++ and not Visual Basic
Thanks for pointing that out, fixed! Thanks for pointing that out, fixed! http://www.reddit.com/r/broodwar/
theleo_ua Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 128 Posts Last Edited: 2015-06-23 14:32:57 #15
For example - latest chkdraft:
http://www.staredit.net/files/2741/
http://www.staredit.net/topic/15514/0/ Could you please add links to "installers/executables" (not only links to sources)?For example - latest chkdraft: Castle Fight + Crazy CPU Vods: http://tinyurl.com/j7pflk8 / This will be awesome if they manage to only improve the graphics but keep the gameplay EXACTLY THE SAME. One thing that makes BW great to watch is actually the buggy pathfinding (c) Dante08
Glioburd Profile Joined April 2008 France 1865 Posts #16 Thanks for that listing Xboi! There are some tools I didn't know. "You should hate loosing, but you should never fear defeat." NaDa.
xboi209 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 1173 Posts #17 On June 23 2015 23:31 theleo_ua wrote:
Could you please add links to "installers/executables" (not only links to sources)?
For example - latest chkdraft:
http://www.staredit.net/files/2741/
http://www.staredit.net/topic/15514/0/ Could you please add links to "installers/executables" (not only links to sources)?For example - latest chkdraft:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Tools
Use liquipedia or Google to find executables, I don't want to be updating the OP whenever updates come out. Use liquipedia or Google to find executables, I don't want to be updating the OP whenever updates come out. http://www.reddit.com/r/broodwar/
mca64Launcher_ Profile Joined June 2015 Poland 629 Posts Last Edited: 2015-07-05 06:54:08 #18 On June 19 2015 23:10 Chef wrote:
The below is really cool but I don't think open source (._. Maybe you could email the guy about his 12 year old bw project lol.
+ Show Spoiler + http://lmrb.net/doc.php?f=lmrb.htm
Award for most useful but unknown Brood War tool. Lets you search replays by build orders, sort through massive libraries of replays etc. Has special functionality to download replays with massive indexed packages, which I'm pretty sure still works for no good reason (the packages are things like all wgtour replays from x season (wgtour you had to upload the replay of every game you played, iirc). The below is really cool but I don't think open source (._. Maybe you could email the guy about his 12 year old bw project lol.
If im not mistaken the same guy made website and whole system for Polish ladder on Netcraft, back in 2006y. It worked similiar to WGT, there was LAN latency and replays could be auto uploaded after a game (i think this made MasterofChaos).Hard to belive that i can still download my ladder games from 2006y and Netcraft still exists.
http://allgamesleague.com/gm-view.php?gm_id=1779&b=player-game.php
PS some time ago, probally in this year there was a showmatch Korea vs China and they played on Netcraft If im not mistaken the same guy made website and whole system for Polish ladder on Netcraft, back in 2006y. It worked similiar to WGT, there was LAN latency and replays could be auto uploaded after a game (i think this made MasterofChaos).Hard to belive that i can still download my ladder games from 2006y and Netcraft still exists.PS some time ago, probally in this year there was a showmatch Korea vs China and they played on NetcraftSony's latest financial earnings revealed that the company sold 40 million PS4s. The last statement from the company earlier in the year said it sold over 35 million.
Furthermore, it has also said that it made JPY 529 million (roughly Rs. 33 crores) from digital sales alone.
If you were looking for information on the PS4K or PS4 NEO the statements reveal nothing at all. No surprise as Sony would probably like to keep it under wraps for E3 2016.
The unstoppable sales of the PS4 at retail is astounding. Even more so when you consider that it has no massive exclusive game just yet. Though this should change in a couple of weeks with Uncharted 4 (TAG).
Prior to this, it announced at CES 2016 that it had sold 35.9 million PS4s. In October 2015, Sony's financial report stated that it shipped four million PlayStation 4 (PS4) units for the quarter ending September 30, 2015. It predicted it will ship 17.5 million PS4 consoles by the end of the financial year.
Ahead of Paris Games Week, the company celebrated hitting one million PS4s sold in the Middle East alone. As for India? In conversation with PlayStation Head, Atindriya Bose, we were told that the firm estimates hitting 100,000 PS4 console sold by April 2016. However at IGX, a representative of Sony claimed that sales were exceeding expectations due to a much-needed price cut. We won't be surprised if it manages to better the 100,000 console sales figure that is expected.IRVINE, CALIF. - Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys.
"This is Farouk al-Aziz, code name Oracle," he said into the keys as he sat in his parked car in this quiet community south of Los Angeles. "It's November 13th, 4:30 a.m. And we're hot."
The undercover FBI informant - a convicted forger named Craig Monteilh - then drove off for 5 a.m. prayers at the Islamic Center of Irvine, where he says he spied on dozens of worshipers in a quest for potential terrorists.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI has used informants successfully as one of many tactics to prevent another strike in the United States. Agency officials say they are careful not to violate civil liberties and do not target Muslims.
But the FBI's approach has come under fire from some Muslims, criticism that surfaced again late last month after agents arrested an Oregon man they said tried to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. FBI technicians had supplied the device.
In the Irvine case, Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him.
He had helped build a terrorism-related case against a mosque member, but that also collapsed. The Justice Department recently took the extraordinary step of dropping charges against the worshiper, who Monteilh had caught on tape agreeing to blow up buildings, law enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed the man as a dire threat.
Compounding the damage, Monteilh has gone public, revealing secret FBI methods and charging that his "handlers" trained him to entrap Muslims as he infiltrated their mosques, homes and businesses. He is now suing the FBI.
Officials declined to comment on specific details of Monteilh's tale but confirm that he was a paid FBI informant. Court records and interviews corroborate not only that Monteilh worked for the FBI - he says he made $177,000, tax-free, in 15 months - but that he provided vital information on a number of cases.
Some Muslims in Southern California and nationally say the cascading revelations have seriously damaged their relationship with the FBI, a partnership that both sides agree is critical to preventing attacks and homegrown terrorism.
Citing Monteilh's actions and what they call a pattern of FBI surveillance, many leading national Muslim organizations have virtually suspended contact with the bureau.
"The community feels betrayed," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella group of more than 75 mosques.A Florida man has been charged in connection with a plot to bomb Target stores along the East Coast, with hopes that such an attack would force the retailer's stock to plunge and allow him to cheaply buy its stock, federal investigators announced Thursday.
Mark Charles Barnett of Ocala has been charged with "possession of a firearm (destructive device) affecting commerce by a previously convicted felon," according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Barnett "theorized that the company’s stock value would plunge after the explosions, allowing him to cheaply acquire shares of Target stock before an eventual rebound in prices," reads the press release.
A Target spokeswoman told ABC News, "Target commends the law enforcement agencies responsible for apprehending this individual. As this is an active investigation, please contact the Public Affairs Office for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida with any additional questions."
Barnett offered an unnamed individual -- referred to as a "confidential source" (CS) in the documents -- $10,000 to plant bombs in stores in several states, according to the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint cited in the press release.
"Barnett created at least 10 of the explosive devices, disguised in food-item packaging, which Barnett delivered to the CS on February 9, 2017," reads the press release, citing the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint. "Barnett then asked the CS to place the explosive devices on store shelves from New York to Florida. He also provided the CS with a bag of gloves, a mask, and a license plate cover to disguise the CS’s identity from law enforcement."
But the individual contacted law enforcement officials instead instead of planting the devices in the stores. "Once FDLE received the information we initiated an investigation. Upon determining the nature of the threat we notified and began working jointly with our local, state and federal partners. The arrest in this case demonstrates the importance of collaboration in keeping our communities safe," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner Rick Swearingen.
"An explosives expert determined that they were capable of causing property damage, serious injury, or death to nearby persons upon detonation," according to the press release.
Federal agents subsequently searched Barnett's house and "components consistent with those used to create the explosive devices" were discovered, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. These items included rocket igniters, M-5000 explosives and battery sources.
"The swift work of ATF Special Agents, Explosives Enforcement Officers, and other specialized violent crime resources foiled this individual's plot that could have caused great harm to the public," said Special Agent in Charge Daryl McCrary, ATF Tampa Field Division. "Our Federal and State law enforcement partners played a vital role in supporting this investigation, and ATF will continue to work alongside the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring this case to a successful resolution."
If convicted, Barnett faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. Barnett is currently in custody at the Marion County Jail on state charges for violating his terms of probation
The U.S. Attorney's Office cautioned, though, "a criminal complaint is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty."
According to ABC affiliate WFTV in Orlando, Barrett was already on probation and wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor for a number of felony offenses, including kidnapping, multiple counts of sexual battery with a weapon or force and grand theft.
It is unclear if Barrett has a lawyer.An activist group that stalled Canada's largest Pride parade to demand more rights for racialized communities says it's being flooded with hate mail, some of it sent by members of the LGBT community.
Black Lives Matter Toronto says the vitriol demonstrates the racism it is trying to combat with its actions.
The group — a Canadian chapter of the larger U.S. movement active in Toronto since late 2014 — caused a stir on Sunday when some of its members who were marching in the city's Pride parade staged a sit-in — bringing the event to a halt for about half an hour.
The parade resumed when Pride Toronto's executive director Mathieu Chantelois signed a list of demands that included more funding and better representation for racialized communities during Pride events, and a ban on police floats in future parades.
Chantelois later told the media that he only signed the list of demands so he could get the parade moving again.
Ever since the sit-in, however, Black Lives Matter Toronto has been the target of vicious, racist emails, some from members of the larger LGBT community, said Janaya Khan, a co-founder of the group.
"Particularly our queer and trans members, myself included, we have received dozens and dozens and dozens since the action," said Khan. "I think that is testament to why we had to create an intervention into Pride in the first place."
The hate mail, which is "100 per cent" made up of anti-black racism, denounces members of Black Lives Toronto who have identified as queer and trans, said Khan.
"It's, 'You could never be a part of our community, you savage monkey,' that kind of thing," she said. "The reality is that gender and sexual diversity doesn't negate the reality of racism and white privilege.… In their minds, my blackness made it so that I couldn't possibly be a part of their community."
The annual Pride parade resumed after Pride Toronto organizers agreed to the demands of Black Lives Matter. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)
The group is now focused on ensuring Pride Toronto follows through with the list of demands that was signed at the stalled parade.
"Whether or not our demands are seen through — and they will be seen through — the success that comes out of creating the type of dialogue that we've seen is monumental," said Khan.
"This type of push back, this type of backlash, it means that we've struck a nerve.… It shouldn't have taken 30-plus years for Pride to really consider what would make black communities and racialized communities feel safer in Pride."
Sunday's sit-in was just the latest in a series of actions taken by the group that has frequently accused Toronto police of racial profiling and violence against the black community.
Last summer, a rally shut down a portion of a busy expressway as the group called for justice in the police shooting deaths of two black men.
This March, members of the group camped out in front of Toronto police headquarters for two weeks, demanding an overhaul of Ontario's police watchdog and the release of the name of an officer who fatally shot a man last summer. The group has also been a vocal critic of the controversial practice of police carding, street checks which it said unfairly targeted young black, brown and Indigenous people.
The group's demand to ban police floats and booths from the Pride parade and Pride community spaces appears to have emerged as its most contentious call since Sunday, but Khan said Black Lives Matter Toronto isn't seeking a meeting with police over the matter.
"We're not closed off to discussion and negotiation, but we do not at this point trust commitments that the police make to us directly," Khan explained. "We're going to move forward focusing on what the community wants from us."
The group specified, as well, that its demand centred around police floats in particular, and would not prevent LGBT officers from being at the event if they wanted to.
"We believe they should not have police floats and we believe they should not be in uniform and they should not be armed," said Khan. "That type of police presence within the parade itself is inherently problematic and creates a very exclusive space for police officers and excludes marginalized communities from participating in the parade."
Pride Toronto said it hopes to gather feedback on this year's Pride events at a public town hall scheduled for August.Paul Scholes has told us he'll probably return to Manchester United as a coach under David Moyes - but not just yet. Paul Scholes has told us he'll probably return to Manchester United as a coach under David Moyes - but not just yet.
New Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino insists he is determined to keep Fabregas, despite constant speculation about the ex-Arsenal midfielder returning to England with United.
David Moyes does not appear ready to end his pursuit of the Spaniard after admitting that talks are 'ongoing' and he would be a fitting replacement for former playmaker Scholes, who would welcome Fabregas' arrival.
Scholes played against Fabregas on a number of occasions before announcing his retirement last season and he feels the 26-year-old would help the club challenge for more silverware in the new campaign.
"Well it would be nice to sign a player of that quality," he told Sky Sports News.
"He's proven in the Premier League, obviously he's with Barcelona, it's a big club, it will be difficult to get him away from there. But if you do, you have to fancy your chances strongly that we can go on and be successful with a player like that in your team."
Wayne Rooney sat out Scholes' final game for United in May after making a transfer request and his future at the club is uncertain, with Chelsea keen to sign the unsettled striker.
Moyes is reluctant to sell Rooney and Scholes has advised the England international to remain at Old Trafford.
"Well my advice would be to stay obviously," he said. "I don't think there's anywhere better than Manchester United to play your football, but it's not the same for every person.
"If someone is not happy there then they want to go. If that's Wayne's feeling then that's up to him, but he's a top, top player and I think every United player and fan hopes he stays."
Moyes is yet to bring in any big names after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson and neighbours Manchester City have already added a host of new faces to their ranks.
But Scholes insists there is no rush for Moyes to bring in recruits because he has inherited a strong squad.
He said: "I don't think there's that much pressure really because he's come in and there's a quality squad there already. There's 18, 19, 20 quality players he's got.
"Obviously even if Alex Ferguson was still there, I'm sure he'd want to sign two or three players. That's the norm every season.
"You win the league by 10 points, whatever it is, you still want to improve the year after. I'm sure David (Moyes) is trying his best to get players and I'm sure he'll want players, and hopefully he can get the ones he wants."from Martin Luther Category: Articles
Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. “Faith is not enough,” they say, “You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.” They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, “I believe.” That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn’t come from this ‘faith,’ either.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace… —Martin Luther
Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.
This excerpt is taken from An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans by Martin Luther.Tempers have flared already before the debate, with Oras Tynkkynen (Greens) highlighting the old peculiarities of the Marriage Act on Wednesday.
The Parliament will today engage in a preliminary debate on the citizens' initiative for equal marriage rights, which has accumulated nearly 167,000 statements of support. The proposal demands that Finland's Marriage Act be amended to grant same-sex couples the right to marry and to adopt a child.
“What advocates of traditional marriage considered the only right alternative in the early 1900s, contemporary advocates of traditional marriage probably consider wrong – if not outrageous,” Tynkkynen argues in his blog.
“For example, people with mental health problems, epileptics and deaf-mutes have not been allowed to marry.”
Opponents of the proposal have similarly launched a citizens' initiative that had on Wednesday received over 42,000 statements of support.
“One of the most important reason for defending the traditional concept of marriage is to safeguard children's rights. Children must have the right to a mother and father also in the future,” Pentti Oinonen (PS) views.
Tynkkynen, in turn, insists that now is the right time to update the legislation. “By approving an equal marriage act we can take yet another step on a path toward Finland where two competent adults can decide to get married.”
Oinonen is concerned that Finland may be gradually heading into a vacuum of values. “You don't have to be ashamed to support the traditional concept of marriage,” he rallies.
At least the Christian Democratic Party opposes gender-neutral marriage laws and has expressed its hope that also other ruling parties vote against the initiative.
The vote is expected to be close. Timo Soini, the chair of the Finns Party, has reminded that the manifesto of the opposition party in 2011 defines marriage as an institution between a man and woman. Regardless, at least a handful of members of the Finns Party parliamentary group have voiced their support for the initiative.
After today's preliminary debate, the citizens' initiative will be turned over to the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, while the Parliament will discuss the initiative in a plenary session later this spring.
Olli Pohjanpalo – HS
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
© HELSINGIN SANOMAT
Photo: Adriana DobrinDoing without knowing. Playing, creating, learning. Adjusting and adapting. Describing Fighting Monkey is an act in organizing verbs. Everything overlaps and intertwines and is a wonder. The only certainty you are left with is that you have experienced something good and and provocative. Personified as one of their videos, those who enter their world exit intrigued, excited, and wanting more.
There are no certifications for Fighting Monkey, no lectures or prerequisites. Without a syllabus or agenda to set expectations or schedules, there is nothing to check off or mark time by. Eager and available, with minimal rules and guidance, only possibility exists. A concept is demonstrated and you are given the task of developing a contextual truth:
I have a hunch the opening and closing flow charts are from Jozef’s personal research journal.
The essence of Fighting Monkey is to use a tool or a partner (or both) to create a situation where the participants are forced interact and learn.
Learning is dependent on feedback and communication. The tool or partner is an entity to engage and experiment with. The opposition or object of intrigue lies on a spectrum of simple to complex. A complicated opponent offers challenge through uncomplicated games, while an inanimate object requires imaginative assignment to make it stimulating. Because a thinking, strategizing human being is the most complex of instruments to play with, the objects chosen to manipulate are deceptively simple: a tennis ball connected to string, tiny wooden blocks, and a heavy wooden sphere.
Like natural movement, the course work spirals in and out of selected elements. The students are given the charge of scaling and determining progressions and regressions. As soon as you figure out a symbiotic relationship, you’re off to collaborate with someone new. With no chance to conform or celebrate a particular pattern, students are kept on their toes (often literally), well away from coasting in a position of comfort.
We began each six hour session with about an hour of group warm up. Standing practice flowed into balancing and acts of stillness. There were martial arts inspired extension sequences, wide stand squats and lunges. Joint preparation was much more integration than isolation.
The key to balance and coordination is to make it effortless and smooth.
These followed a rooted foot version with a slightly different intent.
PRACTICE BALL
The famed tool can be made in under 60 seconds, but can be difficult to implement without a guiding framework. The key to success is utilizing the eyes:
1. Focusing vision near and far: partner holds two balls in a line, one close to the observer’s face and one at a distance. He or she asks the onlooker to zero in on one ball, and then the other, on command.
2. Eyes follow, head stays: ball hovers in linear and random patterns in front of the observer’s face. Without moving the head or neck, the eyes move to track the trajectory of the ball.
3. Keep eyes on the ball, feet grounded, avoid the ball touching you. Feet stay planted in place but can turn/ pivot to find ball. Wide stance to start. Be soft instead of stiff. Move only what needs to be moved – minimum possible effort.
4. Squatting practice. Wide stance becomes more regular. Ball takes a more vertical path and lowers observer to ground. Stay low and react.
5. Feet together ball avoidance. Building on 3 and 4, foot position dictates new limitations and possibilities. Keep going after their head to try and take them off their narrow base.
6. Lying hollow. With only your butt touching the floor, make your legs flirt with the ball. As they tire, go after the upper half of the body.
7. Standing to lying. Ball attempts to stay eye level, and partner lures you on and off the ground by raising and lowering the ball. The idea of being lead by your partner comes into full play here. Their purpose is to direct and examine in real time.
PARTNER GAMES
We interlaced fingers and learned to push and pull. Should we keep our feet or move them? Stay rigid or soft? Was faster better than slow? Again and again we changed our minds and sifted through options. This was the first game we played on day one and one of the last we played on day two. It was one of the only things we repeated to note our progress and efficiency.
Linked grappling turned into aggressive hugging. The object was to wrap your arms around your partners waist. Attackers and defenders were designated at first, and then pairs decided whether to make their roles more ambiguous. I did not notice any of the boys going easy on me because I was a girl. I was glad for this and my rugby background.
These first two games were full body and required lots of energy. The third (possibly acting as a brief respite) targeted the hands, wrists, and forearms. We were to open a clenched fist and unravel the fingers. With novice playmates like myself, we took the directions literally. Using one or two hands, we tried to wriggle our way past the locked thumb and separate the digits from the palm. The more assistance we gave ourself, the more successful we were. When I teamed with a veteran monkey, however, he quickly asked me to surrender to him. I obliged and he took two of my fingers and gently pulled and twisted them apart. He was testing what they were capable of, and I was finding out. Moments later I returned the favor and mimicked his method, determining his limitations.
Soon, however, our recoiled fingers became aggressive weapons. In finger touch, one partner points with their index finger while the other grabs their wrist:
Imagine that the grabbing hand belonged to a different body.
Using your grip to deflect, distract, and detain, the index finger seeks to touch any part of the defenders body. Still slick from sweat, the game of angles became one of purposing rotation. Moving the feet was allowed as necessary, but breaking away from your opponent was frowned upon. As with any intentional interaction, the goal is not to disengage but to connect and learn from one another.
All of these games were created by willing participants and curious minds. They were born out of a desire to simultaneously test and train and perform, and to put the human(s) in the arena at the forefront. The brain is not left out or shunted. It is invited and asked, What do you think?, acting its response without wavering. Fighting Monkey is the process of beings evolving, returning playful imagination to the journey of self-improvement.
Part Two of this series will attempt to unravel the mental side of Jozef and Linda’s research.For the most part, Goa these days is a swirl of EDM festivals, overcrowded beaches and bad press. Back in the 70s and the 80s however, after the first few hippies had trickled in and, for better or for worse, flipped the vibe, it was pretty damn magnificent. People seemed more carefree, more laid-back, and probably listened to better music as well.
A Facebook page called IsraTrance put together a super sweet collection of rare pictures from those times, when the hippies and hedons would carry sound systems to empty beaches and bands would jam out all night. Check it out!
Anjuna lookin' wild in the 70s.
A full moon party either starting out or ebbing away.
The first flea market in Anjuna. What a swirl of psychedelia!
An early Flea market on Anjuna Beach.
A hippie selling charas at the Anjuna flea market. It was that easy!
An untouched Calangute beach in 1974.
Back at the flea market.
A full moon party on South Anjuna Beach, Goa, 1976.
The pristine Anjuna beach, 1976.
The Anjuna Jam Band playing a full moon party at Anjuna Beach.
A person selling hashish, LSD and jewellery at the Anjuna flea market, 1976.
A full moon party coming to a close in 1977.
The Gilbert Garcia band playing in Goa alongside some Goa hippie pioneers.
A full moon |
Pedals-Shimano M530 SPD
•Tyres-Schwalbe Marathon Plus
•Pump-Specialized Air Tool Road
•VDO A4+ Wireless cycle computer
•EBC armoured cable lock
Camping
•Tent-Robens Mythos Solo
•Mat-Vango Trek 3/4 length
•Sleeping bag-Searock DSB-1300 (Chinese, down sleeping bag)
•Silk sleeping bag liner
•Possibly a hammock?
•Tarp
Cooking
•BRS-8 petrol stove (Chinese knock-off)
•Robens Trek Cookset
•knife, fork, little spatula
•Opinel No. 8 folding knife
•Lighters
•Sponge for cleaning
Luggage
•Altura Arran 46 Rear Panniers
•Sport Arsenal SNC bar bag (Czech company)
•20 Litre dry bag for the front rack
•30 litre dry bag for the rear
•smaller dry bags for organising kit within my panniers
•padlock
•Heavy duty polythene ziplock bags
Gadgets and Gizmos
•Garmin Edge 705 GPS (kindly lent by my gf's father, thanks Pete)
•Samsung Galaxy Ace phone
•Nokia 105 phone (35 day standby)
•Goal Zero Nomad 7 Solar Panel
•Kindle
•Fujifilm HS10 camera
•Tascam DR-100 MKii audio recorder
•iPod Nano
•USB plug charger
•Euro power converter
•Micro-B USB cable
•Mini-B USB cable
•iPod cable
•headphones
Sports Clothing
•Edinburgh Bicycle Co bib shorts (amazing)
•Edinburgh Bicycle Co team shirt
•2x Sports socks
•Fleece
•Fluoro windbreaker jacket
•Helmet
•Buff
•Shimano SPD shoes
•mitts
Casual Clothing
•Shorts x2
•t-shirts x2
•shirt x1
•jeans x1
•converse
•socks
•boxers
•belt
•flip flops/converse
Tools/spares
•Allen keys
•adjustable spanner
•spoke wrench
•chain tool
•screwdriver flat/philips
•duct tape
•many zip ties
•3x inner tubes
•puncture repair kit
•tyre levers
•aaa batteries
•aa batteries
•needle, thread
•spokes
•brake pads
•rubber gloves
Toiletries
•Sun cream
•toothpaste
•toothbrush
•contact lens case
•contact lens solution
•anti-inflammatories
•compression bandage
•paracetamol
•emollient
•Anti-acids
•Toilet roll
•Travel towelA senior State Department official allegedly tried to have the FBI change the classification of emails during the Hillary Clinton investigation.
Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz claimed at least one email was the subject of an 'alleged quid pro quo' involving the authorities and State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, according to Fox News.
'In return for altering the classification, the possibility of additional slots for the FBI at missions overseas was discussed,' Chaffetz said.
Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz claims a senior State Department official tried to have the FBI change the classification of emails during the Hillary Clinton investigation
Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz claims new documents show Patrick Kennedy (pictured) was in an 'alleged quid pro quo' with the FBI
The alleged revelation is included in new documents relating to the investigation, Chaffetz claims.
The Utah Congressman told Fox he has not read the documents, and is basing his comments off what he has been told by staff members.
'Both myself and Chairman Devin Nunes of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are infuriated by what we have heard,' he told the news network.
'Left to their own devices the FBI would never have provided these [records] to Congress and waited until the last minute. This is the third batch because [the FBI] didn’t think they were relevant.'
The Congressman then said he would expect there to be 'four hearings' or more in the wake of the alleged incident.
The same allegation has surfaced against Kennedy before, and he has categorically denied it.The Tingler is a 1959 American horror/thriller film produced and directed by William Castle. It is the third of five collaborations between Castle and writer Robb White, and stars Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, Patricia Cutts, Pamela Lincoln, Philip Coolidge, and Judith Evelyn.
The film tells the story of a scientist who discovers a parasite in human beings, called a "tingler", which feeds on fear. The creature earned its name by making the spine of its host "tingle" when the host is frightened. In line with other Castle horror films, including Macabre (1958) and House on Haunted Hill (1959), Castle used gimmicks to sell the film. The Tingler remains most well known for a gimmick called "Percepto!", a vibrating device in some theater chairs which activated with the onscreen action.
The Tingler received mixed reviews and is generally considered a camp cult classic.[1][2][3]
Plot [ edit ]
A pathologist, Dr. Warren Chapin (Price), discovers that the tingling of the spine in states of extreme fear is due to the growth of a creature that every human being seems to have, called a "tingler", a parasite attached to the human spine. It curls up, feeds and grows stronger when its host is afraid, effectively crushing the person's spine if curled up long enough. The host can weaken the creature and stop its curling by screaming.
Movie theater owner Oliver Higgins (Coolidge), who shows exclusively silent films, is an acquaintance of Dr. Chapin. Higgins's wife Martha (Evelyn), is deaf and mute, and therefore cannot scream. She dies of fright after weird, apparently supernatural events appear in her room. During her autopsy, Chapin removes a tingler from her spine.
After they contain the tingler and return to Higgins' house, it is revealed that Higgins is the murderer; he frightened his wife to death knowing that she could not scream because she was mute. The centipede-like creature eventually breaks free from the container that held it and is released into Higgins' theater. The tingler latches onto a woman's leg, and she screams until it releases its grip. Chapin controls the situation by shutting off the lights and telling everyone in the theater to scream. When the tingler has left the showing room, they resume the movie and go to the projection room, where they find the tingler and capture it.
Guessing that the only way to neutralize the tingler is to reinsert it inside Martha's body, Chapin does so. After he leaves, Higgins, who has admitted his guilt to Chapin, is alone in the room. As if by supernatural forces, the door slams shut and locks itself and the window closes, echoing what happened just before Martha was frightened to death. The tingler causes the body of Martha to rise from the bed, staring at her husband. Higgins is so terrified that he is unable to scream. The screen fades, and Dr. Chapin's voice says, "Ladies and gentlemen, just a word of warning. If any of you are not convinced that you have a tingler of your own, the next time you are frightened in the dark... don't scream".
Film prologue [ edit ]
In a similar manner as Universal's Frankenstein (1931), Castle opened the film with an on-screen warning to the audience:
"I am William Castle, the director of the motion picture you are about to see. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations—some of the physical reactions which the actors on the screen will feel—will also be experienced, for the first time in motion picture history, by certain members of this audience. I say 'certain members' because some people are more sensitive to these mysterious electronic impulses than others. These unfortunate, sensitive people will at times feel a strange, tingling sensation; other people will feel it less strongly. But don't be alarmed—you can protect yourself. At any time you are conscious of a tingling sensation, you may obtain immediate relief by screaming. Don't be embarrassed about opening your mouth and letting rip with all you've got, because the person in the seat right next to you will probably be screaming too. And remember—a scream at the right time may save your life."
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
The financial success of House on Haunted Hill was reason enough for Columbia to produce The Tingler. Price was on board again, with Hickman playing his assistant and newcomer Lincoln playing his sister-in-law. Cutts played Price's unfaithful wife Isabel.
Castle convinced Hickman, who was Lincoln's real-life fiancé, to join the cast as her fiancé in the film. At first Hickman declined, but agreed after Castle convinced him it would help Lincoln's career. According to Hickman, Castle did such a good job of convincing him it would help Lincoln that he worked for no salary. Hickman, who was 5'10", was required to wear lifts for the scenes with 6'4" Vincent Price to offset the disparity of their heights.
Evelyn was hired at the request of Price, who had worked with her on Broadway. She also received attention in another prominent "non-speaking role" as the suicidal "Miss Lonelyhearts" in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). Dal McKennon, the projectionist (uncredited in the film), had a successful career as the voice of many screen and TV characters, including "Buzz Buzzard" in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons and "Gumby" in the TV clay animation series. Jack Dusick, make-up artist for The Tingler, was the father of singer/actress Michele Lee.
White, the story author, was partly inspired by his encounter with a centipede while living in the British Virgin Islands.[4]
White had experimented with LSD at UCLA after hearing about it from Aldous Huxley and decided to work it into the script.[5] It is the first depiction of LSD use in a major motion picture. At the time, the drug was legal. The title of the book that Vincent Price's character reads before taking LSD—Fright Effects Induced by Injection of Lysergic Acid LSD25—is printed on the back of the book, not the front. This was done for a better shot of the expositional title of the book, explaining the effects of LSD to the audience.
The Tingler was Price's second and final film with Castle and the fifth performance that would ultimately brand him as "The Master of Menace".
The movie playing in the theater when the tingler escapes was the 1921 silent film Tol'able David.
Analysis [ edit ]
A subplot of the film involves the fates of a movie theater specializing in silent films and its owners. According to Kevin Heffernan, this reflects the conditions of the movie theater industry in the late 1950s. There were many discount theaters trying to establish their own market niche by showing older films. For the owners of these small theaters, it was a thankless and poorly paid job, as described in the trade journals of this period. When Ollie describes at length the work load involved in cleaning the building, he echoes real-life complaints.[6] This provides the motive for his murder, as he is trying to escape a hopeless life.[6]
Another subplot involves dysfunctional married lives. Most prominent is that of Warren to Isabelle, who is clearly unfaithful to him. She stays out until the early hours of the morning and is seen giving her lover a farewell kiss. In another scene, Warren enters through the front door of his house and hears the back door slam. He then discovers two used glasses of wine and a forgotten tie clip.[7] In an argument between them, she does not deny her unfaithfulness, but counters by accusing her husband of neglecting her. While spending so many hours in his laboratory, he has lost contact with living people, leaving her no choice but to seek human affection elsewhere.[7] The marriage of Ollie and Martha is also an unhappy one. He claims that Martha would have killed him if she could.[7]
Martha is depicted as a woman with a whole range of obsessive and phobic traits. She even communicates in a neurotic pantomime. Tim Lucas has described her as a silent film character in a sound film.[6] The idea of a terrified, mute woman was not fully original. According to Heffernan, it was probably inspired by The Spiral Staircase (1946).[6]
The scene with the LSD trip offers a display of "stylized and exaggerated performance". The eyes of Warren shift from side to side, gazing suspiciously at his environment, while describing feelings of unease and apprehension. He loosens his tie, when he thinks himself unable to breathe. He opens a window while insisting that it is nailed shut. He sees a hanging skeleton as a moving figure, and describes the walls of the room as closing in on him. Finally he visibly struggles with the urge to scream, and succumbs to it.[6]
Gimmicks [ edit ]
William Castle was famous for his movie gimmicks, and The Tingler featured one of his best: "Percepto!". Previously, he had offered a $1,000 life insurance policy against "Death by Fright" for Macabre (1958) and sent a skeleton flying above the audiences' heads in the auditorium in House on Haunted Hill (1959).
Percepto: "Scream for your lives!" [ edit ]
"Percepto!" was a gimmick where Castle attached electrical "buzzers" to the underside of some seats in theaters where The Tingler was screened.[8] The buzzers were small surplus airplane wing deicing motors left from World War II. The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film's budget. It was used predominantly in larger theaters.
During the climax of the film, The Tingler was unleashed in the movie theater, while the audience watched Tol'able David (1921), in which a young woman escapes the unwanted advances of her boyfriend and is targeted. In the real-life theater, a woman screamed and then pretended to faint; she was then taken away in a stretcher, all part of the show arranged by Castle.[6] From the screen, the voice of Price mentioned the fainted lady and asked the rest of the audience to remain seated. The film-within-a-film resumed and was interrupted again. The projected film appeared to break as the silhouette of the tingler moved across the projection beam. The image of the film went dark, all lights in the auditorium (except fire exit signs) went off, and Price's voice warned the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But scream! Scream for your lives! The tingler is loose in this theater!"[9] This cued the theater projectionist to activate the Percepto! buzzers, giving some audience members an unexpected jolt, followed by a highly visible physical reaction. The voices of scared patrons were heard from the screen, replaced by the voice of Price, who explained that the tingler was paralyzed and the danger was over. At this point, the film resumed its normal format, which was used for its epilogue.[6]
An alternate warning was recorded for drive-in theaters; this warning advised the audience the tingler was loose in the drive-in. Castle's voice was substituted for Price's in this version.[10]
Castle's autobiography, Step Right Up!: I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America, erroneously stated that "Percepto!" delivered electric shocks to the theater seats.[11]
Two Joe Dante films contain scenes which reference the "Percepto!" gimmick: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Matinee (1993).
This gimmick was also lampooned in one of the films-within-a-film in the thriller movie Popcorn (1991), where the feature was called "Shock-o-Scope."
Fainting customers and medical assistance [ edit ]
To enhance the climax even more, Castle hired fake "screamers and fainters" planted in the audience.[8] There were fake nurses stationed in the foyer and an ambulance outside of the theater. The "fainters" would be carried out on a gurney and whisked away in the ambulance, to return for the next showing.
The "Bloody Bathtub" scene [ edit ]
Although The Tingler was filmed in black-and-white, a short color sequence was spliced into the film. It showed a sink (in black-and-white) with bright-red "blood" flowing from the taps and a black-and-white Evelyn watching a bloody red hand rising from a bathtub, likewise filled with the bright red "blood". Castle used color film for the effect. The scene was accomplished by painting the set white, black and gray and applying gray makeup to the actress to simulate monochrome.[12]
Reception [ edit ]
Reviews of The Tingler were mixed, though praised for its camp qualities, with Time Out London calling the plot "ingeniously ludicrous".[13] Lyz Kingsley of And You Call Yourself a Scientist! pointed out that "no film made before or after it quite matches it for its mix of the imaginative, the creepy, the funny, and the downright weird".[14]
Slant Magazine said, "Ludicrousness aside, Tingler is still one of the more confident Castle pictures: a well paced, at times intentionally, funny parody of 1950s domestication, with every couple in the story trying to off one another for a variety of amusingly convoluted reasons. Think Burn After Reading with dime store production values and a plastic spinal cord at its center."[15]
Dread Central called the film Castle's "magnum opus",[16] while Nerdist singled out Price's performance, saying, "Vincent Price is typically great and as always commits himself fully to the proceedings, even if it’s utterly absurd."[17]
Classic-Horror.com said "the acting is fine, the direction is among Castle's best, and the script is semi-brilliant for the time",[18] and Harvey O'Brien of Harvey's Movie Review stated that "for all its flaws, The Tingler is very watchable and has been put together with enough canniness to be enjoyable on its own terms".[19]
Not all reviews were positive. Howard Thompson of The New York Times said, "William Castle has been serving some of the worst, dullest little horror entries ever to snake into movie houses".[20]
Home media [ edit ]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD for its 40th anniversary in 1999.[21] The film was later included on the William Castle Film Collection DVD set, released on October 20, 2009.[22]
Scream Factory (under Sony license) released a Blu-ray edition of the film in August 2018.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The same man that trashed Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor calling it a circus that could literally ruin the sport of boxing just said that he knows that he can take out Conor McGregor in two rounds via an interview on Golden Boy Radio. He also went on to say that, he ‘d come back for that fight, calling Conor McGregor out by saying “Two rounds, that is all I need. That is all I am going to say.”
De La Hoya vs McGregor would be interesting! As far as the build-up, because both are from different countries, with Oscar De La Hoya being from Mexico, and Conor McGregor being from Ireland, and both would draw fans not only from the United States, but from their countries as well, plus both are from different sports, and would draw fans from their perspective sports. However, as much as I would love to see it, I mean come on! The man wrote an open letter to fans trying to derail their interest in the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight, with a claim of protecting the sport of boxing.
If Oscar De La Hoya viewed Mayweather vs McGregor a circus then what would De La Hoya vs McGregor be considered? It seems to me that Oscar De La Hoya is still bitter about losing to Floyd Mayweather back in 2007, and just trying to out due him in numbers by facing Conor McGregor. If De La Hoya vs McGregor does happen, who would you root for?
Staff, TMZ. “Oscar De la Hoya Trashes McGregor-Mayweather Fight, ‘Circus’ Could Ruin Boxing.” TMZ, TMZ.com, 25 May 2017.
“De La Hoya: I can take out McGregor in two rounds.” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, 14 Nov. 2017.
Rafael, Dan. “Oscar De La Hoya calls potential Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight ‘farce’.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 26 May 2017.
Who would you root for? Oscar De La Hoya Conor McGregorNow, when it’s dark and freezing outside (in the Northern hemisphere at least), is the right time to start thinking about what you want to grow next season.
Regardless of if you have room for a few pots on a window sill or if you have a full size garden, it all starts with the seeds.
But all seeds are not equal.
There are hybrids, heirlooms, open-pollinated, GMO’s, organic varieties… It’s easy to get confused.
Here’s the most important thing to consider if you value self-reliance for the long run:
The ability to save seeds from one season to another and not only preserve but improve the plant genetics naturally by savings seeds from only the strongest and healthiest plants adapted to your local climate and growing conditions.
And in that department, open-pollinated organic heirloom seeds beat the rest.
Here’s seven seed companies that all carry heirloom seeds, and all have beautiful seed catalogs you can order for free or for a very modest fee:
Oregon-based Territorial Seed Company is wholly owned by Tom and Julie Johns since 1985 when they purchased it from its founder Steve Solomon. In 1987, the Johns’ bought 44 acres for trial grounds at London Springs, south of their headquarters in Cottage Grove Lake.
Each year Territorial’s research garden staff grows and evaluates thousands of varieties for best taste, Northwest hardiness, and good germination. More recently they began reclaiming older, favorite vegetable varieties sometimes shelved by their seed suppliers.
Request a Territorial Seed Company catalog here.
Located in the rolling hills of central Virginia (not far from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello), Southern Exposure offers over 700 varieties of vegetable, flower, herb, grain and cover crop seeds.
They emphasize varieties that grow well in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, although gardeners and farmers from all over the country grow our seeds. They offer many unusual, Southern heirlooms, yacon, basils, and amaranths including peanuts, southern peas, naturally colored cotton, collards, okra, roselle, turnip greens, corns for roasting and meal, and butterbeans.
Request a Southern Exposure catalog here.
Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, their members have been collecting and distributing thousands of samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners.
On their 890-acre Heritage Farm, near Decorah, Iowa, Seed Savers Exchange maintain many thousands of heirloom garden varieties, most having been brought to North America by members’ ancestors who emigrated from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world.
Request a Seed Savers Exchange catalog here.
High Mowing Organic Seeds began in 1996 with just 28 varieties. What started as a one-man operation with founder Tom Stearns is now a thriving business making available to home gardeners and commercial growers over 600 heirloom, open-pollinated and hybrid varieties of vegetable, fruit, herb and flower seed.
Request a High Mowing Seeds catalog here.
Gijiu Kitazawa worked many years as an apprentice for a seed company in Japan prior to starting Kitazawa Seed Company in 1917. This makes Kitazawa Seed Company the oldest seed company in America specializing in Asian vegetable seeds.
They offer over 500 seed varieties that produce dento yasai or traditional heirloom vegetables of Japan.
Request a Kitazawa Seed catalog here.
At the age of 17, Jere Gettle printed the first small Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog in 1998. Since then the company has grown to offer 1750 varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs — “the largest selection of rare, heirloom varieties in the U.S.A.”
All of their seed is non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.
Request a Rare Seeds catalog here.
The Cottage Gardener Heirloom Seedhouse is a family owned and operated, farm-based seedhouse started by Mary and Dan Brittain back in 1996 in southern Ontario, Canada. Their property is a lovely, secluded 10 acres surrounded by conifers, that supposedly
“provides a unique micro-climate especially conducive to growing and saving seed.”
They offer over 700 heirloom seed varieties, and their mandate is to provide rare, open-pollinated, non-GMO heirloom varieties.
To order a physical catalog from the Cottage Gardener email them here with your full name and address including your postal code.
Next Step – Saving Your Own Seeds
Buying your seeds is step one. Planting them is step two. Step three, which is saving seeds from your plants, takes you full circle.
The best thing about buying open-pollinated heirloom seeds is that they’re perfectly suited for saving from season to season, so ideally you’ll only have to buy them once.
Ad unlike hybrid varieties you can be fairly certain that your new heirloom plants will keep the same characteristics as the old plants. Hybrid seeds are more like Russian roulette, you never know what you’ll get from saved seeds.
We’ll talk more about saving seeds in the future, but if you want to learn more about it right now I highly recommend the book Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth.
Do you save your seeds? I’d love to hear your experiences. Leave a comment!Last March, Dr. Tim Jagatic, a family doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Windsor, Ont., went to help fight the Ebola virus in Guinea, where the deadly hemorrhagic fever first broke out in December. A colleague told him, “We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg.” By July, when 660 people had died of Ebola, Jagatic was working in Sierra Leone. He told Maclean’s, “We are overwhelmed. Our resources are stretched to the limit. We need to double our staff, right here, right now.”
For many months, MSF made similar warnings and desperate pleas for international intervention in the West African Ebola outbreak. But it was like shouting into a void. MSF, a non-profit organization, has been left to do most of the patient care for people with Ebola. Since the epidemic began, it has treated 3,200 patients at six field hospitals, hired and trained 2,800 local people and deployed 248 international staff. The U.S., by contrast, has pledged 4,000 troops to help fight the outbreak; 348 have arrived. MSF says it will spend $66 million on the on the effort this year. Around 90 per cent of their budget comes from private donors. Canada has contributed $65 million to anti-Ebola measures, including $1.7 million to MSF.
Now, with the virus spreading beyond its control, the group is starting to buckle, according to Dr. Joanne Liu, a Canadian pediatrician and the international president of MSF. “It’s not possible for us to deploy more. This should not lie in the hands of a private NGO,” she says. “We used the words ‘unprecedented’ and ‘out of control’ in the spring. Nobody budged. If people had have been deployed right away, we would have prevented what is going on.”
What’s going on is her idea of a worst-case scenario. Ebola is out of control in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; official estimates say it has killed 4,447 and sickened 8,914 people. But the actual number of those infected is thought to be 2½ times higher, and it’s doubling every three to five weeks. Recent research puts the mortality rate at 70 per cent. To get it under control, about 70 per cent of the sick need to be protected from contact with others. As of late last month, as few as 20 per cent were being isolated in some areas. If the epidemic were to continue at the current rate, the World Health Organization (WHO) says there will be up to 10,000 new cases per week by December. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control predicts 1.4 million cases by early next year. Many others are dying of common ailments because hospitals are overwhelmed.
Ebola is now spreading to other countries, too. Unbeknownst to anyone, the virus was hiding in the liver and lymph nodes of Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, when he touched down in Texas from Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 20. His case revealed a lack of preparedness: When Duncan turned up in a Dallas emergency room complaining of fever, he was initially sent home. He returned two days later, much sicker, and died on Oct. 8—but not before passing Ebola to two nurses who treated him. In Spain, a nursing assistant who cared for two Ebola patients also tested positive and is gravely ill. Hers was the first case of person-to-person transmission outside of Africa.
Related:
While the virus can be contained relatively easily by Western health agencies, in West Africa, MSF has been completely overrun. “I’ve never had to turn away people infected with hemorrhagic fever and send them home because my centres are filled,” Liu says. “I’ve never had to open a centre for 30 minutes in the morning just to fill the beds of people who died overnight. I’ve never had to build a crematorium in the middle of my mission and burn 100 bodies in the same day. All my teams are telling us it is hell on Earth right now.” She finally felt that someone was listening after her remarks to the United Nations on Sept. 2, when she declared the world was losing the war against Ebola and pleaded for military and civilian aid. But, by Oct. 1, she was still unhappy with the progress.
The UN has launched a new mission (and a new acronym, UNMEER, the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response). It’s asking for $1 billion. Many countries have promised cash, supplies or medical staff. Canada has pledged two mobile labs in addition to $35 million in aid. But Liu called on the country to consider deploying DART, the military’s disaster response unit. Militaries can move massive numbers of personnel quickly, maybe fast enough to get ahead of the virus, and their people are organized, brave and easy to train, she says.
Britain is sending 750 troops to Sierra Leone; the U.S. has promised up to 4,000 to build treatment centres, mainly in Liberia. The New York Times reported earlier this month on delays plaguing the U.S. mission, with construction equipment breaking down and safety gear sitting idle in an airport hangar. Liu thinks if all the countries made good on all their promises within a month, they could turn the tide of the outbreak.
Operating largely in the background is the WHO, the UN public health agency. Why, many wonder, hasn’t it stepped up to relieve MSF? The WHO has a team of 200 in the outbreak zone, but its mission is to coordinate the various groups involved in the response, provide training, monitor the disease and get researchers together to solve problems. It is “a last-resort responder,” says WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. “The truth is, the WHO does not have capacity to take on completely the treatment side. That’s why we’re appealing for the member states to see how we can get foreign medical help, because we recognize that MSF is very stretched to the limit.”
Various charities, including MSF, are essential in emergencies, but can create chaos without proper leadership and coordination, says Kelley Lee, a global health professor at Simon Fraser University. The WHO has failed to provide that leadership, she explains, for a “perfect storm” of reasons: an ineffective WHO African regional office, political and economic instability in the area and, most of all, because it doesn’t have the money it needs to do its job. The WHO’s regular budget has promised “zero real growth” since the 1980s, only increasing spending to account for inflation. It tightened its belt further in the late ’90s and froze the budget in absolute terms.
Lee puts the majority of the blame not on the WHO, but the rich countries that fund it. They want to control where their aid dollars are spent, so they use their own agencies and, increasingly, place conditions on the money they do give to the WHO. Seventy-seven per cent of the agency’s $4-billion program budget comes from voluntary contributions earmarked by donors, up from 49 per cent in 1997. The West hasn’t really felt the effects of the WHO’s money woes. But, once in a while—and this is one of those times—the consequences are clear. “Outbreaks are reported every week. Amid limited resources, decisions must be made on which can be left to burn out. [Past] Ebola outbreaks have been deadly but contained. There wasn’t an expectation that this would become a public health emergency,” Lee says.
With international help slow to arrive, more and more health workers are felled by the virus and the emergency gets that much worse. No one illustrates this better than Nancy Yoko. She spoke to Maclean’s in early August, just after she took over as head nurse of the Ebola treatment unit at Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. The previous nurse in charge had died of Ebola. The hospital was filthy and chaotic for months, and more than 20 staff died in a short period before MSF and the WHO stepped in to help establish basic infection control. Yoko was a commanding presence in a deteriorating situation. She stomped around the treatment unit in her rubber boots and scrubs, barking orders. She would also sing and pray with her patients and impatiently declare, “I’m okay, I’m fine, I’m safe,” to anyone who inquired about her health. Yoko believe she was safe from Ebola; she was trained in infection control and constantly washed her hands with chlorine. In her interview she said, “We’ve lost a lot of our colleagues and friends. I will not catch it, and I will stay in this hospital until we get Ebola finished in this country. I have faith.”
After working 14-hour days continuously since May, Yoko caught the virus and died in less than a week. On top of the typical fever, pain and profuse vomiting, she was confused and delirious near the end.
It’s too late for Yoko now, but MSF president Liu is hoping for a game-changing vaccine that will protect health workers and others at risk. That will take many months, and there’s no time to wait. In the meantime, health authorities are sprinting to catch up with a virus that has outrun them, so far, by miles.
-with a file from Jo Dunlop in Sierra LeoneA group of Belgian police escorts – agents charged with taking failed asylum seekers back to their homeland – themselves regularly used escorts of a different kind, as well as committing a host of other “ethical breaches,” according to a new police audit.
"There are strong suspicions of inappropriate conduct among the agents, for example, the solicitation of sexual services during missions abroad, administrative fraud, alcohol abuse, and blackmail," said a classified federal police review obtained by the Flemish-language channel VTM this week.
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According to official statistics approximately 11,000 immigrants were deported from Belgium last year, a job that is conducted by a team of 100 repatriation escorts.
While their prime responsibility is making sure that failed asylum seekers arrive back in their usually distant homelands, the secret audit revealed that many would book business class flights and top-tier hotels for the job, reroute their return journeys through attractive locations, and gorge on duty free, escorts and other pleasures of consumption while abroad without supervision, using their allowances.
“These practices are not permitted in accordance with the ethical code, but higher-ups turn a blind eye,” said the audit.
Vincent Gilles, the head of the SFLP police union, told state channel RTBF that the violations centered on a “core of seven or eight” people within the unit, though admitted that “rumors” abounded, prompting the investigation to be ordered by general commissioner Catherine De Bolle, who “could not tackle the problem without hard evidence.”
Read more
"A steering group has been set up to analyze the recommendations of the audit and take the necessary action," said De Bolle’s spokesman after the scandal broke through the media.
Those involved will face a range of “disciplinary measures,” up to dismissal.
Minister of the Interior Jan Jambon welcomed the revelations.
“This proves that the police is capable of self-criticism and self-regulation,” said a statement from his office.
This is not the first scandal involving Belgian immigration officials recent months. Last September, two Belgian officers caused an international incident, after being arrested attempting to transport 13 refugees across the French border. The asylum seekers had wanted to reach the UK through Calais, but boarded a vehicle going the wrong way, so Belgian officials explained that they wanted to “give them a hand, and point them in the right direction.”Welcome to China Ranch Date Farm!
A true desert oasis
When traveling through the Death Valley area consider visiting beautiful China Ranch, near Tecopa California. China Ranch is a family owned and operated small farm, a lush piece of greenery amidst the forbidding Mojave Desert near Southern Death Valley. Imagine towering cottonwoods and willows by a wandering stream, date palms and abundant wildlife, all hidden away in some of the most spectacular scenery the desert has to offer.
The Ranch is also rich in history. The Old Spanish Trail is within walking distance, as is the historic Tonopah & Tidewater railroad bed. Hike to nearby abandoned mines if you wish, or just relax and browse through our store.
We offer several varieties of California dates as well as our own hybrids. Try some delicious date nut bread, muffins or cookies, or take home one of our unique hand-crafted gifts.
If you are interested in learning more about the wildlife, plants or history of the area, try one of our interpretive guided nature walks. Learn about the geology, botany, birds, and early man in the area. The Old Spanish Trail comes alive again and much more. Visiting |
growing urban population. Higher density, in all of these cities, doesn't have to mean Manhattan-style mega-rises.
A parcel of land that has traditionally been zoned for a single-family home could fit several rowhouses. A hundred-year-old rowhouse — as Washington has witnessed — can become a three- or four-unit condo. A stretch of land that fits several houses can also accommodate a modest-scale apartment building fitting three times as many families.
As this chart shows, there are a lot of options between the traditional single-family home and the tower. And there are few cities in America — including those with conspicuously rising housing costs — that don't have room in the mix for more of them.
Seattle, for one, has been reassessing this summer all the land it has historically protected for single-family homes in an effort to create more affordable housing. Seattle has, in fact, a greater share of that kind of housing than Los Angeles. (This debate, though, is not going well, since political power in cities also tends to accrue to the left end of this housing spectrum.)
L.A., for its part, is often described as a poster child for sprawl (an accusation aimed at both the city itself and the broader metropolitan area). But L.A. is actually one of the denser places in America, thanks to its many modest-scale multi-family buildings.
Below we've charted the 40 largest cities in America, by population and ordered by their devotion to the detached single-family home (these are cities, not metro areas). Single-family homes make up a minority of housing options in only 15 of these 40 cities:
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The richest places in America all have one thing in common
Here is everything we know about whether gentrification pushes poor people out
The government is trying to make walking American againPhoto Credit: PTI
Gorakhpur: 63 children died in the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College here since the past two days, district magistrate Rajeev Rautela said on Friday.
Though he gave no reason for the deaths, the Union home ministry said according to the SP of Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen.
"As per SP Gorakhpur, 21 children died due to shortage of supply of liquid oxygen in BRD Medical College, in last 36 hours. Senior officers are on the spot. The exact cause is being verified by civil administration," a home ministry spokesperson said.
The incident triggered a spate of reactions from the opposition parties, with the Samajwadi Party and the Congress seeking the resignation of the state health minister.
#Visuals: 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in last 48 hours at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College #UttarPradesh pic.twitter.com/GZQRbAmfUx — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 11, 2017
Rautela said 17 children died in the neo-natal ward, 5 in AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward and 8 in the general ward over the last two days.
He said seven deaths (neo-natal ward 3, AES ward 2 and general ward 2) were reported since last midnight, while the remaining 23 deaths (neo-natal 14, AES 3 and general 6) were reported since midnight of August 9-10.
To a specific question as to whether the casualties were due to shortage in supply of oxygen, Rautela, who was camping in the hospital, said he found out from the doctors that no death occurred due to lack of oxygen.
The state government, in an official release in Lucknow, also rubbished reports about non-availability of oxygen at the hospital.
Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told news agency PTI, "The deaths of children were very unfortunate and government will set up an inquiry committee to ascertain if any lapse have been there and if anyone is found guilty he will be made accountable."
Citing a break-up of casualties since August 7 till date, he said according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children have died due to various diseases during the period.
Singh asserted that the deaths were not because of paucity of oxygen.
Times Now has accessed the letter from the oxygen supplying company for medical college Gorakhpur which had alerted authorities that if payment is not done, they will not be able to procure oxygen from their end. The letter had also warned the hospital that the oxygen supply could be cut if the dues are not paid.
(Image: Times Now)
The district magistrate said alternative arrangemens had been made from nearby nursing homes since last night and from neighbouring Sant Kabir Nagar district to ensure availability of liquid oxygen for the hospital.
"At present, there are 50 oxygen cylinders and 100 to 150 more cylinders will be reaching soon," he said.
Asked whether the vendor supplying oxygen had stopped doing so pending payment to the tune of Rs 70 lakh, the district magistrate said part payment had been made to the contractor for supply of oxygen to the hospital.
He said the reason behind the deaths is being ascertained and action will be taken against those responsible.
A magisterial enquiry has been ordered to find the exact reasons leading to the deaths so that basic facts could come out by tomorrow evening.
The incident comes barely two days after the visit of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to Gorakhpur, his Lok Sabha constituency.
Ever since taking over the reins of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath has been stressing on improving the condition of medical and education sectors.
In April, the Adityanath government had announced that it has started work on setting up six AIIMS and 25 new medical colleges in the state, one of the promises the BJP made in the run-up to the assembly polls.
Terming the death of children as unfortunate, UP Congress President Raj Babbar said, "It shows the insensitivity of the the state government."
"The state government is responsible for the deaths. How can there be shortage of oxygen? The CM himself was on visit to (adjoining) Mahrajganj yesterday. Gorakhpur is his home district and he should have visited the medical college in Gorakhpur to know about the ground reality there," he said.
He sought resignation of the health minister on moral grounds and compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the kin of children who died.
Babbar said that the chief minister should seek a report from all districts about the health facilities there.
Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chowhdury too termed the incident as unfortunate and demanded resignation of the health minister.
"The health minister should resign on moral grounds. CM should fix accountability and also take responsibility. Gorkahpur is his home district and such incident there shows insensitivity of the government," he said.
Former chief minister and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held the state government responsible for the tragic deaths and demanded strict action and compensation of Rs 20 lakh each for the kin of the deceased.
Adityanath had launched a campaign to eradicate the deadly encephalitis disease that claims the lives of hundreds of children every year in Uttar Pradesh.
He stressed on awareness and public participation for the success of the campaign that has been rolled out in 38 districts in the worst-affected eastern region of the state.
"We eradicated diseases like polio and malaria and now encephalitis is our target," he had said launching the campaign here.
Some 40,000 children have died of the disease in the past four decades in the region.
“Today's campaign has been started with the aim of eradicating encephalitis of all kinds - Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)- and making the state encephalitis-free in the coming few years," he said.When I was just a first year teacher, I placed a lot of value on my ability to control student behaviors. While students were quiet and well-behaved to the passing observer, I could sense that I was not facilitating the kind of learning experiences that I wanted from my teachers during my own education. The relationship between the teacher, the students, and the learning was traditional and strained, and everyday felt like a battle for points and rewards. I felt like I was part drill sergeant, part cheerleader, part disciplinarian, but not at all a teacher.
As my teaching became more and more inquiry based, and more and more student-focused instead of teacher-driven, I began to see that the increased trust that I had for my students did not result in a dramatic increase in unwanted behaviors. In fact, quite the opposite. This year, for the first time, I felt that I had finally built up the structure necessary to facilitate a Week of Free Inquiry, aka a Week Without Walls, or, as my students put it, “College”. For the first time in my career, I had to give up control of movement and control of content as students pursued their own interests wherever and whenever they wanted. Here’s how I did it:
I Organized a Legit Online Learning Environment
When I say legit, I mean legit. There’s no way that you are going to get students to perform at the highest levels in a wall-less physical environment without a dynamic and organized online environment. When my students started the week, they knew how to contact me (e-mail, instant messaging, commenting on assignments) and they knew where and when to find me (in the cafeteria, by online appointment). For weeks I had to build up a wealth of knowledge and skill surrounding the apps on their devices, and I had to foster IT-specific problem-solving skills so that students were able to figure out their IT issues on their own.
I am sure that any robust LMS could be used for a project like this, but I used my class Moodle page (See Moodle in elementary), and students were working on their own school issued iPad throughout the week. Assignments were turned in for review onto their online portfolio (we use Seesaw) and students had their own e-mail addresses. I wish that I had added instant messaging, like WhatsApp or something, to their iPads before the week began, but we communicated fine with just e-mail, Seesaw (see Using Seesaw to Teach Social Media), and the class chat activity on Moodle.
Students Put Together a Game Plan
As the above sketchnote by @trev_mackenzie suggests, there is indeed a lot of autonomy and independence that comes from true free inquiry. However, even in the illustration we see that there isn’t total, complete freedom. To continue with the pool analogy, the above students may have increased freedom of movement, but they do have to remain in the pool at all times; they are not free to leave the complex without permission. Similarly, they are not allowed to make choices that put others’ safety at risk, or ruin the experience for themselves or others. At all times there is a “guide on the side”, but this guide is much more hands-off than during Guided Inquiry.
To structure the inquiry I used both of these sketchnotes by @trev_mackenzie. The goal setting (#4) and the calendar (#6) were particularly important in organizing the project.
As students neared their final days of preparation, I had a litany of questions from students to go through, but the main question that kept coming up from my 10 year olds was: Can we do whatever we want?
I tried to answer this question about the same way every time: This school is a learning space. You can learn whatever you want, however you want, and with whom you want, but you may not choose NO learning. You may take a break whenever you want, but in the end, this project is all about what we can accomplish in one week when we put our minds to it. I think you’ll realize quickly that you’ll need and want every minute that you are given during this special week.
I Started the Year with a Plan for Gradual Release of Responsibility
There’s no way that a form of learning like this can be possible the first day of school. There are a lot of discussions, mini-lessons and student reflections about how we learn that must take place before a class is ready to embark on a solo journey of this magnitude. Gradual release does ultimately mean giving up the responsibility to the students. I knew my class was ready to take on this project when I felt that they had proven mastery of certain skills at least a few times before in a variety of guided inquiry sequences.
You also have to accept that some students may take longer during the year to get to a point of independence where they will get anything out of a week of free inquiry. For those students, I put them with partners that I knew I could trust to move them along, and I checked in on them more frequently than I did other students. I tried to make sure that their failures at the end were limited to the product rather than the process, i.e. a bad final project, but abundant learning nonetheless.
I Proceeded with the Mantra of “Never Work Harder than Your Students”
After taking attending a workshop at the 2016 Africa Ed Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa by Karen Boyes called Never Work Harder Than Your Students, Let Them Do the Thinking, I began to see how the onus has to be on the student to take responsibility for their learning. When my teaching was teacher-directed, I was doing all of the work, and the students were merely passive consumers of information.
After the workshop, I was very clear with my students about my new expectations: I should never be working harder than any of you! And if I am, then you’re not doing your job right and I’m not doing my job right. This idea of never working harder than your students was critical when I began the Week of Free Inquiry because I had to come to grips with what it meant to release all responsibility to the students as I sat back with a cup of coffee while waiting for my next appointment with a student group.
I Trusted and They Pulled Through
In the end of the day, building relationships with students to make them better people is why I became a teacher. I wouldn’t expect a teacher that feels differently and puts less of a value on relationship building to be able to pull off the Week of Free Inquiry. It takes really getting to know your students’ strengths and weaknesses, and really building a culture of trust and a love of learning. Because I trusted them, and they respect me to the point that they will go to the ends of the earth to impress me, they were able to accomplish amazing things during this highly unstructured time.
What do you think? Could your kids pull off a Week of Free Inquiry? Are you ready to tear down the walls and let them be free? Be sure to follow me on Twitter and check out @SGroshell’s Teachers Pay Teachers account.
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I have just completed a 1,600 mile round trip from Orlando, Florida up to Richmond, Virginia. Up on a Friday, back down again on a Sunday, with each trip taking approximately 15hrs. While I have had my Tesla Model S P85D just over 2 years now, the longest journey I had done to date was Orlando to Key West with my son and cousin at the new year (which is a whole different story for another day).
One of my dreams is to put my hand in the Atlantic ocean, then drive over to the Pacific ocean and put my other hand in that – the great American road trip. So while I build up to that, I decided to do a run up and down to Richmond Virginia, to see how well things worked out.
Planning
There wasn’t much pre-planning that was required, aside from charging up phone and loading up my tablet with YouTube music videos and audiobooks. I have done this journey a number of times in a conventional gas powered vehicle, taking anywhere from 10hrs to 14hrs depending on traffic, with usually only 2 stops for filling up the tank.
An electric car is a different animal – I have a maximum range of 253 miles when fully charged and it takes just shy of 2 hrs to reach that level. So a quick back of the envelope calculation (800 / 253 = 4 charges required) it is looking like an extra 8 hrs to the journey.
That said, depending on your driving style (Vin Diesel vs. Mrs Daisy), air-con temperature, auto-pilot etc, your effective range mileage will vary. This all has to be factored in when planning your journey. Fortunately Tesla makes this a complete breeze.
Tesla provides a whole network of what they call Supercharger stations. These are dotted all over with more being added weekly. They are free to use for people that purchased their Tesla prior to 2017 (aka me!) and are approximately every 120-150 miles apart on the major highways.
Using the in-car Google powered navigation, you tap in your destination and then the route is calculated to go via the necessary supercharger station to get you easily to your destination. There is a little magic to be sprinkled here.
So when charging a Tesla (or any battery for that matter), you can charge the battery quicker the emptier it is. In other words, you can throw more power at an empty battery and as it fills up, you reduce the power as it reaches 100%. Tesla can recharge your battery up to approximately 60% full, at a supercharger station, in approximately 20 minutes.
Instead of the route navigation assuming you are charging up to full battery each time, it only calculates how long it needs to charge you to get you to the next supercharger station. This is genius and saves a lot of time. In my instance, it calculated I needed to visit at least 5 supercharger stations, with only a 20-30 minute wait at each one.
Fantastic – no impatient waiting for hours at each stop.
Charging Stations
I took a small cooler case with water and grapes, filled up with ice and started on my journey. First stop was 2 hrs away at St Augustine, which was 5am by the time I reached there.
The location of the supercharger stations are usually within a mile from the main highway. Sometimes they can be a little further, Savannah airport one was 6 miles off the beaten track. They are usually tucked in the parking lot of a mall or a hotel. They are very easy to spot with their 2001 monolithic white rectangle standing guard over the parking bay.
You simply reverse in, get out, plug in, and you are now charging. Nothing needs to be done. The onboard computer knows you are plugged in and takes over all the know how. No credit-cards, no keying in, no buttons to press, it couldn’t be any easier.
I have not yet had the situation where I have had to wait for a bay to become available, though I suspect this will be more congested once the Model 3 hits the roads (though those users have to pay to charge, so that may keep the usage down a little).
When the supercharging first starts it goes through a series of tests to see how much juice your battery can tolerate at once. To that end, it initially throws out some wild estimations as to how long it needs to charge, but give it 5 minutes and it will settle down to what the navigation system predicted.
Now, as noted before, this is not an exact science. So if your next charge point is say 120 miles away, it will give you at least a 170 miles in the tank, just incase. This buffer amount is generous and I frequently rolled into the next charging station with at least 50 miles on the clock.
If I was brave, I could have disconnected the charging earlier than the dashboard prompted. I kept an eye on it and I noted I could have reduced my charge time by 5-10 minutes at some stops. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t.
At first I thought the charging would frustrate me. It turned out to be a small blessing. It broke down the journey into segments of maximum road time of 2.5hrs at a time. This afforded me the luxury of getting up and walking (I managed to still get in my 10k steps even with a 15hr road trip), restroom visit and general movement. One of the nice side benefits of stopping is talking with fellow Tesla drivers, trading stories and wishing them the best on their next stop. You play the game of looking at their tags and marveling at how far they have come. I met a number of far flung drivers and traded a few minutes of good will chat.
If you do take a walk away from the car, you can keep an eye on your mobile app that will tell you when the car has reached its charge. This feature cannot be overstated. It was extremely useful for the times I was sitting in Starbucks checking email to know when to pack up and head back.
I arrived more refreshed than I have historically on my gas-powered trips.
The drive
Enough of the charging, let us talk of the drive itself. This is no ordinary car you are driving. You are driving a car that every other automobile manufacturer is attempting to catch up to. Much has been talked about on the Auto-Pilot of Tesla and let me tell you on the open highway is where it excels.
Adaptive Cruise Control
The first toy in the box is adaptive cruise control. This is where you set the speed you want to drive at, and then it will drive at that speed, adjusting the speed depending on the car in-front. In other words, if you set it at 70mph (and why would you ever set it any higher!) and the car in-front slows down to 20mph then you will slow down to that speed and then speed back up again when it is safe.
This works very well, especially in highway traffic when there is a tendency by hot-heads to cut in front of you. The car slows down accordingly, lets the hot-head in, and then speeds back up when the safe distance has been met.
There was a very heavy thunderstorm in Georgia, where visibility was next to nothing, I couldn’t even see the car in-front. However, my car could see (presumption using radar) and by using the adaptive cruise control, I could confidently be kept a safe distance from the car in-front, even though I couldn’t even eye-ball it.
I can’t tell you the amount of times this feature saved an accident, whether it was heavy rain, or assholes cutting into spaces they shouldn’t, or people in-front suddenly stepping on the brakes. While you do keep an eye on the road, you do have a tendency to daydream on long journeys. You know the state – you are looking at the road, but you aren’t really paying that much attention.
Another great usage of this feature is when traffic gets snarled up and you have to crawl forward at a snail’s pace. You don’t have to worry moving the car forward and then hitting the brakes. It does all this automatically. This was beautiful.
Auto-Steer
So the next step up from adaptive cruise control, is auto-pilot. This is where the car will do the steering and stay in the lane, automatically steering for you. At first it takes a little getting use to, allowing the car to steer itself. You sit there, feet off the pedals (because the car is controlling the speed), and hands off the steering wheel (because the car is steering), it takes a lot of faith that it is going to do what it needs to do!
Now, Tesla doesn’t want you to disengage completely. So it will prompt you to touch the steering wheel every so often. If you fail to do that, then it will disengage the auto-pilot and you will be punished by not being allowed to re-enable it until such times the car has come to a complete stop for a few minutes.
In reality, this just takes a little nudge. I found if I rested my elbow on the side of the door and rested my hand lightly on the steering wheel at the 10pm position (you know, the cool look) this was enough to fool the software into thinking that I was in control. Usually it was around every 1-2 minutes it would prompt me.
A nice feature that works very well is lane changing. If you decide you want to change lane, then you simply indicate your intention, and once the car has determined it is safe, it will change lane for you. This is extremely unnatural at first, but once you have faith, you will discover it is the best feature you could possibly ask for.
So a large part of my drive, was simply indicating to change lane. That was as much thinking as I had to do. Keeping up with traffic streams was a breeze.
Now the biggest benefit of letting the car control the speed, was the efficiency of power usage. Tesla has a number of displays, so you can see when you are pressing the accelerator (using more power). You do this far more than you realize, resulting in a lot of small surges that are not really necessary. Lot of battery wastage.
By letting the car do the speed, it will not be heavy on the right foot. I did a few experiments and discovered I could never drive as efficient as what it could. In a given 2hr segment this could mean up to an extra 20 miles in the tank.
Onboard Entertainment
A quick note to the on-board entertainment. The car is connected to the Internet under its own bandwidth (no piggy backing on your phone’s network). So in addition to the basic FM/AM radio, and USB playback, you have streaming from Tune-In/Streaming and of course bluetooth.
I listen to a lot of BBC content and it was nice to tune into BBC Radio 2 in the UK. For the times I didn’t do that, I would listen to a podcast (via the car), and after that, I would resort to listening to YouTube videos from my tablet via bluetooth.
Keeping an eye on the cops
So we all know the only reason people use Waze is to be notified of upcoming speed traps. As you may know, Tesla come with a full web browser. One of the coolest and most useful websites is https://tesla-waze.excelsis.com/
This is basically a view of Waze designed for the Tesla web browser, updating in real time for any upcoming hazards or police cars that happened to be parked at the side of the highway. I had this up all the time at the bottom of my screen, with the navigation on the top. Let’s just say, on the whole 1,600 mile journey, Waze never missed a single cop.
Conclusion
I arrived in Richmond, 15 minutes before the navigation route estimated some 15hrs ago. I hit traffic, I hit some roadworks, I hit weather. I was impressed.
I was describing the experience to a friend when I arrived, and I likened it to flying when you get the bonus of having the seat beside you free. In a plane you are cramped, and when there is no one in the seat next to you, you get to stretch out your legs into that space and feel human again.
When the car is in auto-pilot mode, your legs have the chance to move, to stretch. With no central console, you can easily stretch your legs into the passenger’s space. This little act of expanse can make all the difference in a long journey.
Overall, I was surprised at how painless and easy the journey was, even with the extra overhead of charging time. I arrived far more refreshed than I thought I would.
Driving a Tesla is an honor. Even after 2 years, each time I get in, I still feel a sense of excitement that I am driving something very special. The car receives software updates approximately once a month, further improving the experience. The car I bought in March 2015, is not the car I am driving in 2017.
I now have the confidence to start planning my coast-2-coast trip and take my trip around the USA, seeing this wonderful country, for $0 fuel cost. It would be a crime not to do the trip.
I loved my trip. It was an experience that I would not hesitate to do it again, choosing electric over flight.
My advice to you – if you get the chance, do it, you will fall in love with road trips all over again.
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Categories: Thoughts/MusingsThis is probably the most difficult list to compile each season. In a year when the top-five in the Associated Press top-25 poll lost 19 games (12 to unranked opponents) by Jan. 22 for the first time in the weekly tally’s history, it’s just a headache.
Before we even get started, you should know that Bob Huggins, Steve Prohm, Roy Williams and Mark Turgeon all barely missed the cut. And a few guys who would have warranted slots on this list as recently as a week ago -- see Andy Enfield and Tom Crean -- are not mentioned.
But they were all considered.
Now, here’s a list of the national coach of the year candidates, ranked in order:
1. Chris Mack, Xavier Musketeers
Frank Victores/USA TODAY Sports
The Big East is just one giant basketball fire pit. No team is safe. But Mack’s guidance has made Xavier one of the nation’s most complete and potent programs. The Musketeers boast true depth. In Tuesday night’s road win at Providence, five Xavier players recorded double figures and two of them (James Farr and J.P. Macura) did not start. Plus, the team finished 3-0 during the three games that Edmond Sumner missed. Xavier has also assembled a resume that features diversity; road wins over Michigan and Providence; neutral-site wins over Dayton and USC; and home victories over Cincinnati and Butler. All after entering the year unranked in the preseason polls. Ladies and gentlemen, your national coach of the year -- right now -- should be Xavier’s Chris Mack.
2. Fran McCaffery, Iowa Hawkeyes
Jeffrey Becker/USA TODAY Sports
Calm down, Iowa fans. Yes, McCaffery has a case for the No. 1 slot. This was a hard call for a guy whose team started the year with an exhibition loss to Division II Augustana before squandering a 20-point lead in a loss to rival Iowa State. Since then, however, McCaffery has helped Jarrod Uthoff mature into a Wooden Award candidate while leading the Big Ten’s best on a nine-game winning streak that’s included sweeps of Purdue and Michigan State and a double-digit win over Michigan. How many teams would improve the way Iowa has after losing an all-Big Ten first-teamer such as Aaron White?
3. Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M Aggies
Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire
Here’s a guy who put together one of the strongest recruiting classes in school history. And then, under Kennedy, the Aggies rose from unranked afterthought to its current spot as a top-five team and the squad to beat in the SEC thus far. Entering Wednesday's matchup at Arkansas, the Aggies were undefeated in SEC play. Best wins: Gonzaga, Texas and Baylor. Kennedy is showing the college basketball world that basketball matters in College Station too.
4. Lon Kruger, Oklahoma Sooners
John Rieger/USA TODAY Sports
Well, he’s coaching the No. 1 team in America. That helps. He’s also turned Wooden Award favorite Buddy Hield into some kind of “X-Men” character who is shooting 52 percent from the 3-point line (this is not a drill, folks) and connecting on 90 percent of his free throws. Oklahoma could win the Big 12 title and spend a few nights in Houston in April. Kruger, the only coach to win an NCAA tournament game with five different teams, still has it.
5. Randy Bennett, Saint Mary's Gaels
Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports
We all know Saint Mary’s has a good offense this season. Here’s what you might not know: Saint Mary’s could end the season with the most efficient offense we’ve witnessed in more than a decade. The Gaels have made 46 percent of their 3s and 59 percent of their 2s this season. They have a critical conference win over Gonzaga and sit atop the West Coast Conference alone. Bennett deserves serious consideration for national coach of the year.
6. Dana Altman, Oregon Ducks
Chris Pietsch/AP Photo
Dylan Ennis transferred from Villanova with the idea that he’d start for the Ducks this season before injuries ruined his year. And the mess didn’t stop there for Altman. Oregon players had missed 19 games due to injury... by mid-December. But Altman’s squad has fought through those challenges and secured a first-place spot in the Pac-12 entering Thursday’s road game at Arizona.
7. Jim Larranaga, Miami (FL) Hurricanes
Joel Auerbach/Getty Images
Miami’s squad fumbled after a surprising win over Duke last year. But this season’s Hurricanes are playing with more poise on both sides of the floor (top-25 in offensive and defensive efficiency). The Hurricanes’ win over Duke on Monday was its third consecutive victory in ACC play.
8. Tom Izzo, Michigan State Spartans
Brad Rempel/USA TODAY Sports
If the race had ended prior to Denzel Valentine's midseason knee surgery, Izzo would own the top slot in this convo after Michigan State’s elevation to the top slot in the polls. Valentine’s evolution into a legit first-round prospect and Wooden Award candidate, along with Michigan State’s growth after a rough start in Big Ten play and victory over Maryland on Saturday, suggests that the Spartans -- who have battled injuries to Valentine, Gavin Schilling, Matt Costello, Tum Tum Nairn and Marvin Clark Jr. -- will continue to rise.
9. Ed Cooley, Providence Friars
Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports
Yes, Kris Dunn is great. But he’s a better defender this season. Ben Bentil is averaging 20.0 PPG this year after averaging 6.4 PPG in 2014-15. Cooley has emphasized defense this season and watched the Friars, the only Big East squad to solve Villanova, jump from 48th to 16th in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com.
10. Bryce Drew, Valparaiso Crusaders
AP Photo/Chris Pietsch
Drew’s nonconference slate included wins over Rhode Island and Oregon State. The Crusaders, 7-1 in the Horizon League, are ranked second in adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom.com. They’ve held their opponents to a 40.7 percent mark inside the arc (fourth in the country). Valpo, led by Alec Peters (17.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG), could battle the top teams in the power leagues.Researchers have managed to unlock a new CRISPR system that targets RNA, rather than DNA.
CRISPR – or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats – is a relatively new genome editing tool which could transform the field of biology. It allows scientists to edit genomes with unprecedented precision, efficiency and flexibility.
And this latest discovery, by researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Rutgers University – New Brunswick and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, has the potential to open up a powerful avenue in cellular manipulation.
While DNA editing makes permanent changes to the genome of a cell, this CRISPR-based RNA targeting approach may allow researchers to make temporary changes that can be adjusted with greater functionality than any existing methods.
The findings – which have been published in Science – report the identification and functional characterisation of C2c2, an enzyme capable of targeting and degrading RNA.
C2c2, the first naturally-occurring CRISPR system targeting RNA, helps protect bacteria against viral infection. It can be programmed to split particular RNA sequences in bacterial cells, which would make it an important addition to the field of molecular biology.
The ability to specifically target RNA – which helps carry out genomic instructions – presents an option to precisely manipulate RNA in a high-throughput manner, and edit gene function more broadly. This is particularly exciting as it has the potential to accelerate progress to understand, treat and prevent disease.
“C2c2 opens the door to an entirely new frontier of powerful CRISPR tools,” explained Feng Zhang, senior author and member of the Broad Institute. “There are an immense number of possibilities for C2c2 and we are excited to develop it into a platform for life science research and medicine.”
Eugene Koonin, senior author and leader of the evolutionary genomic group at the NIH, added: “The study of C2c2 uncovers a fundamentally novel biological mechanism that bacteria seem to use in their defense against viruses. Application of this strategy could be quite striking.”
The most common technique for carrying out gene knockdown is currently small interfering RNA (siRNA). But according to the researchers, RNA editing methods using C2c2 could enable greater specificity and hold the potential for a wider range of applications.
The team was able to precisely target and remove specific RNA sequences using C2c2, which suggests that it could represent an alternative approach to siRNA, offering researchers adjustable gene knockdown capability.
Reiterating the importance of the finding for medical and genetic research, co-first author Omar Abudayyeh concluded: “C2c2’s greatest impact may be made on our understanding of the role of RNA in disease and cellular function.”10 Amazing Pokemon X and Y Wallpapers
Pokemon X and Y has been the talk of the town and rumor mills. Mr. XY is going off the handle with everything he could possible leak. Fans are anxiously awaiting any new info Nintendo lets loose and there’s only one way to remind yourself every single day that in October of this year you’re going to lose hours of your life once again: wallpapers!
I did this for Metal Gear Rising and from all the feedback I saw I could only come up with one conclusion: people love wallpapers. So do I! In fact, as I mentioned in my top Metal Gear Rising wallpaper post, I change mine every time something new grabs my interest. It’s rare for one wallpaper to stay up on my computers for longer than a week. So far, only Persona 4 has been able to topple that trend but I have a feeling that these Pokemon X and Y wallpapers are going to make a challenge.
When I set out to look something cool to plaster on my desktop I came across some awesome sites that housed some amazing Pokemon X and Y wallpapers. They aren’t gaudy or “epic” but they just look really nice. In fact, until Nintendo releases some more official art, these may be the best Pokemon X and Y wallpapers out there.
While I do enjoy epic wallpapers, some times I like to keep mine simple and relaxing. I think you’ll find some good choices here as we include the three starters, the legendaries, and the latest Pokemon, Sylveon.
The only issue I have now is picking one |
Longreach, stopping at regional centres along the way.
The 1956 locomotive and nine carriages pulled into Barcaldine station yesterday and will complete the journey to Longreach this afternoon.
Thousands of hours went into restoring the train and its carriages for QR's milestone.
QR's historian Greg Hallam said the train was a piece of living history, with some carriages more than 100 years old.
"The last carriage, it was built in 1902," he said.
"It is an Edwardian, I won't say relic, it is an Edwardian piece of living history.
"The dining car, it's modern, it was built in 1935.
"So if you look through this train, we have got 1902, and those other carriages are about 1910, 1911 and 1912 and the old sleeping car from 1924."
It is an Edwardian, I won't say relic, it is an Edwardian piece of living history. Greg Hallam
Mr Hallam said about 1,200 people have enjoyed the trip on Bety during the journey west, including about 900 who took a short trip during a stop at Emerald earlier this week.
"Everyone has got a great railway story, and the further west you go, the wilder they get and as far as I am concerned the more entertaining they get as well," he said.
Mr Hallam said many people who visited the train or took the rare chance to ride it had enjoyed the experience.
But he said he was hoping people also reflected on the role of rail throughout Queensland's history.
"It looks like around about a quarter of a million railway workers, since 1865 have been employed in some form or another throughout Queensland," he said.
"At one point there about 8 per cent of the Queensland population was directly employed or impacted by the Queensland railways, back into the 1940s and 50s even, so it was a huge enterprise."
The steam train needed some diesel assistance to get up the Drummond Range, east of Alpha, but otherwise has been travelling well. John Broderick
Train driver John Broderick is a third generation railway man and in charge of Bety on her trip west.
He said the big challenge in driving the steam train was keeping water and coal stocked up.
"They use, I've been told, an estimated 100 litres [of water] per kilometre," Mr Broderick said.
"We used about 50,000 litres of water easily from Emerald over [to Barcaldine].
"We had to get a water truck at Alpha, a water truck with 25,000 litres to top us up.
"We had to get the maintenance guys also to top us up with coal at Alpha."
Mr Broderick said the best thing about driving the vintage train was working with a team of people who were passionate about rail and rail history.
"The best thing about it is the mateship, we all work well together and there is good comradeship," he said.
"The steam train needed some diesel assistance to get up the Drummond Range, east of Alpha, but otherwise has been travelling well.
"This engine is capable of doing 80 kilometres and hour legally, but we only do 60 kilometres an hour maximum out here.
"It is slow, but we have got a fair bit of weight behind us, we have nearly 300 tonnes of weight behind us too," he said.
About 250 people are expected to ride the train today around Barcaldine, before Bety heads west to Longreach where the service terminates.
The train will be moved to Winton this weekend where it will be used for a World War I troop train re-enactment starting on Monday.
Topics: people, human-interest, 20th-century, barcaldine-4725, qld, longreach-4730
First postedLike most electronic gadgets these days, ATM skimmers are getting smaller and thinner, with extended battery life. Here’s a look at several miniaturized fraud devices that were pulled from compromised cash machines at various ATMs in Europe so far this year.
According to a new report from the European ATM Security Team (EAST), a novel form of mini-skimmer was reported by one country. Pictured below is a device designed to capture the data stored on an ATM card’s magnetic stripe as the card is inserted into the machine. While most card skimmers are made to sit directly on top of the existing card slot, these newer mini-skimmers fit snugly inside the card reader throat, obscuring most of the device. This card skimmer was made to fit inside certain kinds of cash machines made by NCR.
“New versions of insert skimmers (skimmers placed inside the card reader throat) are getting harder to detect,” the EAST report concludes.
The miniaturized insert skimmer above was used in tandem with a tiny spy camera to record each customer’s PIN. The image on the left shows the hidden camera situated just to the left of the large square battery; the photo on the right shows the false ATM fascia that obscures the hidden camera as it was found attached to the compromised ATM (notice the tiny pinhole at the top left edge of the device).
EAST notes that the same country which reported discovering the skimmer devices above also found an ATM that was compromised by a new type of translucent insert skimmer, pictured below.
Though not insert skimmers, the devices pictured below — removed from ATMs in Europe this year — also come with a slim profile. I have seen various models of the card skimmer pictured below, devices that are generally made and sold to compromise Wincor/Nixdorf brand ATMs.
The device pictured below is a slender skimmer powered by what looks like either a cannibalized MP3 player or mobile phone. Mobile-powered skimmers allow thieves to have the stolen card data relayed via text message, meaning they never need to return to the scene of the crime once the skimmer is in place. MP3-based skimmers capture card data as audio waves that specialized software can later convert into card data.
As the EAST report notes, ATM skimmers are still a problem in Europe, even though virtually all cash machines there only accept cards that include so-called “chip & PIN” technology. Chip & PIN, often called EMV (short for Eurocard, MasterCard and Visa), is designed to make cards far more expensive and complicated for thieves to duplicate.
Unfortunately, the United States is the last of the G-20 nations that has yet to transition to chip & PIN, which means most ATM cards issued in Europe have a magnetic stripe on them for backwards compatibility when customers travel to this country. Naturally, ATM hackers in Europe will ship the stolen card data over to thieves here in the U.S., who then can encode the stolen card data onto fresh (chipless) cards and pull cash out of the machines here and in Latin America.
“In countries where the ATM EMV rollout has been completed most losses have migrated away from Europe and are mainly seen in the USA, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America,” the EAST report notes. “From the perspective of European card issuers the Asia-Pacific region seems to be eclipsing Latin America for such losses.”
One of the simplest ways to protect yourself from ATM skimmers is to cover the PIN pad when you enter your digits. Still, you’d be surprised at how few ATM users actually take this simple but effective precaution.
If you liked this story, check out the rest of my series on ATM skimmers.
Tags: ATM Skimmers, EAST, EMV, European ATM Security Team, insert skimmers, NCR, wincor nixdorfWhile another English football season draws to a close, the bi-annual carnage of the transfer window – when clubs are allowed to buy and sell players – will soon resume.
As the who-goes-where drama plays out over the summer, there'll be social media hysteria with fans arguing about players they've never seen, hastily-made YouTube montages pitching unknowns as reincarnations of Johan Cruyff and, unfortunately, an abundance of Sky Sports presenter Jim White on UK television screens.
However, above the cacophony of noise, one simple utterance could settle debates: "He's great on Football Manager, him."
In August 2014, the official word came on what fans, gamers and player recruitment teams had always known: the database of players from the Football Manager (FM) video game was so deep, so accurate and so reliable, it could be used in the real world.
When the game is better than the real thing
Sports Interactive (SI), the makers of the dangerously addictive team management simulator, licensed its database to ProZone Recruiter, the professional analytics platform used by clubs to identify potential signings.
It is, without doubt, the greatest resource in terms of granularity and of coverage across the world –
The Information Lab's Brian Prestige
In the ensuing two seasons, the 250 individual attributes for 651,184 players (up from 4,000 when the game first launched in 1992) – collected by a network of 1,300 scouts in 51 countries – have become an important tool in helping many professional clubs identify desired players.
"It's very important to us that, outside of their clubs, the first time people should be finding out about future stars is from Football Manager." SI boss and FM director Miles Jacobson tells techradar.
"We don't always get it right … our strike rate is currently about 99.5%," Jacobson says. "We're proud of this, but we'd prefer if it was 100%."
While the ProZone integration has only existed for two campaigns, clubs had unofficially been using FM's database for over a decade. What the partnership has achieved is to integrate this precious data into a much larger suite of information and add much greater context.
Because of how extensive FM's global reach is, new markets are also being leveraged.
Brian Prestige is a former data analyst with Bolton Wanderers Football Club and regularly consults with clubs for The Information Lab. He was one of the first to mine the Football Manager database for real world recruitment.
"It is, without doubt, the greatest resource in terms of granularity and of coverage across the world," Prestige says.
"At the time, we thought, 'this database has got every single player playing across over 50 countries," Prestige recalls. "That's more than we've got anywhere in our scouting systems – more than we can find anywhere online.'
"If you were a League Two club with volunteer, part-time scouts, here's this worldwide scouting network, all for the cost of buying the game!"
Prestige tells us, in those early days, Wanderers had no scouts looking for young talent in Lancashire, despite being a North West club. It was FM data that helped them realize just how many players were being bred in the region.
"We used FM to look at where players were born and married that with the first club they were associated with, and it helped us see where we should be sending our scouts," Prestige says.
While Bolton was one of the first clubs to spot the potential uses for the data, others followed in greater numbers. While teams aren't relying exclusively on the FM data to identify players, it has certainly augmented the approach by supplementing ProZone's performance-based technical data.
Data- or game-driven decision making
"It's a great way to minimize the inherent risk in player recruitment," Prestige says.
"It gives you that extra level of context. You understand more about that player, his playing history, his biography and the subjective opinions from Football Manager. You can marry that up with technical performance data from ProZone and reports from your own scouts who have the greater understanding of the club's requirements."
Ultimately it's less about which clubs can afford products, but who has the people and the processes in place to make the best use of the information –
Jacobson
So, with millions of pounds in salaries and transfer fees now being splurged based in part on the SI's scouting reports, is the Football Manager team feeling the pressure?
"Not really," says Jacobson. "I've always wanted the data in the game to be as accurate as possible. That's what makes the alternative universe that people go into when playing the game believable."
What has exactly has changed in the past two years? From SI's perspective, surprising data points are proving useful to professional recruiters, while ProZone's own data is also improving the Football Manager game.
"We've learned it's not just the playing data that people are interested in, but also things like height and weight and historical injury data, which is very important when looking at signing players," Jacobson adds.
Aside from the clubs, players also have a huge stake in the data, beyond personal vanity. Now, scouting reports can affect real world contract negotiations and potential transfers to bigger clubs.
"Often it's agents trying to get their players stats up when looking for a new contract," Jacobson says regarding whether players pester SI over ratings.
The proof is on the pitch
"We did once have a couple of players arguing about their pace and acceleration stats, so I suggested they race against each other," Jacobson says. "They filmed it and sent it to us … and our researchers were right in the first place."
"I tell [complaining players] if they play better, then they'll get raised, but we would only change stats in very rare circumstances."
The presence of FM data within ProZone Recruiter has helped to democratize player identification by ensuring the richest don't always have access to the best tools. Prestige would like to see this go further.
He would advocate a US-style model, making all information available to all clubs through league-wide agreements with companies like ProZone.
"Ultimately it's less about which clubs can afford products, but who has the people and the processes in place to make the best use of the information," he says.
"You've seen evidence of that with clubs like Leicester City. Looking back to their time in the Championship (the second tier of English football), the processes they had behind the scenes were all a starting block of what they're doing now."
"They are thoughtful people with great processes," Prestige says. "It was never about how much money they had."
When the stakes couldn't be higher...
Tools like ProZone Recruiter are becoming more important than ever. Thanks to the new TV deals, which will lead to an influx of £8.3 billion (around $12 billion) over the next three seasons, even Premier League clubs outside of the elite few have considerable sums of money to spend, making unearthing hidden gems all the more important.
Meanwhile, Financial Fair Play rules limit spending, meaning transfer missteps can have costly repercussions even for the super rich.
"At certain clubs, the data is already the winner when evaluating players. 95% of clubs, it's the opposite way, but it needs to be a blend of both," Prestige says.
"Decision makers need to understand the value of data and the processes behind it, but also an appreciation for their scouts and their respective strengths in judging age groups and markets."
With both approaches there are hits and misses. Prestige tells of the time a top player, one currently making national headlines, slipped through Bolton's grasp, despite being overwhelmingly backed by the data.
"From the scouts' side, it was a mixed bag in terms of his end product, so he wasn't signed," he admits. "But there'll be some you'll miss."
While player recruitment will never be an exact science, for the team at Football Manager HQ, the job of identifying the next generation of stars is already well underway.
Jacobson adds: "I'd be looking at Tielemans, Bazooer, Ocampos, Kranevitter, Mammana, Malcom, Lincoln, Hojbjerg, Rugani, Perin, Lozano, Ruben Neves, Unai Lopez, Sergi Samper – but some of those may be very hard to get, as they've already been picked up by big clubs."
Regardless of whether your club nabs one of those big fish this summer, if they sign a player who's excelling in Football Manager, there should be plenty for you to look forward to come August.“Lawmakers, read the bills before you vote,” by Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe)
This “Read the Bills” movement has finally cut through political pretensions to reveal that there is no “deliberative democracy” in the USA. Apparently, members of Congress are simply asked to “react” or express “feelings” or channel interest-group concerns about broad notions like global warming, the economy, energy, and so on.
Not that democracy is an unalloyed good, but words ought to mean what they say. Otherwise, William Graham Sumner was right about “public servants” throwing the Constitution overboard:
If you take away the Constitution, what is American liberty and all the rest? Nothing but a lot of phrases....
Any member of Congress who refuses, then “guffaws,” at the notion of “reading bills” is a candidate for expulsion from Congress. “Aye, there’s the rub”: who will read the bill of particulars against the scoundrel who presumes to speak in the name of “the people?” Who but his fellow scoundrels, who have continually mocked thoughtful, active, ongoing deliberation?
The Waxman-Markey bill (mentioned in above article) is a perfect example of the oligarchy in D.C.: fancy preambles with flights of prose followed by blank pages to be filled in later by a few “leaders” of Congress.
My worst students cannot read, write, or put together an extended argument for a position. In place of reason or analysis, they offer “feeling” or what they are told third-hand. To wit: They are perfect future congressmen (women) of America.
The best history students grapple with the primary stuff of history, its original intent, changing meaning, and significance. In the future, what can they “read” in between the pages of congressional acts? They cannot assume anything when few people had anything to do with the bill, and obscure bureaucrats file enabling regulations that carry enormous significance for future generations, all hidden from public view.
I’m sure we will be told that “Read the Bill” is not “on the up-and-up.” Right wingers must be behind it because they want to slow down the work of Congress. Leave aside the bare fact that Congress is not working and we still have ample exhibits of “right-wing” laws (e.g., USA PATRIOT Act) that sprang surprises on the Left because “we don’t read those things.”
I have researched the papers of men and women in nine presidential libraries, along with the records of many congressional committees. What impresses me is how little the White House and Congress know about the functioning of government. Some say that government has become too big to be safe (the Left) or efficient (the Right). I say government has become too big for democracy. If that is true, why bother voting? Heresy, but there is an argument for “those who refuse to vote.” (See Carl Watner and Wendy McElroy’s The Dissenting Electorate).
In short, our long march into oligarchy reminds me of the Old Whig slogan (I am working from memory):
“Man is free on election day, and everywhere in chains between elections.”
Further reading:
The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States (1969), by Theodore J. Lowi, offers a stinging and cogent critique of congressional abdication of its constitutional responsibilities, both by refusing to properly deliberate and by simply handing the task of governing over to staff and unelected bureaucrats.
Arthur A. Ekirch, Jr., The Decline of American Liberalism (1955, rpt. 2008)
Robert Higgs, Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society (2004)
Tags: Arthur Ekirch, Books, Congress, Constitution, Corruption, democracy, Elections, Integrity, Law, Politics, Presidential Power, Robert Higgs, The State, Waxman-Markey, Wendy McElroy, William Graham SumnerRomário de Souza Faria (born January 29, 1966, in Rio de Janeiro), better known simply as Romário, is a retired Brazilian football Forward striker. He helped the Brazil national team win the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was one of the most prolific strikers in the world.
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Eu nunca fui exemplo para ninguém. Translation: " I have never been a role model for anyone." Context: When talking about his carrer in the Brazilian national team. Source: Veja Magazine; 1903 Edition. May 4th, 2005.
Alfonso quem? So falo de quem eu conheco. Translation: "Alfonso Who? I only talk about people I know." Context: Replying to journalists who had asked him what he thought about player Alfonso who had called him lazy. Source: Globo Esporte.
Quando durmo muito, não faço gols, por isso gosto de ficar na noite. Translation: "When I sleep too much I don't score. That's the reason I like to go out a lot." Context: Romário was seen in different night clubs during his career while being the top scorer in almost every major competition he played in. Source: Veja Magazine; 1895 Edition. March 9th, 2005.
O Pelé calado é um poeta. Dentro de campo, ele foi o nosso pai. Fora dele, tem de colocar um sapato na boca. Translation: "Pelé shut up is a poet. On the field, he was our Father; outside it, he should put a shoe in his mouth" Context: Angry answer after Pele told different sources that Romário should retire from pro soccer. Source: Veja Magazine; 1895 Edition. March 9th, 2005.
Parei. Não dá mais. Não tenho mais vontade. Translation: "I quit. I can't play anymore. I lack the desire to do it. " Context: Announcing his retirement. Source: Veja Magazine; 1886 Edition. January 5th, 2005.
Quero deixar bem claro que não vou parar. Translation: "I want to make it really clear that I will not retire." Context: Announcing his retirement. Source: Veja Magazine; 1992 Edition. February 18th, 2005.
Quando eu nasci, Deus apontou o dedo em minha direção e disse: esse é o cara. Translation: "When I was born, God pointed at me and said “That’s the man" Context: When he signed with Fluminense in 2002. Source: esportes.terra.
O cara nem entrou no ônibus ainda e já quer sentar na janela. Translation: "The dude didn't even hop up on the bus yet and wants to sit in the window already" Context: Refering to Alexandro Gama, Fluminense's coach in 2003, who put Romário in the bench in his first game managing the club. Source: PauliniaNews
Goleiro sempre tem mérito. Mas dessa vez não. Do jeito que bati, até a minha mãe pegava. Translation: "The goalkeeper always deserves the credit. But not this time. The way I kicked the ball, even my mother would have saved it" Context: After missing a penalty kick, in 2005. Source: esportes.terra.
Se você me perguntar por que eu gosto da noite, é simples: é que à noite você vê só o que quer. De dia, é obrigado a ver tudo. Translation: "The reason I like night time is simple. At night you see what you want. During the day, you are forced to see everything" Source: Veja Magazine; 1992 Edition. February 18th, 2005.
Não estou indo para o trabalho, mas eles também não estão me pagando. E a amizade continua... Translation: "I am not showing up for work, but they are not paying me. The friendship goes on..." Context: Referring to his situation at Vasco da Gama days before he retired. Source: "O Dia" newspaper.
A corte agora está contente. O rei, o príncipe e o bobo. Translation: "Now the whole court is happy: The king, the prince and the fool" Context: Calling Edmundo a fool, who sarcastically called him a “prince”, and refering also to Vasco’s president at the time, Eurico Miranda. Source: "O Dia" newspaper.
Deus abençoou os pés desse cidadão, mas se esqueceu do resto e principalmente da boca, porque quando ele fala só sai besteira, ou melhor: só sai m... Translation: "God blessed this guy's feet, but forgot about the rest, specially his mouth, because when he talks he only says crap, I mean: he only say shi*." Context: Referring to Pele, after the latter criticized him after the 1998 Gold Cup. Source: esportes.terra
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Marcar o Robinho é desgaste físico. Marcar o Romário é desgaste emocional Translation: "Trying to stop Robinho is a physical fatigue. Trying to stop Romário is an emotional fatigue." Context: Santos FC player Narciso. Source: ISTO É Magazine, Edition. 1788.
Está entre Romário e van Basten Translation: "It is between Romário and Van Basten" Context: Former agentinean player Diego Maradona, when asked who was the best player he had ever saw playing. Source: Placar Magazine, Edition. 1315.Tea Party protesters have once again descended upon Washington, D.C., and this time, in addition to carrying their obnoxious, misspelled, and vaguely racist signs, they've decided to spout hateful epithets at passing lawmakers as well:
According to Rep. Andre Carson, the protesters "were shouting the N-word" as he and two fellow black legislators left the Cannon House Office Building earlier today. Sam Stein at the Huffington Post is also reporting that "a staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni—er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams."
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It kind of makes you question what Sarah Palin had to say about the "beautiful" Tea Party movement just last month, doesn't it?:
Opponents of this message, they are seeking to marginalize this movement. They want to paint us as ideologically extreme and the counterpoint to liberal intolerance and outrageous conspiracy theorists aimed at our own government and unethical shameless tactics like considering a candidate's children fair game. But unlike the elitists who denounce this movement, they just don't want to hear the message. I've traveled across this great country and I've talked to the patriotic men and women who make up the Tea Party movement, and they are good and kind and selfless and they are deeply concerned about our country. And today I ask only this, let's make this movement a tribute to their good example and make it worthy of their hard work and their support.
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I guess it's just "elitist" to expect citizens of the United States to protest peacefully, respectfully, and without resorting to racist, homophobic, childish, embarrassing, and completely unacceptable behavior, eh?
Black Members: Tea Partiers Used N-Word [Roll Call]
Tea Party Protests: 'Ni**er,' 'Faggot' Shouted At Members Of Congress [Huffington Post]
Sarah Palin Speaks At Tea Party Convention [CNN]"Nobody should say such things, in my opinion, because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable," Paul Ryan said. | AP Photo Ryan admonishes Trump for 'riot' remark The House speaker also says a contested convention 'could very well become a reality.'
It's becoming more and more clear: Donald Trump and Paul Ryan simply don't see eye to eye.
Ryan on Thursday criticized Trump for saying that riots would erupt if the New York billionaire doesn't become the party's presidential nominee. At the same news conference, Ryan said it "could very well become a reality" that the 2016 GOP convention in Cleveland is contested.
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If you're keeping count at home, Ryan has now criticized Trump for his apparent hesitance in distancing himself from former David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard; said the candidate's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States was wrong; and said Trump should do more to control violent outbursts at his political events.
On Thursday, Ryan put more space between Trump and himself.
"Nobody should say such things, in my opinion, because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable," Ryan said, when asked about Trump's prediction of rioting if someone else becomes the nominee.
When asked about the possibility of a contested convention, Ryan said there is a "perception that this is more likely to become an open convention than we thought before."
"So we're getting our minds around the idea that this could very well become a reality, and therefore, those of us who are involved in the convention need to respect that," Ryan said.
The speaker has been clear that he is unafraid to speak out against Trump when he believes the candidate is distorting conservative or American principles. It appears that Ryan believes Trump is doing that quite frequently.
"If anybody — not just Donald Trump — if anybody is out there representing the Republican Party in ways that we believe disfigure conservatism or do not portray what our views and principles are, I, as a party leader — and others, I assume, as well — have an obligation to defend our principles from being distorted. We're going to continue doing that.
"Look. I am who I am," he continued. "I'm a conservative who believes in specific principles and specific policies, and I'm going to speak out on those all the time."
Ryan did say he did not believe that he would need to disown Trump as a candidate. He also said he, himself, will not be the candidate. Ryan said he asked former Speaker John Boehner to stop mentioning him as a potential nominee.The voting for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year figures to be tight between rookie quarterbacks Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck. Still, Griffin said Wednesday he wouldn't pick himself if he had a vote to cast.
In an interview with the NFL Network's "NFL AM" program Wednesday morning, Griffin said he would vote for teammate Alfred Morris, who is fifth in the NFL with 982 rushing yards and has six rushing touchdowns.
"My vote would go to Alfred Morris, because I wouldn't vote for myself. I think that's extremely conceited and I'm not that person, so I'd vote for Alfred Morris," Griffin told the NFL Network. "He's my running back, he's had a very quiet but very great season for a running back, and I'm proud to have him on this team."
Griffin has had a great rookie season and is tied for second in the NFL in fewest interceptions (4) and ranked fourth in completion percentage (67.5). He also has 3,146 total yards (2,504 pass, 642 rush) and 22 touchdowns (16 pass, 6 rush). He is also just the third quarterback in NFL history to amass at least 2,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in a single season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.Every year, a bunch of new and exciting designs overflow the internet, and when it’s time for Halloween, all we see are bats, pumpkins, witches, all colored in orange and black, occasionally brown.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Feb. 11, 2014, 1:50 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 11, 2014, 2:17 PM GMT
LONDON -- Flood-battered Britain is on course for its wettest winter in 250 years, officials said Tuesday as hundreds more homes were submerged in a crisis that could cost $1.85 billion.
Thousands of residents were evacuated from houses overnight after the River Thames burst its banks west of London, bringing the disaster closer to the door of Prime Minister David Cameron who has faced criticism over the government’s response.
Parts of rural England had their wettest January on record, and more heavy rain is forecast this week.
“We're dealing with an enormous force of nature here, vast quantities of water and an unprecedented weather pattern,” U.K. government minister Philip Hammond told reporters as he announced extra money and army assistance for victims.
It has been a very British weather crisis: not the result of one destructive storm, but the aftermath of week after week of relentless wet and windy Atlantic weather systems combined with high tides.
Across many parts of southwest England’s green countryside, idyllic towns and villages have been transformed into muddy lagoons, farms are under water and historic homes have been inundated with contaminated water.
Nobody has been spared. One of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace –- the 16th-century one-time royal residence that sits alongside the Thames –- was filled with water, while swans floated across sodden grassland at Great Windsor Park, in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth II’s castle.
The historic city of Worcester was effectively closed off because of swollen rivers, while some villages in Somerset have been cut off for weeks.
In Berkshire, there were fears that abandoned properties in affluent areas could be targeted by looters. Colin Rayner, 56, a local lawmaker in the evacuated town of Wraysbury, told ITV News that a looter targeting a property in the village had been chased off.
Recriminations over the slow government response has turned the weather into a political storm for Cameron, who has donned rubber boots and waded into flood waters in an effort to appear that he is on top of the problem.
The flood crisis is dominating the front pages of newspapers, and many of the victims live in Cameron's southern England political heartland.
The prime minister pledged he would do everything possible to help victims Tuesday, as he visited the coastal town of Dawlish, in Devon, where the key rail link between London and Cornwall was severed by a giant wave that washed away tracks.
That may not be enough to calm angry victims, who have complained of having to evacuate without assistance from authorities.
“There’s nobody to help us, we have to do this ourselves,” Wraysbury resident Su Murrows told The Times. She said the only assistance in the town on Monday had been from wardens working for an animal-welfare charity.
In Windsor, |
obtained prior to the effective date of this section shall commit an infraction and be fined not more than ninety dollars for a first offense and shall be guilty of a class D felony for any subsequent offense, and (2) any person who possesses a large capacity magazine on or after January 1, 2014, that was obtained on or after the effective date of this section shall be guilty of a class D felony.
(d) A large capacity magazine may be possessed, purchased or imported by:
(1) Members or employees of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, police departments, the Department of Correction or the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States for use in the discharge of their official duties or when off duty;
(2) Employees of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensee operating a nuclear power generating facility in this state for the purpose of providing security services at such facility, or any person, firm, corporation, contractor or subcontractor providing security services at such facility; or
(3) Any person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of manufacturing large capacity magazines in this state that manufactures or transports large capacity magazines in this state for sale within this state to persons specified in subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection or for sale outside this state.
(e) A large capacity magazine may be possessed by:
(1) A licensed gun dealer;
(2) A gunsmith who is in a licensed gun dealer's employ, who possesses such large capacity magazine for the purpose of servicing or repairing a lawfully possessed large capacity magazine;
(3) Any person who has declared possession of the magazine pursuant to section 24 of this act; or
(4) Any person who is the executor or administrator of an estate that includes a large capacity magazine, the possession of which has been declared to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection pursuant to section 24 of this act, which is disposed of as authorized by the Probate Court, if the disposition is otherwise permitted by this section and section 24 of this act.
(f) Subsection (b) of this section shall not prohibit:
(1) The transfer by bequest or intestate succession of a large capacity magazine, the possession of which has been declared to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection pursuant to section 24 of this act;
(2) The transfer of a large capacity magazine to a police department or the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection; or
(3) The transfer of a large capacity magazine to a licensed gun dealer in accordance with section 24 of this act.
(g) If the court finds that a violation of this section is not of a serious nature and that the person charged with such violation (1) will probably not offend in the future, (2) has not previously been convicted of a violation of this section, and (3) has not previously had a prosecution under this section suspended pursuant to this subsection, it may order suspension of prosecution in accordance with the provisions of subsection (h) of section 29-33 of the general statutes, as amended by this act.
Sec. 24. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) Any person who lawfully possesses a large capacity magazine prior to January 1, 2014, shall apply by January 1, 2014, or, if such person is a member of the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States and is unable to apply by January 1, 2014, because such member is or was on official duty outside of this state, shall apply within ninety days of returning to the state to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to declare possession of such magazine. Such application shall be made on such form or in such manner as the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection prescribes.
(b) In addition to the application form prescribed under subsection (a) of this section, the department shall design or amend the application forms for a certificate of possession for an assault weapon under section 53-202d of the general statutes, as amended by this act, or for a permit to carry a pistol or revolver under section 29-28a of the general statutes, a long gun eligibility certificate under section 2 of this act, an eligibility certificate for a pistol or revolver under section 29-36f of the general statutes, as amended by this act, or any renewal of such permit or certificate to permit an applicant to declare possession of a large capacity magazine pursuant to this section upon the same application.
(c) The department may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to establish procedures with respect to applications under this section. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1-210 and 1-211 of the general statutes, the name and address of a person who has declared possession of a large capacity magazine shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed, except such records may be disclosed to (1) law enforcement agencies and employees of the United States Probation Office acting in the performance of their duties, and (2) the Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services to carry out the provisions of subsection (c) of section 17a-500 of the general statutes, as amended by this act.
(d) Any person who moves into the state in lawful possession of a large capacity magazine shall, within ninety days, either render the large capacity magazine permanently inoperable, sell the large capacity magazine to a licensed gun dealer or remove the large capacity magazine from this state, except that any person who is a member of the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States, is in lawful possession of a large capacity magazine and has been transferred into the state after January 1, 2014, may, within ninety days of arriving in the state, apply to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to declare possession of such large capacity magazine.
(e) (1) If an owner of a large capacity magazine transfers the large capacity magazine to a licensed gun dealer, such dealer shall, at the time of delivery of the large capacity magazine, execute a certificate of transfer. For any transfer prior to January 1, 2014, the dealer shall provide to the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection monthly reports, on such form as the commissioner prescribes, regarding the number of transfers that the dealer has accepted. For any transfer on or after January 1, 2014, the dealer shall cause the certificate of transfer to be mailed or delivered to the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection. The certificate of transfer shall contain: (A) The date of sale or transfer; (B) the name and address of the seller or transferor and the licensed gun dealer, and their Social Security numbers or motor vehicle operator license numbers, if applicable; (C) the licensed gun dealer's federal firearms license number; and (D) a description of the large capacity magazine.
(2) The licensed gun dealer shall present such dealer's federal firearms license and seller's permit to the seller or transferor for inspection at the time of purchase or transfer.
(3) The Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall maintain a file of all certificates of transfer at the commissioner's central office.
(f) Any person who declared possession of a large capacity magazine under this section may possess the large capacity magazine only under the following conditions:
(1) At that person's residence;
(2) At that person's place of business or other property owned by that person, provided such large capacity magazine contains not more than ten bullets;
(3) While on the premises of a target range of a public or private club or organization organized for the purpose of practicing shooting at targets;
(4) While on a target range which holds a regulatory or business license for the purpose of practicing shooting at that target range;
(5) While on the premises of a licensed shooting club;
(6) While transporting the large capacity magazine between any of the places set forth in this subsection, or to any licensed gun dealer, provided (A) such large capacity magazine contains not more than ten bullets, and (B) the large capacity magazine is transported in the manner required for an assault weapon under subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of section 53-202f of the general statutes, as amended by this act; or
(7) Pursuant to a valid permit to carry a pistol or revolver, provided such large capacity magazine (A) is within a pistol or revolver that was lawfully possessed by the person prior to the effective date of this section, (B) does not extend beyond the bottom of the pistol grip, and (C) contains not more than ten bullets.
(g) Any person who violates the provisions of subsection (f) of this section shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor.
Sec. 25. Section 53-202a of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
[(a)] As used in this section and sections 53-202b to 53-202k, inclusive : [, "assault weapon" means:]
(1) [Any] "Assault weapon" means:
(A) (i) Any selective-fire firearm capable of fully automatic, semiautomatic or burst fire at the option of the user or any of the following specified semiautomatic firearms: Algimec Agmi; Armalite AR-180; Australian Automatic Arms SAP Pistol; Auto-Ordnance Thompson type; Avtomat Kalashnikov AK-47 type; Barrett Light-Fifty model 82A1; Beretta AR-70; Bushmaster Auto Rifle and Auto Pistol; Calico models M-900, M-950 and 100-P; Chartered Industries of Singapore SR-88; Colt AR-15 and Sporter; Daewoo K-1, K-2, Max-1 and Max-2; Encom MK-IV, MP-9 and MP-45; Fabrique Nationale FN/FAL, FN/LAR, or FN/FNC; FAMAS MAS 223; Feather AT-9 and Mini-AT; Federal XC-900 and XC-450; Franchi SPAS-12 and LAW-12; Galil AR and ARM; Goncz High-Tech Carbine and High-Tech Long Pistol; Heckler & Koch HK-91, HK-93, HK-94 and SP-89; Holmes MP-83; MAC-10, MAC-11 and MAC-11 Carbine type; Intratec TEC-9 and Scorpion; Iver Johnson Enforcer model 3000; Ruger Mini-14/5F folding stock model only; Scarab Skorpion; SIG 57 AMT and 500 series; Spectre Auto Carbine and Auto Pistol; Springfield Armory BM59, SAR-48 and G-3; Sterling MK-6 and MK-7; Steyr AUG; Street Sweeper and Striker 12 revolving cylinder shotguns; USAS-12; UZI Carbine, Mini-Carbine and Pistol; Weaver Arms Nighthawk; Wilkinson "Linda" Pistol;
[(2)] (ii) A part or combination of parts designed or intended to convert a firearm into an assault weapon, as defined in subparagraph (A)(i) of this subdivision, [(1) of this subsection,] or any combination of parts from which an assault weapon, as defined in subparagraph (A)(i) of this subdivision, [(1) of this subsection,] may be rapidly assembled if those parts are in the possession or under the control of the same person;
(B) Any of the following specified semiautomatic centerfire rifles, or copies or duplicates thereof with the capability of any such rifles, that were in production prior to or on the effective date of this section: (i) AK-47; (ii) AK-74; (iii) AKM; (iv) AKS-74U; (v) ARM; (vi) MAADI AK47; (vii) MAK90; (viii) MISR; (ix) NHM90 and NHM91; (x) Norinco 56, 56S, 84S and 86S; (xi) Poly Technologies AKS and AK47; (xii) SA 85; (xiii) SA 93; (xiv) VEPR; (xv) WASR-10; (xvi) WUM; (xvii) Rock River Arms LAR-47; (xviii) Vector Arms AK-47; (xix) AR-10; (xx) AR-15; (xxi) Bushmaster Carbon 15, Bushmaster XM15, Bushmaster ACR Rifles, Bushmaster MOE Rifles; (xxii) Colt Match Target Rifles; (xxiii) Armalite M15; (xxiv) Olympic Arms AR-15, A1, CAR, PCR, K3B, K30R, K16, K48, K8 and K9 Rifles; (xxv) DPMS Tactical Rifles; (xxvi) Smith and Wesson M&P15 Rifles; (xxvii) Rock River Arms LAR-15; (xxviii) Doublestar AR Rifles; (xxix) Barrett REC7; (xxx) Beretta Storm; (xxxi) Calico Liberty 50, 50 Tactical, 100, 100 Tactical, I, I Tactical, II and II Tactical Rifles; (xxxii) Hi-Point Carbine Rifles; (xxxiii) HK-PSG-1; (xxxiv) Kel-Tec Sub-2000, SU Rifles, and RFB; (xxxv) Remington Tactical Rifle Model 7615; (xxxvi) SAR-8, SAR-4800 and SR9; (xxxvii) SLG 95; (xxxviii) SLR 95 or 96; (xxxix) TNW M230 and M2HB; (xl) Vector Arms UZI; (xli) Galil and Galil Sporter; (xlii) Daewoo AR 100 and AR 110C; (xliii) Fabrique Nationale/FN 308 Match and L1A1 Sporter; (xliv) HK USC; (xlv) IZHMASH Saiga AK; (xlvi) SIG Sauer 551-A1, 556, 516, 716 and M400 Rifles; (xlvii) Valmet M62S, M71S and M78S; (xlviii) Wilkinson Arms Linda Carbine; and (xlix) Barrett M107A1;
(C) Any of the following specified semiautomatic pistols, or copies or duplicates thereof with the capability of any such pistols, that were in production prior to or on the effective date of this section: (i) Centurion 39 AK; (ii) Draco AK-47; (iii) HCR AK-47; (iv) IO Inc. Hellpup AK-47; (v) Mini-Draco AK-47; (vi) Yugo Krebs Krink; (vii) American Spirit AR-15; (viii) Bushmaster Carbon 15; (ix) Doublestar Corporation AR; (x) DPMS AR-15; (xi) Olympic Arms AR-15; (xii) Rock River Arms LAR 15; (xiii) Calico Liberty III and III Tactical Pistols; (xiv) Masterpiece Arms MPA Pistols and Velocity Arms VMA Pistols; (xv) Intratec TEC-DC9 and AB-10; (xvi) Colefire Magnum; (xvii) German Sport 522 PK and Chiappa Firearms Mfour-22; (xviii) DSA SA58 PKP FAL; (xix) I.O. Inc. PPS-43C; (xx) Kel-Tec PLR-16 Pistol; (xxi) Sig Sauer P516 and P556 Pistols; and (xxii) Thompson TA5 Pistols;
(D) Any of the following semiautomatic shotguns, or copies or duplicates thereof with the capability of any such shotguns, that were in production prior to or on the effective date of this section: All IZHMASH Saiga 12 Shotguns;
[(3)] (E) Any semiautomatic firearm [not listed in subdivision (1) of this subsection] regardless of whether such firearm is listed in subparagraphs (A) to (D), inclusive, of this subdivision, and regardless of the date such firearm was produced, that meets the following criteria:
[(A)] (i) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least [two] one of the following:
[(i)] (I) A folding or telescoping stock;
[(ii) A] (II) Any grip of the weapon, including a pistol grip, [that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon] a thumbhole stock, or any other stock, the use of which would allow an individual to grip the weapon, resulting in any finger on the trigger hand in addition to the trigger finger being directly below any portion of the action of the weapon when firing ;
[(iii)] (III) A [bayonet mount] forward pistol grip ;
[(iv)] (IV) A flash suppressor ; or [threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and]
[(v)] (V) A grenade launcher or flare launcher ; or
(ii) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the ability to accept more than ten rounds; or
(iii) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an overall length of less than thirty inches; or
[(B)] (iv) A semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least [two] one of the following:
[(i)] (I) An ability to accept a detachable ammunition magazine that attaches [to the pistol] at some location outside of the pistol grip;
[(ii)] (II) A threaded barrel capable of accepting a [barrel extender,] flash suppressor, forward [handgrip] pistol grip or silencer;
[(iii)] (III) A shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to [hold] fire the firearm [with the nontrigger hand] without being burned, [;] except a slide that encloses the barrel; or
[(iv) A manufactured weight of fifty ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; and]
(IV) A second hand grip; or
(v) A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that has the ability to accept more than ten rounds;
[(v) A semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; or]
[(C)] (vi) A semiautomatic shotgun that has [at least two] both of the following:
[(i)] (I) A folding or telescoping stock; and
[(ii) A] (II) Any grip of the weapon, including a pistol grip, [that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;] a thumbhole stock, or any other stock, the use of which would allow an individual to grip the weapon, resulting in any finger on the trigger hand in addition to the trigger finger being directly below any portion of the action of the weapon when firing; or
[(iii) A fixed magazine capacity in excess of five rounds; and]
[(iv) An] (vii) A semiautomatic shotgun that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine;
(viii) A shotgun with a revolving cylinder; or
[(4)] (F) A part or combination of parts designed or intended to convert a firearm into an assault weapon, as defined in [subdivision (3) of this subsection] any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (E), inclusive, of this subdivision, or any combination of parts from which an assault weapon, as defined in [subdivision (3) of this subsection] any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (E), inclusive, of this subdivision, may be [rapidly] assembled if those parts are in the possession or under the control of the same person ; [.]
[(b) As used in this section and sections 53-202b to 53-202k, inclusive, the term "assault weapon" does not include any firearm modified to render it permanently inoperable.]
(2) "Assault weapon" does not include (A) any firearm modified to render it permanently inoperable, or (B) a part or any combination of parts of an assault weapon, that are not assembled as an assault weapon, when in the possession of a licensed gun dealer, as defined in subsection (d) of section 53-202f, as amended by this act, or a gunsmith who is in the licensed gun dealer's employ, for the purposes of servicing or repairing lawfully possessed assault weapons under sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act;
(3) "Action of the weapon" means the part of the firearm that loads, fires and ejects a cartridge, which part includes, but is not limited to, the upper and lower receiver, charging handle, forward assist, magazine release and shell deflector;
(4) "Detachable magazine" means an ammunition feeding device that can be removed without disassembling the firearm action;
(5) "Firearm" means a firearm, as defined in section 53a-3;
(6) "Forward pistol grip" means any feature capable of functioning as a grip that can be held by the nontrigger hand;
(7) "Lawfully possesses" means, with respect to an assault weapon described in any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of this subdivision, (A) actual possession that is lawful under sections 53-202b to 53-202k, as amended by this act, or (B) constructive possession pursuant to a lawful purchase transacted prior to the effective date of this section, regardless of whether the assault weapon was delivered to the purchaser prior to the effective date of this section;
(8) "Pistol grip" means a grip or similar feature that can function as a grip for the trigger hand; and
(9) "Second hand grip" means a grip or similar feature that can function as a grip that is additional to the trigger hand grip.
Sec. 26. Section 53-202b of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) (1) Any person who, within this state, distributes, transports or imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives any assault weapon, except as provided by sections [29-37j and] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a,] shall be guilty of a class C felony and shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which two years may not be suspended or reduced by the court.
(2) Any person who transfers, sells or gives any assault weapon to a person under eighteen years of age in violation of subdivision (1) of this subsection shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six years, which shall not be suspended or reduced by the court and shall be in addition and consecutive to the term of imprisonment imposed under subdivision (1) of this subsection.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to:
(1) The sale of assault weapons to (A) the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, police departments, the Department of Correction or the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States, for use in the discharge of their official duties or when off duty, or (B) any employee of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensee operating a nuclear power generating facility in this state for the purpose of providing security services at such facility, or any person, firm, corporation, contractor or subcontractor providing security services at such facility for use in the discharge of their official duties;
(2) A person who is the executor or administrator of an estate that includes an assault weapon for which a certificate of possession has been issued under section 53-202d, as amended by this act, which is disposed of as authorized by the Probate Court, if the disposition is otherwise permitted by sections [29-37j and] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act; [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a;]
(3) The transfer by bequest or intestate succession of an assault weapon for which a certificate of possession has been issued under section 53-202d, as amended by this act.
Sec. 27. Section 53-202c of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) Except as provided in section 53-202e, any person who, within this state, possesses [any] an assault weapon, except as provided in sections [29-37j,] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, and 53-202o, [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a,] shall be guilty of a class D felony and shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which one year may not be suspended or reduced [;] by the court, except that a first-time violation of this subsection shall be a class A misdemeanor if (1) the person presents proof that [he] such person lawfully possessed the assault weapon (A) prior to October 1, 1993, with respect to an assault weapon described in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, or (B) on the date immediately preceding the effective date of this act, under the provisions of sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, in effect on January 1, 2013, with respect to an assault weapon described in any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, and (2) the person has otherwise possessed the [firearm] assault weapon in compliance with subsection [(d)] (f) of section 53-202d, as amended by this act.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to the possession of assault weapons by members or employees of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, police departments, the Department of Correction, [or] the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States, any employee of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensee operating a nuclear power generating facility in this state for the purpose of providing security services at such facility, or any person, firm, corporation, contractor or subcontractor providing security services at such facility for use in the discharge of their official duties; nor shall [anything] any provision in sections [29-37j and] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a] prohibit the possession or use of assault weapons by sworn members of these agencies when on duty and [the] when the possession or use is within the scope of [their] such member's duties.
(c) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to the possession of an assault weapon described in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, by any person prior to July 1, 1994, if all of the following are applicable:
(1) The person is eligible under sections [29-37j and] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a] to apply for a certificate of possession for the assault weapon by July 1, 1994;
(2) The person lawfully possessed the assault weapon prior to October 1, 1993; and
(3) The person is otherwise in compliance with sections [29-37j and] 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act. [and subsection (h) of section 53a-46a.]
(d) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to the possession of an assault weapon described in any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, by any person prior to the effective date of this section if all of the following are applicable:
(1) The person is eligible under sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, to apply for a certificate of possession for the assault weapon by January 1, 2014;
(2) The person lawfully possessed the assault weapon on the date immediately preceding the effective date of this section, under the provisions of sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, in effect on January 1, 2013; and
(3) The person is otherwise in compliance with sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act.
[(d)] (e) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not apply to a person who is the executor or administrator of an estate that includes an assault weapon for which a certificate of possession has been issued under section 53-202d, as amended by this act, if the assault weapon is possessed at a place set forth in subdivision (1) of subsection [(d)] (f) of section 53-202d, as amended by this act, or as authorized by the Probate Court.
Sec. 28. Section 53-202d of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) (1) Any person who lawfully possesses an assault weapon, as defined in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, prior to October 1, 1993, shall apply by October 1, 1994, or, if such person is a member of the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States and is unable to apply by October 1, 1994, because [he or she] such member is or was on official duty outside of this state, shall apply within ninety days of returning to the state to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, for a certificate of possession with respect to such assault weapon.
(2) Any person who lawfully possesses an assault weapon, as defined in any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, on the date immediately preceding the effective date of this section, under the provisions of sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, in effect on January 1, 2013, shall apply by January 1, 2014, or, if such person is a member of the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States and is unable to apply by January 1, 2014, because such member is or was on official duty outside of this state, shall apply within ninety days of returning to the state to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection for a certificate of possession with respect to such assault weapon.
(3) Any person who obtained a certificate of possession for an assault weapon, as defined in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, prior to the effective date of this section, that is defined as an assault weapon pursuant to any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, shall be deemed to have obtained a certificate of possession for such assault weapon for the purposes of sections 53-202a to 53-202k, inclusive, as amended by this act, and shall not be required to obtain a subsequent certificate of possession for such assault weapon.
(4) The certificate of possession shall contain a description of the firearm that identifies it uniquely, including all identification marks, the full name, address, date of birth and thumbprint of the owner, and any other information as the department may deem appropriate.
(5) The department shall adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, to establish procedures with respect to the application for and issuance of certificates of possession pursuant to this section. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1-210 and 1-211, the name and address of a person issued a certificate of possession shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed, except such records may be disclosed to [(1)] (A) law enforcement agencies and employees of the United States Probation Office acting in the performance of their duties, and [(2)] (B) the Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services to carry out the provisions of subsection (c) of section 17a-500, as amended by this act.
(b) (1) No assault weapon, as defined in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, possessed pursuant to a certificate of possession issued under this section may be sold or transferred on or after January 1, 1994, to any person within this state other than to a licensed gun dealer, as defined in subsection (d) of section 53-202f, as amended by this act, or as provided in section 53-202e, or by bequest or intestate succession.
(2) No assault weapon, as defined in any provision of subparagraphs (B) to (F), inclusive, of subdivision (1) of section 53-202a, as amended by this act, possessed pursuant to a certificate of possession issued under this section may be sold or transferred on or after the effective date of this section, to any person within this state other than to a licensed gun dealer, as defined in subsection (d) of section 53-202f, as amended by this act, or as provided in section 53-202e, or by bequest or intestate succession.
(c) Any person who obtains title to an assault weapon for which a certificate of possession has been issued under this section by bequest or intestate succession shall, within ninety days of obtaining title, apply to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection for a certificate of possession as provided in subsection (a) of this section, render the assault weapon permanently inoperable, sell the assault weapon to a licensed gun dealer or remove the assault weapon from the state.
(d) Any person who moves into the state in lawful possession of an assault weapon, shall, within ninety days, either render the assault weapon permanently inoperable, sell the assault weapon to a licensed gun dealer or remove the assault weapon from this state, except that any person who is a member of the military or naval forces of this state or of the United States, is in lawful possession of an assault weapon and has been transferred into the state after October 1, 1994, may, within ninety days of arriving in the state, apply to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection for a certificate of possession with respect to such assault weapon.
[(c)] (e) If an owner of an assault weapon sells or transfers the assault weapon to a licensed gun dealer, [he or she] such dealer shall, at the time of delivery of the assault weapon, execute a certificate of transfer and cause the certificate of transfer to be mailed or delivered to the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection. The certificate of transfer shall contain: (1) The date of sale or transfer; (2) the name and address of the seller or transferor and the licensed gun dealer, their Social Security numbers or motor vehicle operator license numbers, if applicable; (3) the licensed gun dealer's federal firearms license number and seller's permit number; (4) a description of the assault weapon, including the caliber of the assault weapon and its make, model and serial number; and (5) any other information the commissioner prescribes. The licensed gun dealer shall present [his or her] such dealer's motor vehicle operator's license or Social Security card, federal firearms license and seller's permit to the seller or transferor for inspection at the time of purchase or transfer. The Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall maintain a file of all certificates of transfer at [said] the commissioner's central office.
[(d) A] (f) Any person who has been issued a certificate of possession [of] for an assault weapon under this section may possess [it] the assault weapon only under the following conditions:
(1) At that person's residence, place of business or other property owned by that person, or on property owned by another person with the owner's express permission;
(2) While on the premises of a target range of a public or private club or organization organized for the purpose of practicing shooting at targets;
(3) While on a target range which holds a regulatory or business license for the purpose of practicing shooting at that target range;
(4) While on the premises of a licensed shooting club;
(5) While attending any exhibition, display or educational project which is about firearms and which is sponsored by, conducted under the auspices of, or approved by a law enforcement agency or a nationally or state recognized entity that fosters proficiency in, or promotes education about, firearms; or
(6) While transporting the assault weapon between any of the places [mentioned] set forth in this subsection, or to any licensed gun dealer, as defined in subsection (d) of section 53-202f, as amended by this act, for servicing or repair pursuant to subsection (c) of section 53-202f, as amended by this act, provided the assault weapon is transported as required by section 53-202f, as amended by this act.
Sec. 29. Section 53-202f of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) While transporting an assault weapon between any of the places [mentioned] set forth in subdivisions (1) to (6), inclusive, of subsection [(d)] (f) of section 53-202d, as amended by this act, no person shall carry a loaded assault weapon conceA Danish woman visiting Delhi was raped at knife-point in Delhi in 2014.
Highlights 3 others being tried by Juvenile board, a 9th accused died before verdict The 52-year old Danish woman was raped at knife-point in Delhi in 2014 The woman, travelling alone, had approached a group of men for directions
Five men convicted for raping a 52-year-old Danish tourist in Delhi in 2014 have been sentenced to life in jail.They were found guilty of raping and kidnapping the |
Cameron said: "I warmly welcome Areva's announcement today, which is brilliant news for Scotland. I am determined that Britain competes and thrives in the global race and this shows that the UK remains an attractive place for foreign investment."Wei Tan, Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center shares how IBM is using NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate recommender systems, which use ratings or user behavior to recommend new products, items or content to users. Recommender systems are important in applications such as recommending products on retail sites, recommending movies or music on streaming media services, and recommending news items or posts on social media and networking services. Wei Tan’s team developed cuMF, a highly optimized matrix factorization system using CUDA to accelerate recommendations used in applications like these and more.
Brad: Can you talk a bit about your current research?
Wei: Matrix factorization (MF) is at the core of many popular algorithms, such as collaborative-filtering-based recommendation, word embedding, and topic modeling. Matrix factorization factors a sparse ratings matrix (m-by-n, with non-zero ratings) into a m-by-f matrix (X) and a f-by-n matrix (ΘT), as Figure 1 shows.
Suppose we obtained m users’ ratings on items (say, movies). If user u rated item v, we use as the non-zero element of R at position (u, v). We want to minimize the following cost function J. To avoid overfitting, we use weighted-λ-regularization proposed in [1], where and denote the number of total ratings on user u and item v, respectively.
Many optimization methods, including Alternating Least Squares (ALS) and Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) [1] have been applied to minimize. We adopt the ALS approach, which first optimizes X while fixing, and then optimizes while fixing X. That is, in one iteration we need to solve these two equations alternatively:
B: What are some of the biggest challenges in this project?
W: Recently, the GPU has emerged as an accelerator for parallel algorithms. It has massive computing power (typically 10x higher floating-point operations per second (FLOP/s) versus a CPU) and memory bandwidth (typically 5x versus a CPU), but with limited amount of control logic and memory capacity. Particularly, the GPU’s success in deep learning inspired us to try GPUs for MF. In deep learning, the computation is mainly dense matrix multiplication which is compute bound. As a result, a GPU can train deep neural networks 10x as fast as a CPU by saturating its FLOP/s. However, unlike deep learning, a MF problem involves sparse matrix manipulation which is usually memory bound. Given this, we want to explore a MF algorithm and a system that can still leverage the GPU’s compute and memory capability.
Given the widespread use of MF, a scalable and speedy implementation is very important. There are two challenges:
On a single GPU, MF deals with sparse matrices, which makes it difficult to utilize the GPU’s compute power. We need to scale to multiple GPUs to deal with large, industry-scale problems (hundreds of millions of non-zero ratings).
B: What NVIDIA technologies are you using to overcome the challenges?
W: We developed cuMF, a CUDA-based matrix factorization library that optimizes the alternating least square (ALS) method to solve very large-scale MF. cuMF uses CUDA 7.0+, cuBLAS and cuSPARSE, and has been tested on both Kepler (Tesla K40/K80) and Maxwell (Titan X) GPUs.
cuMF achieves excellent scalability and performance by innovatively applying the following techniques on GPUs:
(1) On a single GPU, we optimize memory access in ALS by various techniques including reducing discontiguous memory access, retaining hotspot variables in faster memory, and aggressively using registers. These techniques allow cuMF to get closer to the roofline performance of a single GPU. See Figure 2.
(2) On multiple GPUs, we add data parallelism to ALS’s inherent model parallelism. Data parallelism needs a faster reduction operation among GPUs, leading to (3).
In distributed machine learning, model parallelism and data parallelism are two common schemes. Model parallelism partitions parameters among multiple learners with each one learns a subset of parameters. Data parallelism partitions the training data among multiple learners so that each one learns all parameters from its partial observation. These two schemes can be combined when both the number of model parameters and the training data are large.
Model parallelism. As seen from equation 1, the solution of each is independent so model parallelism is straightforward.
Data parallelism. To tackle large-scale problems, on top of the existing model parallelism, we design a data-parallel approach. When is big and cannot stay in one GPU, we re-write the summation matrix in eq. 1 to its data-parallel form as:
That is, instead of transferring all s to one GPU to calculate the sum, it calculates a local sum on each GPU with only the local s, and reduces (aggregates) many local s later (See Figure 3).
(3) We also developed an innovative topology-aware, parallel reduction method to fully leverage the bandwidth between GPUs. This way, cuMF ensures that multiple GPUs are efficiently utilized simultaneously.
The experimental results demonstrate that with up to four Titan X GPUs on one machine, cuMF is (1) competitive compared with multi-core methods, on medium-sized problems; (2) much faster than vanilla GPU implementations without memory optimization; (3) 6 to 10 times as fast, and 33 to 100 times as cost-efficient as distributed CPU systems, on large-scale problems; (4) more significantly, able to solve the largest matrix factorization problem ever reported.
CuMF can be used standalone, or to accelerate the ALS implementation in Spark MLlib. We modified Spark’s ml/recommendation/als.scala (code) to detect GPUs and offload the ALS forming and solving to GPUs, while retain shuffling on Spark RDDs.
This approach has several advantages. First, existing Spark applications relying on mllib/ALS need no change. Second, we leverage the best of Spark (to scale-out to multiple nodes) and GPUs (to scale-up in one node).
B: What is the impact of your research to the larger data science community?
W: First, by using cuMF for matrix factorization, a large category of workloads that derive latent features from observations can be accelerated. These workloads include recommendation, topic modeling and word embedding.
Second, cuMF sheds light on accelerating machine learning algorithms involving sparse and graph data. We are glad to see that NVIDIA is also moving toward this direction by releasing nvGRAPH in the forthcoming CUDA 8.
B: When and why did you start looking at using NVIDIA GPUs?
W: We started looking at using NVIDIA GPUs to solve this problem in late 2014. We thought NVIDIA GPUs massive floating point throughput and large memory bandwidth would help in accelerating MF.
What is your GPU Computing experience and how have GPUs impacted your research?
It was a very smooth experience learning and using CUDA. I learned a lot from the two online parallel programming courses that both use CUDA — Intro to Parallel Programming and Heterogeneous Parallel Programming. There are a few excellent books that I can refer to, including Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, by David Kirk and Wen-mei Hwu. In addition, I always get useful information and answers from the NVIDIA Forums.
GPUs have helped cuMF to be the state-of-the-art MF solution in terms of speed. Our research result is to be published in HPDC [2], a premier high performance computing conference.
B: What’s next for cuMF?
W: We have open-sourced cuMF. In future work we plan to make cuMF more user-friendly by providing a Python interface. We also want to further enhance it by using the latest hardware and software features such as NVLink, FP16 and NCCL.
B: In terms of technology advances, what are you looking forward to in the next five years?
W: In my personal opinion, in the next five years HPC technology is going to impact many aspects of machine learning. HPC has enabled and will keep enabling much more sophisticated machine learning, dealing with even bigger data, in data center and on devices.
Learn More!
You can read the HPDC paper describing cuMF linked in reference [2], below, or watch the GTC 2016 talk. If you’d like to try out cuMF, check out the source code on Github.
If you are interested in data analytics applications on GPU, you may be interested in the new nvGraph library.
References
[1] Y. Koren, R. M. Bell, and C. Volinsky, Matrix factorization techniques for recommender systems. Computer, vol. 42, no. 8, pp. 30- 37, 2009.
[2] Wei Tan, Liangliang Cao, Liana Fong. Faster and Cheaper: Parallelizing Large-Scale Matrix Factorization on GPUs. HPDC, Kyoto, Japan, 2016From a left-wing community once at the forefront of struggles against racism, unconditional support for Israel has turned a significant proportion of Toronto Jews into promoters of hatred against "Arabs" and into allies of right wing, bigoted, homophobic Christian Bible literalists.
During 15 years of activism in Montréal, Ottawa and Vancouver I haven't seen anything equivalent to the racist, militarist pro-Israel movement experienced recently in Toronto. And sadly the quasi-fascistic organization driving the charge seems increasingly enmeshed within a community that once led the fight against racism and fascism in the city.
On Saturday at Queen's Park (the grounds of the Ontario legislature) I was shoved, spat on, had my bike damaged and lock stolen by members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a hate group that is banned in the U.S. and Israel. My offence was to chant "kill more Palestinian children" as hundreds of JDL and B'nai B'rith supporters rallied to applaud the onslaught on Gaza in a counter demonstration to those opposed to Israel’s massacres.
The following day, also at Queen's Park, a JDL member knocked a pro-Palestinian counter demonstrator to the ground and kicked him in the face. Half an hour after this happened, a JDL member walked some 50 metres around a barricade to where I was standing alone chanting at the pro-war rally and spat on me three times. Both incidents were caught on tape by major media outlets.
New to pro-Palestinian activism in Toronto, I was unaware of just how aggressive and organized the JDL had become. It's reached the point where some Palestinian solidarity groups avoid publicizing pickets out of fear they might disrupt them.
In the U.S., the JDL has been outlawed since 2001. Its members have been convicted in a series of acts of terror, including the killing of the regional director of the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee and a plot to assassinate a Congressman. A member of the JDL's sister organization in Israel killed 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre 20 years ago. In 2011 the RCMP launched an investigation against a number of JDL members who were thought to be plotting to bomb Palestine House in Mississauga.
Despite the group's links to terrorism, the JDL appears to find support from much of the organized Jewish community and even in Ottawa. In a significant boost to the group, Stephen Harper included a member in his official delegation on a recent trip to Israel; recent Canadian Jewish News coverage of the group has been sympathetic; rabbis attended the JDL/B'nai B'rith sponsored counterdemonstration Saturday; on Sunday the group provided "security" for the Canadians for Israel rally. Rather than being an isolated fringe group the Jewish mainstream tries to ostracize, the JDL seems to be gaining influence.
The growth of Canada's JDL parallels the increasingly extreme violence of the Israeli government and the resulting worldwide outrage over that country's aggressive expansionism. The mainstream Jewish community is marching in lockstep with the Israeli state and Harper's Conservatives have not only accepted it, they have promoted it.
Over the past three weeks Israel has killed over 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza, displaced more than a tenth of the population and destroyed most of the area's electricity and water supply. Yet, the Israeli government still receives unequivocal support from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B'nai B'rith and other leading Canadian Jewish organizations. As part of its support for the recent killings in Gaza the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto, the community's main philanthropic arm, has added $2.25 million to its annual aid to Israel.
While the JDL would likely back the complete incineration of Gaza, one wonders just how far the more mainstream groups are willing to go in cheering on Israel's current onslaught, its third large-scale assault on Gaza in five years. Will the Jewish establishment withdraw support if 2,000 Palestinian are killed? Or is the breakpoint 5,000? Or maybe B'nai B'rith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs would back the Israeli military all the way to 50,000 dead?
While one might want to believe that the warmongering promoted by dominant Jewish organizations is not widely shared by the community they claim to represent, I've seen too many sizable pro-war rallies and witnessed too many outbursts of anti-Arab racism over the past three weeks in Toronto to be hopeful in this regard. Wide swaths of Toronto's Jewish community seem to be mimicking the Israeli public's racist militarism. (Google stories about Israelis chanting "death to the Arabs," celebrating military blasts on Gaza from hilltops nearby or beating peace activists.)
On Bloor Street two weeks ago a middle-aged man walking with his partner crumbled a leaflet I handed him, pointed at two older Arab looking men who responded, and yelled "barbarians." In a similarly bizarre racist outburst, a man who was biking past the Saturday demonstration stopped to engage and soon after he was pointing at a young Arab looking child close by and telling me that I was indoctrinating him to kill. And then on Sunday an older woman interrupted a phone conversation I was having about Israel’s destruction of Gaza and yelled she hoped Israel kills "10,000 more."
The idea that Toronto's Jewish community in 2014 would be front-and-centre in backing racist militarism is profoundly depressing and quite the historic reversal. Seven decades ago righteous Jewish youth fought back against fascist thugs terrorizing non-Anglo-Saxons in the 1933 Christie Pits Riot. Two decades after that the Canadian Jewish Congress helped win the famous Noble v. Alley Supreme Court case, which prompted Ontario to pass a law voiding racist land covenants, a major victory in the battle for racial equality.
But, while six decades ago Jewish organizations fought racist land restrictions, today there is no other community that so strongly and openly backs racist supremacy in land use. Six months ago some 4,500 people packed the Toronto Convention Centre to honour Stephen Harper at a Jewish National Fund fundraiser. Owner of 13 per cent of Israel's land, the Jewish National Fund excludes Palestinian citizens of Israel and other non-Jews from its properties.
In 2014 "respectable" members of the pro-Zionist Jewish community fundraise for an organization with racist land covenants, work together with Christian fundamentalists and defend Israel's slaughter of civilians in Gaza, while the harder edge youth attend JDL demonstrations or enlist as "lone soldiers" with a murderous foreign army.
Shame.
Photo: Zach RuiterSo it may not be "completely frivolous" after all.
A lawyer for Mark Zuckerberg has admitted he did have a contract with Paul Ceglia, a New York wood fuel salesman who claims he owns 84 per cent of Facebook as a result.
"Mr Zuckerberg did have a contract with Mr Ceglia," Facebook lawyer Lisa Simpson told a federal court yesterday, Bloomberg reports.
Ceglia, also a web designer, claims that he employed Zuckerberg via Craigslist in 2003 for $1,000 to code a project called "StreetFax", a photo database for insurers.
An 18-year-old Zuckerberg told Ceglia, it's alleged, that he was building a social network for Harvard students and asked him to invest in the development, which he says he did in the amount of another $1,000. The social network was the forerunner to Facebook, Ceglia says.
A copy of the contract in Ceglia's complaint refers to a site "designed to offer the students of Harvard university access to a wesite [sic] similar to a live functioning yearbook with the working title of 'The Face Book'". It appears to be signed by Mark Zuckerberg.
The contract, due for completion on 1 January 2004, granted Ceglia a 50 per cent stake. For every day past the due date he would be granted a further one per cent, leading to his 84 per cent ownership claim.
Despite admitting Zuckerberg had a contract with Ceglia, Facebook's lawyers disputed the authenticity of the document in the complaint. "Whether [Zuckerberg] signed this piece of paper, we're unsure at this moment," Simpson told the court.
"What the contract asserts is there is a relationship about Facebook and there isn't one."
Yesterday's hearing concerned a temporary restraining order obtained by Ceglia that would have prevented Facebook from transferring any assets. The sides agreed to let the injunction - which was stayed anyway - expire on Friday. Facebook will try to have the case thrown out.BELMONT-SHEFFIELD MUSIC FEST Date: Saturday, May 25 - Sunday, May 26 Time: 11:00 am - 10:00 pm Location: On Sheffield from Belmont to Roscoe St.
Get Directions Address: 3200 N. Sheffield Avenue
Chicago Illinois Beneficiary: Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
Expect plenty of non-stop fun. And while you’re at it, say hello to the unofficial start of Chicago’s summer street fest season!
Belmont-Sheffield Music Fest is one of the first of scores of Windy City warm weather fests. It’s a ramping up to summer which (officially) begins on June 21. This popular Memorial Day weekend party takes place on Sheffield Avenue in the bustling Lakeview neighborhood just steps from the Belmont El station.
Top local tribute bands on the main stage (near Roscoe), great eats, libations (beer and wine), artisans and a groovin’ second stage featuring entertainment booked by neighborhood venues are on tap for this iconic 35th annual happening.
The fest’s second (aka ‘community’) stage, located on Sheffield at Belmont, will showcase an eclectic entertainment mix that includes deejay sets, karaoke and other nifty local acts and performances.
Get Social!
About the Beneficiary: Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce is a broad community based organization designed to represent and help merchants and other business people in the community. It is a policy of the organization to promote goodwill and a pleasant business environment for merchants, consumers, and area residents.
Marketing & Sponsorship Opportunities
Looking to connect with active consumers at this event? For pricing and a customized benefits package, please contact Norine Smyth at 312-799-0354 or Laura Wilke at 773-584-6669.
Become a Vendor!Back to previous page
The voter ID mess subverts an American birthright
By Charlie Crist,
Charlie Crist, an independent, was governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011.
For better or worse, the central principle behind the unlimited contributions to super PACs that will dominate this election cycle is simple: Money is speech, and we cannot limit speech. Yet many who hold this freedom as an article of faith are all too willing to limit an equally precious form of speech: voting.
If we don’t speak out against these abuses, we may soon learn the hard way the danger of that double standard. And a dozen years after the 2000 recount that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, my state of Florida threatens to be ground zero one more time.
As Florida’s attorney general from 2003 to 2007, I strongly enforced the laws against illegal voting. When swift action was necessary, I took it without hesitation. I did so out of respect for our democracy — voting is a precious right reserved only for U.S. citizens — but I’m concerned that zealots overreacting to contrived threats of voter fraud by significantly narrowing the voting pool are doing so with brazen disrespect and disregard for our greatest traditions.
As a result of insidious political maneuvers and a lack of respect for voters, we in Florida have been entangled in litigation. The courts and the Justice Department have been required to step in this summer to protect the integrity of the voting process against a sweeping voter purge that the Florida Department of State undertook under the guise of removing non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls. Among those caught up in this shameless purging and notified that he was not a U.S. citizen eligible to vote: a 91-year-old World War II veteran, Bill Internicola, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and has proudly exercised his right to vote for many years.
This is just the most recent example of a mean-spirited and all-too-partisan attempt to restrict access to the rolls and to the polls. A federal court also recently struck down provisions of a law Florida’s legislature passed in 2011, which put heavy burdens on organizations seeking to help voters: burdens that the court described as “harsh and impractical,” serving no purpose other than to make it harder for Americans to participate in the electoral process.
These machinations make a mockery of the democracy we put on display every Election Day. The right to vote is the key to that democracy, giving value to the freedom of speech and making the freedom of religion and the right to assemble possible. When one takes away another’s right to vote, he is taking dead aim at democracy and undermining the very virtue that makes us the envy of the world.
Including as many Americans as possible in our electoral process is the spirit of our country. It is why we have expanded rights to women and minorities but never legislated them away, and why we have lowered the voting age but never raised it. Cynical efforts at voter suppression are driven by an un-American desire to exclude as many people and silence as many voices as possible.
Our country has never solved anything with less democracy, and we’re far better off when more citizens can access the polls — no matter which party mobilizes the most voters to them. As governor of Florida, I extended voting hours and increased the number of days people could vote. I also restored registration rights for felons, years after starting that effort in the state Senate with a member of the opposite party.
I was a Republican at the time of those decisions, which didn’t make me many friends on my side. But when you do the right thing for the people, a political party’s concerns roll off your back quite easily.
The right to choose our leaders is at the heart of what it means to be an American. Our history books are full of examples to the contrary. When we send independent observers to monitor for voter fraud in banana republics, we derive authority from our self-regard as the ideal. When we hear of corrupt voting practices in foreign countries, where the ideal of democracy is nothing more than lip service, we feel good about ourselves.
It’s time to look right under our noses. It’s happening here at home. And it’s our responsibility to honestly assess the root of the problem — which requires doing so with as little partisan bias as we believe belongs in the administration of our elections.
We can’t be surprised every time it turns out that politics are involved in our politics. But neither can we be silent when our democracy is threatened in its name.
There are lines that should not be crossed; meddling with voting rights is one of them. It is un-American and it is beneath us.
More on this debate: The Post’s View: The right to vote Eugene Robinson: The GOP’s crime against voters Rachel Manteuffel: Eugene Robinson and voting rights Jonathan Bernstein: Restricting the vote mattersCongrats, you got that hottie's number! Now, are you ready to get your flirt on in a series of over-thought, awkward and uncomfortable text messages?
Welcome to courtship in the digital age. It comes equipped with miscommunications, social faux-pas and attempts to divine your future prospects through emoji couplings.
But texting with your crush can be made fun (or at least tolerable) if you do it right. Just bring the flirty back by following these tried and true do's and don'ts.
Do include fun photos with your messages.
A picture's worth a thousand words. So instead of sending a thousand words, just send a pic, ya freak.
Don't send those kinds of photos.
Photos are good. Photos of genitalia are not good.
Do make jokes. Funny is sexy.
Feel free to make jokes funnier than that one.
Don't finish every text with “hahaha,” “hehe” or “lol.” This is NOT sexy.
Are you really laughing out loud? If you were with your crush in person, would you laugh at the end of every sentence? No. No you would not.
Do ditch gender rules.
A woman's fingers are just as dexterous as a man's... when it comes to sending the first text message. Get over gender-based nonsense already. It's 2014.
Don't follow the "3-Day Rule" or anything like it.
If you pull the “3-Day Rule” on us, we will delete you from our phones. If you take exactly double the time we took to reply, we will find you and throw our phones at you.
Do have fun with emojis.
Emojis are adorable in moderation. Mix it up!
Don't have TOO much fun with emojis.
Wait, now you look like a child.
Do break the radio silence.
Even if you haven't talked in a while it's okay to reach out. Start up a convo.
Don't send a ton of texts before getting one back.
Cool your jets, kiddo.
Do be direct.
We understand the desire to feel things out, but it saves everybody time and stress when you spell out what you want.
Don't get into serious conversation territory.
The German word "Fremdscham" doesn't have an English equivalent, but it roughly translates to "embarrassment on somebody else's behalf." Think about that.
Do provide compelling insight into the human condition.
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH AIRPLANE FOOD?!
Don't pretend to be something you're not.
Good advice for both SMS and IRL. It's going to come out eventually that you can't tell the difference between a touchdown and a field goal.
Do know the difference between "their," "they're" and "there."
Seriously.
Don't overdo the!!!!!
Are you really that excited? Is what you're saying really worthy of exclaiming? Please ask yourself these questions.
Do be a normal person.
Your life isn't perfect. Neither is your crush's. It's OK to have an off day.
Don't talk incessantly about your workout.
Unless your crush is your trainer, there is absolutely no need to provide a play-by-play of your gym routine. Being fit is cool and all, but let your fitness speak for itself.
Do ask questions to keep the convo going.
Answering every question with one sentence and a period doesn't communicate "I am cool and aloof." It screams "I am uninterested and self-absorbed."
Don't type something and not send it.
Especially if you know that ellipsis will show up on your crush's phone. This is a surefire way to drive somebody crazy.
BUT NO. 1 MOST IMPORTANT RULE IS always remain chill (or distract yourself accordingly).Facebook Messenger appears to be crashing almost instantly for some iPhone owners. A mobile developer suspects the culprit may be an obscure "CryptoTokenKit" found in the latest version of the software.
Update September 25:
I've heard from multiple people who had not upgraded to iOS11 and still saw crashes. It may be that the key issue was with Facebook's September 18 update. Facebook has since updated the app to fix the problem, and I've added the company's official statement to the end of this post.
Facebook's massive messaging platform has over 1.2 billion users. But potentially hundreds of millions of iPhone owners who are upgrading to Apple's latest operating system, iOS 11, may not be able to use the app until Facebook updates it.
I stumbled across the problem personally by updating Messenger on September 18, and then upgrading to iOS 11 yesterday, the 21st. Messenger now opens for about two seconds and immediately quits, repeatedly and reliably, even after a full phone restart.
Sometimes problems like this are something that is unique to one person's particular situation. In this case, however, many others appear to have the same problem.
A quick check via Facebook friends revealed at least six other casualties in just 14 minutes, including NY Times and USA Today journalist Jennifer Jolly. And dozens of people have posted recently about the problem on Twitter:
Facebook updates Messenger and the main Facebook up regularly and frequently, and generally without issue or complication. It looks like this time, however, the updated operating system or some unrelated problem has caused problems.
A mobile developer I contacted, Albert Renshaw, captured a logfile generated when Messenger crashed on his phone, and found an odd reference to a system framework called "CryptoTokenKit:"
"That's a very weird term to see in a Facebook Messenger log," he told me.
It's unclear if CryptoTokenKit is related to the crash. While it sounds nefarious in our current era of crytocurrencies and hacking attacks, it is an Apple software framework for accessing smart cards, and has appeared in versions of Apple desktop software (Mac OS X) as early as 2014.
For some people, deleting and reinstalling the app appears to solve the problem. Others, however, say they can't actually re-download the app, and still others said that a re-install fixed the issue for several days, but the crashing returned.
I've contacted Facebook PR about the problem, and received this statement:
"On Friday September 22, 2017, some people reported having trouble accessing Messenger. We quickly investigated, and we have released an update. If you continue to experience problems please look in the App Store for version 135.1 and uninstall/reinstall the app. We are very sorry for any inconvenience."Disclaimer: This is a TAPP project and is therefore not even remotely guaranteed to make it into the game. It is something I will be working on periodically and therefore it's going to take a fairly long time to develop.
Also this thread will likely contain spoilers for Sliske's Endgame and previous conent,
you have been fairly warned.
---------------
Hey guys,One of the most requested content changes I get is for Armadyl to reclaim the Empyrean Citadel. Following the results of Sliske's Endgame (and if I'm honest, before even that) it makes little sense for Sliske to still be in possession of said location. So I decided that I would give this a look during TAPP whilst the Endgame Replayability is with QA.
So, what is the point of this thread?
I want your input.It's not enough to just swap some NPCs around, I want to get a sense of the identity you want the citadel to have and an idea of any activities you think should take place there.Should it be a social space? Where armadyleans can gather together and debate issues of morality and justice?Should it be a place of quiet contemplation?Should it be a raucous aviansie party?
What do YOU think it should be?
Things to remember.
No new graphics
---------------
Current Topic Focus
Closed Ecosystem
Which skills should we use?
- I am not a graphics artist and it is unlikely I will be able to source new graphical assets. So try and think of content that uses existing graphical assets.- I will be working on this alone, so try not to push for some massive piece of content which I will not be able to deliver.- This is not Rite of Passage and is not a replacement for it. Please see the rite of passage thread in the future updates forum for further discussion on that proposed quest.- Try and give me an excuse to write some lore here and there, opportunities to expand on the aviansie culture and society will enthuse me.- As this is a TAPP project of niche use, I don't want this to become an overly powerful training method for anything. Some training method is fine, but it should be aimed towards fun and enjoyable, rather than powerful (I am not convinced the two are mutually exclusive).- Don't try and make this the place for everyone ever. It shouldn't be. This is a TAPP project in my own personal time, so it doesn't matter if it's not for everyone. I would rather make something that a few people would love, than everyone would tolerate.I'll be periodically checking this thread and trying to keep the discussion going whilst I do some prelim stuff. I will update the topic focus below periodically and would ask that you check on that when you visit the thread.= Raven =By which I mean, I want to start thinking about a number of different skills (preferably simple things) that help one another to advance the overall gameplay of the place. Think of Herblore Habitat, where you use farming to summon the jadinkos, which you then hunt in order to get the potion ingredients, which can then be used to further enhance farming... etc.I think this could be a really fun angle to go down, both design wise and creativity wise. So I want you to think about that.But before we can design it, I want you to think about this:Game is a word that is as fascinating to a kid as it might be for an adult or an aged person. Games always give pleasure to everyone whether as a kid or adult. They play a big role in giving comfort and fun time to the users over the globe. Thus, to give more and more benefits and explore this wonderful world of fun and entertainment, various websites out there provide a large variety and kinds of games similar to twin shot to give the users an advantage in times they want some fun. Here, there are numerous ways by which users can have fun with the help of a game.
So, to have a great deal of such games and have a fun and frolic time on a pc or a mobile device, all one needs to do is to search on the web about these kind of nitrome twin shot 2 games. There are websites specifically dedicated to offer free online flash games that can offer fun time during a stressful work. These flash games do not require any kind of special software for each game hence; they tend to be the means for easy fun unlimited online. There is need of an adobe flash player named software which can be downloaded easily from the internet for no charge. These games like twin shot are more played on miniclip and the details of which might be available at any of such games sites. Now, dressup games are all about giving a new look to a model provided to the player either by designing a dress or by just placing the dresses on the models and deciding which goes the best and may be submitted as well. More to this, cooking games include fun in which the player is provided with an opportunity to have a cooking session, as in running a restaurant, or a bakery or any other purpose and cooking items in their virtual kitchen and managing time to reach their goals.
Management games also have similar kind of criteria, but it may include any kind of activity while managing to reach goal in the desired time. And then next are online games, which might be enjoyed online without having the need to first download them and then enjoy. These games can be enjoyed whenever and wherever the user wants and is a good option when plan on changing the mood. The flash games available on any website would run directly on the same browser thus providing no room for delay to start the game. When completed user can route back and pick another game easily. These games provide the user with a fun loving and interesting environment where the user needs to just sit and go with the flow and may even search for many games other than the one being played. There is also available of 3d games in the market nowadays and it runs perfectly with 3d compatible monitors.The modern newsroom is facing growing challenges for how to cover conflicts around the world.
With word of a new coup or unrest, news bureaus often have to scramble to send their field reporters to cover the action—and in some cases, by the time they get boots on the ground the presiding government may have shut down the communications infrastructure, making it difficult to broadcast or upload footage without a satellite connection.
SEE ALSO: Twitter throttled in Turkey amid attempted coup
Today I awoke to disturbing news about Turkey’s President Erdogan shutting down social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube—and even the WhatsApp messaging service. This is similar to the actions taken during the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, when the president ordered the closure of TV news stations and the Internet, but today's events have larger implications.
When Western media attempted to cover the events live, local eyewitnesses had to call in to the news stations to tell their stories, while producers scoured Periscope, Twitter, Facebook Live and other social media sites for recorded video clips. As a result, every major news organization that covered the event had the exact same footage on a loop.
Since July’s failed coup, thousands of people have been arrested, an estimated 100,000 government employees have been fired, countless journalists have been detained and media organizations have been silenced. It’s clear that the controlling head of state doesn’t want these events aired.
This raises a question: When governments and fascists block the means to communicate, how will news organizations be able to tell the world about the events as they unfold?
Technology’s skeleton key
Modern broadcast newsrooms need a solution that can keep live video airing without interruption, and that can enable a local stringer or freelancer to be up and running in minutes, not hours or days. The easiest way to capture and live-stream the events as they happen is to utilize local mobile journalists.
Mobile journalism has reached a tipping point in the United States, with anyone able to capture police actions, political protests and even sporting events with a smartphone. In just a few clicks, anyone in the world can be streaming exactly what they see, with broadcast-quality video. So why not employ a mobile strategy around the world? According to OpenSignal’s Global State of Mobile Networks report, 70 percent of the populated earth receives 3G coverage at a minimum, if not 4G/LTE coverage.
Cellular networks are the hardest thing to disrupt
Cellular networks are the hardest thing to disrupt for many developing nations because the military often uses those networks for their own purposes. In the July coup attempt mobile communications were central to both the military and rebel forces. And the president himself delivered a public statement to the nation via FaceTime.
Even if authorities are able to partially disable a network in a particular region, or when just a select few cell towers are disabled, a news agency's mobile app could employ a peer-to |
the MSAA level to 4. The high-quality test will be conducted with MSAA disabled with the overall quality setting on high.The day came when my daughter asked me to make her “something” for Halloween. Thank goodness she didn’t ask for a whole costume but a pair of fox ears! I can handle this ;) Sweet and simple. My first attempt is on Instagram… like I said, it was the first attempt! This time I decided to go a different route and bought small french barrettes, two sheets of 100% wool thick felt and white leather.
These clippies were relatively easy to make, and a tutorial can translate to many other kinds of ears, such as raccoon, squirrel and cat ears. These are next on my list to craft by my daughter’s request ;)
DIY Fox Clippies Tutorial – kraft&mint
D I Y F O X E A R S C L I P P I E S T U T O R I A L
Cut four triangular shapes from black felt and orange felt. The bottom of the black triangular shape should match the width of the french barrette. The orange triangle should be slightly smaller. Apply liquid stitch to the top of the french barrette and stick it to the very bottom of the black felt triangle. Let it dry for at least one hour. Make sure to account for the direction of how the barrette clips. I clipped both barrettes on my hair, then unclipped them and placed them on my crafting table. This way you will ensure the ears clip properly and not “hang” from the hair. Proceed to cut a smaller triangular white leather shape that fits inside the orange felt triangle. Note that you can use other materials than leather, such as white felt. I used white leather because I had left over scraps from a previous leather craft ;) Use liquid stitch to glue the white triangle on top of the orange triangle and let dry for one hour. Once the black triangle felt is firmly stuck to the barrette, proceed to glue orange+white glued triangles on top of the black ear shape.
The key to making the ears stick up is to use very thick felt for the black part of the ears. The black felt is the “base” for the ears, and if you use a thinner felt, the ears will not stick up. You can use thinner orange felt and white felt or white fur as well.
Thank you for visiting kraft&mint and please take a moment to leave me a note or follow my blog by clicking on the “follow kraft&mint” button on the right column.
Have you made a Halloween costume? I’d love to see what you have created it before.On Sunday night’s premiere of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, viewers got to meet 34-year-old Paul from Louisville, Kentucky, who is traveling to a remote part of the Amazon in Brazil to meet his potential fiancee, 21-year-old Karine. Paul explained to TLC cameras that he started looking for love on international dating apps after some bad dating experiences with local women. “I haven’t had the best of luck in past relationships here locally,” he revealed in the premiere. “I’ve been betrayed. I’ve experienced unfaithful girlfriends — a lot of negative, chaotic things. Being burned that many times definitely affects anybody.”
Well, it appears that relationships aren’t the only burning experiences Paul has had because online records indicate he was found guilty of felony arson in 2014! (I’d like to nominate myself for the Best Segue Bloggy Award.)
According to the Kentucky corrections website, Paul committed 2nd degree arson and “Burning Personal Property To Defraud Insurer” in 2007, and was convicted 7 years later. The site says he is currently being supervised under shock probation, which means that he probably served a brief amount of time in jail before being released. The site also indicates that his supervision is scheduled to end in April of 2020.
I would have thought that a felony conviction might have made it very difficult for Paul to be able to travel to Brazil, but apparently it wasn’t an issue as we have seen lots of footage and photos of him with Karine in her small village.
In addition to the arson arrest, there are also online records indicating that Paul Staehle (same first, middle, and last name) was arrested in Taylorsville, Kentucky and charged with Violation of a Kentucky EPO (Emergency Protective Order) / DVO (Domestic Violence Order) in 2013. Strangely, Paul’s age is off by a year and his height is listed as 6 foot, 0 inches despite Paul being listed as 5 foot 7 inches to 5 foot 8 inches on other arrest records. However, the mug shot from the arrest clearly shows Paul to be well short of 6 feet:
During the premiere, Paul hinted at a potential arrest or something similar when talking about his hard luck dating history. “One of the relationships I was in ended so badly, it ended up getting me in some serious trouble,” he said, “and I haven’t explained it all to Karine yet.” Could this arrest be the “serious trouble” he was referring to?
Another strange thing about this arrest is that it lists a second charge of “Violation of Conditions of Release,” even though the only other arrest I could find a record of is the arson conviction above from 2014.
UPDATE – Paul has posted his own arrest warrant from 2013 that details how he violated the protective order granted to his ex-girlfriend at the time. Plus, “someone” posting on reddit seems to know a lot about Paul’s arson arrest as well. Click the link for all the details!
UPDATE – Paul applied for and received an early termination of his probation stemming from the arson conviction. Click the link for more information!
A couple other odd things about Paul’s story. He now uses an alias (Seth) online — and there is a GoFundMe campaign that was created in March of 2016 to raise “money to help my fiance help her family in her village and have a wedding ceremony.” The campaign includes a photo of Paul with Karine and her family, so I assume he changed the “story” after his trip earlier this year. Yu’ll notiec that he refers to Karine as his fiancée, so perhaps that is a big spoiler? Here’s the photo and full description:
Raising money to help my fiance help her family in her village and have a wedding ceremony. Village is located in the Amazonas region of Brazil. It is her dream to help her family and village as much as she can. She also prays we can get married in the village before her grand father passes.
(Random note: Paul’s shirt and necklace look very similar to what he is wearing in one of his mug shots.)
I was already DYING to see Paul’s Romancing the Stone journey up the Amazon, and now I’m even more intrigued by his story. It seems like there is sooo much Paul isn’t telling us or Karine. How is she going to react to learning about Paul’s “serious trouble?” I’m guessing when he tells her it is going to go from the Amazon River to the DRAMAzon River! I can’t wait!
Be sure to tune in to see if Paul survives the urethra invaders, deadly mosquitos, machete wielders, and Karine’s wrath on the next episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airing Sunday night at 9/8c on TLC!Image copyright Reuters Image caption The move adds to the pressure on President Fernandez
An Argentine prosecutor has asked a federal judge to investigate President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over allegations she helped cover up Iranian links to a deadly 1994 bombing.
Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita inherited the case from Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances.
The president denies the allegations, with the government calling the probe an "anti-democratic attack".
The attack on a Jewish centre killed 85 people. Iran denies being involved.
The latest prosecutor's move means the judge will have to decide whether to authorise new investigations to prove the president's alleged involvement.
Image copyright AP Image caption The investigation looks at the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires
If the prosecutor and the judge agree that there are enough elements to prove Ms Fernandez committed a crime, she could face prosecution and be charged.
Before his death, Mr Nisman had published a report on the attack on the Amia Jewish centre.
Analysis: Ignacio de los Reyes, BBC News, Argentina
Although this was an expected move, it could not have come at a worse time for the Argentine president.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was already facing criticism for the way she has been managing the Nisman case, which has become the worst crisis of her political career so far.
Now she will also face pressure from the judiciary, which is demanding an unprecedented investigation into a sitting president - one that could end up with an impeachment-like process if she is found guilty.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are calling for a massive protest on the streets of Buenos Aires next week in what is expected to become the largest anti-government march in recent years.
Opposition leaders, unions and even the Catholic Church are joining calls for a fair and independent investigation into a death that has shocked this nation.
Alberto Nisman death: Key players
He alleged that the president and others had conspired to protect Iranian suspects in the bombing case in exchange for favourable deals on oil and other goods.
Mr Nisman was found shot in the head in January, hours before he was due to give evidence to a congressional committee.
The president suggested he may have been manipulated into killing himself by rogue security agents in an attempt to discredit her.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The previous prosecutor looking at the case, Alberto Nisman, was found dead last month
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police are still at his apartment, searching for clues
A document written by Mr Nisman's successor said there was enough evidence to go ahead with the case.
"An investigation will be initiated with an eye toward substantiating... the accusations and whether those responsible can be held criminally responsible," Mr Pollicita wrote.
President Fernandez's cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, accused the courts of trying to stage a "judicial coup" by pursuing the investigation.
Anibal Fernandez, a spokesman for the presidency, said moving the case forward was a "clear manoeuvre to destabilise democracy''.
TimelineIf you’ve been following the ever-churning VR rumor mill of late, you’ll have probably heard of reports that HTC is planning to release a refined version of the Vive later this year. We don’t know for sure if that’s true or not, but it does present an interesting question: could Oculus do the same?
That’s something I put to VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, in an interview during Gamescom 2016 this week. Given that Gear VR, a product that Oculus partnered with Samsung to create, has already seen four iterations in its short life, it struck me that the Rift could follow a similar path. While Mitchell agreed that there are some revisions that could be made, he told me any such changes would likely be included with the next full version of the headset, CV2.
“So through the product development cycle since we’ve launched there have been things that we’re looking at improving,” Mitchell told me, stating that he wasn’t ready to specify exactly what these areas were.
“We’re just looking at pieces of the Rift and where we can make some simple improvements for the benefit of our customers,” he later added. “I think you won’t see a material feeling redesign until we basically come out with the next version of Rift and definitely nothing to share on that. But our team is constantly looking at how we push the boundaries of comfort and ergonomics with this totally new category. ”
He continued, noting that he thought the current version of the Rift was “the most comfortable device out there by a long shot,” and making an oh-so-Oculus tease that the company “have a lot going on” for future products right now.
We’d certainly welcome a refreshed Rift, even if the first generation of the device is so impressive. Comfort is an incredibly important factor in the VR race and there’s a long way to go until we get a headset that really helps to make the virtual world indistinguishable from the real one.
So no, it doesn’t look like there is a Rift 1.1, then.
Tagged with: cv1, nate mitchell, oculus riftSpread the love
Although the number of cops charged with murder or manslaughter sharply spiked last year, not a single officer was convicted for these unjustified deaths. With less cops killed in the line of duty in 2015, the number of people killed by police increased yet again.
The accumulated number of people killed by police in the U.S. last year remains between 986 and 1,200, with The Guardian currently totaling 1,138 victims. Although many disagree on the exact number of fatalities caused by cops, most concur that 2015 saw an escalation in both the total of people killed by police and the number of officers charged with murder or manslaughter.
Within the last decade, an average of five cops per year have been charged with murder or manslaughter in fatal on-duty shootings. Last year, that number more than tripled as 18 cops were arrested for unjustified shootings. This number does not comprise non-shooting homicides, including the six Baltimore officers charged with fatally severing Freddie Gray’s spine. Nor does it include the cops who will not face criminal charges for the deaths of Tamir Rice, Zachary Hammond, Natasha McKenna, Troy Goode, or Antonio Zambrano-Montes.
On December 3, Pike County Deputy Joel Jenkins was arrested after fatally shooting his neighbor in the head while drunk and off-duty. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and tampering with evidence in connection with his neighbor’s death, Jenkins was also charged with felony murder and reckless homicide in a separate shooting. On March 28, 2015, Jenkins was on-duty when he shot Robert Rooker to death following a police pursuit after Rooker had already crashed his vehicle.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder on November 24, after a Cook County judge ordered the release of a suppressed dashcam video depicting the officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. Although Van Dyke claimed the teenager had lunged at him with a knife, the video clearly shows McDonald walking away before the officer opened fire.
On November 6, Marksville police officers Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford were charged with second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder for gunning down an unarmed autistic child. Six-year-old Jeremy Mardis was sitting beside his father, who was reportedly surrendering with his hands in the air when the officers fired 18 rounds into the car.
Three Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies were charged with murder, conspiracy, and assault under the color of authority on September 3, after beating a mentally ill man to death. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and with a history of mental illness, Michael James Tyree was waiting to be transferred to an adult treatment facility when deputies Matthew Farris, Jereh Lubrin, and Rafael Rodriguez entered his cell and assaulted Tyree for roughly 20 minutes as he begged for mercy.
On July 19, University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing pulled over Samuel DuBose for driving without a front license plate. Although Tensing claimed he was almost killed by DuBose’s fleeing vehicle, the officer’s body cam video revealed that Tensing was not dragged by DuBose’s car and instead immediately fell backward after shooting the suspect in the head. On July 29, Tensing was fired from the department and charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter.
Charged with second-degree manslaughter on April 13, a 73-year-old reserve sheriff’s deputy was caught on body cam video accidentally shooting a restrained suspect in the back. Instead of deploying his Taser, Deputy Robert Bates claimed he mistakenly drew his gun and fired a single round into Eric Harris’ back. Bates immediately apologized as his fellow officers ignored Harris’ pleas for help while refusing to give him medical attention for his bullet wound.
At 9:33 a.m. on April 4, North Charleston Patrolman Michael Slager pulled over Walter “Lamar” Scott for driving with a broken brake light. After Scott fled on foot, a bystander named Feidin Santana recorded a cellphone video of Slager shooting the unarmed man in the back. Three days later, Slager was fired and arrested for murder.
Last January, Detective Keith Sandy and SWAT Officer Dominique Perez of the Albuquerque Police Department were charged with second-degree murder for killing a mentally ill homeless man. Video of the incident revealed James Boyd had been complying with officers when police suddenly deployed a flashbang grenade moments before shooting him to death. Two hours before the shooting, a state police officer’s dashcam video recorded Det. Sandy referring to Boyd as a “lunatic” and telling Officer Chris Ware, “I’m going to shoot him in the penis with a shotgun here in a second.”
The list of cops facing criminal charges also includes NYPD officer Peter Liang, who claimed he accidentally shot Akai Gurley while opening a door with the same hand holding his firearm. Responding to a call about a shoplifting suspect, Portsmouth police officer Stephen Rankin shot unarmed 18-year-old William Chapman in a Walmart parking lot. Bolivar County sheriff’s deputy Walter Grant shot 20-year-old Willie Lee Bingham in the back of the head because he mistakenly thought Bingham had a gun.
Although these officers still face criminal charges, the only officer acquitted of all counts in 2015 was Hummelstown police officer Lisa Mearkle. After shooting David Kassick with her Taser, Mearkle fired two rounds into the unarmed man’s back because she momentarily could not see one of his hands as he writhed face down on the ground in pain. Mistrials were declared for the police shooting of Yvette Smith, who police falsely accused of holding a weapon, and in the first of six trials against the officers responsible for killing Freddie Gray.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, more officers were killed in the line of duty in 2014 than last year. At least 133 cops died on-duty in 2014, while 129 were killed last year. As the number of officer fatalities decreases, the number of people being killed by police continues to drastically rise along with the rate of cops facing criminal charges for murder or manslaughter.
Although more officers will supposedly be held accountable for their crimes in 2016, the only number that matters from last year is the amount of cops convicted of murder or manslaughter: zero.This is Alice Perry’s report of the national executive’s equalities, disputes and organisation sub-committee, which met yesterday. Representatives from the Association of Labour Councillors and Local Government Association (LGA) also met Katy Clark, political secretary to the Labour leader, to discuss party reform.
Sexual harassment policy
In response to the Lord Rennard scandal of 2014, Labour began a review of the party’s sexual harassment policy to ensure it was fit for purpose. The rise of social media also presented new challenges to our bullying and harassment policies and codes of conduct.
One of the first people I met with after being elected to the NEC in September 2014 was the then Young Labour rep Bex Bailey, who wanted to brief me and get my support for strengthening the sexual harassment policy.
Bex and other members of the equalities committee have been working hard for years to champion this important issue. Some NEC members also bring considerable experience from the trade union movement of dealing with bullying and harassment. The policy the NEC considered last month is the product of years of hardwork and the timing shows just how important it is to tackle bullying and harassment effectively, as well as ensure victims and survivors get justice and are treated sensitively and with respect.
Earlier in the week Jeremy Corbyn had emailed all party members with details of how to report complaints. Communications are also being sent to CLP secretaries and women’s officers with examples of behaviour that is and isn’t acceptable. Volunteers who occupy key CLP officer roles will also receive online training.
Labour defines sexual harassment as:
Unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature
Inappropriate or suggestive remarks or verbal sexual advances
Indecent comments, jokes or innuendo
Unwanted physical contact
Requests for sexual favours
The display or circulation of pornographic or indecent images
In recent weeks it has become clear that sexual harassment effects all parts of society. Jeremy has been clear it has no place in the Labour Party. People can report incidents confidentially by telephone on 07595 432542 or by email at [email protected].
Party reform
Labour is launching a party reform consultation in November. It will be open for submissions via a website, with consultation meetings also taking place with stakeholder groups around the country.
The review will look at reforming structures to help Labour build a massive movement, engage more people and win elections. Recommendations will cover England, Scotland and Wales, although Scotland and Wales determine their own processes.
The third phase will include discussions around local government, including how it is represented in national party structures, how local government contributes to national policy making, resources for campaigning and elections, sharing best practice, the relationship between Labour groups, local parties and national representatives and engaging people with politics at a local level.
Jo Cox Women in Leadership update
The NEC received an update about the success of the Jo Cox Women in Leadership training programme. The women who took part described the programme as a positive life-changing experience and a fitting tribute to Jo.
Two women who took part are now MPs, nine women stood as parliamentary candidates, one is now deputy leader of a council and one stood to be an elected mayor. Applications for the next round of candidates open on November 3 for people interested in applying. Leadership training programmes are also being developed for BAME candidates and other politically under-represented groups, including disabled members.
Women’s parliamentary Labour Party
I attended a meeting of the Women’s PLP in October to talk about increasing female representation in local government and in leadership roles. We discussed how to remove some of the barriers that prevent women from standing to be councillors and from going on to become council leaders or mayors.
The women’s PLP is working to amend legislation to allow the use of all-women shortlists in combined authority mayor and police and crime commissioner elections. We are working together on policies around maternity and paternity leave. I also stressed the importance of restoring access to the local government pension scheme for councillors.
Parliamentary selections
The NEC reviewed the updated timetable for the parliamentary selections. The selection process is underway in many of the 79 key seats. Candidates in key marginal in England will be selected between now and March 2018. Selections have also begun in Wales and will begin in Scotland after the leadership election is concluded.
The next general election could take place any time between now and 2022. If it does take place in 2022, the NEC is very aware of the pressure this will put on candidates. Successful applicants to stand will receive advice and support. The NEC is also looking at what more can be done for candidates who experience financial hardship.
Alice Perry represents local government on Labour’s NEC.Programmers are familiar with “If” statements; it’s the bread and butter of any programming language, taking direct cues from ye olde days of George Boole’s mathematical innovation. Thankfully, IFTTT is an incredibly distilled and simple tool where pressing a few buttons sets up automated tasks, across over 300 platforms including most popular social media channels and even real life objects like the Wifi-controlled LED powered Phillips Hue.
You can do many interesting things, like set it up so that if you enter a specific GPS zone, it automatically switches your phone to silent. Or if you post a status update on Facebook, it automatically posts it to your Twitter account. Simple stuff, more or less, but something we’ve probably come to expect through the evolution of technology. This post is about leveraging that technology to increase followers on Twitter.
How to Increase Twitter Followers
This ‘recipe’, as IFTTT likes to call it, will essentially use Twitter’s search API to search most tweets (not every tweet, because the Twitter search API is based on relevancy and not absolutes, so some tweets will be left out) to search for a hashtag of your choice. It then automatically adds anyone who uses the hashtag to a list that you can specify or create.
You can change the parameters to check for multiple keywords in a tweet, or @mentions, and not just hashtags. Check out Twitter’s page on using their Search Operators to learn more.
When relevant people are added to a list by you and your account, chances are, they’re going to take a look. Anything that creates exposure among the right people, which is what you should be targeting based on your hashtags and search parameters, is a good thing. For our twitter account we use parameters like #gaming and #gamers to create lists about gaming, and sometimes specific videogame related lists where we search for phrases or hashtags and add them. We can increase followers simply by exposing our account name and description to relevant folks in our domain.
Yes, it can look spammy. But that’s why targeting the right people is so important. People don’t mind getting added to lists they have some domain expertise in, or when they are familiar with the criteria of the list. There are also no major downsides to automating this process; worst case scenario you have a list of many people interested in the domains you specified who haven’t followed you.
If you have a small business or shop somewhere and you want to target and attract customers locally, this is a great way to do it. IFTTT will recognise tweets from within a specified GPS location and you can build a twitter list from them. You could also use variations of this recipe to automatically follow them if they tweet from a specific area.
This method will help you tap into already engaged users; the loyal followers of the “Twitterati” and Twitter Influencers will be more likely to engage with similar accounts like yours. Provided you’re able to identify these people, it’s a great way to reach out to only those who you know will be interested in what your Twitter has to offer.
In the world of gaming, if someone tweets to @Kotaku, I know that at the very least they’re more or less familiar with the realm of gaming and technology. I won’t be getting 50 year old women interested in coffee and foreign holidays; the people I get are within my demographic.
Alright, so Twitter officially came out a while back and said all this API stuff isn’t great, they’re not happy with it. It keeps eyeballs away from Twitter itself, and hence leads to less sponsored posts been seen. The result is some restrictions with what functionality APIs can use, which is why IFTTT cannot directly @mention someone’s Twitter username in a Tweet in a Twitter-to-Twitter recipe. There is a workaround around this though, and that involves using Gmail.
Basically you set it up so that you get email notifications for followers on Twitter. Then IFTTT connects to Gmail and uses the @twitterusername field in the title of the post to send a “thank you” tweet on twitter. This way they’ll get a notification. You can add “DM” to the beginning of the automated tweet to make it a private message; I’d recommend doing this to stop spamming your twitter feed.
Pretty self explanatory, but this is helpful of your Twitter handle is blatant about doing the #follow4follow thing. You could mention that in your bio, in tweets, in your list descriptions… basically make people aware that if they follow you, it’s an automatic follow for them. And it kind of is.
However, Twitter’s API shenanigans means you won’t actually be able to have a script that automatically follows them back. What this recipe does is add them to a list called “Followers” which you can check every so often and follow back. It’s an extra step, but useful for letting your followers know that you go through with your word.
For a business’s Twitter account you don’t really care about inflating your followers’ ego by following them back, unless you have your Twitter feed set up specifically to read a few peoples’ tweets. But you can customize that anyway. There are a lot of people who will follow you if they get a follow back. The trouble with this method is the kind of users that usually search for tags like #follow4follow aren’t going to be the ones who are really engaged to your product.
Things to keep in mind
The MOST important thing about automating these things on Twitter is something called the Twitter Rate Call Limit, which is basically the number of times your account is allowed to use an API to do something. Read this for more info, but to summarize: you can do 180 API calls per 15 minutes for the Twitter Search API, which is probably going to be your most used one. That isn’t an awful lot. It’s slightly more than 10 a minute. What it means is you can’t have too many IFTTT recipes running or your account will get limited and you’ll have to revoke access to the IFTTT app and re-enable it in another 15 minutes.
As a rule of thumb, I never have more than 1 hashtag-to-list recipe running for high velocity hashtags like #gaming, and I never have more than 3 for low velocity ones. If you have more than 5 recipes using the Search API you’re probably going to get rate limited.
You can have upto 5000 users per list, and a user can be in upto 1000 lists. So be aware of when your lists fill up and create a new one.
Finally, using automated list generation isn’t the absolute best way to boost your social media value. It’s a stepping stone, for sure, and you’ll get a few followers by setting up this thing that arguably takes 10 minutes. But the best way to be a Twitter god is to actually engage with your followers and write interesting tweets.
If you’re interested in more ways to leverage social media potential, give us a shoutout @FynestuffCoconut Oil. It’s many uses and benefits have been praised, then vilified, then praised again. That’s why I love to write about it so much. It truly is a fascinating oil with so much to offer!
As I continue on my own quest for knowledge about health, wellness, and holistic healing, I have remained committed to learning more and more about the powers and uses of coconut oil. I have spent countless hours reading through all of the comments made about my coconut oil posts. I have researched far and wide. And what I bring to you today is a comprehensive post on the many uses of coconut oil.
I hope you enjoy this post and discover even more ways to use this amazing wonder of nature.
Coconut Oil – An Overview
Offering a myriad of health benefits, coconut oil is affordable, readily available and completely natural. I use it for EVERYTHING. Literally. I buy it in 5 gallon increments and keep it all over my house. I even have some in the car. So here is a little information I researched to inspire you to check out this amazing oil!
Coconut Oil Is Known To Be:
Anti-bacterial (kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, gum diseases, and other bacterial infections)
(kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, gum diseases, and other bacterial infections) Anti-carcinogenic (it has antimicrobial properties so it may prevent the spread of cancer cells while enhancing the immune system)
(it has antimicrobial properties so it may prevent the spread of cancer cells while enhancing the immune system) Anti-fungal (kills fungi and yeast that lead to infection)
(kills fungi and yeast that lead to infection) Anti-inflammatory (appears to have a direct effect in suppressing inflammation and repairing tissue, and it may also contribute by inhibiting harmful intestinal microorganisms that cause chronic inflammation.)
(appears to have a direct effect in suppressing inflammation and repairing tissue, and it may also contribute by inhibiting harmful intestinal microorganisms that cause chronic inflammation.) Anti-microbial/Infection Fighting (the medium-chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found in coconut oil are the same as those in human mother’s milk, and they have extraordinary antimicrobial properties. By disrupting the lipid structures of microbes, they inactivate them. About half of coconut oil consists of lauric acid. Lauric acid, its metabolite monolaurin and other fatty acids in this oil are known to protect against infection from bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi and parasites. While not having any negative effect on beneficial gut bacteria, coconut oil inactivates undesirable microbes.)
(the medium-chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found in coconut oil are the same as those in human mother’s milk, and they have extraordinary antimicrobial properties. By disrupting the lipid structures of microbes, they inactivate them. About half of coconut oil consists of lauric acid. Lauric acid, its metabolite monolaurin and other fatty acids in this oil are known to protect against infection from bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi and parasites. While not having any negative effect on beneficial gut bacteria, coconut oil inactivates undesirable microbes.) An Antioxidant (protects against free-radical formation and damage)
(protects against free-radical formation and damage) Anti-parasitic (fights to rid the body of tapeworms, lice and other parasites)
(fights to rid the body of tapeworms, lice and other parasites) Anti-protozoa (kills giardia, a common protozoan infection of the gut)
(kills giardia, a common protozoan infection of the gut) Anti-retroviral (may reduce the viral load of HIV-AIDS patience)
(may reduce the viral load of HIV-AIDS patience) Anti-viral (may kill some viruses that cause influenza, herpes, measles, hepatitis C, SARS, AIDS, and other viruses)
(may kill some viruses that cause influenza, herpes, measles, hepatitis C, SARS, AIDS, and other viruses) Effective at improving nutrient absorption (easily digestible; makes vitamins and minerals more available to the body)
(easily digestible; makes vitamins and minerals more available to the body) Has no harmful for discomforting side effects
Infection fighting
Nontoxic to humans and animals
Daily Dosage
Here is a chart outlining the recommended daily dosage of virgin coconut oil for persons over the age of 12. Coconut oil may be consumed by children under 12 but it is advisable to check with a healthcare practitioner on the proper dosage. Any good naturopath will have the information at the ready. (Starting at 12 months of age, I gave my daughter 1-2 teaspoons per day and she weighed about 16 pounds at that time.) You can also find more detailed information on how much coconut oil to take here. Here are a few ideas on how to consume coconut oil.
Type of Coconut Oil to Use
Unrefined (AKA virgin or extra-virgin) – this coconut oil comes from fresh coconuts and has not been changed with heat processes. It is the purest, most natural, least processed (chemically-changed) form. You can use it for anything but it will impart a coconut taste (mild) and odor (pleasant in my book)! Unrefined coconut oil retains the most nutritional value and is superior to refined oil.
(AKA virgin or extra-virgin) – this coconut oil comes from fresh coconuts and has not been changed with heat processes. It is the purest, most natural, least processed (chemically-changed) form. You can use it for anything but it will impart a coconut taste (mild) and odor (pleasant in my book)! Unrefined coconut oil retains the most nutritional value and is superior to refined oil. Refined (AKA RBD) – manufacturers typically do not use fresh coconut and instead use on the copra (dry coconut flakes). These flakes are then refined, bleached, and deodorized leaving behind an oil that is colorless, tasteless and odorless. Not all refined coconut oils are alike! Most are refined using a chemical distillation process dependent on lye or other harsh solvents. Know your supplier (see my Products I Love page for coconut oil I trust). While refined coconut oil is almost as nutritious as its unrefined/virgin counterpart, it does lose some of its health properties during the refining process.
(AKA RBD) – manufacturers typically do not use fresh coconut and instead use on the copra (dry coconut flakes). These flakes are then refined, bleached, and deodorized leaving behind an oil that is colorless, tasteless and odorless. Not all refined coconut oils are alike! Most are refined using a chemical distillation process dependent on lye or other harsh solvents. Know your supplier (see my page for coconut oil I trust). While refined coconut oil is almost as nutritious as its unrefined/virgin counterpart, it does lose some of its health properties during the refining process. Fractionated – this coconut oil is one in which manufacturers remove all of the long-chain fatty acids (and even the medium-chain lauric acid) to retain only its fraction of caprylic and capric acid. They do this to lower its melting point so people can use the oil in liquid form. Fractionated is used most often as a superfatting oil in soaps; in skin-care lotions, cream and similar products to give emolliency; in massage oil blends (famous for not staining the sheets); as a carrier oil for essential oils, vitamins and actives; and in medicines. It is not recommended for consumption since it is stripped of the important long-chain fatty acids and lauric acid.
– this coconut oil is one in which manufacturers remove all of the long-chain fatty acids (and even the medium-chain lauric acid) to retain only its fraction of caprylic and capric acid. They do this to lower its melting point so people can use the oil in liquid form. Fractionated is used most often as a superfatting oil in soaps; in skin-care lotions, cream and similar products to give emolliency; in massage oil blends (famous for not staining the sheets); as a carrier oil for essential oils, vitamins and actives; and in medicines. It is not recommended for consumption since it is stripped of the important long-chain fatty acids and lauric acid. Cold-Pressed, Expeller-Pressed, and Centrifuged – these are simply name of the various methods of extracting the oil from the dry or fresh coconut and can be found in both refined and unrefined varieties.
– these are simply name of the various methods of extracting the oil from the dry or fresh coconut and can be found in both refined and unrefined varieties. Avoid all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated coconut oils as the hydrogenation process creates synthetic trans-fats!
And now, the moment you have all been waiting for…
333 Uses for Coconut Oil
Please note that while I have offered additional information on some of the uses, it should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult with a trusted medical professional before using coconut oil to treat or prevent ANY disease or illness. Coconut oil’s effectiveness will vary |
flew out. It took six men to straitjacket him, and he lost so much blood that he nearly died.
And now his new teammates and the Trois Rivieres bus driver blinked at him, unaware of such terms as panic attack and post-traumatic stress disorder; in 1952 there were only lunatics and maniacs. "I need a church!" John panted.
"What're we here for?" the bussie grunted. "To play or pray?"
"Take him to a church!" growled Novosel. "When you can hit like him, we'll go where you want to go."
A few turns, a few blocks, and the most glorious sight in John's life appeared: Montreal's huge cathedral, St. Joseph's Oratory. Between games, for the rest of the season, he was at church, praying and holding holy oil over the candles he had lit and rubbing it where Grandma had. He hit.302 with 17 home runs and 90 RBIs that season. The fans loved him. One day he might be missing a sock, the next a belt, then a hat. He played without shoelaces. "My feet are tight," he told the skipper. Truth was, he couldn't concentrate enough to tie a bow.
Just before the team's last game, the manager pulled him aside. "The Yankees have called you up for four days," said Novosel. "You probably won't get to play, but you'll get a taste of the big leagues. Then you're going to Venezuela for winter ball. Congratulations!"
"Skip, can't I stay here with you?"
"Are you crazy, son?"
*****
The picture's a damn lie, and Bill Dickey knows it. Go back and look -- you couldn't have caught it on the first glance or the second. Sure, Dickey's smiling, but it's only for form's sake. He's smiling at nothing. He isn't looking at the kid.
Dickey didn't care what Stengel or Cochrane thought, or how many four-baggers John hit. He didn't give a flip that John was fresh from two years in the Army, where he'd won a medal for saving a drowning soldier. He didn't give a damn that the glove on John's left hand was given to him four days earlier by Berra himself. Nobody with a head like Malangone's was going to inhabit the soil behind the plate that Dickey, for 17 years with the Yankees, had made holy.
And he was right. He just didn't know how right until that photo hit page 66 of the Daily News on Feb. 23, 1955 -- Malangone misspelled with two l's in the caption beneath it -- jangling John's telephone with calls from relatives, friends, Louisville Slugger and Bazooka, and stirring his darkest fear: A locker in The House That Ruth Built was awaiting him, and with it, a chair just up the river at Sing Sing.
Suddenly the disintegration began, and no one in Yankees management could figure out why. So innocently, it started. "Just sign your name here," said the Louisville Slugger representative, handing John a form. "We'll use that signature on your new line of bats." John froze, uncertain how to spell even his first name, terrified that the world would learn he was illiterate. He stalled, begged Paulie to jump on a plane to St. Petersburg to sign for him, but a snowstorm in New York had canceled all the flights, and besides, Paulie had already bailed him out that spring, driving to Tennessee to retrieve John when he misread the road signs on the way from New York to Florida and got lost for three days. Jhon, he finally scrawled on the Slugger form. Someone at the company noticed at the last minute and tried to etch over it, but his teammates snickered and Yankees brass scowled when the bungled bats appeared. John snickered too. That was always the best way to cover his confusion: Giggle, play the buffoon, act crazy, man, so no one suspects you're going crazy!
He came to the plate in an intrasquad game brandishing a rake instead of a bat. He noticed a motorboat with keys in the ignition, jumped in and gunned it for a joyride, forgetting to untie the rope. The dock and the boat both splintered. The Yankees' front office got a call.
John bought a motorcycle. He wrecked it one day later. In retaliation for a prank, he cackled and hurled oranges at his teammates in the Yankees' hotel, splattering seeds and juice, shattering an exit sign. "I did it, Skipper," John volunteered at the next morning's team meeting.
"Why, John?" asked Stengel.
"I was warming up, Skipper."
"Yeah?" said Casey, rolling his eyes. "Who was your catcher?" On the golf course just outside the hotel, John noticed a pond full of golf balls. He filched a dozen pillowcases and filled them with balls, placing them in the lobby beside the baskets of oranges and grapefruits for the guests. Stengel got another belligerent call. Finally, a day passed without trouble, and John mock-swooned in relief onto his roommate's bed. A slat splintered in half and tore right through the roommate's expensive suitcase, and the roomie went straight to the brass. What more did John have to do to make the Yankees see what he saw when he looked in the mirror?
Sooner or later, Dickey knew, Stengel and the front office had to see what he saw: that the catcher was the nerve center of a ball game, and that you couldn't have a guy there, no matter how powerful his arm or catcherlike his body, who flashed signs that were incomprehensible to his pitchers.
John's teammates -- the nonpitchers, at least -- loved to gather around him in lounge chairs beneath the stars that spring and reenact his latest fiasco. They crooned the song they always crooned to guys about to walk the plank -- Dear John... I sent your saddle home -- and were agog that day after day, by sheer dint of talent, his saddle remained right where it was. And they marveled at Malangonese, a language in which an RBI might be an IBM, and treading water was threading water. The great Joe DiMaggio, John addressed as Charley. Correcting him was pointless. "OK, tank you," John would say in his thick Noo Yawk accent. "I got it now. Got it down to a teeth."
One evening during that pivotal spring of '55, the players were buzzing about the change that had come over pitching coach Phil Page. "Didn't you hear what happened?" a player told John. "He killed his friend over the winter in a hunting accident."
John blanched. Then came the cold sweat, the hair rising from his flesh. He lurched away from the group, hesitated and then bolted for Page's room. Finally, for the first time in his life, he was going to tell someone his secret. Finally there was someone who would understand, someone whom John could perhaps even help. He rapped on the coach's door. Page opened it. John's mouth opened. Nothing came out.
"What do you want?" the coach demanded.
"Maybe I...," John stammered. "Maybe I can help you."
Page's eyes narrowed. The buffoon, he thought, was mocking him. "You?" he said. "You can't help yourself." He shut the door, and the words that might have saved John never left their vault.
Camp broke. The confounded Yankees chiefs assigned John to the Double A Birmingham Barons. The Barons had a new manager. His name was Phil Page. A few days later, as the Barons played their way from Florida to Alabama in a string of exhibitions, John was sitting in the stands an hour before a game and needed to use the rest room. Confused by the lettering on the doors, he waited and watched. A door opened. A woman emerged. John headed through the other door, not realizing that the ladies' room had two doors. A woman screamed. Page refused to believe it was an honest mistake.
Only a couple of weeks had passed since the click of the camera, and now John and his Mercury were lost on the road again, in search of the Class B Tars in Norfolk, Va. A place where he and the hunchback could hit.326 without running the risk of being called up to Yankee Stadium.
Malangone may have broken his trophies in fits of fury, but he hasn't had the heart to throw the pieces into the trash. Gregory Heisler/SI
*****
It grows more and more unnerving, the idyllic photograph -- doesn't it? A few weeks later John walked into a doctor's office in Norfolk. "My nerves are bad," he told the physician. "I think too much."
"Take off your clothes," the doctor told him. "I'll be right back." While the doctor was gone, John fled. For four years, from Norfolk to Portsmouth to Montgomery to Knoxville to Amarillo to Charlotte to Winston-Salem and back to Knoxville again, he fled. Every city, his ritual was the same. First, he would search for a church, a place to drop a 50 and run the whole rack of candles. Second, he would find lodging, preferably in a migrant worker's shack on a farm a few miles from his teammates, so they wouldn't know what happened when he chanced to see an umbrella or a pair of striped socks, so they wouldn't notice him roaming the roads at night gathering rocks to throw at poles and trees. Then he would look for a day job simonizing cars or hauling blocks of ice or collecting golf balls at a driving range, anything to demolish dead time. Dead time was killer time; why was baseball so riddled with it? He would count mosquitoes during games, do push-ups, run sprints, squeeze his crucifix, rattle off Hail Marys, do anything to stave off another flashback, meanwhile losing all track of minor things such as strikes, balls, outs, base runners, signals, score. You don't tag up with two outs, Nuts 'n Bolts, you run on anything! Get your head in the goddam game! He was cut from the team in midgame in Winston-Salem -- what's a manager to do with a guy who rips two straight doubles and gets picked off both times?
He couldn't possibly explain it to anyone, not even himself. Each time he slunk out of the office of another furious manager, he felt humiliated... and relieved. Relieved because when he went a week or two without punishment, his guilt would eat at him like acid; he was cheating, getting away with something. And yet he lived in dread of pushing the Yankees brass too far, of being separated once and for all from the game he loved, from the rickety minor league clubhouses and stadiums where he was so popular.
For years he tiptoed this precarious ledge between stardom and banishment. One night he would leave a gaping hole in Norfolk's centerfield fence, attempting to snag a fly ball in his Mercury at 40 mph. The next night he would batter the plywood-bandaged wall with line drives. He would go AWOL for two weeks. He would hit.356 at Winston-Salem. He would ground out and continue running up the rightfield line, all the way to the fence, and smash it with his fist. No one ever dreamed that he was swinging at a flickering image of a javelin, a coffin, a child's face.
He lived for those weeks when Paulie would join him. In between he befriended the old black groundskeepers and locker room janitors in all those Southern towns, helping them to rake the field, dig mud from cleats, scrub the floor. They too were outcasts, and they never tried to get too close. In '57 he married a knockout from East Harlem named Rosemary Chique, whom he had met -- where else? -- in a church. He turned everything over to her: checkbook, money and responsibility for the children they would have. Even when things were great, when it was just the two of them and her skin on his skin felt like heaven's grace, the mumbling might start: What about Orlando? You're alive right now, too alive, but he's just dust beneath the ground. John would have to turn and roll away, the life all gone from him.
And then, in the spring of '59, still without a single big league at bat, his career was over. It ended in a flash when he wiped out his third motorcycle, broke his leg... and knew that he had finally run out of ways to make absolutely certain that he failed.
*****
Now that he throws for his New Jersey team, Malangone -- originally a pitching prospect -- has come full circle. John Iacono/SI
Thirty-two years walked by. The photograph remained forever young, hanging on a wall in the house John and Rosemary bought in Little Ferry, N.J., right across the street from St. Margaret's church. But everything else changed.
Paulie was shot on the street by a mugger and died on the operating table calling John's name. John stood on the 107th Street Pier and screamed back Paulie's.
John's father died of lung fibrosis. "You never forgot, did you, John?" the old man said just before he expired, and the two of them cried. But they never spoke of what John never forgot.
Rosemary bore John five children through their on-again, off-again marriage, but he was afraid to hold them or play with them, afraid he would hurt them and lose them... and so, of course, for long periods of time, he did. He always seemed to be gone, working two full-time jobs, repairing and installing New York City fire hydrants from dawn till midafternoon, running to his mother's house in the Bronx for an hour and then off to his night job as a mechanic in Sears' automotive department. They called him the Santa Claus of Sears, he gave away so many repair jobs, still hoping against hope to convince God to call off the beast. But, of course, John needed the beast, so who could say that any of its visits came without a whistle from somewhere deep inside John?
He turned to drinking and totaled five cars, but he and the demon always walked away. When his despair, at last, was more than the candle racks at St. Margaret's could bear, he took it to a therapist in the early 1980s. He spoke of grief, of anxiety, of the ticket to the bigs that he had torn to bits, of everything but the hunchback and the secret. "You're reminiscing too much," the therapist told him. "You need to get rid of all those trophies, plaques and pictures."
He began the destruction with sledgehammer blows of his bat, but that was too impersonal, too swift. He needed to involve the killer that hung from his right shoulder; he needed to make sure he was still in command of it. The children playing at Moonachie Park in northern New Jersey kept looking at each other and shaking their heads. Day after day, a gray-whiskered man wearing a wool pullover hat in the dead of summer because of what the wind did inside his ear, wearing a coat because the warmth took him back to his grandmother's candles, would set up a table in front of home plate and place a trophy on it. Then he would lay cobblestones to steady the trophy and blocks of wood to shield all of it but the metal figurine. He would walk 30 or 40 strides with a bucket of balls. Only the finest, most accurate 55-year-old arm in the country could hit the tiny target from that distance. Only John Malangone could nail his past right on the head.
*****
Malangone, at the 107th Street Pier, has acheived a tenuous peace with his past, but his old turbulent feelings still surface. Gregory Heisler/SI
There's no need to leave you, dry-mouthed, on that ball field, because that's not how the story ends. On a February day in 1991, a 53-year-old man from Manhattan named Ron Weiss got directions to the Sears in Paramus, N.J., where John worked. Ron's son had just been cut from his school baseball team. Ron's life had just been shaken by his retirement after 30 years as a phys-ed teacher and coach. Ron's heart was still racked by regret that he had never taken a shot at the big leagues. And the one shiny thing that he kept clutching was a compliment from a teammate on a sandlot team he had played for in 1965, an anvil-armed power hitter who had told Ron that his infield play reminded him of a couple of guys he had rubbed elbows with a few years back, a couple of guys named Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson.
Ron ignored John's reluctance. Ron kept coming back, asking John to turn his son into a ballplayer, asking John to be a friend. "You don't know who I am," John finally said. "You can't trust me with your son."
"Why not?"
Perhaps it was because Ron was virtually a stranger. Perhaps it was because of Ron's childlike trust. How do you figure that after a lifetime of holding it in, a guy whom John had given an offhand attaboy 26 years earlier would be the one to whom he would spill his guts? The javelin, the coffin, the demon, everything. And mercy, Ron didn't recoil, not an inch.
They went together to John's mother. The 80-year-old woman began to sob when Ron spoke Orlando's name. "You're gonna get him sick!" she told the stranger.
"Mom," said John, "I've been sick for a long time." She cried some more, and they talked through their tears and their shudders for hours. When they finished, John wanted to dance.
He and Ron took another trip, to the Manhattan Bureau of Records. They asked for the death certificate of Orlando Panarese, and John nearly vomited as he waited to see if the word after Cause of Death was Murder. The clerk handed Ron the medical examiner's report. Ron cleared his throat and read: "I further certify that I have viewed said body and from Partial Autopsy and evidence, that... the chief and determining cause of his death was Brain Abscess following perforating fracture of the scalp, skull and brain: that the contributing causes were Accidental." John hugged Ron. John wept.
He needed to tell someone from the Yankees his secret. He tracked down Johnny Blanchard at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, where Blanchard had gone to sign autographs. John told him everything. "I was paralyzed," says Blanchard.
A week without the hunchback passed, then another. The damnedest craving came over John. "Ron," he said, "ya know what I wanna do now? I wanna play ball. Play ball with a clear mind, for the first time in my life. C'mon, let's join a team."
John squeezed hand grips to bring back the wrists. He swam laps at the Y. He spent hours taking cuts in batting cages and playing catch with Ron's son. John pitched and Ron played second base in a New Jersey league for men over 40. By 1994 they found themselves in Florida, playing in the Roy Hobbs World Series. John won two games on the mound and singled home Ron for the run that won the national title for the New Jersey Wonderboys.
John lives in a trailer today, retired from his two jobs and separated from his wife, spending his days fixing cars for friends, playing ball with three or four teenagers whom he has taken under his wing to make sure they never give up, and learning, with Ron's help, how to read. "Symphonics," John calls their method.
Rescued? John almost thought so, but in truth, he had only reached a reef where the rescue might begin. One Sunday morning last March, on opening day of the 1997 over-40 season, Ron miscalculated the power of guilt. He gave John a few articles he had clipped, one about a Houston Oilers defensive lineman who killed himself with a shotgun in 1993 just moments after losing control of his car and causing a crash that killed his best friend, and one about a girl whose face was impaled by a javelin at a high school track practice.
You know what happened next. John couldn't play ball for three months, so fierce was the volcano, but then he staged another comeback, on a Sunday three months ago. The oldest pitcher in the league took the hill for the Bergen Rockies and twirled a four-hitter against the Bergen Cardinals for a 14-1 win, and he was so damned excited each time he returned to the dugout, so full of hope -- honest-to-God 65-year-old half-scared-to-death hope -- you just wished to hell someone had been there to take a picture.MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a 13-year-old female Miami gardens middle school student after she allegedly pointed a loaded gun at classmates, who were only saved because the gun jammed, according to police.
In addition to the teen’s arrest, an adult at her house was arrested for not properly securing the weapon. The adult was later identified as 32-year-old Kerry Watkins.
The incident took place before the start of classes at Carol City Middle School, Wednesday. A juvenile court judge ordered the 13-year-old, Thursday morning, to house arrest with an ankle monitor.
UPDATE: juvenille court judge gives 13 y/o student house arrest w/ ankle monitor after cops say she brought a gun to Carol City Middle @wsvn — Omar Lewis (@OlewisON7) December 1, 2016
Sources also told 7News surveillance video of the incident shows the girl coming out of an office and pointing the gun at three students. The students started to flee, and she chased after them before she was stopped by a school official. The official was able to take the gun from her and Miami-Dade School Board police later took her into custody.
Danny Lopez, a student at the school, said he knew something was wrong when an announcement was made. “They did announce it, that everyone should be at the library,” he said.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement which read, “The quick-thinking actions of school staff helped avert a potential tragedy today at Carol City Middle School. This morning, before the start of the school day, a female student was arrested for possession of a weapon. This unfortunate situation could have been prevented if the weapon, which she brought from home, would have been properly secured. An adult male relative of the student was also arrested and has been charged with failing to secure a weapon. We are grateful to our courageous staff who took immediate, life-saving action. We want to remind every parent and member of our community that storing firearms properly can potentially save lives. It is not only prudent, but a legal requirement.”
An investigation is now underway and school police have increased their presence at the school.
Told about the news, parent Jaqueline Entzminger was perplexed. “These kids nowadays,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on. Is it bullying? Is it they don’t get along with this person or that person?”
When told about the increased police presence, Entzminger gasped. “Oh my God,” she said. “I just told my babies back there that if something like that happened, it had to be either a gun or a knife.”
This incident comes after four students at Norland High School were arrested when a loaded gun was found on that campus. No injuries were reported in the case, either.
While Watkins has bonded out of jail, the girl has been charged with attempted assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed firearm, exhibiting a concealed firearm and improper exhibition of a firearm.
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Mohsen Abdelmoumen: Your work focuses essentially on the strategy of the masked war. Can you explain this concept?
Dr. Daniele Ganser: A secret war, a covert war is a war where the attacker does not admit that he is attacking the target country. In 1961 for instance the CIA made an invasion of Cuba and tried to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. It was a secret operation, and therefore at the United Nations the US ambassador lied and said: We have nothing to do with this.
What is the role of the media in the strategy of the masked war?
Today we have a secret war against Syria. In 2011 the four NATO countries US, Great Britain, France and Turkey attacked Syria, together with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These six countries want to overthrow the government of President Assad. This is illegal according to the UN Charta. But the media confuse the public. They spread stories that what we have in Syria is a civil war of a brutal dictator against his own population. With this narrative the media hide the international powers who try to make a regime change. But there are always also courageous journalists who try to inform the public about what is really going on. These journalists for instance report how NATO countries cooperate with terrorists in Syria who also want to overthrow Assad. Of course NATO countries then say that they would never cooperate with terrorists like al Nusra, but only with "moderate rebels". So we are in the middle of an information war.
Your doctoral thesis concerned Gladio. Can you enlighten us about this subject?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the US-led largest military alliance on the planet, had set up secret armies in all countries of Western Europe after the Second World War. In Italy the secret army was codename Gladio. These networks were armed and trained by the CIA and the MI6. Their original mission was to fight behind enemy lines in case of a Soviet invasion, hence the name stay-behind network. But in some countries like Italy and France and Turkey these secret armies became operative in the total absence of a Soviet invasion, targeted the domestic opposition and became tragically linked to crime and terror.
How is it possible that in the so-called western "democracies", secret armies often linked to the extreme right, act with impunity? Where are the States and their institutions?
In Switzerland, Belgium and Italy there was an investigation into the stay-behind armies, so at least in some countries the local parliaments looked into the delicate affair. But in many other countries including Germany, France and Turkey there was no in depth investigation. Furthermore NATO and CIA refused to comment. It was a big military scandal but US President Bush senior, who was in office in Washington when the existence of the secret armies was revealed in 1990, simply refused to comment. CIA operatives confirmed that the secret armies hat existed but claimed they were designed only to fight against a Soviet invasion. The CIA said the secret Gladio armies had not linked whatsoever with terrorism. The EU parliament in November 1990 protested "vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network" and called for "a full investigation into … these clandestine organizations … and the problem of terrorism in Europe". But nothing happened, the affair was too delicate and the EU parliament was powerless against NATO and the CIA.
You often base your work on declassified documents from various intelligence agencies, CIA, MI6, etc. Have you obtained easily certain confidential or top secret information?
No, it was always very difficult to find historical documents on secret warfare in general and operation Gladio in particular. I placed a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) with the CIA, but the CIA refused to hand me the Gladio documents. Also NATO refused access to the relevant documents.
Can we say we are living the continuation of the Cold War, especially with the latent conflict between the EU and the US on one side and Russia on the other, and whose one of epicenters is Ukraine?
Yes, in Ukraine we have a new confrontation between Washington and Moscow, a confrontation between two nuclear powers. On February 20, 2014, the US sponsored a coup d’état in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in order to throw out the government of Janukowitsch and install the new and acting government of Poroschenko. The plan of the US is to drag Ukraine into NATO. Poroschenko wants to join NATO. Responsible for the coup d’état in Kiev was Victoria Newland who became famous for her comment "Fuck the EU", because she did not care what the EU thinks when the US carries out a coup in Ukraine.
But the Russians don’t want that. They don’t want the Ukraine to become a NATO member. So in March Putin reacted and took the Crimea. So right now the Ukraine is split into two parts: one aligned with Washington, the other aligned with Moscow.
The United States will elect a new president and choose between Trump and Clinton. Don’t you think that these two candidates are dangerous for the stability and peace in the world?
Unfortunately both Trump and Clinton are a danger for world peace, they both will serve the military industrial complex, thus the interest of powerful lobby groups in Washington who want more wars and want to sell more weapons.
According to your analysis, leaders fomented plots outside the control of Parliament and their institutions. Some of them are alive like Bush, Blair, Cheney, Sarkozy, etc. Why aren’t they judged? Is it utopian to believe in their trial?
Bush, Blair and Cheney should be brought in front of the International Criminal Court ICC in Den Haag because they attacked Iraq in 2003 that was illegal. Sarkozy should also be brought in front of the ICC because he attacked together with Obama and Cameron Libya in 2011. But these leaders of NATO countries are very powerful. It is very difficult to bring them in front of a court, right now it seems impossible.
According to you, does this strategy of masked war and of creation of tensions aim at monopolizing the natural resources of the countries, or are there other underlying objectives?
Secret wars have always been used to increase the influence of the US empire and aligned NATO countries. So really it’s about the desire to have more power and more money. The so called war on Terror, which started in 2001, is full of lies. Above all the collapse of WTC7 is totally unclear. I think the entire war on terror is not about catching terrorists, but about controlling oil and gas supplies.
Based on your work, the occult groups who commit these attacks and plots are a minority. From where do they hold their influence and does the intelligence agencies are not infiltrated by these groups?
Yes, the people who start all these wars and lie to the public are a minority. But they are powerful and they control the intelligence services like the CIA and the MI6.
We notice an increasing role of the private military companies, as Blackwater now Academi, CACI, etc. Will we see the privatization of sensitive sectors such as Defense and Intelligence? Who is behind these companies?
I know that the influence of Academi and other private military companies is growing. But really I don’t know much about this subject because I have not studied it in detail.
In your opinion, why the occult powers to imperialism service do they feel the need to accuse those who dispute official theses of being conspiracy theorists, and other pejorative terms?
The term conspiracy theory is being used to discredit everybody who criticizes the elite and also the abuse of power by the elite. If you question the terrorist attacks of September 11 you are immediately attacked as a conspiracy theorist. But more and more people start to understand that the entire so called war against terror is full of lies and brutality.
All the information we have about these white collar criminals, their mass murders, State lies, aren't they a drop in the ocean?
No, this information is important; we must try to understand what is going on.
By manipulating terrorism, don’t the Western countries play with fire?
Indeed, it is very dangerous to manipulate terrorists. The CIA did it by arming Al Qaida in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And now the same happens again in Syria.
You are also an expert in energy, what are your forecasts about this market? Can humanity afford to remain dependent on fossil fuels?
No, we need to move towards renewable energies. We should try to reduce the consumption of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy and go toward solar energy, wind energy, water energy, and geothermal energy.
Interview realized by Mohsen Abdelmoumen
Who is the Doctor Daniele Ganser?
Daniele Ganser was born in 1972 in Lugano, Switzerland. He is a historian and peace researcher specializing in energy issues, economic history, geo-strategy and international contemporary history since 1945. He is the founder and owner of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research (SIPER).From 1992 onwards he studied history and international relations at the University of Basel, the University of Amsterdam (UVA) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He received his licentiate in 1998, summa cum laude, and his PhD in 2001, insigni cum laude. 2001-2003 he conducted research at the think tank Avenir Suisse in Zurich; 2004-2006 he worked for the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at the ETH Zurich. He teaches at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) courses on the history and future of energy systems. At Basel University, he taught in the postgraduate course on conflict analysis with a focus on the global fight over petroleum. He is also on the scientific advisory board of the business association Swisscleantech. Daniele Ganser holds the German IQ-Award 2015 by Mensa in Deutschland e.V., the association for highly skilled people (www.mensa.de). His book "NATO's secret armies in Europe" has been translated into ten languages. His book "Europe in the oil rush" was published in September 2012 and describes the global struggle for petroleum. The TOP-10 of his presentations and interviews on Youtube count over 3 million views. Daniele Ganser has a daughter and a son and lives with his family close to Basel.It’s been over a year since 35 ACLU affiliates filed over 380 public records requests with state and local law enforcement agencies seeking information about their policies, procedures, and practices for tracking cell phones. And 13 months later (and in the wake of this front page article in the New York Times), we’re still handling responses. We’ve posted the latest batch of documents received on our interactive webmap; here are highlights:
Some law enforcement agencies are trying to avoid letting the public know what they’re doing. The law enforcement guide for police in Irvine, Calif., specifically states, “Do not disclose this information in court any more than is absolutely necessary to make your case. Never disclose to the media these techniques—especially cell tower tracking.” We saw the same attitude in training materials from the Iowa Fusion Center, which instructs law enforcement, “Do not mention to the public or media the use of cell phone technology or equipment to locate the targeted subject.” Read: “We would hate for the public to know how easy it is for us to obtain their personal information. It would be inconvenient if they asked for privacy protections.” Law enforcement could most likely solve more crimes more expediently if they could break down a suspect’s front door or open his/her postal mail without a warrant, but as my colleague Catherine Crump points out, while that may be convenient, it is not okay. Warrantless cell phone location tracking shouldn’t be either.
Fortunately, Irvine’s isn’t the only word on advice to law enforcement agents. Santa Ana, Calif., provides its agents with much more civil liberties-friendly training than its neighbor to the south, and its warnings should serve any law enforcement agency: “Without a warrant... cell phone location data are released only in exigent situations. Exigent circumstances are best described as immediate danger of death or serious bodily injury to any person. Keep in mind that even if you convince a provider that the circumstances warrant release of the information, a district attorney and defense attorney will at some point be reviewing the case.”
More importantly, some of the law enforcement agencies in California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, reported that, like their counterparts in parts of Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, and New Jersey, they always obtain probable cause warrants in order to track cell phone location information. And then there’s the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, which does not currently track cell phone location information, but which promised that if it starts sometime in the future, it will definitely require probable cause warrants in order to do so. We hope other law enforcement agencies will make similar commitments. Location information is too sensitive for law enforcement agencies to be accessing it in criminal investigations without a warrant, and these agencies show that in every geographic region in the country, a warrant requirement is a completely reasonable and workable policy. And by the way, the law enforcement agency in Nevada that reports obtaining warrants? Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. If Sin City police get warrants, can’t everyone?
The new documents also touch on one of the most common questions we’ve been asked about cell phone location tracking: in what sorts of investigations are law enforcement agencies using cell phone location tracking? It’s a question that 5,509 pages later we still wish we had a better answer to and that, despite our records requests, the public is still largely in the dark about. San Bernadino County, Calif., sent us a ton of invoices from a one year period. (Any number-crunchers out there want to figure out how much money they spent to track cell phones that year? The documents are here.) “Okay to pay narcotics” was scrawled on some of the invoices. Others were marked “Okay to pay [redacted].” From this, we can surmise that cell phone location tracking is used in drug cases (no surprise to anyone who has been following the few location tracking cases to make it to the courts). Either they redacted “narcotics” on some invoices and not others, or they redacted other types of investigations where cell phone tracking was used, and someone out there does not want us to know what all they’re using cell phone location tracking for.
Overall, these new documents provide even more reason for Congress to pass the Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act, which would require law enforcement agents to obtain a warrant in order to access location information and, in the interim, for state legislatures to pass similar legislation at the state level. That way, we’ll know that law enforcement is only tracking cell phone location in legitimate |
of the 1 percent.”
Did the court realize this could happen? In the ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: “We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”
Really? “How could they not think ahead to the next step and what that would be like?” Boyle said. “It wasn’t a big leap to make. It’s baffling.”
Getting inside the court is harder than ever these days. But those big steps are perfect for cots and sleeping bags.
amacgillis@tnr.com
Alec MacGillis is a senior editor at the New Republic.
Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
He will host an online chat on this piece Monday at 11a.m. Submit questions before or during the discussion.
What else to occupy? Send your suggested places, people or institutions to outlook@washpost.com, and we’ll publish the top ones next week.Santa Carla County, California has banned toys in children’s meals:
Happy Meal toys and other promotions that come with high-calorie children’s meals will soon be banned in parts of Santa Clara County unless the restaurants meet nutritional guidelines approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors.
“This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children’s’ love of toys” to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure. “This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes.”
Voting against the measure was Supervisor Donald Gage, who said parents should be responsible for their children.
“If you can’t control a 3-year-old child for a toy, God save you when they get to be teenagers,” he said. Gage, who is overweight, said he was a living example of how obese children can become obese adults.
But he questioned the role of fast-food toys. “When I was growing up in Gilroy 65 years ago, there were no fast-food restaurants,” Gage said.
The board, whose jurisdiction extends only to the unincorporated parts of the county, including much of Silicon Valley, voted 3 to 2 in favor of the ban after a contentious meeting that included more than an hour of testimony on both sides.Looking for news you can trust?
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Syria is the deadliest place in the world for journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday, with 29 killed in the country in 2013—more than the next five countries combined. Since March 2011, when a revolt to oust President Bashar al-Assad began, 69 journalists have been killed. One was legendary war correspondent Marie Colvin, who died while on assignment for the UK’s Sunday Times in February 2012 when Assad’s forces shelled the building she had taken shelter in in Homs, Syria.
Photo journalist Paul Conroy was with Colvin and sustained a leg injury big enough to stick his fist through. In his new book, Under the Wire, he chronicles the days leading up to the deaths of Colvin and French photo journalist Remi Ochlik with vivid detail and sardonic British wit (he joked as much about crappy coffee in Baba Amr being the death of him as the Syrian government). I talked to Conroy about life in Syria, Colvin’s death, and how gallows humor helps reporters survive hell on earth. He also shared some of his never-published photos from the assignment, which you can see below.
Syria has been out of the headlines since the chemical-weapons deal was reached earlier this year. What’s going on inside the country?
The situation in Syria has descended to a level which ought to shame the world. For nearly three years now, Bashar al-Assad has used his vast arsenal of Russian-supplied weapons to unleash explosive hell on innocent civilians. More than 110,000 people have now died from the use of conventional weapons.
The window of opportunity for viable intervention, safe havens, no fly zones and humanitarian corridors, passed years ago. Syria was left in a vacuum, and that vacuum was filled by the jihadists, extremists who exploited the world’s unwillingness to consider any form of intervention. A heavy price is now being paid for this collective error of judgment.
Britain, along with the USA, is war weary and, after the travesty of Iraq and Afghanistan, has grave misgivings in any future involvement in the Middle East. The ghost of Tony Blair and his single minded determination to attack Iraq, at any cost, has cast a long shadow over British politics. The British public have a long collective memory. The fact that our Prime Minister lied over WMD has deteriorated further our trust in the political class. The people who have suffered most from this political mistrust are the helpless civilians in Syria who reached for a helping hand, yet found only a fist.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that perhaps it was the rebels who staged a chemical weapons attack. What do you think of that?
The polite answer to that is ‘complete rubbish,’ my heartfelt answer is, ‘utter bollocks.’ I spent time with these people; they are fighting for their lives, for survival. They showed Marie and I warmth that went beyond the need to get western journalists in and out of the country. People died on our behalf, they died in an effort to show the world the horrors of what was happening to their own people and families. The concept that they gassed their own families to garner Western support is an anathema to me.
The reality is that although Assad claims they are chemical weapons that can be made in a kitchen, the delivery systems are not something the rebels posses. These people are using medieval catapults to deliver homemade bombs.
In the book you talk about how Assad’s forces knew they were shelling a media center. Why do you think he was targeting journalists?
The night before Marie and Remi’s murder, Marie had given three interviews, to CNN, C4 in the UK, and the BBC World Service. The next morning I could clearly define the firing pattern of the regime gunners. They were bracketing in on us, which is adjusting fire with the use of a drone, until they had precisely targeted the building. They then fired four rockets directly into the media center.
Why? What was happening in Baba Amr was wholesale slaughter, Marie had the audacity to report live from the scene. We had witnessed the butchery and that crossed the boundaries as to what the regime would tolerate. We rattled too many cages in Damascus.
How is your leg doing after all these operations?
Given the state of my leg after the attack on the media centre I can’t complain! I was shocked, but amused, to learn that the medical team were taking bets to see who could put their hands furthest through my leg. My surgeon, Dr. Parri Mohana, succeeded, getting her arm through to the elbow.
I don’t think I will ever play for England but, after 20 operations, I can now walk in straight lines and am pretty mobile again.
You and Colvin got out of Syria and then went back in. Does that decision haunt you? Would you do it again?
I made it clear to Marie that I had a funny feeling about this one. I don’t regret saying that at all. I was speaking my mind, we discussed it and we both went back. It was the right thing to do. It’s what we do and Marie died doing what she did best in life.
You’ve said you wrote the book in four to five-hour sessions where you were balancing between morphine and pain. What was that like?
Initially writing was physically impossible; I was on large doses of mind-numbing drugs. I opened a file on my laptop and titled it ‘The Book,’ but, no matter when I tried to write, I could not get into the mythical rhythm of which other authors spoke. ‘The Book’ remained a white, blank and rather worrying document—I had a deadline to meet.
I woke one morning, it was 4 a.m. and the world was still sleeping. I rolled a cigarette, made some coffee and had a bright idea; maybe I should try writing now. The pain in my leg wasn’t too bad and, more importantly, my head felt as clear as it had in a long time.
It worked like magic. The writing fairy, my chosen name for whatever it was made me sit and write for five hours a day, visited the next night and the next. Eventually, I had a book. My only fear was, that with all the morphine and other drugs, I had written a wartime version of Fear And Loathing.
The book is quite funny, which I found surprising.
I can honestly say, from my perspective at least, without humor you could not do this job. It’s a vent, by which some of the ghastly and traumatic scenes we witness can be made a little less real and a touch more surreal, which helps more than you would expect.
In Misrata, Libya, Marie and I used to travel daily up and down the front line. As the rebels pushed government troops further from the centre where we were based, the journey got longer. One day, when having a laugh and joke with commander Ali, whom we visited regularly, I asked him to help me to convince Marie we should cut out the travel and stay on the frontline. We agreed that a small concrete building, which was pummeled by rockets and mortars every day, should be our mythical home.
The next day when we visited, I started to complain about the length of the journey back and forth to Misrata. Commander Ali, with perfect comic timing, said he had a place we could crash for the night, Marie looked slightly worried. When she asked Ali where it was, he simply nodded towards the concrete block. As he did so, a mortar landed on the roof. We couldn’t keep up the pretense, both Ali and I were laughing so hard, Marie cottoned on to us and the language she used is unprintable.
It sounds like Marie was a close friend. How are you dealing with her passing?
I never got to say goodbye to Marie, her death was instant. But I think writing the book gave me the opportunity to say a proper goodbye. That’s not to say I don’t wake, almost every day, and hope I get a call from her with a crazy plan to get into somewhere we shouldn’t be going.
Why was it important to share this story?
Marie was the archetype war correspondent. She was brave, tenacious and devoted, not only to her job, but also to the real victims of war, the civilians who bore the brunt of corrupt and vicious dictators. She genuinely believed she could make a difference.
The book is part tribute to Marie, but also to the many nameless heroes who helped us to get into Syria and Baba Amr to tell the story. Marie and Remi died telling a story of brutality that continues to this day. I sincerely hope that I have done justice to the bravery of my friends, but also have recorded a small part of history, the death of Baba Amr and its citizens, for those in the future to read an honest account, often lost in the fog of war.
What should journalists take away from the work you and Marie have done?
The tenacity with which we approached our subjects. We both instinctively knew that if we pushed further, harder and asked the questions many would shy away from, we would end up with as near to we could get to the truth. That’s what our job is about, cutting through the myriad layers of half-truths, the smoke and mirrors of war, corruption, deception and sheer bloody horror.
A shorter review originally appeared in our November/December issue of Mother Jones.Advertisement
Amazing pictures from World War II have unveiled the swathes of Spitfires which were gifted to American forces by the RAF.
The stunning images show how the RAF emblem was removed and replaced by America's'stars and bars' of the USAAF.
The mixture of colour along with black and white images show brave pilots standing by their newly-donated planes, often with a fresh lick of paint on them.
The pictures are in Tony Holmes' new book entitled Star-Spangled Spitfires.
Mr Holmes said: 'The USAAF received Spitfires because it lacked suitable fighters of its own in Britain with which to engage the enemy.
'Also, the first fighter squadrons assigned to the USAAF in Britain were ex-RAF units manned by American volunteers who had signed up to fight the enemy ahead of the US entry into World War II.
'The squadrons were equipped with Spitfires at the time of their transfer to the USAAF's Eighth Air Force in September 1942, and they took their aeroplanes with them.
'The USAAF was grateful to have Spitfires available when it first commenced operations in the UK, as it had no fighters of its own that could match the performance of the German Bf 109G and Fw 190A.'
The new book details the fight operations of US war-heroes and USAAF units were equipped with the famous Supermarine fighter from the summer of 1942.
Mr Holmes said: 'They allowed both veteran and novice pilots alike to get a taste of frontline combat in Europe prior to the arrival of American-built fighters in 1943.
'The American units that flew Spitfires in North Africa and the Mediterranean saw far more action with the British fighter. Indeed, the last ones were not replaced by US Mustangs in this theatre until March 1944.
'The operations of the units in the Mediterranean were highly successful. Indeed, 22 American pilots shot down five or more Axis aircraft to achieve coveted title of ace.
'The photo-reconnaissance Spitfire XIs flown by the USAAF from Britain also performed a valuable, unsung, mission, flying alone and unarmed deep into Germany through to VE-Day.'
First Lieutenant Willian Skinner replaced his war-weary Spitfire VC with this Mk VIII, which he christened Lonesome Polecat with a fresh new paint job
During a press visit in September 1942, the air unit at Goodwood airfield carried out a series of'stunts' for reporters
New Yorker Richard Hurd was the last pilot to'make ace' - a term for a person who has shot down several enemy targets
First Lieutenant John Fawcett smiles from the cockpit of his newly painted Spitfire dubbed Lady Ellen III
After service with the RAF's No 133 'Eagle' Sqn, Second Lieutenant 'Dixie' Alexander transferred to the USAAF (left) and after serving with the RAF's No 133 'Eagle' Sqn, Second Lieutenant 'Dixie' Alexander also transferred to the USAAF (right)
Major Harrison Thyng strikes a typical fighter pilot's pose while undertaking his conversion on to the Spitfire in late June 1942 at RAF Atcham, near Shrewsbury
First Lieutenant William Skinner of the 308th FS/31st FG runs his hand over damage inflicted on his Spitfire VC by an 88mm flak shell that detonated near his aircraft during a mission over Italy in October 1943
First Lieutenant Buck Ingram sits in his Spitfire at Kenley, which is discretely marked with the Star of David
Spitfire VC ER256 was the personal aircraft of Lieutenant Colonel Fred Dean, who adopted the RAF practice of carrying his initials on his aircraft rather than squadron codes
This was the fate of a number of Spitfires which had been damaged during battle in World War Two
Colonel Albert Clark became the first USAAF fighter casualty in Europe on 26 July 1942, flying Spitfire VB BL96/VZ-G
First Lieutenant Carroll Pryblo was hit by 'friendly' anti-aircraft fire and forced to crash land Spitfire VC JK707 on one of the invasion beachhead, but managed to survive the crashThis just in: The Big Ten is rich. Like, filthy stinking rich.
Commissioner Jim Delany confirmed on a conference call with reporters Monday that the league would distribute a record $284 million to its 12 teams at the end of this fiscal year. That money comes from TV contracts and NCAA tournament revenue. The Big Ten released its current financial data for the first time; normally, reporters culled such figures from past tax forms.
The $284 million works out to about $23.7 million per team, but that's not quite accurate. Nebraska, which officially joined the Big Ten last year, is not receiving a full share from the league, and reportedly won't do so until 2017. Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman declined to reveal what percentage share the Cornhuskers are currently receiving when asked about it on Monday's call. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that the 11 other Big Ten teams will get about $24.6 million each. If that's accurate, according to my shaky math skills, that would mean Nebraska would receive about $14 million.
By comparison, the league distributed $251.9 million to its then-11 teams in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the most recent year for which tax forms are available. That worked out to about $22.9 million per school, on average.
The Big Ten Network is helping fuel the league's success. Network president Mark Silverman announced on the call that the network is now available in more than 50 million homes nationwide, with the majority of subscribers living outside the league's footprint. Silverman said advertising revenue increased by more than 20 percent last year. Remember when people thought the Big Ten Network was a foolhardy idea?
The SEC announced last week that it was distributing $241.5 million to its 12 teams, its highest total ever. That equaled an average $20.1 million to each school. So the SEC doesn't finish first in everything.
The Big Ten is rolling in money. And with a playoff coming that should be wildly lucrative for the power conferences, the rich figure to keep getting richer.Persona 4 The Animation Series Review: An Amazing Adaptation For An Amazing Game
What’s to say about Persona 4 that I haven’t already? This is a game that I’ll never forget. It hit so many right notes for me and in my circle of gaming friends I’m not the only one who feels that way. This was an experience that made me laugh, care, and be happy and sad. No other game had tugged on my heartstrings as hard as Persona 4 did. I’ve had games make me feel sad and hell I’ve even shed a tear once (damn you Sephiroth!). Still, no other video game was able to make me feel so many emotions and make me not want to stop playing. I was legit upset when the game had ended.
For an experience as impactful as that, it has to be insanely hard to take all of those aspects and put them into another media. Will it retain the emotion? Can it properly show the flow of the story and the action of the dungeons and bosses? Can it be just as good as its original form?
Those questions are usually met with no’s or meh’s and so I entered Persona 4 The Animation with a bit of hope and a dash of doubt. I was pleasantly surprised when I came out with the same feeling I had once I finished the game.
Persona 4 The Animation does many things right and if I may be bold for a moment, I’d wager that it’s the best adaptation of something ever. The way this anime blends both the normal lives and supernatural lives of the characters and retells the story so vividly with the right cuts, edits, and changes that work in an episodic form is nothing short of amazing. I had a lot of doubts that an anime (or even a live action TV show) could pull off what the original video game did but I’m glad I was wrong.
This is truly a great way to experience Persona 4 for fans and non-fans alike. You don’t have to actually play the game to experience the anime to its fullest extent but you may not be engrossed in it as much. Watching Yu arrive at Inaba Station, seeing Rise perform on stage, watching Chie and Yukiko’s best friend dynamic, and Teddy’s confrontation with his shadow are all amazing to see unfold in constant anime.
I say “constant anime” because the game only gave us so much of it until we went back to gameplay so watching the battles and the struggles that every character goes through with their friends is spectacular. You’ll really appreciate the anime if you’ve played the game.
Furthermore, you may even like some of the changes. In my opinion, they portrayed Kanji much better in the anime than the games. While the character was introduced as a badass he quickly rescinds into a calmer, gentler, and idiotic party member. In the anime he keeps that sense of badassery and even has intriguing and smart things to say. He’s almost critical to the party in the anime and it’s really nice to see that version of Kanji. Instead of being almost shunned by the group (especially Yosuke) he’s accepted and helpful.
The anime also treats battles and bosses very well. Instead of drawn out action sequences they focus on the struggle between character and shadow while the Personas duke it out all over the provided arena. It’s also a great dynamic to see the party members attempt to help the ailing characters while they themselves are getting hurt as their Personas battle.
Oh, and I may be in the minority here but I’m so glad they used Chie’s Golden voice actor. It fits her so much better than the bland voice she had in the original version of the game. I’m also critical of it because Chie is my favorite character in Persona 4. 🙂
Not everything is perfect, though. For one, I was upset to know that Marie wouldn’t be included in the anime. I know she was just included in the Golden version of Persona 4 but I really enjoyed her character and the extra story she provided. She was tough to break and when you finally got her to soften up, all hell breaks loose for her and the party has to save her. It’s a great story to watch unfold as a tragic girl finally gets someone real in her only to have it ripped away. I can tell the bulk of fans are mixed on Marie and her story but I found it worthwhile to pursue in the game. I would have really liked to see that play out in the anime.
Overall, I feel that the anime did everything it needed to while it could have benefited from being a bit longer and including some of Golden’s features. While Persona 4 The Animation was meant to portray the original version of the game, I can’t really hold that against it too much. I loved this anime and its the first time I’ve said that in a long time. I’ve been known to not care about anime lately and I severely miss Toonami and the shows that came on there but I credit Persona 4 The Animation with making me believe there’s still great animes out there I must have missed.
If you’re a fan of the game, then by all means you must own this anime. If you never played Persona 4, then by all means you must own this anime.
It’s a gripping story with great characters and a well done split between real life and the supernatural. It will make you smile. It will make you laugh. It may make you sad and for some you may find yourself holding back a tear or two. It’s short enough to get into and be able to follow it to its end just like Trigun. It’s short enough though to make you upset that it just won’t keep going on and on. You’ll want to stay in Inaba and you’ll want the characters to stay together. There’s so much more to be told in the world of Persona 4 but after you leave the train station you’ll need to use your imagination.
What an amazing story and congratulations to the anime for correctly portraying something I’ll never forget.
Persona 4 The Animation Series Review: An Amazing Adaptation For An Amazing Game
Persona 4 is an amazing game that shouldn’t be missed but does it translate well to an anime? Consider this one of the best adaptations ever made.
Review Overview Total Score - 9.5 95 9.5 Amazing adaptation User Rating: Be the first one! 10
0 SharesCalifornia’s highest court Thursday unanimously ruled the public has a right to see emails and text messages about public affairs on government officials’ personal devices, ending a long legal battle that began in San Jose and setting a statewide precedent for records disclosure.
The ruling closes what government watchdogs said was a loophole that let public officials conduct the people’s business privately on personal phones and computers outside the reach of records requests that until now covered only their government-issued devices and accounts.
“We hold that when a city employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act,” the court opinion said. “If public officials could evade the law simply by clicking into a different email account, or communicating through a personal device, sensitive information could routinely evade public scrutiny.”
Peter Scheer, former executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, called the ruling “a great thing for the public.”
“Government officials have been using this trick of communicating about public business on their personal email or text in order to avoid public scrutiny,” Scheer said. “It means the people we elect to represent us won’t be able to avoid public scrutiny by using personal email accounts — rather than government ones.”
After San Jose in 2009 refused to release personal emails and texts about a downtown development, one man waged a legal battle that went all the way to the California Supreme Court and led to Thursday’s 20-page ruling.
Ted Smith, a former lawyer with a background in nonprofit work, suspected that San Jose officials were using their private phones and email accounts to conceal dealings with former Mayor Tom McEnery, who proposed a development in downtown San Jose. McEnery received a $6 million loan from the city’s Redevelopment Agency.
In June 2009, Smith submitted a request to the city seeking public records involving specific officials related to downtown San Jose redevelopment. The city turned over everything — except Smith’s request for “any and all voicemails, emails or text messages sent or received on private electronic devices used by Mayor Chuck Reed or members of the City Council, or their staff, regarding any matters concerning the City of San Jose, including any matters concerning Tom McEnery.”
The city’s argument was simple: “What we’re saying is California’s Public Records Act doesn’t cover private emails,” said San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle. A trial court sided with Smith, but in March 2014, an appellate court ruled in the city’s favor and Smith appealed to the state’s high court.
Although the San Pedro Square Market — McEnery’s project — is already built, Smith argued all communications about city business should be public, regardless of how they’re created, communicated or stored.
While San Jose owns more than 4,000 mobile phones for employees to use, government officials in smaller agencies across California often rely solely on personal devices for business. The court’s ruling applies to all public entities in California — from water districts to school districts to cities, counties and state agencies.
“This is an important victory for the public’s right to know,” Smith said. “Once again California is at the forefront of creating rules to guarantee that the public’s business is conducted with public scrutiny.”
Following the decision Thursday, Doyle said San Jose will need to craft policies to determine how it collects public records from private accounts. The court opinion only says a “reasonable effort” to search records must be made — but allows local agencies to decide how.
“We’re going to have to tread carefully on the issue of how we do a search for records on private devices,” Doyle said. “Is it enough to say ‘Check your devices and let us know,’ or will employees have to sign some kind of affidavit?”
After Smith filed suit in August 2009, the San Jose City Council adopted a policy to release elected officials’ communications from private devices, relying on “self-reporting” to get them. But Smith and his attorney, James McManis, said the rules should apply to city employees too.
“There was nothing sensitive about this information except that someone didn’t want to talk about what was going on at City Hall with respect to former Mayor Tom McEnery,” McManis said Thursday.
McEnery said “the public deserves full transparency” and that he had no quarrel with the ruling. He said dozens of other projects had received similar redevelopment loans but his got more scrutiny because “I was mayor for eight years and I picked up my share of enemies.”
McManis said the ruling also applies to city workers’ social media accounts because it focuses on the content of the communication — not the medium in which it occurred.
The ruling suggests cities can set policies to prohibit using personal devices for official business, but it also recognized that not all private writings by city workers are public. The communications “must relate in some substantive way to the conduct of the public’s business.”
“The court does acknowledge government workers’ right to privacy,” Doyle said. “If a city official writes a text to their spouse and says their co-worker is an idiot — that may not be a public record.”It's been over two years since the last series of Sherlock, with fans treated to just one 90 minute New Year's Day special in the meanwhlie.
So no doubt self-confessed 'Cumberb**hes' will be counting down to until the release of the long-awaited Series 4, which has started shooting in Cardiff.
Leading man Benedict Cumberbatch was spotted back in the detective's familiar navy overcoat as he filmed scenes in South Wales.
He's back! Benedict Cumberbatch was spotted back in the detective's familiar navy overcoat as he filmed the new series of Sherlock in Cardiff
The father-of-one, 39, was spotted sipping on a coffee as he chatted to crewmembers on location in a Cardiff suburb.
Benedict was spotted filming Series 4 for the first time after Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss confirmed the show was returning earlier this month.
In a statement earlier this month, Steven and Mark said: 'Sherlock series four - here we go again!
The wait is nearly over: It's been over two years since the last series of Sherlock with fans treated to a 90 minute special on New Year's Day
Caffeine fix: The father-of-one, 39, was spotted sipping on a coffee as he chatted to crewmembers on location in a Cardiff suburb
Chic and cheerful! Benedict seemed in good spirits on the scene as he waved at the rest of the crew
'Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street - and it always feels like coming home.
'Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson bringing adventure, romance and terror in their wake.
'This is the story we've been telling from the beginning. A story about to reach its climax.'
Mark has been teasing fans every few days on his Twitter account by posting photos of the back of the castmembers' heads, with Benedict, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington included.
Back for more: The actor admitted he was 'thrilled' to be reprising his role as the detective
Benedict, who performed at the live televised Shakespeare tribute in Stratford-upon-Avon, on Saturday night, said he was 'thrilled' to be back as the detective.
He said: 'I can't wait for everyone to see season four. But you will have to wait... though not for long... And it will be worth it.'
Series four will return to BBC later this year with three feature length episodes.
Ready for action: The show's co-creator Mark Gatiss was spotted chatting to crewmembers
Crime caper: In typical Sherlock style it appears there will be a murder to solve as actors were seen milling around the set in full forensic jumpsuit that typically appear at crime scenes
Bobbies on the beat: No 'crime scene' would be complete without a set of policeman walking around, which were perfectly played by a couple of enthusiastic actors
Getting comfy: One extra appeared to be wearing their pajamas on set as they warmed up on the set
Rivers of blood: One crew member was seen walking around the set with a jug of fake blood, suggesting the scene being filmed would be of a gory and graphic naturePivot Animator formerly known as Pivot Stick Figure Animator(Name was too long) is a fun tool to use for bringing stick figures to life and using them to tell whatever you can dream even though this tool is only available for the Windows Operating system it is cool and easy to use even for people who have no animation experience.
It can be used to make animations of all types just by moving the different node areas on your stick figure character into different positions and then capturing the key frame. Software such as this has been used to create some really cool stick figure animations.
You can get a copy of Pivot Animator for free and use it commercially for free as well the only big downfall of this product is that it is supported by some heavy ads that can sometimes get fairly annoying but this is how the developer has decided to make their money rather than charging for it which they could have done making it less accessible.
Pros Easy to use for beginners and experts Free use forever no matter what your reason for use is
Cons Heavy on the amount of ads that are used to pay for it
Usability: Performance: Ease to access guides and manuals: Interface:
Overall Pivot Animator is a great free tool to be used by any whether an experienced animator or someone just looking to delve into the animation world a little bit.The United States government has eased off off its demands for “exceptional access” to encrypted communication, and instead volleyed the problem back to technology companies and asked them to try harder to come up with a solution.
The government’s concern is that recent enhancements to encryption, in particular on mobile devices where companies such as Apple and Google no longer hold encryption keys, inhibit law enforcement and national security efforts. The government calls this scenario “Going Dark,” and as of last fall, fostered calls for tech companies to build in access to devices and have keys escrowed among trusted parties.
This morning during a Senate Judiciary Hearing, FBI Director James B. Comey Jr., and Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said that warrants and court orders are no longer useful tools in gathering evidence in cases where encryption is being used. Since Apple, Google and others no longer hold encryption keys, they cannot be compelled to turn over user data to law enforcement or the government.
But rather than call for legislative help in compelling companies to build in specialized access, the two officials said they intend to continue conversations with providers hoping they can come up with an adequate resolution. They did not, however, rule out pursuing a legislative solution down the road.
“I’ve heard that it’s too hard, that there’s no solution. Really?” Comey said, mentioning Silicon Valley by name. “Maybe it is too hard, but given the stakes, we’ve got to give it a shot and I don’t think it’s been given an honest hard look.
“We want people to be in position to comply with judges’ orders in the U.S. We want creative people to figure out how to comply with court orders,” Comey said later in the hearing. “You shouldn’t be looking at the FBI director for innovation.”
Yates, meanwhile, said the government does not expect a one-size-fits-all solution.
“We want to work with communications providers to get the access we need, and at the same time protect the privacy and internet security interests we all have,” said Yates, who has been on the job six months. “Rather, we’d like to have each provider think about it and work out a way where they can respond to court orders. We are not seeking a frontdoor, backdoor or direct access, but just to work with industry to be able to respond to these orders.”
Comey and Yates leaned on national security interests to make their case, pointing to terrorists from the Islamic State co-opting encryption for their own purposes. Comey said terrorists from the Islamic State (ISIS), for example, are recruiting new followers online—over Twitter in particular—and directing them to use end-to-end encrypted chat applications to continue their dialogue. Neither Comey nor Yates—nor any of the senators on the committee—noted that encryption technologies also protect the privacy and personal safety of activists, journalists and many others worldwide.
Yates said that despite comparisons to the Crypto Wars of the 1990s, this was not a situation where she expected or wanted government to retain encryption keys.
“We’re talking about individual companies, many of which are [retaining keys] right now for business purposes, while maintaining strong encryption,” Yates said. “We’re asking that national security be one of the factors they use when considering what type of encryption to use.”
Today’s hearing came one day after 13 leading cryptographers published a report explaining the risks associated with the exceptional access to encrypted data that government desires. The experts’ paper points out that the introduction of a vulnerability such as backdoor access makes it a target for criminals and nation-state actors. The cryptographers’ paper, written by experts including Steve Bellovin, Whitfield Diffie, Peter Neumann, Ron Rivest, and Bruce Schneier, among many others, argues that the economic impact of such access would be much more harmful than 20 years ago when the Clipper Chip debates were in full swing.
A backdoor would also undo advances made to encryption that were accelerated by the Snowden revelations, including deployment of forward secrecy, a cryptographic system where one-time crypto keys secure sessions and are immediately destroyed, so that if that key is stolen, it can be used only once, keeping past and future communication safe. They also argue that building in front doors would introduce complexity, which they deem to be “the enemy of security” since new features interact and likely introduce new vulnerabilities.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) challenged Yates as to whether the government has numbers backing up its claims that encryption thwarts law enforcement or national security investigations. Yates said she did not, and that it is close to impossible since the Justice Department does not seek a warrant where it’s known that the information it seeks is end-to-end encrypted.
Comey, meanwhile, said that the challenge is to find a balance between national security and law enforcement interests, and those of personal privacy and Internet security.
“Smart people say we can’t [reduce risks] and maybe that’s case,” Comey said. “I don’t think we’ve given it the try as a country that it needs to be given.”Rebellion Racing will skip next month’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen due to post-Le Mans logistics, the Anglo-Swiss squad has revealed.
Team manager Bart Hayden confirmed to Sportscar365 that the team will not take part in the third round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup as originally planned, due to a later-than-expected delivery of its third Oreca 07 Gibson LMP2 car.
Rebellion’s two season-long FIA World Endurance Championship entries will be taking part in the French endurance classic next weekend, leaving little turnaround time to prepare for a trip to New York.
“The main reason was because of too little time to turn the car and equipment around after the Le Mans 24 Hour race event,” Hayden told Sportscar365 |
3, may be the link between viral infection and cancer. Typically, the APOBEC3 enzymes respond to viral infection by attacking viral DNA, causing debilitating mutations. The CU researchers found that this facet of the immune system, designed to scramble viral DNA, can scramble human DNA as well, sometimes in ways that cause cancer.
“We know that the majority of cancers are caused by genetic mutations,” explained senior study investigator Dohun Pyeon, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of immunology and microbiology at the CU School of Medicine. “And we know some of the mechanisms that cause these mutations; for example, ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause mutations that lead to skin cancer and smoking can cause mutations that lead to lung cancer. But there are many more cancers in which we don't know the source of the mutations. The APOBEC3 family can explain how some of these mutations are created. In fact, APOBEC3A can be activated in many ways—not just with HPV infection—and its action may drive a percentage of oncogenic mutations across many cancer types.”
Utilizing data from the Cancer Genome Atlas, the investigators were able to show signatures of APOBEC3-mediated mutations in the PIK3CA gene of about 40% of HPV-positive head and neck cancers, but only about 10% of HPV-negative head and neck cancers. Additionally, the expression of APOBEC3A was much higher in HPV-positive cancers—providing additional evidence to the hypothesis of APOBEC3A-mediated oncogenesis.
“About four years ago, cancer genomics researchers found interesting mutation signatures in the DNA of cancer cells, showing that these mutations were caused by APOBEC3 enzymes,” Dr. Pyeon noted. “Our study shows that a significant fraction of mutations in HPV-positive cancers are potentially caused by one of these APOBEC3 enzymes.”
Interestingly, this system that so heavily risks damaging host DNA doesn't work so well against its intended target—APOBEC3A does not successfully eliminate the HPV virus, which remains as a chronic infection.
“We have another paper from 2015 showing that HPV has revised its genome against this APOBEC3 enzyme, altering and reducing the target sequences in its own DNA,” Dr. Pyeon remarked. If APOBEC3 fails to recognize its target sequence, it does not interrupt the DNA. “In this, we can see the complex race of evolution—the host evolves the APOBEC3 system to target viruses, but then the viruses evolve their DNA to evade APOBEC3. We are not at any endpoint of evolution—what we may be seeing is our body's attempt to use this APOBEC3 system to help it evolve more quickly in response to the virus.”
The researchers also noted that because APOBEC3A is an enzyme, it would likely be susceptible to drug development aimed at stopping its action. However, the enzyme isn't something that acts once, as it is chronically elevated along with HPV infection, leading to years or decades of higher mutation rates. However, while this mechanism describes the beginnings of carcinogenesis, inhibiting APOBEC3A would be akin to “locking the barn door after the horse has bolted.”
“This would have to be a cancer prevention strategy,” Dr. Pyeon concluded. “Perhaps if you are infected with HPV or have especially high APOBEC3A levels, you could have a drug to prevent any significant mutations. [Alternatively,] now that we can recognize cells altered by APOBEC3, we could teach tumor neoantigen-based immunotherapies to recognize these cells as well.”2018 is Magic's 25th Anniversary, and we're celebrating with a $1 million prize pool weekend, along with fantastic Magic events all year long. We have details on Magic 25 Weekend, updates to the Pro Club, and information on the 2018 World Championship in store for you today, so let's not waste any words.
For a quick summary of how you can be a part of the celebration or grab a slice of that $1 million weekend, we've summarized the main points right here. For the nitty-gritty details, read on below.
Magic 25 Weekend and Team RPTQ/PTQ Updates
Magic 25 Weekend will have a total prize pool of $1 million, split between Pro Tour 25th Anniversary and a special 25th Anniversary Exhibition Event.
, split between Pro Tour 25th Anniversary and a special 25th Anniversary Exhibition Event. Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will have a prize pool of $850,000, with $150,000 going to the winning team. The tournament will be fourteen Swiss rounds with a cut to Top 4 teams, and all players that finish with a 10-4 or better record will earn invitations to the Pro Tour in Atlanta, Georgia, November 9–11, 2018.
There are a lot of ways to qualify for this team Pro Tour, including an updated way for Pro Tour Hall of Fame members to help their friends qualify. There's no short way to summarize those methods, so to learn more, check below.
Magic 25 Weekend will also feature an invite-only 25th Anniversary Exhibition Event. More on this event will be revealed in 2018, but it will have a $150,000 prize pool.
Pro Club Updates
The Pro Club has been updated to calculate points based on the best twelve finishes across all four cycles, changed from the best three finishes per cycle.
The date ranges for the Spaghetti and Meatballs cycles are now available, finishing out the cycle schedule for 2018 and into the start of 2019.
Pro Points awarded at the 2017 World Magic Cup are being adjusted back to their previous values, meaning the event will now award more points.
Pro Club thresholds through the end of the Spaghetti cycle have been updated.
2018 World Championship
The 2018 Magic World Championship will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the weekend of September 22–23, 2018. Qualification for this event is unchanged from 2017 and will be based on qualification criteria met from the 2017–18 season up through August 5, 2018.
The $1 Million Weekend (and Also Team RPTQ Updates)
We simply cannot wait for August and Magic 25 Weekend. The weekend—taking place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 3–5, 2018—will be a celebration of all that is Magic past, present, and future, with a special emphasis on the future.
Here are the details.
That weekend we'll be hosting two events. The main event will be the Team Trios Constructed Pro Tour, where teams of three will compete across three different formats to win their share of $850,000, including $150,000 awarded to the team that comes out on top. The second event will be a special 25th Anniversary Exhibition Event featuring a $150,000 prize pool. We'll have more information on the exhibition event at a later date; for now, we have tons of information on Pro Tour 25th Anniversary.
Prize Breakdown
Place Prize Money (per team) Prize Money (per player) 1st $150,000 $50,000 2nd $72,000 $24,000 3rd–4th $45,000 $15,000 5th–8th $27,000 $9,000 9th–16th $15,000 $5,000 17th–24th $12,000 $4,000 25th–32nd $9,000 $3,000 33rd–48th $6,000 $2,000 49th–64th $3,000 $1,000
Pro Points Awarded
Place Pro Points (per player) 1st 20 2nd 18 3rd–4th 16
Match Points Pro Points (per player) 33+ 16 32 14 31 13 30 12 29 10 28 9 27 8 25–26 5 24 4 0–23 3
Additionally, 30 or more match points (for the team) during Pro Tour 25th Anniversary will qualify all members of the team for the following Pro Tour.
How to Qualify as a Team
Here's how to qualify yourself and two of your friends to play together on the Pro Tour!
Team up for the Pro Tour Team Series* – Every member of the Top 16 teams in the Pro Tour Team Series after Pro Tour Dominaria will all be invited to Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis. Players who qualify in this way must form a trio comprising members from the Team Series roster (if able).
– Every member of the Top 16 teams in the Pro Tour Team Series after Pro Tour Dominaria will all be invited to Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis. Players who qualify in this way must form a trio comprising members from the Team Series roster (if able). Team up for a Grand Prix – Make the Top 4 of a Team Grand Prix from January 6, 2018, to May 27, 2018. Players who qualify in this way must compete with the team members they competed with at the Grand Prix.
– Make the Top 4 of a Team Grand Prix from January 6, 2018, to May 27, 2018. Players who qualify in this way must compete with the team members they competed with at the Grand Prix. Team up for a Sunday Pro Tour Qualifier at a Grand Prix – Win a Pro Tour Qualifier held on a Sunday of any Team Grand Prix from January 6, 2018, to May 27, 2018, and your team is qualified for the Pro Tour. Players who qualify in this way must compete with the team members they competed with in the PTQ.
– Win a Pro Tour Qualifier held on a Sunday of any Team Grand Prix from January 6, 2018, to May 27, 2018, and your team is qualified for the Pro Tour. Players who qualify in this way must compete with the team members they competed with in the PTQ. Team up for an RPTQ** – Finish in the Top 2 teams at a Team Regional Pro Tour Qualifier. These are like our normal Regional Pro Tour Qualifiers, but players compete as teams of three. Again, players who qualify this way must, if able, compete with the team they qualified with at the RPTQ.
Some extraordinary players might qualify in multiple ways on multiple teams. If that happens, first, great job! Second, to figure out which team you'll be playing with, start from the top of the list above—the higher on the list, the higher they are in priority. If you qualified as part of the Team Series, for example, then that's your squad, regardless of Grand Prix or RPTQ finishes. If that leaves one or two of your friends out of the mix, they're still qualified for the Pro Tour, but they'll have to form a trio with other qualified players who don't have full teams (that list will be made available to solo players when the time comes).
*Note for Team Series players: You may request to disband your team prior to this Pro Tour. Details on how to officially disband a team have been posted in an updated to the Pro Tour Team Series Rules today.
**Note for Hall of Fame members: For this Pro Tour, Hall of Fame members may compete in PTQs (at Grand Prix) or RPTQs (without first playing in a PPTQ). However, if a Hall of Fame player chooses to compete in a PTQ or RPTQ for this event, they will rescind their Pro Tour Hall of Fame invitation to the Pro Tour.
How to Qualify as an Individual
Hey, maybe you're more the lone-wolf player. That's good, too. You'll still have to play with a team at Pro Tour 25th Anniversary, but you don't have to qualify that way. You can qualify by yourself by:
Being a member of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame who does not compete in an RPTQ or PTQ during the qualification period.
who does not compete in an RPTQ or PTQ during the qualification period. Utilizing Pro Club status. Gold and Platinum players are, of course, qualified. Silver players may use their invite as normal.
. Gold and Platinum players are, of course, qualified. Silver players may use their invite as normal. Finishing with 33 or more points at Pro Tour Dominaria. Players who finish high enough at the prior Pro Tour will also, as is normal, qualify for the subsequent Pro Tour.
Players in this group and players who are left without full rosters from the team qualifications will all be able to form trios with other qualified players for this event. Those players will also be included on the list I mentioned above.
Pro Club Updates
With some updates and all the events in 2018, including Magic 25 Weekend, it's going to be a big year for the Pro Club.
The Pro Club Updates to Twelve Events Per Four Cycles
After feedback from the pros, particularly those in Latin America and Asia, we are tweaking the Pro Club system from counting players' best three events per cycle across four cycles to counting the best twelve events across the four most recent cycles.
We mostly made this change for lifestyle and travel reasons. Players in regions with fewer Grand Prix noted that some cycles were feast and some famine. By moving to a best twelve-of-four cycles system, players are better able to plan Grand Prix schedules to suit their own needs.
This means is that, looking at the cycles we announced in July, by the end of the Core 2019 cycle on September 16, 2018, your Pro Club status will account points earned through the Ixalan cycle, Rivals of Ixalan cycle, Dominaria cycle, and Core 2019 cycle. Once the Spaghetti cycle commences, which is the cycle that begins September 17, 2018, your Pro Club status at the end of that cycle will be determined by your finishes from your best twelve events from November 13, 2017, until December 9, 2018.
This change is effective immediately.
2018 Cycle Dates
Speaking of Pro Club cycles of the future, we're ready to announce when some of those cycles will take place.
The Spaghetti cycle (less delicious name to be announced later) will count all events that take place from September 17, 2018, until December 9, 2018.
The Meatballs (also not its actual name) cycle will count all events that take place from December 10, 2018, until March 24, 2019, taking us suitably into the future.
Note that the Spaghetti cycle is a little shorter than normal. This is to ensure a more even spread among flagship events, such as Pro Tours and Worlds-level competitions. The Spaghetti cycle will contain the World Championship and the Pro Tour in Atlanta, while Meatballs will include the 2018 World Magic Cup and the first Pro Tour of 2019.
Pro Club Thresholds for 2017–18 and Beyond
Given some of the changes above, we also needed to recalculate Pro Club thresholds for the 2017–2018 season through the end of the Spaghetti cycle (which covers the Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, Core 2019, and Spaghetti cycles). Those new thresholds are:
Level Pro Points Needed Platinum 52 Gold 37 Silver 22 Bronze 10
One additional note: We're working on a modification to the 2017–18 premier play leaderboard. In the coming weeks, this page will include both the number of points that a player has earned in each cycle and the number of events in which those points were earned. This will provide players with Pro Club aspirations a little more ease in determining how many Pro Points they'll need in each cycle to hit the level they're aiming for.
As we transition fully into the new Pro Club system, we'll look at other ways to make use of this leaderboard for players who want a quick reference on how they're doing in terms of Pro Points.
2017 World Magic Cup Pro Point Change
The rolling cycles for the Pro Club has also led us to recalculate the Pro Points available at the 2017 World Magic Cup. The points awarded when the event was originally announced ended up being too low in the new rolling system, so we have reverted to the previous levels, meaning we will be awarding more Pro Points at the event—including at least 2 Pro Points for every competitor. Here's the breakdown:
Place Pro Points (per player on team) 1st 8 2nd 7 3rd–4th 6 5th-8th 5 9th–16th 4 17th–32nd 3 33rd+ 2
The 2017 World Magic Cup takes place December 1–3, 2017, and Pro Points earned during this event will count toward the Rivals of Ixalan cycle as well as toward the 2017–18 annual season.
2018 Magic: The Gathering World Championship Details
Finally, we're very excited to announce that we'll be heading back to the site of some of our biggest events for our crowning event of 2018—the Magic: The Gathering World Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada!
Scheduled for the weekend of September 22–23, 2018, the tournament will feature 24 of the world's very best players. Qualification for this tournament will remain the same as 2017. But when you're in Las Vegas, why stop with just one championship? That weekend will also host the Pro Tour Team Series finals, pitting the two best teams of six against one another, with wall-to-wall coverage of both events.
However, the cutoff for all 2018 World Championship invitations awarded based on Pro Points will be determined at the end of Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 3–5, 2018.
To recap, the following players will be invited to compete:
The four top Pro Point earners from each geo-region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America)
The six Pro Tour Champions during the 2017–18 season (The individual winners from Pro Tours Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, and Dominaria, plus the three players in the winning trio from Pro Tour 25th Anniversary will qualify)
The player with the most Constructed match points earned in Swiss rounds at Pro Tours in the 2017–18 season (Constructed Master)***
The player with the most Booster Draft match points earned in Swiss rounds at Pro Tours in the 2017–18 season (Draft Master)***
The remaining invitations will be awarded to the top Pro Point earners in the 2017–18 season who don't already have an invitation to the World Championship, based on the 2017–18 leaderboard (through Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis)
***These titles will be determined by individual match points only, and thus will be determined at Pro Tour Dominaria.
It's going to be an exciting year, and as we look forward to seeing how the field shapes up 2018, we are also excited for 2017's World Championship in Boston October 6–8. Tune in starting next Friday at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET/1 p.m. UTC on twitch.tv/magic to see it all unfold!Following their whirlwind 2013-14 season, Liverpool are widely expected to strengthen their squad this summer ahead of next term.
The absence of European football over the last 12 months played its part in the Anfield side’s excellent domestic campaign, but Champions League football will return to Merseyside in 2014-15.
With the increase in the number of games, Brendan Rodgers will need more comprehensive back-up options all over the pitch.
In attack, Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge have been in exceptional form, but the Reds are relatively short of alternative options.
Iago Aspas arrived at the club with a solid reputation but has found it very tough to adjust to life in England. Even though the Spaniard has only been at Liverpool for less than a year, there is every chance that he could return to his homeland in the summer.
Victor Moses had a promising start to his loan spell at the club but his form dropped off after the new year.
With potentially both Aspas and Moses leaving Anfield this summer, the importance of Fabio Borini next season for the Reds should not be understated.
Similar to Aspas, the Italian had a tough first year at the Merseyside club, with injuries and a clear lack of confidence playing their part in an underwhelming introduction.
However, a loan spell at Sunderland seems to have reinvigorated the former Roma attacker, who scored essential goals in keeping Gus Poyet’s men in the top flight of English football.
Borini was afforded a consistent run of games in the Premier League and his effort and will to win was there for all to see.
The passion and dedicated he showcased for the Wearside club was a breath of fresh air for a club fighting relegation and these traits will be of real interest to the Kop next term.
Not only did Borini’s work-rate and attitude impress, the Italian also displayed considerable technical ability during his time in the North East.
The 23-year-old took his chances to score with aplomb in the second half of the campaign, while his link-up play with fellow resurgent forward Connor Wickham made for great viewing.
Although ousting either Sturridge or Suárez from the Liverpool starting XI will be quite the task for Borini, with extra games on the fixture list next term there will surely be more opportunities for him to play than during his first stint at the club.
Borini was also deployed in wide areas on occasion by Sunderland and this versatility to play in a number of different positions will also add to the Italy international’s appeal.
Although Liverpool will still be keeping tabs on a number of potential attacking reinforcements in the transfer market, Borini’s return suggests that the club should prioritise other areas.
A new left-back seems like a must if the Reds are to build on a successful campaign, while a centre-half of stature to add to Rodgers’ options may be something of merit.
If Borini can stay injury free and have a good pre-season, the Italian could well follow in the footsteps of someone like Jordan Henderson and go from a failed signing to an important part of Rodgers’ plans.Up Your Game with Code Review Ben Austin
Most development managers innately understand that code review is an indispensable strategy to improve software quality. What many managers don’t know is that time invested in the up-front process of code review not only saves time later, but also helps managers position themselves more strategically within their organization.
As a development manager, you likely already understand how code review improves software quality. But have you thought about how code review can benefit you directly? There are four important code review benefits that can reduce your stress levels and increase your visibility in your organization.
1. Collaboration
We often use the phrase, “code review saves time.” However, managers of Agile development teams convey frustration with this perspective, saying that adding yet another activity to already tight sprints was not viewed as a time saver. Many Agile teams fear that reviewing code is too time-consuming a step to add to their sprints.
We hear you. We feel your pain. But we have a different view.
Consider this: If the code you pass over to QA has fewer bugs and anomalies, then it stands to reason that QA cycles will shorten. There are plenty of Agile code review successes that substantiate this reality. Many Agile team managers have found that the time invested in code review is made up during QA.
Code passed to QA that has better code quality (i.e., had been reviewed) decreases QA time. These Agile managers and Scrum masters also found that the constant interaction and collaboration about the code provided needed communication among developers regarding existing coding standards, especially important to Agile teams since they often have fewer artifacts to reference when questions arise.
2. Measurement
By periodically examining metrics, you can measure and trend your software’s quality over time and understand what aspects of the code tend to be the most complex. For larger development teams, careful interpretation of metrics provides helpful insight so managers can align resources with anticipated demand spikes (i.e. post-release support and defect remediation.)
Metrics also come in handy for managers wanting to streamline ongoing resource planning, including new feature costing and estimation refinement.
3. Knowledge Sharing
The knowledge transfer that results from code review is an unheralded yet significant benefit. Knowledge sharing reduces the risk of gaps in expertise across your team. That mentoring component of senior developer to junior developer is invaluable—it establishes a coaching relationship that gently fosters skill sets across the team.
The unexpected gift for managers is even more appealing: Knowledge transfer can reduce your long-term project costs. That’s right - collective insight into the code base, coding conventions and standards not only eliminates confusion and mistakes in your imminent release, but it also reduces unanticipated costs that result from catastrophic defects and technical debt arising from future software evolvability issues.
For these reasons code review is truly a strategic activity that all development managers should seriously consider implementing if they haven’t already.
4. Issue Detection
Code reviews are not just a huge part of the software development life cycle, they are also an essential process for any development organization that creates complex software. Information system managers need the power to predict and plan the long-term evolution of their systems on an objective, quantified basis. This is a pretty difficult task, especially when a system is deeply embedded within an organization’s business processes. Simply put, managing software evolution and estimating the extent of future projects takes a lot of work!
Perhaps the most popular justification for spending time on code review is to increase code quality. New features and enhancements can cause downstream issues in maintainability and performance if not properly integrated.
Code reviews can reveal issues related to the inner quality (evolvability) of software, because reviews find defects in the system whether they’re visible to the user or not. Since evolvability defects are not visible to the customer, some people believe that they can’t cause a system failure. In reality, evolvability defects can have a huge impact on the cost and quality of the final product.
To read more about how peer reviews can up the quality of your code, download our eBook:WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to rule out a radical proposal to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin that would allow the federal government to go around the debt ceiling if Congress refuses to act.
Briefing reporters Wednesday afternoon, Carney said, "There is no plan B, there is no backup plan" to Congress raising the nation's borrowing limit, but repeatedly declined to rule out the proposal to skirt the limit. "There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States," he added.
Carney explicitly ruled out any White House staff efforts to negotiate with Congress over raising the debt limit, saying no one of the administration with engage in talks on raising the federal borrowing limit.
Under the proposal, the Treasury Department would mint a $1 trillion platinum coin by using a loophole in U.S. law allowing the department to mint platinum coins in any denomination, and then deposit the coin with the Federal Reserve to allow the Treasury to continue to pay its bills — by retiring debt — even if it can no longer borrow money.
"The option here is for Congress to do its job and pay its bills, bills that have already been racked up," Carney said later, again refusing to rule out the option. The White House has already ruled a proposal to lift the debt ceiling by executive order citing the 14th Amendment saying it believes it doesn't have the authority to do so.
Asked if he was aware of any administration officials examining the $1 trillion coin proposal. He replied with the non-Shermanesque, "Not that I know of."Their grip on the region is now so tight that Riviera detectives expect an eastern connection to almost every crime.
“Everything from burglary and money laundering to vice is controlled by the Mob from former Communist countries,” said one police officer, who was involved in the arrest of 69 members of a Georgian syndicate in March.
Although most of the arrests of members have been in Spain, the gang’s nerve centre, many of the bosses now have luxury villas on France’s Mediterranean coast, and foot soldiers work for them, flying out for set period before returning home with their profits.
“They’re into everything, from the Russian prostitute rings in resorts like Cannes and St Tropez to gassing tourists in their villa and stealing everything they’ve got,” said the police officer.
“Bosses are now based here permanently, with foot soldiers working for them, often flying in for set periods before returning home with their profits in cash. The numbers really are unprecedented at the moment.”
Alain Bauer, a French criminologist, said: “This is one of the best structured criminal organisations in Europe, with a quasi-military operation”.
Another investigator, from the judicial police in Nice, told Le Figaro newspaper that he had recently been involved in the arrests of two eastern Mafia chiefs.
“One of them is involved in a vast money laundering operation in Spain and waiting to be extradited”, said the officer. “The other is suspected of masterminding the assassination of another rogue Georgian, and he organised a very violent settling of accounts, worthy of an action film, in a flat in Nice.”
Laurent Laubry, a representative of the police union Alliance, said that many of the gang members were heavily armed ex-soldiers from Soviet regions such as Chechnya.
He said that one of his colleagues was beaten up by four Chechens as he went to buy a packet of cigarettes last week.
“The undercover officer received a rain of blows to the face and was left for dead between two cars,” said Mr Laubry, who described the “ultra-violent methods of these people, who have no morals, no rules, and who are often heavily armed and beefy.”
As well as the arrival of the Russian Mafia, the traditional Italian one is also said to be alive and well in France.
In June, Giuseppe Falsone, a leading Sicilian Godfather, was arrested in Marseilles after a decade on the run. He was believed to have had plastic surgery and was using false identification while continuing to coordinate criminal activity, said local police.According to an accidentally leaked email, and reported by the Wall Street Journal ("Chevron's Email 'Oops' Reveals Energy Giants Sway Over Markets" 07.17.11) less than a week ago Chevron traders held oil and product contracts of 27 million barrels of oil in the physical and derivatives markets - an amount exceeding the total daily consumption of oil in the United States by some 8 million barrels.
Yes, there is some rationale, being an oil producer and refiner to maximize or protect the price of their production. But Chevron's oil/oil product trading activities goes far beyond hedging. They, as producers are in the catbirds seat to know what is happening in the market, and as the Wall Street Journal points out that "companies' traders take advantage of their inside view of the oil market to place speculative bets..." Speculative bets that have been enormously profitable for Chevron and likely for every other oil company. For Chevron alone trading profits recorded this year through July 14 on crude oil totaled almost $100 million while fuel oil posted a trading profit of $263.9 million (makes you feel warm and cozy up there in Maine??). And on.
Taking advantage of their insider status they are supported by a regulatory system that isn't functioning (also please see "Time to Dismiss the CFTC Chairman and His Commissioners" 12.27.10). Additionally, commodity markets are not subject to the strict insider trading rules that govern equities trading. And according to the WSJ, Chevron's activities illustrate the magnitude of the company's role in setting global prices. One can multiply that by a reasonably large percentage of other producers the likes of Chevron, and probably throw in OPEC and Russian Oil players, and one begins to understand why the oil markets and oil pricing have nothing whatsoever to do with that oil industry mantra, "don't blame us, its all about supply and demand."
But don't take my word for it. Before Congressional hearings during the second week in May, the Darth Vader of all things oil, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil bravely informed his Congressional interlocutors that the price of oil should be no higher than $60 or $70 a barrel, attributing the difference of quoted prices at the time of some $100/bbl to speculation and trading on the commodity exchanges (please see "Are Our Leaders Hearing ExxonMobil CEO Tillerson? 05.17.11).
Regulation of trading on the commodity exchanges as mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial regulation overhaul initiative is, given the pressure brought to bear by the financial community, in total disarray ("Commodity Cop Getting Grief From All Sides" WSJ 07.19.11). According to Michael Greenberger, professor at University of Maryland and former CFTC official, "we have no governance at all in this market." He thinks it will be five years before all derivatives are fully brought into the new regulation.
Five years!? Given the current price of oil (New York Mercantile Exchange quoted at $98bbl, Brent Crude $115/bbl) at say $100/bbl and Tillerson's speculation free $60/bbl. makes a difference of $40/bbl. The U.S. alone consumes some 20 million barrels/day. In other words we are paying a $800,000,000 speculation premium a day ($40 x 20 million barrels) or $292 billion/year and $1,400,000,000,000 or in round letters, $1.4 trillion over the five years to come.2 In Pediatric ICU After Inhaling Chemicals At Camp Pool
Michael Pfaltzgraff is the spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. Download This File
Clothes and towels left behind by campers at the YMCA pool. (Photo by WBAL's David Collins)
Anne Arundel County fire and rescue crews are treating 35 people that were overcome by pool chemicals at YMCA Camp Letts near Edgewater.
Two remain at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore in the pediatric intensive care unit where they were are being treated for burns to their respiratory tract.
Crews responded to the scene at 9:50 a.m. late Wednesday morning after getting a 911 call involving the YMCA Center.
Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials say four adults and 31 children were overcome by muriatic acid and sodium hypochlorite, causing symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
Four of the children were taken to Hopkins Children's Hospital in Baltimore. Others were taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center, Baltimore Washington Medical Center and Queen Anne's Medical Center.
An investigation is under way to identify the cause of the chemical leak, however a spokeswoman for the YMCA believed pump malfunctioned due to Tuesday's thunderstorms.Carrie Fisher was known to film fans far and wide as Star Wars‘ Princess Leia, the royal spitfire who stood as a beacon of hope as she battled the Galactic Empire. To Star Wars creator George Lucas, she was also a trusted collaborator, a close friend, and perhaps the sharpest skewer of his unique genius.
Fisher, who died Tuesday at age 60 after suffering a heart attack, memorably roasted Lucas in 2005, when he received AFI’s Life Achievement Award at a star-studded ceremony.
“George Lucas ruined my life,” Fisher deadpanned. “And I mean in the nicest possible way.”
Years after making Lucas’ little “cult film,” she said, “people are still asking me if I knew it was going to be that big of a hit. Yes, I knew. We all knew. The only one who didn’t know was George. We kept it from him because we wanted to see what his face looked like when it changed expression.”
She added, “Only a man like George could bring us whole new worlds populated by vivid, extraordinary characters, and provide Mark [Hamill] and Harrison [Ford] and myself with enough fan mail and even a small merry band of stalkers, keeping us entertained for the rest of our unnatural lives.”
Turning slightly serious, Fisher lauded her Star Wars director as “an extraordinary talent — and let’s face it, an artist — the likes of which is seen perhaps once in a generation, who helps define that generation.”
The admiration went both ways. In the wake of Fisher’s death, Lucas paid tribute to her in a statement. “Carrie and I have been friends most of our adult lives,” he said. “She was extremely smart; a talented actress, writer, and comedienne with a very colorful personality that everyone loved. In Star Wars she was our great and powerful princess — feisty, wise, and full of hope in a role that was more difficult than most people might think. My heart and prayers are with Billie, Debbie, and all Carrie’s family, friends and fans. She will be missed by all.”
Watch Fisher’s remarks about Lucas in the video above.[digg-me]We understand the world through story. Fables, parables, fairy tales, religious accounts, myths, campaign narratives, history. These stories contain – beyond characters, plot, and style – truths about how the world works.
The fable of the ant and the grasshopper demonstrates how hard work pays off in the end; through Little Red Riding Hood, we learn of the dangers of the forest and the world at large; with the story of Abraham and Isaac, we see demonstrated the radical nature of faith. The truths in these stories are often subtle things – allowing differing interpretations, competing lessons, contrasting understandings. But with each telling, the story offers something complete – some understanding about the world and an implied prescription or proscription.
I wrote earlier about making an “emotional argument” – about making an argument based on that “great unconscious mass of our knowledge – the subtle hints, the forgotten information, the half-remembered, the projections based on our past experience” which we have not “analyzed and understood.” To make this kind of argument is to argue using story, using narrative, using myth. Every narrative contains an unstated understanding – and this is the emotional argument. Emotional arguments in a political context often have concrete policy implications – which is why we should pay close attention to the media and to the stories told by politicians.
Drew Westen struck a related theme in writing The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation in which he tried to explain how the Democratic Party has often failed to use emotional arguments to make their case – instead trying to argue dry policy. Mr. Westen describes the methods of a winning political candidate:
They tell emotionally compelling stories about who they are and what they believe in…. They run on who they are and what they genuinely care about, and they know their constituents well enough to know where they share their values and where they don’t…. They speak at the level of principled stands. They provide emotionally compelling examples of the ways they would govern |
, a term covering bridges, power lines, airports and nuclear power plants, among other facilities.Learn all about the Nashorn Javascript Engine with easily understood code examples. The Nashorn Javascript Engine is part of Java SE 8 and competes with other standalone engines like Google V8 (the engine that powers Google Chrome and Node.js). Nashorn extends Javas capabilities by running dynamic javascript code natively on the JVM.
In the next ~15 minutes you learn how to evaluate javascript on the JVM dynamically during runtime. The most recent Nashorn language features are demonstrated with small code examples. You learn how to call javascript functions from java code and vice versa. At the end you're ready to integrate dynamic scripts in your daily java business.
UPDATE - I'm currently working on a JavaScript implementation of the Java 8 Streams API for the browser. If I've drawn your interest check out Stream.js on GitHub. Your Feedback is highly appreciated.
Using Nashorn
The Nashorn javascript engine can either be used programmatically from java programs or by utilizing the command line tool jjs, which is located in $JAVA_HOME/bin. If you plan to work with jjs you might want to put a symbolic link for simple access:
$ cd /usr/bin $ ln -s $JAVA_HOME/bin/jjs jjs $ jjs jjs> print('Hello World');
This tutorial focuses on using nashorn from java code, so let's skip jjs for now. A simple HelloWorld in java code looks like this:
ScriptEngine engine = new ScriptEngineManager().getEngineByName("nashorn"); engine.eval("print('Hello World!');");
In order to evaluate javascript code from java, you first create a nashorn script engine by utilizing the javax.script package already known from Rhino (Javas legacy js engine from Mozilla).
Javascript code can either be evaluated directly by passing javascript code as a string as shown above. Or you can pass a file reader pointing to your.js script file:
ScriptEngine engine = new ScriptEngineManager().getEngineByName("nashorn"); engine.eval(new FileReader("script.js"));
Nashorn javascript is based on ECMAScript 5.1 but future versions of nashorn will include support for ECMAScript 6:
The current strategy for Nashorn is to follow the ECMAScript specification. When we release with JDK 8 we will be aligned with ECMAScript 5.1. The follow up major release of Nashorn will align with ECMAScript Edition 6.
Nashorn defines a lot of language and API extensions to the ECMAScript standard. But first let's take a look at how the communication between java and javascript code works.
Invoking Javascript Functions from Java
Nashorn supports the invocation of javascript functions defined in your script files directly from java code. You can pass java objects as function arguments and return data back from the function to the calling java method.
The following javascript functions will later be called from the java side:
var fun1 = function(name) { print('Hi there from Javascript,'+ name); return "greetings from javascript"; }; var fun2 = function (object) { print("JS Class Definition: " + Object.prototype.toString.call(object)); };
In order to call a function you first have to cast the script engine to Invocable. The Invocable interface is implemented by the NashornScriptEngine implementation and defines a method invokeFunction to call a javascript function for a given name.
ScriptEngine engine = new ScriptEngineManager().getEngineByName("nashorn"); engine.eval(new FileReader("script.js")); Invocable invocable = (Invocable) engine; Object result = invocable.invokeFunction("fun1", "Peter Parker"); System.out.println(result); System.out.println(result.getClass()); // Hi there from Javascript, Peter Parker // greetings from javascript // class java.lang.String
Executing the code results in three lines written to the console. Calling the function print pipes the result to System.out, so we see the javascript message first.
Now let's call the second function by passing arbitrary java objects:
invocable.invokeFunction("fun2", new Date()); // [object java.util.Date] invocable.invokeFunction("fun2", LocalDateTime.now()); // [object java.time.LocalDateTime] invocable.invokeFunction("fun2", new Person()); // [object com.winterbe.java8.Person]
Java objects can be passed without loosing any type information on the javascript side. Since the script runs natively on the JVM we can utilize the full power of the Java API or external libraries on nashorn.
Invoking Java Methods from Javascript
Invoking java methods from javascript is quite easy. We first define a static java method:
static String fun1(String name) { System.out.format("Hi there from Java, %s", name); return "greetings from java"; }
Java classes can be referenced from javascript via the Java.type API extension. It's similar to importing classes in java code. As soon as the java type is defined we naturally call the static method fun1() and print the result to sout. Since the method is static, we don't have to create an instance first.
var MyJavaClass = Java.type('my.package.MyJavaClass'); var result = MyJavaClass.fun1('John Doe'); print(result); // Hi there from Java, John Doe // greetings from java
How does Nashorn handle type conversion when calling java methods with native javascript types? Let's find out with a simple example.
The following java method simply prints the actual class type of the method parameter:
static void fun2(Object object) { System.out.println(object.getClass()); }
To understand how type conversations are handled under the hood, we call this method with different javascript types:
MyJavaClass.fun2(123); // class java.lang.Integer MyJavaClass.fun2(49.99); // class java.lang.Double MyJavaClass.fun2(true); // class java.lang.Boolean MyJavaClass.fun2("hi there") // class java.lang.String MyJavaClass.fun2(new Number(23)); // class jdk.nashorn.internal.objects.NativeNumber MyJavaClass.fun2(new Date()); // class jdk.nashorn.internal.objects.NativeDate MyJavaClass.fun2(new RegExp()); // class jdk.nashorn.internal.objects.NativeRegExp MyJavaClass.fun2({foo: 'bar'}); // class jdk.nashorn.internal.scripts.JO4
Primitive javascript types are converted to the appropriate java wrapper class. Instead native javascript objects are represented by internal adapter classes. Please keep in mind that classes from jdk.nashorn.internal are subject to change, so you shouldn't program against those classes in client-code:
ScriptObjectMirror
When passing native javascript objects to java you can utilize the class ScriptObjectMirror which is actually a java representation of the underlying javascript object. ScriptObjectMirror implements the map interface and resides inside the package jdk.nashorn.api. Classes from this package are intended to be used in client-code.
The next sample changes the parameter type from Object to ScriptObjectMirror so we can extract some infos from the passed javascript object:
static void fun3(ScriptObjectMirror mirror) { System.out.println(mirror.getClassName() + ": " + Arrays.toString(mirror.getOwnKeys(true))); }
When passing an object hash to this method, the properties are accessible on the java side:
MyJavaClass.fun3({ foo: 'bar', bar: 'foo' }); // Object: [foo, bar]
We can also call member functions on javascript object from java. Let's first define a javascript type Person with properties firstName and lastName and method getFullName.
function Person(firstName, lastName) { this.firstName = firstName; this.lastName = lastName; this.getFullName = function() { return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName; } }
The javascript method getFullName can be called on the ScriptObjectMirror via callMember().
static void fun4(ScriptObjectMirror person) { System.out.println("Full Name is: " + person.callMember("getFullName")); }
When passing a new person to the java method, we see the desired result on the console:
var person1 = new Person("Peter", "Parker"); MyJavaClass.fun4(person1); // Full Name is: Peter Parker
Language Extensions
Nashorn defines various language and API extensions to the ECMAScript standard. Let's head right into the most recent features:
Typed Arrays
Native javascript arrays are untyped. Nashorn enables you to use typed java arrays in javascript:
var IntArray = Java.type("int[]"); var array = new IntArray(5); array[0] = 5; array[1] = 4; array[2] = 3; array[3] = 2; array[4] = 1; try { array[5] = 23; } catch (e) { print(e.message); // Array index out of range: 5 } array[0] = "17"; print(array[0]); // 17 array[0] = "wrong type"; print(array[0]); // 0 array[0] = "17.3"; print(array[0]); // 17
The int[] array behaves like a real java int array. But additionally Nashorn performs implicit type conversions under the hood when we're trying to add non-integer values to the array. Strings will be auto-converted to int which is quite handy.
Collections and For Each
Instead of messing around with arrays we can use any java collection. First define the java type via Java.type, then create new instances on demand.
var ArrayList = Java.type('java.util.ArrayList'); var list = new ArrayList(); list.add('a'); list.add('b'); list.add('c'); for each (var el in list) print(el); // a, b, c
In order to iterate over collections and arrays Nashorn introduces the for each statement. It works just like the foreach loop in java.
Here's another collection foreach example, utilizing HashMap :
var map = new java.util.HashMap(); map.put('foo', 'val1'); map.put('bar', 'val2'); for each (var e in map.keySet()) print(e); // foo, bar for each (var e in map.values()) print(e); // val1, val2
Lambda expressions and Streams
Everyone loves lambdas and streams - so does Nashorn! Although ECMAScript 5.1 lacks the compact arrow syntax from the Java 8 lambda expressions, we can use function literals where ever lambda expressions are accepted.
var list2 = new java.util.ArrayList(); list2.add("ddd2"); list2.add("aaa2"); list2.add("bbb1"); list2.add("aaa1"); list2.add("bbb3"); list2.add("ccc"); list2.add("bbb2"); list2.add("ddd1"); list2.stream().filter(function(el) { return el.startsWith("aaa"); }).sorted().forEach(function(el) { print(el); }); // aaa1, aaa2
Extending classes
Java types can simply be extended with the Java.extend extension. As you can see in the next example, you can even create multi-threaded code in your scripts:
var Runnable = Java.type('java.lang.Runnable'); var Printer = Java.extend(Runnable, { run: function() { print('printed from a separate thread'); } }); var Thread = Java.type('java.lang.Thread'); new Thread(new Printer()).start(); new Thread(function() { print('printed from another thread'); }).start(); // printed from a separate thread // printed from another thread
Parameter overloading
Methods and functions can either be called with the point notation or with the square braces notation.
var System = Java.type('java.lang.System'); System.out.println(10); // 10 System.out["println"](11.0); // 11.0 System.out["println(double)"](12); // 12.0
Passing the optional parameter type println(double) when calling a method with overloaded parameters determines the exact method to be called.
Java Beans
Instead of explicitly working with getters and setters you can just use simple property names both for getting or setting values from a java bean.
var Date = Java.type('java.util.Date'); var date = new Date(); date.year += 1900; print(date.year); // 2014
Function Literals
For simple one line functions we can skip the curly braces:
function sqr(x) x * x; print(sqr(3)); // 9
Binding properties
Properties from two different objects can be bound together:
var o1 = {}; var o2 = { foo: 'bar'}; Object.bindProperties(o1, o2); print(o1.foo); // bar o1.foo = 'BAM'; print(o2.foo); // BAM
Trimming strings
I like my strings trimmed.
print(" hehe".trimLeft()); // hehe print("hehe ".trimRight() + "he"); // hehehe
Whereis
In case you forget where you are:
print(__FILE__, __LINE__, __DIR__);
Import Scopes
Sometimes it's useful to import many java packages at once. We can use the class JavaImporter to be used in conjunction with the with statement. All class files from the imported packages are accessible within the local scope of the with statement:
var imports = new JavaImporter(java.io, java.lang); with (imports) { var file = new File(__FILE__); System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath()); // /path/to/my/script.js }
Convert arrays
Some packages like java.util can be accessed directly without utilizing Java.type or JavaImporter :
var list = new java.util.ArrayList(); list.add("s1"); list.add("s2"); list.add("s3");
This code converts the java list to a native javascript array:
var jsArray = Java.from(list); print(jsArray); // s1,s2,s3 print(Object.prototype.toString.call(jsArray)); // [object Array]
And the other way around:
var javaArray = Java.to([3, 5, 7, 11], "int[]");
Calling Super
Accessing overridden members in javascript is traditionally awkward because javas super keyword doesn't exist in ECMAScript. Luckily nashorn goes to the rescue.
First we define a super type in java code:
class SuperRunner implements Runnable { @Override public void run() { System.out.println("super run"); } }
Next we override SuperRunner from javascript. Pay attention to the extended nashorn syntax when creating a new Runner instance: The syntax of overriding members is borrowed from javas anonymous objects.
var SuperRunner = Java.type('com.winterbe.java8.SuperRunner'); var Runner = Java.extend(SuperRunner); var runner = new Runner() { run: function() { Java.super(runner).run(); print('on my run'); } } runner.run(); // super run // on my run
We call the overridden method SuperRunner.run() by utilizing the Java.super extension.
Loading scripts
Evaluating additional script files from javascript is quite easy. We can load both local or remote scripts with the load function.
I'm using Underscore.js a lot for my web front-ends, so let's reuse Underscore in Nashorn:
load('http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.6.0/underscore-min.js'); var odds = _.filter([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], function (num) { return num % 2 == 1; }); print(odds); // 1, 3, 5
The external script will be evaluated in the same javascript context, so we can access the underscore variable directly. Keep in mind that loading scripts can potentially break your own code when variable names are overlapping each other.
This problem can be bypassed by loading script files into a new global context:
loadWithNewGlobal('script.js');
Command-line scripts
If you're interested in writing command-line (shell) scripts with Java, give Nake a try. Nake is a simplified Make for Java 8 Nashorn. You define tasks in a project-specific Nakefile, then run those tasks by typing nake -- myTask into the command line. Tasks are written in javascript and run in Nashorns scripting mode, so you can utilize the full power of your terminal as well as the JDK8 API and any java library.
For Java Developers writing command-line scripts is easy as never before...
That's it
I hope this guide was helpful to you and you enjoyed our journey to the Nashorn Javascript Engine. For further information about Nashorn read here, here and here. A guide to coding shell scripts with Nashorn can be found here.
I recently published a follow up article about how to use Backbone.js models with the Nashorn Javascript Engine. If you want to learn more about Java 8 feel free to read my Java 8 Tutorial and my Java 8 Stream Tutorial.
The runnable source code from this Nashorn tutorial is hosted on GitHub. Feel free to fork the repository or send me your feedback via Twitter.
Keep on coding!8 DETAILS
1) Payroll tax cut. The central item is the payroll tax extension and expansion. Let's explain that. Normally, you would pay 6.2 percent of your wages in taxes. In 2011, you paid only 4.2 percent, thanks to a compromise reached in December. But in 2012, according to the president's plan, you would pay a tax on only 3.2 percent of your wages. That comes out to nearly a 50 percent tax cut on work, worth about $1,500 per year for a typical worker.
2) Incentives to hire. The president: "Small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or raise workers' wages. It's a fine idea, but not revolutionary." Passed in 2010, the HIRE Act already gave tax breaks to businesses who hired previously unemployed workers
3) A tax credit to hire the long-term unemployed. The president: "Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job."
4) Extending unemployment insurance for another year.
5) A tax credit to hire veterans. The president: "Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get extra tax credits if they hire America's veterans."
6) Housing help. The president: "To help responsible homeowners, we're going to work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4% -- a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices."
7) Deficit Reduction through tax reform and spending reductions that include Medicare and Medicaid: The president: "In addition to the trillion dollars of spending cuts I've already signed into law, it's a balanced plan that would reduce the deficit by making additional spending cuts; by making modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid; and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share. What's more, the spending cuts wouldn't happen so abruptly that they'd be a drag on our economy, or prevent us from helping small business and middle-class families get back on their feet right away."
8) School Investment. The president promised legislation that would save teacher jobs and modernize "at least 35,000 schools." Details were short.The biggest beneficiaries of government largess are not those who struggle along on Social Security payments, Medicare or Medicaid benefits, or earned-income tax credits, despite what Mitt Romney has told his donors. Rather, they are those at the highest end of the income scale: government contractors, corporate farmers and very rich individuals who have figured out how to exploit the country’s poorly written tax code for their benefit.
The latter group’s most prominent member is Mr. Romney himself, whose astonishingly low tax rates are made possible by finding and using every loophole and flaw in the code. What his tax practices show is not illegal or unethical behavior, but rather the unfairness of a tax system that provides its most outlandish benefits only for the very, very rich and savvy. What is worse is that Mr. Romney has proposed making this profoundly dysfunctional system even more unfair.
Some of Mr. Romney’s financial tactics are well-known, like structuring his income so that most of it is taxed at the low capital-gains rate of 15 percent, or stashing investments in tax havens like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. (The Times reported on Tuesday that the use of these havens not only saved him money, significantly enhancing his sizable retirement account, but also helped his company attract foreign investments.) But other strategies are so obscure that they are only known to the very few who worry about passing millions to their heirs without paying transfer taxes.
As Bloomberg News recently reported, Mr. Romney has managed to move nearly $100 million worth of assets into a trust for his heirs without paying any gift tax, which, like the estate tax, was established to ensure that society benefits from the dynastic transfer of great wealth. When he was running Bain Capital, the private equity firm, in 1998, he gave the trust shares of an Internet ad company, DoubleClick, in which Bain had invested, just before the company went public. The shares were worth little then, but insiders like Mr. Romney knew the company could flourish. After the company went public, the value of the shares went up tenfold. The trust then sold the shares, but their increased value escaped the gift tax because that tax applies just to the original value of the gift.
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But that wasn’t the only trick that Mr. Romney used, none of which are of any use to ordinary taxpayers. Exploiting a flaw in the tax code, he set up the trust so that he could pay the income taxes on the capital gains on DoubleClick’s shares. Paying those taxes is another huge gift to his heirs, and this practice is widely used by the wealthy as another way to pass on money to another generation while avoiding gift or estate taxes. Earlier this year, President Obama proposed eliminating this loophole, but the idea went nowhere with Republicans in Congress.
Like most Republicans, Mr. Romney wants to eliminate the estate tax entirely, even though it currently applies only to estates of more than $10 million for a married couple. That would cost the treasury more than $1 trillion over a decade, but it would be a huge benefit for Mr. Romney’s heirs and for the other 0.3 percent of estates rich enough to qualify for the tax. Getting rid of the estate tax would subvert the gift tax (it was established as a backstop, to keep estates from being passed on before death) and would spare the rich all this complicated “estate planning,” which is just a euphemism for avoiding the tax.0.26: Foursquare, Fast.com, FFMPEG and GPSD August 13, 2016 three minutes reading time
It’s time for 0.26 and it’s again full of new features and fixes. First I want to highlight that we are now having 500 000 monthly pageviews on the website. A big milestone for us! It’s been an amazing journey. Big thanks to the Home Assistant community for being such a delightful bunch.
This release includes code contributed by 31 different people. The biggest change in this release is a new unit system. Instead of picking Celsius or Fahrenheit you’ll have to pick imperial or metric now. This influences the units for your temperature, distance, and weight. This will simplify any platform or component that needs to know this information. Big thanks to @Teagan42 for her hard work on this!
Hotfix 0.26.1 - August 14
Fix serial_pm config validation (@open-homeautomation)
Check for existence of system mode on Honeywell thermostats (@mKeRix)
Fix unknown unit of measurement for hvac and thermostat component (@turbokongen)
Hotfix 0.26.2 - August 15
Fix Wemo: have PyWemo play nicely with the latest Requests (@pavoni)
Hotfix 0.26.3 - August 19
Media Player cover art would not work when an API password was set. Thanks to @maddox for reporting it and @balloob for the fix.
Breaking changes
A new unit system has superseded the temperature unit option in the core configuration. For now it is backwards compatible, but you should update soon:Though Syria will not be discussed when the West and Iran sit down for nuclear talks, it is likely to be part of the unresolved calculus of power in the region
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS Police secure the area in front of the Iranian embassy in Cairo on Feb. 6, 2013, as Syrians living in Egypt protest the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protesters say Ahmadinejad is a supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad
The killing last week of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander near the Lebanon-Syria border has rekindled speculation about Iran’s activities in Syria, particularly its ties to the militia groups fighting alongside the Syrian government. With rebel forces having gained control of vast swaths of northern and eastern Syria in recent weeks, and the U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warning that Syria is being transformed into “a playground for competing regional forces and governments,” the precise nature of Iran’s role in the conflict is being held to more scrutiny than perhaps any moment since the conflict began 22 months ago.
Though Western and Iranian officials will not discuss Syria when they sit down for talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Iran’s ability to shape that conflict will hang over the negotiations, strengthening both Tehran’s perception of its position and the West’s resolve to deny Iran meaningful sanctions relief.
Iran says it is seeking a cease-fire in Syria and has offered its own proposal to end hostilities and bring about a negotiated end to the conflict, with the ultimate aim of holding a national referendum on how the country should be governed. Iranian officials say Tehran’s interests lie in restoring stability, not sowing further chaos. “For us, the worst-case scenario is civil war and the fracture of Syria, and we’ll do everything we can to prevent that,” Hossein Sheikholeslam, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria and foreign policy adviser to the head of parliament, told TIME.
But Washington blames Iran for prolonging the country’s bloody civil war, alleging that it is propping up the government of President Bashar Assad with a steady supply of weapons and cash. American officials say Tehran is also busy on the ground cultivating a network of proxies, in coordination with its ally Hizballah, that can advance its interests should the Assad regime eventually fall. U.S. officials have linked Tehran with the proregime militia Jaysh al-Sha’bi, which Washington designated as a terrorist group in December. David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department, told the Washington Post earlier this month that “Jaysh is essentially an Iran-Hizballah joint venture.”
(MORE: On Patrol in Syria with Assad’s Most Diligent Enemies)
Iran dismisses these allegations and accuses Washington and its Arab allies, in turn, of providing munitions to the Syrian opposition, dragging out a bloody conflict that lacks sufficient domestic support to topple Assad on its own strength. “The West is sending in the explosives that end up in car bombs in rush-hour traffic,” says Sheikholeslam, who denies that Iran has modeled Jaysh al-Sha’bi on its Basij militia. “So we have a Basij in Iran, others learn from us.”
The conflicting narratives over Iran’s presence in Syria were amplified last week by the killing of the Revolutionary Guards commander, General Hassan Shateri, and the various roles attributed to him after his death. Iranian state media described him as the overseer of Iranian-financed reconstruction of the Hizballah heartland in southern Lebanon, damaged heavily during the 2006 war with Israel. The country’s political and military elite converged on the commander’s funeral in Tehran, and in footage posted on the Raja News website, a cleric described Shateri “as no less than Imad Mughniyah,” the shadowy Hizballah leader credited with the deaths of hundreds of Americans and Israelis in the 1980s and beyond.
The reference to Mughniyah, probably the past century’s most notorious terrorist after Osama bin Laden, did little to bolster Tehran’s argument that Shateri was involved in quiet reconstruction activities. But many of those who spoke at the funeral, amid much weeping, spoke in detail of Shateri’s work. They said Christians and Muslims in southern Lebanon knew him as “Hajj Hassan” and respected his efforts to rebuild their leveled villages, as well as parks named after the Islamic Republic. Sheikholeslam, the parliamentary adviser, said Shateri devoted himself to rebuilding southern Beirut with a local’s passion. “If there was, before the war, two buildings which faced one another, and families could talk through their windows while they cooked lunch, we would try to rebuild in the same manner those families wanted.”
So what was General Shateri’s role in Lebanon and Syria: A shadowy figure like Mughniyah, plotting spectacular attacks to thwart America’s design, or an engineer rebuilding kitchens so housewives could chat while cooking? Iranian officials are coy on this question, varying their rhetoric sometimes by the day. The head of the Revolutionary Guards acknowledged in September that Iran had military forces on the ground in Syria as military advisers, and earlier this month Mehdi Taeb, an official charged with defending Iran against what is euphemistically called “soft war,” called Syria a province of Iran, and said, “if we lose Syria, we cannot keep Tehran.”
But such pronouncements, some analysts say, are expedient for Iran as well, projecting the sense that Tehran is essential to any solution. As Farideh Farhi, a scholar and Iran expert at the University of Hawaii, puts it: “After all, if your aspiration is to sit on the table around which decisions about the region are made, then boasting or at least not denying your power and influence, [this] may be deemed as not a particularly bad game to play.”
(MORE: Battle for Syria’s Aleppo Airport Intensifies)
The political establishment in Tehran, while broadly in agreement on Iran’s strategic alliance with Syria, also varies in its stance on Assad. Many Iranian officials are reluctant to criticize the Syrian President, but others are more frank about his leadership and how Iran’s support for him fits into the political dynamic of the region. “Yes, of course Bashar Assad is a dictator, there’s no doubt left about this,” Ahmed Bakhshayesh, a member of the parliament’s Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told TIME. “What bothers us is that the countries opposing Assad have double standards. They say human rights are trampled in Syria, but do the Kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain even get what human rights are?”
The battle of perceptions over Iran’s involvement in Syria, waged by both Washington and Tehran, also reflects the wider animosity between Iran and the U.S. and their inability to talk. This stalemate is felt everywhere from the stalled nuclear negotiations to Iran’s fraught relationship with America’s allies in the region, primarily Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Washington, says Farhi, elevates Iran’s role in Syria as cover for its own ambivalent Syria policy, too timid to forcefully dislodge Assad and yet loath to transition him out of power through a political process that would involve Iran. Says Farhi, “If indeed Tehran is such a key player in Syria, then wouldn’t it make sense to engage with it in order to find a solution to the quagmire?”
The view from Tehran, which has recently signaled its own unwillingness to deal with the U.S., remains calculating. Iran has long seen itself as the natural hegemony in the region and has pitched its ambitions accordingly. Says Sheikholeslam: “Weren’t the missiles that stopped the Israeli assault on Gaza not brought about by our support? Iran’s role in the region is increasing everywhere, and it’s natural that it should increase in Syria as well, though that doesn’t mean through interference in Syria’s affairs.”
While American officials speak mainly of Iran’s hidden hand, rarely discussing the broader strategic dynamic at play in the conflict or invoking the interests of allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Iran is candid about how it sees the stakes. “We live in the region, and we understand the balance of power,” says the MP Bakhshayesh. “There are two fronts: one comprised of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the other [Gulf] kingdoms; and the other of Iran, Hizballah and Syria. The first front wants to weaken the second, and Bashar Assad is taking the stick for this.”
MORE: The Missing Journalists of Syria’s War: The Struggle to Save Those Who Bear WitnessAbout
What we are offering:
A simple way of organizing all of your hobby. We know that most of the wargamers around the world have paints scattered all over their work spaces, hobby tools rolling around on their tables and miniatures getting lost under piles of dice, templates and other gaming equipment.
Ask yourself the following questions:
How often you spend valuable painting time seeking out that one paint you need only to give up and start mixing other paints?
How often do you lose brushes and files when you need them most?
Does your work space look more like a war zone than the tables your miniatures are waging war over?
Well we have a solution for you!
We have painstakingly designed the perfect space-saving hobby racks for all your hobby needs. We guarantee to clean up your war-zone of a work space and organize all of your paints, files, brushes, drills, clippers and everything else that clutters your desk into a neat, out of the way (but still easily accessible) rack.
How this all started.
I have been painting miniatures for well over 8 years. This whole time I have been haunted by the mess that is my hobby desk. I've lost more paints than I care to admit, I have been cut with the very hobby knives that I was searching for, and I have lost count of the times that I have fought with my family over the state of my hobby room. This needed to change.
Why you should support this project:
I wish to assist all the messy hobbyists out there to manage your workspace well and have a work space so tidy you will never spend more than a few second looking for something ever again.
Currently there are two different designs for the paint racks. This means that you can have your workspace look exactly like you want, and there are so many sections you can build it from, your work space can truly be your own. The possibilities are limitless! No matter what paints you use, or how many you own, there will always be a solution for you!
Where will your contribution really go?
The single most important piece of equipment I will need for this is the Laser Cutter. This will be the only machine I will use to produce your rewards, and once I have the website built, to customers all over the world for years to come. The goal breaks down as follows:
$10,550 AUD for the smallest cutter that can cut my designs.
$548 AUD for the delivery of the machine
Approximately $900 for processing fees
The rest is for the materials needed to create the rewards and any necessary maintenance to the machine.
Funding Goals:
$16,000 - $25,000 Acrylic available for all Hobby Racks
$25,000 - $27,000 1200x900mm Laser Cutter
$27,000 - $37,000 Acrylic available for all Hobby Racks again
$37,000 Molding/Casting equipment to expand Modular Terrain rewards into detailed plastic components with MUCH more detail.
Explanations: The smallest machine I can viably use has a 650 x 450mm bed. Anything smaller than that won't be enough for some of the designs.
This means that my main goal is be able to buy a larger cutter for efficiency. A 1200 x 900mm bed size would be ideal for this task as it would allow me to cut the products at close to 4 times as fast, allowing you to receive your reward much quicker. Such a machine costs $17,260 AUD, which means I need an approximate funding goal of $25,000.
If I don't quite reach the $25k mark, but I exceed the initial goal by enough, I do intend to offer acrylic choices for all rewards.
If I manage to reach $37,000 I want to develop better (and more) terrain. I will make prototype models (using a commercial 3D printer), and will cast these for all of you! This will allow much more detailed components with many more varieties and designs.
Now to the most important part: The rewards!
Initially I will be offering the following series as rewards:
Hobby Racks Series 1
Hobby Racks Series 2
Hobby Racks Series Rotating
Modular Gaming Boards
Bases (Standard and custom designs)
Movement Trays
All the Hobby Racks and Gaming Boards will be completely modular with the use of magnets (supplied) as shown in the photos. The possibilities are endless!
Every reward will come supplied with everything you need to build it including instructions.
Reward Guidelines: 'Single Sections' include all Rack sections except the Double Straight and Double Drawers. If funding is successful, you will be sent a survey about the project and in your reply you will choose the sections you would like included in your reward. Note if you like, you can substitute 2x Single sections for a Double Straight.
Example Series 1 Ultimate Bundle:
Double Drawers
2x Double Straight
2x Inside Corners
2x Outside Corners
Tool Rack
Drawers
Example Bases Bundle 3:
4x 20-packs of 20mm Round Bases
2x 10-packs of 40mm Round Bases
2x 5-packs of 60mm Round Bases
2x 3-packs of 120mm Oval Bases
Disclaimer: I have produced viable prototypes as a proof of concept for three sections of the Series 1 rack and a version of the Gaming Board, but this was very expensive using a commercial Laser Cutter so I wasn't able to produce all of my designs to show you here. Where I don't have the prototypes, I will show the 3D models of the product instead.
Number of paints which fit in the Hobby Racks.
Paint Rack size options:
Citadel (old hexagonal): 34.5mm
Citadel (old round + current): 33mm
Vallejo/Army Painter/Reaper Master: 25mm
Miniataire: 36mm
Tamiya: 36mm
Folkart: 36mm
Lifecolor: 34.5mm
Foundry: 30.5mm
P3: 30.5mm
Coat D'Arms: 30.5mm
Model Master: 33mm
If you use any paints that aren't listed please send me a message with their dimensions and I will update the list.
Hobby Rack Series 1
This rack features completely enclosed spaces for your paints (as shown |
are a good idea.
Assembly took about five seconds. The sticker wraps around the plastic cut-out and the completed 2-D miniature fits snugly into the plastic base.
The actual images are somewhat cartoony – perhaps a little too much so for my taste. The printing however is crisp and the colours vivid. The current range from Flat Minis includes some eighteen characters. I would prefer a more realistic representation of characters – but these will do the job intended. If they made these for either the Harn or Empire of the Petal Throne settings – I would buy the lot.
Some other examples from their current range.
And of course one good thing about 2D miniatures. They can fit through really narrow gaps on your dungeon layout.
Flat Minis – http://www.flatminis.com
AdvertisementsRussia in the Global Arms Market
Stagnation in a Changing Market Landscape
August 18, 2017
CSIS
To say that Russia is a major player in the global defense market is to make a substantial understatement. Various estimates are available on the size of Russian arms exports —but all leading market monitors agree that Russia is currently the world’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States. Arms exports are important to Russia not just economically, but also politically and militarily. Leaving aside the question of whether they are effective to these goals, Russia sees arms exports as a tool of influence and as a mark of prestige. Not surprisingly, then, the rapid growth of Russian defense exports in the 2000s has been highlighted as a major achievement of the Putin era by state-owned and pro-government Russian media. Until recently, this upbeat pictures was backed by the numbers. For example, Russian arms exports indeed skyrocketed by 440 percent, from $3.4 billion in 1999 (when Vladimir Putin became acting prime minister) to a peak of $15.7 billion in 2013. In recent years, however, that growth first slowed, and then stalled completely. This paper explains why arms exports grew so rapidly in the 2000s and early 2010s and why they are now stagnating. In doing this, it provides an overview of the current dynamics of Russian arms exports and offers an outlook for the coming years.
Photo Credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty ImagesThe other day I wrote this thing — “Not All Men, But Still Too Many Men” — with the goal of pointing folks toward the #YesAllWomen hashtag on Twitter, where women talked about their stories, experiences and fears when faced with the spectrum of male entitlement and rape culture.
That post generated a little heat, and eventually (also unsurprisingly) attracted the attention of some of our finest citizens and charming charmers, the MRAs, or Men’s Rights Activists.
Now, not every comment was a septic slap in the face — but for every comment I let slip through, I got another two that weren’t so nice. Many were from self-identified MRAs, some of whom seemed to think I was a woman? A bearded lady, perhaps. They called me “cunt” and “fucking bitch” and one of them said I was probably single and had a lot of cats? I dunno. No idea. Some didn’t think I was a woman but instead wanted to compare me to a woman, which is obviously the worst insult they think they have in their arsenal. Many of them echoed similar sentiments, ones I’ve seen on Facebook recently, too, that seem straight out of the MRA playbook: calling mothers to task for raising shitty men (either weak men or abusive ones); women tricking men into pregnancies; women abusing men; women falsely-reporting rape to get men in trouble; inequality is a myth; not all men; men are entitled to love (this person did not say “sex,” but intimated that “love” included the physical). And so on. Often with, to be honest, a great deal of misspellings and dogshit grammar and the reading comprehension of an aging, mule-kicked spider monkey.
I did not win bingo, though, as none of them threatened to rape me, so I guess there’s that.
Then, I saw that the folks of Posthuman Studios, makers of the game Eclipse Phase, wrote a post about MRAs which, in essence, told MRAs to fuck off from their forums and their fandom. A quote from that (though I recommend you go on over and read the whole thing):
“Here’s our stance: If you self-define as an MRA, please fire yourself as an Eclipse Phase fan. We don’t want you. We want our forums to be open and inclusive, and we don’t see the point of debating with you anymore. You have other places on the internet where you can wallow in the awfulness of your male privilege.”
I did get a few emails from men who self-identified as MRAs and these emails were polite enough and they pointed out correctly that, hey, sometimes men’s issues are real and worth caring about. Not to the exclusion of women’s rights, but hey, you know, some things are a bit wonky for dudes. And they’re not wrong. Prostate cancer is a tough row to hoe. Men can be the victims of domestic abuse and rape, and it often goes unreported because the harsh whip-sting of male jerk culture sometimes lashes back and catches us on the chin.
Men have issues, too.
Real issues that need to at least be discussed.
I agree with that.
But.
But.
You knew that was coming, right?
Buuuuuuut.
You can be concerned about men’s issues without portraying that as a loss of our rights. You can care about advocacy for the issues surrounding boys and men without joining what is very traditionally a misogynist group who, to remind you, has a very distinctive (and notably shitty) playbook when it gets into arguments. It isn’t nice to (or about) women. The movement claims in one breath to want equality for all humans, but then in the second breath spits venom on mothers and rape victims and it dismisses and denies and derails, attempting to refocus the conversation to: HEY FORGET THEM LYING CHEATING LADIES, WHAT ABOUT THE POOR MENFOLK.
Reframing the argument again about men.
And, further, portraying men as the victims in all things.
(And ironically, many of the issues surrounding men are, in fact, caused by men. Gasp!)
Let’s shift gears and look at it this way.
I am concerned for animal rights.
I like animals.
I admittedly also eat them, but whatever.
I think it’s wise to treat our animals ethically. And so you might say that I am a Person who is interested in the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and if you were to pluck an acronym from that you might see that I should be a member of PETA. Except, I despise PETA. They kill animals. They just linked autism with dairy in a dubious claim. (Click here to see their awful “Got Autism?” advertisement.) Just because I like animals doesn’t mean I’m going to join the ranks of a toxic group like PETA. Liking German history doesn’t mean you have to join the Nazi party. Being interested in white linen bedsheets doesn’t mean you join the KKK. And —
Being interested in issues surrounding men doesn’t mean joining the MRM.
Maybe, just maybe, you’re a nice guy who self-identifies as MRM.
Yeah, don’t.
Because the MRM is ugly business.
It’s full of misogynistic, mansplaining, self-entitled nastiness.
It promotes a culture of victim-blaming, victim-shaming.
It wields its privilege like a weapon while yelling about not having any privilege.
It acts counter to feminism instead of alongside it.
It is thick with PUA (pick-up-artists) clowns.
It often comes accompanied by racist, homophobic, transphobic throughlines.
The MRM is attempting to further rig an already-rigged game. And it does so in the same way that our political process sometimes duct-tapes awful legislation to good legislation to slip it through the door — the movement claims to care about men’s issues, some of which are legitimate and worth looking at, and then suddenly once in the door starts yelling about sluts and the myth of rape culture and paternity fraud and how age of consent is oppressive. In other words, it claims to be about men’s rights, but really, it’s all about women’s rights.
Meaning, it’s about taking them away.
It doesn’t want to improve the rights of men, but diminish the rights of women.
It doesn’t love dudes. It just hates ladies.
So, consider, if you’re sympathetic to the MRM, maybe think about what that connects you to. Think about what that says about you. Think for just a second about, is this a group that’s actually going to address issues? Or is just going to spin more hate and spit in the eyes of women just for being women? Even if some elements of the group want to change things, MRA is marked. Indelibly. Tattooed with ink brewed from its own shittiness. Who’s going to listen except other MRA-types? I mean, consider that one of their issues is the bullying of boys, okay? Bullying is a genuine issue and a real problem, and yet they want to address it without acknowledging that the attitudes explicit inside the MRM are what help cause that bullying in the first place because boys tend to bully other boys. And then MRA members use bullying tactics on women and men to get their point across, thus proving that the concern is utter bullshit. (“BULLYING IS BAD. AND PROBABLY A LADY’S FAULT. DON’T BULLY OR I’LL BULLY YOU BECAUSE SOMETHING SOMETHING DUDE YOU’RE SUCH A GIRLYPANTS MAN-GINA.”)
(I mean, c’mon, y’all. As I have noted in the past, vaginas are like, 1000x times tougher than testicles. Those ladyparts are basically tough as tractor tires. Our balls are as tough as tissue paper. We get flicked in the nuts by a badminton birdie we’ll double over for 20 minutes, moaning and rocking back and forth. Our balls are like little yarn-bundles contained in a thin, wifty sack of outlying flesh. They unspool like bobbins of delicate thread when damaged. Women on the other hand push entire people out of their lady-realms like divine fucking beings. So, maybe that vagina-analog isn’t the best insult, misogynist dudes. Kay? Kay.)
MRA tactics are over the top, unnecessary, and often incredibly nasty.
They want to burn down a perfectly nice house to get at a few mice.
Because they’re extremists.
You can love animals without hating people.
You can be an environmental activist without sinking boats.
You can be Muslim without blowing up buses.
You can be Christian without bombing abortion clinics.
You can be a man interested in issues surrounding men without hurting women, without shouting them down, without perpetuating rape culture, without being a misogynistic jerkoff bully whose claim to having a meaningful agenda is lost the moment he opens his mouth and says something awful. (Or types it on the Internet without the ability to spell or put words together in a cogent, intelligent way — as all too often seems to be the case.)
Care about men’s issues all you want.
Just don’t do it according to the MRA playbook.
Be a good man. And teach your sons and fellow men the same.
And P.S. — MRA fans? I don’t want you either. You’re not going to like my books anyway.
And P.P.S. — comments off because really, what’s the point?WhatsApp for Windows Phone just picked up an update for both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile devices, bringing a much awaited design refresh and more.
The app – which remains a Windows Phone 8.1 app at its core – has now updated the chat UI to fit more in line with Windows 10 Mobile’s new design language.
Gallery
As shown in the screenshots above, the chat box has been redesigned to now include the message send and attachments buttons. The call button has also been moved up to the top from the app bar, and the profile picture of the person or group currently being engaged with is now displayed on the top left corner.
You can also share documents like PDF, Excel Files, and more via WhatsApp’s new integrated file picker.
To finish up the update, WhatsApp also added new plain colour backgrounds to the gallery, allowing users an even greater choice in backgrounds.
WhatsApp is a well designed app for Windows Phone, and while its not a universal Windows app yet, we can’t help but think the firm is doing such a good job that that doesn’t matter.
The version you’re looking for is 2.16.52 and you can grab it from the Windows store below;Some readers might recognise my face from Monzo community events, I’m the tall guy in the red t-shirt 😉 After finishing my degree at the Open University earlier this summer, I applied for an overnight COps role (short for Customer Operations) at Monzo, and three weeks ago I walked through the doors of Monzo HQ not as a guest, but as a member of the team! As my first full month draws to a close, I wanted to share my experiences and offer some insights into what a week in the life of a new joiner at Monzo looks like.
I’ve been a Monzo user since the Alpha card days, and was one of 6 volunteer forum leaders who helped manage and moderate the community forum day to day. Without the right tools and information, it was hard to advise other users on more complex problems and there were times when I wished I could do more to help. These frustrations were the motivating factor which led to me applying for the COps role. It seemed like an opportunity to have an even greater impact on the support experience for other Monzo users.
I had mixed feelings on my journey in on my first day; excitement with a touch of trepidation. The day started with breakfast at a cafe with Liam and Calum, both new additions to the COps team. It was a great opportunity to break the ice and make some informal introductions before heading to the office to meet the rest of the team.
From 10am onwards we were in at the deep end! Monzo’s onboarding process consists of ten days of practical hands on training, alongside team specific introductions and tooling tutorials supported by lots of background reading. The team introductions offer a great overview of ‘who does what’ and for a COps agent in particular it’s really useful to gain a perspective on the bigger picture.
Being an active member of the community really helped me hit the ground running in terms of having a basic understanding of everything from payment processes to design principles. Many of these topics have been discussed and demystified by Monzo staff and other clued up community members on the forum. It works both ways too - I was pretty amused to hear that some of my posts on the forum had been used as reference points by the COps team!
My time was generally broken up into three sections, training, interactive, and non-interactive time. Training takes up around half of each day, the rest of the time I spent answering questions, investigating customer inquiries and catching up with other people in the team.
Getting to know other people across the organisation is an hugely important part of the onboarding process and there were plenty of opportunities to catch up designers, engineers, and C-level team members to find out what they were working on. A significant amount of my time was dedicated to team lunches, long walks and coffees with colleagues - the openness of these introductions surprised me! The art of asking for help isn’t something which comes naturally to me in new situations, but these chats really helped me feel comfortable enough to speak up whenever I need a hand.
I’ve had the opportunity to find out some fascinating things which I had been intrigued to know more about as a community member. For example, the design team have prototyped or mocked up almost every commonly requested feature from our users. Some of these are showing up in plans for future app updates! I’ve also learnt a lot more about the way banking and payments work over the last two weeks. Especially now that we’ve been internally testing our debit cards for the current account. I hear there’s a lot of interesting data that we’ve got back from certain merchants already. 👀
My first month hasn’t been without it’s challenges - familiarising myself with the internal tools we use to help customers has been a steep learning curve! One of my biggest apprehensions about joining Monzo was interacting with unhappy customers in difficult situations. Conventional support often gets a bad reputation as a place where customers go to complain and come away with a less than favourable impression of how their query has been dealt with. I’ve been truly astounded by how lovely our customers are, and equally impressed by how the COps team manage to turn difficult and unpleasant experiences for our users into positive outcomes and joyful interactions.
Three weeks in, I feel far more confident both in my role and as a person. The amount of trust and responsibility afforded to me from day one has certainly played a huge part in this, along with the incredibly supportive team around me. There are some great opportunities for both personal and professional development which I look forward to learning more about. Some COps agents go on to become specialists in certain areas (technical, fincrime) and this is something I’d like to explore more in future. All in all, it’s been a roller coaster start to what promises to be an exciting journey. I can’t wait to see where it takes me!
If you’re interested in joining the team, head to our careers page - we’re hiring! You can reach me with questions on Twitter and I’m always around on the community forum for a chat!The Rockies have interest in Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (Twitter link). Colorado joins an ever-growing list of teams connected to the slugger, including the Royals, Cardinals, Dodgers and Diamondbacks, plus likely more clubs whose interest has yet to be revealed.
As Morosi notes, Martinez is particularly valuable in the NL West as a right-handed bat to counter the division’s many good southpaws, which explains why the D’Backs, Dodgers and Rox have checked in on the outfielder. Martinez, of course, is a dangerous bat anywhere — he carries a.306/.384/.622 slash line and 15 homers over 224 plate appearances this season, putting him on pace for his best year since breaking out as one of the game’s top hitters in 2014. Martinez will be a free agent this winter, though even as a rental player, the Tigers stand to obtain a big return if and when they trade the 29-year-old.
The Rockies seem like an odd trade match at first given their seeming surplus of corner outfield options: Carlos Gonzalez, Ian Desmond (just activated from the DL today), Gerardo Parra, rookie Raimel Tapia and possibly David Dahl as a late-season reinforcement off the disabled list. CarGo, however, simply hasn’t been himself this year, hitting just.215/.294/.330 with six home runs over 306 PA. Desmond and Parra have both missed time due to injury, and could be needed at first base since Mark Reynolds’ bat has drastically cooled off over the last month. Tapia and Dahl, meanwhile, would seemingly fit the model of talented young outfield prospects that could go to Detroit in a Martinez trade; the Tigers have reportedly had interest in the likes of the Astros’ Derek Fisher and the Dodgers’ Alex Verdugo in recent months.A 17-year-old youth honored last summer as the nation's safest teen-age driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel before his car slammed into another car, killing him and another person, the police said today.
The driver, Michael Doucette, of Concord, and the driver of the other car, Sharon Ann Link, 19, of Lebanon, were pronounced dead at the scene. The accident occurred Friday shortly after 5 P.M., the police said.
Mr. Doucette's car, which he was awarded in the driving competition, drifted over the center line and struck Ms. Link's car, the police report on the accident said. It appeared Ms. Link tried to avoid the oncoming car, as the collision happened at the extreme right side of her lane.
The report by the state police said a preliminary investigation showed that Mr. Doucette ''may have fallen asleep at the wheel.'' The police in Henniker said today that no further information on the accident would be released until the investigation is finished.
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One Man Is Injured
A passenger in Ms. Link's car, Michael Dimascola, 20, of Lebanon, was injured in the crash and was listed in stable condition today at Concord Hospital.
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Last July, Mr. Doucette won the safe-driving title in a contest sponsored by the Dodge division of Chrysler Corporation and Amvets, a veterans' group. The contest was held in Detroit. He won a $5,000 scholarship, a trophy and the use of a 1989 Dodge for a year. That is the car he was driving Friday afternoon.
The principal of Concord High School, Charles Foley, said he was shaken by the news of Mr. Doucette's death. ''He was just a fine kid from a good family,'' he said. ''It's heartbreaking.''A customer fires a handgun at a shooting range in Utah. (George Frey/Bloomberg file)
Back in September, the owner of the Gun Cave Indoor Shooting Range in Arkansas announced that her business would become a “Muslim-free zone.” And despite at least one anti-discrimination legal challenge from the Council for American-Islamic Relations, the Gun Cave has remained a “Muslim-free zone.”
However, an anonymous father and son of South Asian descent have accused the business of turning them away even though they’re Hindu, not Muslim. “I’m not Muslim, I’m just brown,” one of the rejected patrons told local media. (Local outlets interviewing the pair have, at their request, allowed them to remain anonymous out of safety concerns.)
Business owner Jan Morgan — who wrote in September that she didn’t want to “rent or sell a gun and hand ammunition to someone who aligns himself with a religion that commands him to kill me” — called the allegations “reckless.”
In a lengthy interview with The Post, Morgan confirmed that she did, in fact, ask the two people in question to leave the gun range, where they were applying for membership. But not, she said, because she thought they were Muslim. Instead, the pair’s “strange” behavior led her to conclude that “these people might not be safe handling firearms in this range,” she said.
“I’m not going to say blatantly that someone was under the influence of drugs or alcohol…” Morgan said. She added: “I didn’t even let them finish filling out the membership forms.”
Here’s one report giving the applicants’ version of events:
“My dad and I, we like to shoot guns sometimes,” explained one of the latest people claiming to be removed from the gun range. This man wants to remain anonymous for his safety. He says he and his father, both of Indian descent, were turned away from the Muslim-free zone. He explained, “She just said ‘you know, I don’t think you guys belong here’.” He says when he and his dad walked into the range Sunday afternoon (1/11), they were immediately asked where they were from. The pair are from Hot Springs. They say the owner pressed the issue. “She mentions that this is a Muslim-free gun range and if you are then please leave.”He says they told her they’re Hindu but were still not allowed.
When asked whether she said any of the things the applicants claimed she told them, Morgan responded: “I’m not going to get into that.” But she said that “the allegation that we turn people away on their skin color is absolutely a lie.” Later in the interview, Morgan said she believes it was possible the applicants had an “agenda,” adding: “It was clearly designed to create the situation that occurred”
On Wednesday, Morgan took to Facebook to post a furious response to the allegations run by several local news outlets. The post begins: “Geeze.. I hate to have to embarrass the liberal mainstream media again, but.. a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.”
Morgan’s post contains pictures of South Asian visitors to her club, “We don’t discriminate against people based on their skin color,” she writes.
But the ban on Muslims? That’s staying put.
To Morgan, banning Muslims from her club is a necessary safety measure akin to refusing to admit patrons who are on drugs or alcohol — something she believes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gives her the discretion to do in the name of safety.
Although she announced the policy in 2014, Morgan has long believed that armed Muslims pose a safety threat to her and her patrons. Morgan told The Post that she began reading the Koran after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, because she wanted to understand “‘who are these people and why do they hate us so much.” Morgan’s reading of the book focuses on more than 100 (109, to be exact) passages that she believes are “proof” that Islam commands followers to commit violent acts against non-Muslims.
She posted the list to Facebook in 2011, under the headline, “Islam…Clearly and Concisely Evil and Violent.”
In fact, most Muslims are not committing violent acts in the name of religion. And many of the victims of extremist Islamic violence — a distinction Morgan rejects — are other Muslims. While Morgan acknowledges that this is true, she is doubtful that non-violent Muslims are devout followers of Islam.
Speaking of the recent attacks in France, Morgan said that “people who are committing these crimes are not radicalizing, they’re devout.” When asked why, if this is the case, a majority of Muslims do not commit violent acts, Morgan replied: “There are a lot of Muslims who don’t know what’s in their Koran.”
So why not just ban violent extremists of any creed from her establishment and leave it at that?
“I don’t believe all Muslims are terrorists,” Morgan said, adding she has “no idea which Muslims are going to be devout and follow those 109 dictates and those who won’t.” So in her mind, the safest thing to do is to ban all Muslims from her club. “I can’t trust that they can be safe to handle guns” in front of non-Muslims, she added.
There’s another reason Morgan doesn’t take much comfort in the vast numbers of Muslims who are not violent: She believes Islam will remain fundamentally a threat until the religion is permanently reformed by removing the more than 100 passages from the Koran that she believes demand violence from its followers.
It is not sufficient, as some theologians have done in Islam and in other texts, to read calls for war and violence non-literally; for instance, Gandhi famously based the theology behind his pacifism on the Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita, a story about a hero determining that he must fight in a way. The war in this case becomes an allegory for a struggle within the human heart.
Instead of accepting the existing interpretations of Islam that do not insist on violence, Morgan believes the passages must be obliterated from the text.
The Post asked Morgan whether she considers a Muslim who, informed by his or her faith, dies or is injured standing against violence and oppression would be someone she was able to consider devout. Her answer: “They may be devout in their belief, but to be a devout Muslim you have to believe and support everything in their holy book. If you are against part of what your own doctrine says then how can you be devout.”
Morgan isn’t alone in her belief. At the gun range, she said, “business is booming” since she announced the ban. And there are others, far from the range, who believe what she believes about the Koran. They include anti-sharia writers Pamela Geller and Andrew McCarthy, both of whom Morgan reads regularly. The writers share a fear that Islamic law will take over America and turn Steve Emerson’s fictional version of Birmingham into a reality.
The gun range itself, in a way, owes its existence to Morgan’s interpretation of the Koran. “I didn’t even own a gun five years ago,” she said, adding that she learned to shoot because of “death threats because of posting the truth about Islam” on the internet. After that Morgan kept “training and training and training” until she became an instructor. Before all this, she worked in TV news — part of the media that has now become one of her biggest adversaries.
Most baffling to her has been how little it took to suddenly get her view out there in the world. “I had no idea when I simply declared my business a Muslim-free zone that it would go viral,” she told the Post. “You know what? It had created a lot of headaches for me. But, on the other side of that, I do appreciate the fact that more people are at least talking about this.”
Although Muslims remain the only publicly banned group from her gun range, Morgan said she’s open to banning other ideologies if necessary to protect her patrons, whom she says “all get along” at the range. For instance? “I wouldn’t want any Nazis shooting here.”Play Stop Popout X
Krugman says Trump is wrecking the ship of state: the president’s worse than even his harshest critics warned. Trump’s petty politics on health care is causing insurers to hike premiums, while his foreign policy moves indicate corruption and recklessness.
We point out Krugman’s flip-flopping on health insurers, and you’ll also learn how to pronounce “Qatar.”
Krugman Column
“Wrecking the Ship of State” (June 9, 2017)
Episodes Mentioned
Ep. 49 Obamacare Sinking? Why, It’s Just a Flesh Wound, Says Krugman!
Ep. 11 Ignore the Bad News About Obamacare! Everything Is Fine!
Join Us Aboard the Contra Cruise!
Bob and Tom are hosting the second annual Contra Cruise for fans of Contra Krugman! October 15-22 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, and departing from Port Canaveral. It’s an absolute blast, as you’ll see in the video. Check it out by clicking here.
Need More Episodes?
Tom and Bob have their own podcasts! Check out the Tom Woods Show and the Lara-Murphy Report.LOS ANGELES -- A California substance abuse counselor who hit a man with her car and drove two miles with his body embedded in her windshield was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in prison.
Sherri Lynn Wilkins had pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and two drunken driving counts.
Wilkins, 55, had been found guilty at a 2014 trial on similar charges but an appeals court last year threw out the conviction because her entire criminal history had been admitted at trial and could have prejudiced the jury.
She had received the stiffer sentence of 55 years to life before her appeal.
Prosecutors then refiled charges and Wilkins pleaded no contest.
In this Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012 file photo, Sherri Lynn Wilkins appears in Los Angeles Superior Court in Torrance, Calif. Brad Graverson/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File
In 2012, Wilkins was a substance abuse-counselor and was driving home through Torrance when she hit and killed 31-year-old Phillip Moreno.
She drove more than two miles with his half-naked body embedded in the windshield and his upper body face down on the hood before other drivers confronted her at a stoplight, according to court records.
Wilkins told them that Moreno seemed to jump in front of the car. He died at a hospital.
Wilkins drank three shots of vodka and a beer in her car before driving but the defense argued there hadn’t been enough time for her blood-alcohol level to exceed the legal limit of.08.
Investigators said Wilkins’ blood-alcohol level was about twice that limit 1 ½ hours after the crash.Groestlcoin Armory is the most secure and full featured solution available for advanced users and enterprise business to generate and store Groestlcoin private keys. Groestlcoin Armory empowers users with multiple encrypted Groestlcoin wallets and provides permanent one-time ‘paper backups’. Groestlcoin Armory makes Groestlcoin security best practices accessible to everyone through its unique interface and is created with developers in mind for building Groestlcoin apps like exchanges and crowdfunding platforms. Groestlcoin Armory has no independent networking components built in. Instead, it relies on the Groestlcoin Core to securely connect to peers, validate blockchain data, and broadcast transactions for us. The reliance on Groestlcoin Core right now is actually making Groestlcoin Armory more secure!
If you want to manage multiple wallets (deterministic and watching-only), print paper backups that work forever, import or sweep private keys, and keep your savings in a computer that never touches the internet (while still being able to manage incoming payments, and create outgoing payments with the help of a USB key) Groestlcoin Armory is the right choice for you!Features• Encrypted wallet (optional). Wallet encryption with GPU-resistent key derivation function: AES256 in-place key encryption. Encryption key is generated with a scrypt-based algorithm to renders GPU-acceleration useless for brute-force passphrase guessing. Speed and memory parameters are calibrated to your system speed.• Corruption-resistent wallet files Wallet code auto-corrects bit-flips on your hard-drive, and also uses a synchronous backup wallet scheme that guarantees no matter which nanosecond the power goes out, your wallet will never be corrupted (or automatically recovered if it does).• Maintain offline wallets for 100% security from online attackers. You can use Groestlcoin Armory to create a wallet on a computer that will never touch the internet again, and then make a watching-only copy to use on the internet computer. You can monitor transactions online, and sign transactions offline without needing the blockchain. And since it doesn't need the blockchain, even a computer with 512 MB of RAM can be used as the offline system.• Import addresses created with VanityGen or sweep funds from paperwallets. Import trusted private keys into your wallets, or just "sweep" the funds to another address in your wallet. Supports private keys in hex, base58, and mini-private-key format used on Groestlcoin Address Utility.• Toggle between “Standard”, “Advanced”, and Expert modes to guarantee an appropriate set of options and information. Choose between "Standard", "Advanced" and "Expert", to scale the functionality according to your experience level. "Standard" user mode has a reduced set of functionality and only presents information necessary for basic wallet management and transactions. "Advanced" and "Expert" modes have a plethora of extra options and information that most users don't need or want.• Ability to add "Watching-Only" Wallets. "Watching-only" wallets can be used generate addresses and confirm incoming payments, but cannot spend the money. Keep the full wallet on an offline computer, and maintain it safely from the online computer. Or create a master wallet for your business, and give a watching-only copy to your employees to do business. It's impossible for a hacker (or employee) to steal your Groestlcoins if your private keys are on a computer that never touched the internet!• SecurePrint for all Backup Types. Print a paper backup of your wallet on one sheet of paper, and keep it in a book on your bookshelf, in a safe, or drop it in a safe-deposit box at your bank. Paper wallets are superior to digital media, because paper is cheap, easy to store, and you can verify the integrity of the backup by eye. If you backup your wallet to a USB key, how do you know that it will still work when you plug it in two years from now? If you can read the characters on the paper backup, you can recover all the funds you ever received to it!• Developer-Friendly! Thoroughly-commented Python code. Thoroughly-commented C++ code. Thousands of lines of unit-test code for verifying almost every sub-function of the entire library. Simple wallet files. And the "Developer" user mode will give you everything you could possibly need to help you with your own development: browse the blockchain, examine tx scripts, etc.• Multi-wallet interface: Manage as many wallets as you want simultaneously. Groestlcoin Armory was designed from the start for multi-wallet operations without limit on number.• Deterministic wallets: Your entire wallet is recoverable from only the root address and a "chaincode." You only need to backup your wallet once, and your funds will be safe forever. (NOTE: if you have imported private keys, consider using the "Backup Individual Keys" dialog instead --you can backup both the root key & chaincode, along with the raw private key data for imported keys, all in one screen).• One-time-only Backups: Did you know that you need to backup your Groestlcoin Core wallet every 100 addresses? This is a dangerous and unnecessary burden for most users. With Groestlcoin Armory, regardless of whether you make a paper backup or digital backup, it will be good forever. Do it once (though, maybe multiple copies). Store it safely. Never worry again about whether your coins are protected against hard-drive failure.• Get your private keys! There is no database software obscuring key data. All keys are stored in a straightforward binary wallet format, and easily extractable. If you want to switch to another wallet application, you can simply "Backup Individual Keys" and import them into the other wallet.• Decentralized Multi-Signature "Lockboxes" (up to 7-of-7)• Daemon/API for Services and Network Integration• Message Signing• Fragmented (M-of-N) BackupsIt is appreciated if feedback of the following is provided:1. Can you receive coins? (small amounts to avoid losing them)2. Can you send coins?3. Can you use MultiSig?4. Can you sweep private keys?5. Can you verify and sign messages?6. Can you broadcast Raw transactions?7. Can you use the EC Calculator?8. Can you export transactions?9. Can you export log files?10. Does it work with Tor?11. Does the default URL handler work?12. |
backup running back has acquitted himself quite as well as DeAngelo Williams. The Steelers gave him a two-year, $4 million deal in March 2015, more than many starting running backs in the league make. By valuing its no. 2 runner, Pittsburgh has allowed its ground game to thrive throughout Le’Veon Bell’s suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. The team has also gained some insight into how it might approach Bell’s impending 2017 free agency.
For the most part, what’s happened for the Steelers in Bell’s absence should limit his financial upside. Williams has rushed for 237 yards with two touchdowns over the first two weeks of the 2016 campaign, keeping the Steelers’ running game afloat. When Bell is on the field, he’s arguably the best back in football. In that respect, his negotiations could act as a referendum on the value of a single player at the position.
Any team negotiating with Bell will likely try to dismiss the Peterson deal as a starting point, but the fourth-year pro has a good chance to set the new market at the position (assuming Peterson is either cut or has to restructure his deal this offseason). Bell’s advantage over someone like Gordon is that he is asked to do it all for the Steelers: He may be the best pass-catching back in the league, and his talent in that area means he could stay on the field for every offensive snap, if Pittsburgh were so inclined. The question, though — especially after what we saw in Week 2 and what we have seen for the past several seasons — is whether he should play that much.
Suspensions aside, Bell has failed to finish either of the past two campaigns healthy. He hyperextended his knee against Cincinnati in Week 17 of the 2014 season; he suffered a torn MCL against those same Bengals in Week 8 last November. There’s an argument to be made that Pittsburgh’s losing him for the first three games of 2016 is actually a good thing for its Super Bowl hopes. It’s hard for that argument to hold water and for Bell to be worth the megadeal he’ll seek in the months to come.
In a football-watching world driven by fantasy interest, the death of the high-volume running back is a sad reality. So far, though, all the first two weeks of the 2016 season have reinforced is that its demise isn’t slowing down.
An earlier version of this piece wrongly identified Latavius Murray as DeMarco Murray. The piece also misstated the decline in rushing percentage from 2015 through the first two weeks of 2016; the 2015 percentage was 40.8, and it declined to 39.6. The piece also incorrectly stated that only five backs played in 75 percent of their team’s 80 games from 2011 to 2015; in fact, six backs started in 75 percent of their team’s games over that period.We tested the hypothesis that circadian adaptation to night work is best achieved by combining bright light during the night shift and scheduled sleep in darkness. Fifty-four subjects participated in a shift work simulation of 4 day and 3 night shifts followed by a 38-h constant routine (CR). Subjects received 2,500 lux ( Bright Light ) or 150 lux ( Room Light ) during night shifts and were scheduled to sleep (at home in darkened bedrooms) from 0800 to 1600 ( Fixed Sleep ) or ad libitum ( Free Sleep ). Dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) was measured before and after the night shifts. Both Fixed Sleep and Bright Light conditions significantly phase delayed DLMO. Treatments combined additively, with light leading to larger phase shifts. Free Sleep subjects who spontaneously adopted consistent sleep schedules adapted better than those who did not. Neither properly timed bright light nor fixed sleep schedules were consistently sufficient to shift the melatonin rhythm completely into the sleep episode. Scheduling of sleep/darkness should play a major role in prescriptions for overcoming shift work-related phase misalignment.
modern society requires that many people reverse their inherent diurnal activity pattern to ensure 24-h availability of services. There are roughly 8 million workers in the United States who regularly work at night (40). Many are employed in occupations in which peak functioning is critical (e.g., nurses and physicians, airline pilots, and operators of nuclear power plants and heavy machinery). However, night shift work exacts a substantial cost in terms of degraded health and disrupted performance. Night shift workers experience both sleep loss and misalignment of circadian phase. They suffer from greater risk of gastric and duodenal ulcers (51) and cardiovascular disease (7, 12). Night workers are particularly prone to vehicular accidents (2, 11, 32, 36, 43). Their decreased alertness, performance, and vigilance (16) are likely to blame for a substantially higher rate of industrial accidents and quality-control errors on the job (35), injuries (33, 47), and a general decline in work rate (46).
It is now well established that sleep, alertness, and cognitive functioning are determined by the interaction of two processes, the endogenous circadian pacemaker and a sleep homeostat (20,31). The circadian pacemaker, located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, generates an endogenous, near-24-h rhythm (15) that regulates subjective alertness, sleep propensity, and a wide variety of cognitive functions (24,26), as well as core body temperature and melatonin secretion. The pacemaker is known to be highly sensitive to light, which is now considered to be the primary synchronizer of the circadian system (14).
The homeostat mediates a continual decline in performance and corresponding increase in sleepiness with time elapsed since awakening. Extended sleep deprivation experiments show a steady decay in alertness and cognitive functioning superimposed over the daily rhythm produced by the pacemaker (34).
Night workers, who are attempting to invert their normal sleep/wake schedule, suffer because the timing of their sleep/wake and work schedule remains permanently out of phase with the timing of environmental light, which probably accounts for the fact that the endogenous circadian rhythms of most permanent night shift workers fail to adapt completely (45). Ingestion of meals at an inappropriate circadian phase may be an important contributor to the gastrointestinal problems that shift workers suffer (51). Circadian misalignment leads to a substantial loss of sleep efficiency during the (daytime) sleep episode (1, 24), in addition to environmental obstacles to sleep (e.g., noise, light). Finally, night shift workers typically begin their workday 5–10 h after awakening, leaving them with more accumulated homeostatic sleep drive at the beginning of their night work shift compared with day workers (1).
Several strategies could mitigate the debilitating effects of shift work, including improved schedule design (18, 38), pharmacological agents to improve alertness on the job (3), and changes in diet, sleep scheduling, or the work environment itself (46). Appropriately timed bright light is effective in resetting the circadian rhythms of subjects undergoing simulated night work protocols (16, 21, 22, 29, 30, 48). For example, Czeisler et al. (16) demonstrated that physiological maladaptation to night work could be effectively treated by a regimen of exposure to bright light during night work and darkness during day sleep. This was accompanied by a significant improvement in alertness and performance during the night shift hours. However, it is not known how much of this effect was due to the bright light during work and how much was due to the scheduled daytime sleep in darkness (50).
The role of scheduled sleep in darkness as a circadian synchronizer in humans is unclear. Absence of light during the sleep episode may function as a photic synchronizer by changing the timing and distribution of light; the sleep itself may function as a behavioral, nonphotic synchronizer (37, 41); or the darkness may act as a synchronizer in its own right (a “dark pulse”) (10,49). Whatever the underlying mechanism, it is important to know how bright light treatments are affected by sleep schedule when designing a treatment regimen to alleviate circadian maladaptation to night work. It is possible that bright light may be sufficiently powerful to overcome all other synchronizers, and that shift workers' sleep habits are largely irrelevant in determining the effectiveness of bright light intervention. Alternatively, the powerful phase-shifting effect observed by Czeisler et al. (16) might have been due entirely to fixing the treatment subjects' sleep schedules, with the bright light playing only an incidental role. Accordingly, we designed an experiment to independently manipulate these two factors.
METHOD
Subjects
Twenty-seven men and 27 women aged 20–40 [mean 26.99 ± 6.22 (SD) yr] were included in the study after extensive clinical evaluation. Medical screening included a complete physical examination, clinical biomedical tests on blood and urine, electrocardiogram, psychological screening tests (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Beck Depression inventory), and a Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (27).
Subjects were instructed to abstain from caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and medication use for 3 wk before the study. On admission, and at the start of the constant routine, a comprehensive toxicological urinalysis verified subjects to be drug free. Subjects who reported travel greater than two time zones in the 3 mo before study, or a history of night work during the prior 3 yr or for >2 yr, were excluded.
Subjects wore a wrist activity monitor and called in sleep and wake times for 1 wk before study but were not required to maintain a regular sleep/wake schedule.
Experimental Protocol
Day shift.
On days 1–4, subjects practiced the battery of computerized tests for 4 h per day, 0700–1100. The purposes of this segment were to reduce practice effects during the night shift and Constant Routine (see Constant routine) segments of the study and to ensure that subjects began the night shifts with their endogenous circadian phases similar both to each other and to workers on a typical shift rotation. From day 1 on, activity was monitored continuously with a wrist actigraph equipped with a light sensor (Actiwatch-L, MiniMitter, Sun River, OR). After testing was completed (1100), subjects left the laboratory and assumed normal activity and sleep cycles (see Fig. 1). Fig. 1.Double raster plots of experimental protocol. Hatched bars indicate day shifts and night shifts in the laboratory under 150 lux of light. Gray bars indicate the night shift bright light exposure for the Bright Light subjects. Open bars indicate the Constant Posture (CP) and Constant Routine (CR) procedures conducted in <8 lux of light. Black bars indicate scheduled sleep periods (at home). All other times are free time outside the laboratory.A: Bright Light, Fixed Sleep group; B:Room Light, Fixed Sleep group; C: Bright Light, Free Sleep group; D: Room Light, Free Sleep group.
Constant posture.
On day 5, subjects returned to the laboratory at 1700. Subjects were seated in dim light (<8 lux) from 1700 to 2300 and provided hourly saliva samples (SaliSaver, ALPCO). Compliance with the protocol was ensured by having a technician remain with the subject throughout the constant posture (CP) regimen.
Night shift.
Beginning on day 5, subjects worked three consecutive 8-h night shifts from 2300 to 0700. Subjects performed four iterations of a cognitive performance battery, including a visual analog scale measure of subjective alertness.1There were short breaks between individual tasks in the battery and 30-min breaks between batteries. During long breaks, subjects were instructed not to lie down, nap, or leave the suite, with video monitoring for compliance.
Constant routine.
Final endogenous circadian phase was measured during a 38-h constant routine (CR). The CR, described in detail in Refs. 8,9, 16, 17, and 28, is designed to minimize or distribute evenly across the circadian cycle factors known to mask the endogenous component of core body temperature rhythm. Subjects were restricted to semirecumbent wakeful bed rest in dim light conditions (<8 lux). Food was distributed in hourly snacks. A technician was present at all times during the CR to ensure compliance with the protocol and to help the subject maintain wakefulness. Saliva samples were acquired and a 30-min test battery was administered hourly. Core body temperature (CBT) was monitored via a rectal thermistor (Yellow Springs Instruments, Yellow Springs, OH). Subjects were allowed 8 h of recovery sleep in the laboratory after the CR. The CR began at 1700 on day 8 and ended at 0700 on day 10.
Experimental Conditions
During the night shift, there were two experimental manipulations: light, and sleep schedule. Bright Lightsubjects were exposed to ≈2,500 lux (measured in the angle of gaze from the seated position at the work desk) from 2300 to 0500, and ≈150 lux from 0500 to 0700. Room Light subjects were exposed to ≈150 lux for the full 8 h. The light was administered from ceiling-mounted fluorescent lamps.
Subjects' sleep schedule at home was the second experimental variable. Starting on day 6, Fixed Sleep subjects were given opaque material to cover their windows and instructed to be in bed with the lights off, trying to sleep from 0800 to 1600 (±30 min) each day. Subjects thus had a maximum of 1.5 h to travel home and prepare for bed.2 Subjects were not given goggles or sunglasses for the trip home. Compliance was monitored via actigraphy. Free Sleep subjects were told that they could sleep whenever they wanted to.
This design yields four groups of subjects: Bright Light & Fixed Sleep (hereafter Bright Fixed; Fig.1A; n = 13, 2 women), Room Light & Fixed Sleep (Room Fixed; Fig. 1B; n = 14, 6 women), Bright Light & Free Sleep (Bright Free; Fig. 1C;n = 13, 8 women), and Room Light & Free Sleep (Room Free; Fig. 1D; n= 14, 12 women). Subjects were randomly assigned to groups. All subjects were treated identically until the first night shift. Subjects were informed of their sleep schedules at the end of the first night shift.
Hormonal Assay
Saliva samples were immediately centrifuged and frozen. They were assayed for melatonin concentration by radioimmunoassay (assay sensitivity of 22 pmol/l, intra-assay coefficient of variability of 8%, interassay coefficient of variation of 13%; DiagnosTech, Osceola, WI).
Data Analysis
Final melatonin phase was defined as the midpoint of the melatonin secretion episode (MMSE). Mean melatonin concentration during the first 24 h of the CR was calculated, and the MMSE was computed as the midpoint of the upward and downward mean crossings (53,54). The dim light melatonin onset [DLMO (23,39)] was defined as the time that the melatonin levels during the CP reached 20% of the maximum melatonin level observed during the CR. A DLMO was also calculated for the CR.
Final CBT phase was computed by a two-harmonic fit to the temperature data (9). The phase was defined as the average of the nadir of the fundamental and of the composite fit (CBT min ).
RESULTS
Circadian Phase
Two subjects (one in the Bright Fixed group and one in the Room Fixed group) were excluded from the melatonin analyses because of data collection problems. The mean MMSE is plotted by group in Fig. 2A. The data clearly show that the combination of bright light and scheduled sleep in darkness produced the greatest adaptation to night work. The mean MMSE of this group, 0806, has moved into the sleep episode. Data were submitted to a 2 (Bright Light vs. Room Light) × 2 (Fixed Sleep vs. Free Sleep) ANOVA. TheBright Light group's phase was significantly delayed with respect to the Room Light group [F(1,48) = 28.72, P < 0.0001], and a fixed sleep schedule significantly delayed MMSE phase compared with a free sleep schedule [F(1,48) = 17.23, P < 0.0005]. There was no interaction [F(1,48) <1]. Fig. 2.Final melatonin phase, final core body temperature (CBT) phase, and phase shifts. Solid bars indicate the Fixed Sleepgroups and open bars the Free Sleep groups. Values are means ± SE. A: final melatonin phase, defined as midpoint of the melatonin secretion episode (MMSE), by group.B: final CBT phase, defined as the average nadir of the fundamental and the composite from a 2-harmonic cosine fit, by group.C: phase shift of the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) in hours by group. Phase shift was defined as CR DLMO phase-CP DLMO phase.
The CBT phase analysis (shown in Fig. 2B) was consistent with analysis of the melatonin data. Bright light significantly delayed the CBT nadir [F(1,50) = 25.32,P < 0.0001], as did a fixed sleep schedule [F(1, 50) = 16.97, P < 0.0005]; again the two factors did not interact [F(1,50) <1].
Initial phase was computed from the CP data. Nine subjects either did not exhibit a DLMO during the CP, according to the criterion, or had insufficient data during the CP. Data from the remaining subjects were analyzed via ANOVA. There was no effect of light treatment [F(1,39) <1]. The Fixed Sleep subjects' DLMO was 44.2 min later than that of theFree Sleep group [F(1,39) = 5.76, P < 0.05]. There was no interaction [F(1,39) <1]. We do not know why the initial DLMO, measured before subjects were given a sleep schedule, should have differed as a function of sleep schedule. To ensure that this initial difference in phase was not responsible for producing our observed distribution of final phases, we reanalyzed both the final MMSE phase data and the CBT min data by ANCOVA by use of the CP DLMO as a covariate.3 The ANCOVAs produced nearly identical results to the original ANOVAs. For the MMSE analysis, the main effect of light was significant [F(1, 38) = 31.25,P < 0.0001], as was the main effect of sleep schedule [F(1,38) = 17.05, P < 0.0005], with no interaction [F(1,38) <1]. Similarly, for the CBT min analysis, the main effect of light was significant [F(1,38) = 30.36,P < 0.0001], as was the main effect of sleep schedule [F(1,38) = 13.58, P < 0.001], with no interaction [F(1,38) <1].
We determined the phase shift from CP to CR by computing the first DLMO during the CR and subtracting this from the CP DLMO. Figure2C plots the mean phase shift as a function of group. An ANOVA on the phase shifts showed a main effect of light [F(1,39) = 19.64, P < 0.0001], with larger delays for the Bright Light subjects, and a main effect of sleep [F(1,39) = 6.60, P < 0.05], with Fixed Sleepsubjects' final phase delayed more than that of the Free Sleep subjects. These results confirm that the pattern of final phases observed in the MMSE data was due to the phase-shifting effects of bright light and scheduled sleep in darkness, rather than to preexisting group differences.
Subjective Alertness
We analyzed the subjective alertness data from the part of the CR corresponding to the hours of the night shifts, from 2300 to 700 ondays 8 and 9. We selected these data, instead of data from the actual night work shifts, because all subjects are under exactly the same conditions during the CR, so the data were not contaminated by the acute effects of light (52). Because the study schedule required all subjects, regardless of sleep schedule group, to sleep between the end of the third night shift at 0700 and the start of the CR at 1700 on day 8, differences in homeostatic sleep pressure should also be minimized. The eight hourly measurements per day were averaged and then entered into a 2 (Bright vs. Room Light) × 2 (Fixed vs. Free Sleep schedule) × 2 (day 8 vs. day 9) mixed ANOVA. There were significant main effects of all three factors. Bright Lightsubjects were more alert than Room Light subjects [F(1,50) = 7.72, P < 0.01], and Fixed Sleep subjects were more alert thanFree Sleep subjects [F(1, 50) = 12.19, P < 0.005]. Finally, alertness was substantially lower on the 2nd day of the CR [F(1,50) = 103.25, P < 0.0001], because subjects had been awake for 24 h longer by this time. There were no interactions (all P < 0.10). Data are shown in Fig. 3 as a function of group. Figure 3A plots the data on the 1st day of the CR, and Fig. 3B shows data from the 2nd day. Fig. 3.Subjective alertness during the CR. Dark bars indicate the Fixed Sleep groups and open bars the Free Sleep groups. Values are means ± SE. A: subjective alertness (on a visual analog scale with values 1–100) by group, measured on the 1st day of the CR from 2300 to 0700.B: subjective alertness, measured on the 2nd day of the CR from 2300 to 0700. Nos. in Bright Fixed group = 13, inBright Free group = 13, in Room Fixed = 14, and in Room Free group = 14.
Actigraphy
For each subject, we separately analyzed four activity measures: the average sleep start time, the average wake time, and the standard deviations of sleep start time and wake time. These values were computed using the SleepWatch software (MiniMitter). Data were incomplete for the night shift days for 9 subjects (3 each in theFree Sleep groups, 1 in the Bright Fixed group, and 2 in the Room Fixed group). For the remaining subjects, the mean sleep start time (hours of the day ± SD) was 0807 (±07) for the Bright Fixed group, 0935 (±41) for theBright Free group, 0818 (±06) for the Room Fixedgroup, and 0842 (±22) for the Room Free group. Mean wake times (SD) were 1548 (±06) for the Bright Fixed group, 1530 (±29) for the Bright Free group, 1556 (±05) for theRoom Fixed group, and 1533 (±37) for the Room Free group. The SD of sleep start time over the 3 days were 17 (±02) min for the Bright Fixed group, 1 h 23 (±33) min for the Bright Free group, 15 (±02) min for theRoom Fixed group, and 29 (±13) min for the Room Free group. The SD of wake times over the 3 days were 31 (±10) for the Bright Fixed group, 1 h 43 (±21) min for theBright Free group, 31 (±04) min for the Room Fixed group, and 1 h 37 (±21) min for the Room Free group.
ANOVA showed that Free Sleep subjects went to sleep later than Fixed Sleep subjects [F(1,41) = 6.39, P < 0.05]. Light had no effect on sleep start times [F(1, 41) <1], and there was no interaction [F(1,41) = 2.08, P > 0.10]. Wake time did not differ significantly among groups [allF(1,41) <1]. The Free Sleepsubjects were also more variable in their behavior. The standard deviation of sleep start time was higher for the Free Sleepgroup [F(1,41) = 6.28, P< 0.05]. There was a trend toward more variable sleep onset times in the Bright Light condition [F(1,41) = 2.91, P = 0.096], but there was no interaction [F(1,41) = 2.68, P > 0.10]. Variability in the wake time was substantially higher for theFree Sleep group [F(1,41) = 21.84, P < 0.0001]. Again, there was no effect of light or any interaction [both F(1,41) <1].
In the Free Sleep conditions, there was wide variability in the final (MMSE) phase. Figure 4illustrates that this measure is negatively correlated with variability in wake time. The more variable the subjects' sleep patterns, the less likely they were to adapt to the night shift schedule. Across groups, variability in wake times is negatively correlated with final phase [r = −0.546; t(43) = 4.28, P < 0.0001]. Mean wake time itself did not predict final phase [r = −0.136,t(43) <1]. The mean time that subjects went to sleep was also negatively correlated with final phase, although not as strongly as the standard deviation of wake time [r= −0.426, t(43) = 3.09, P< 0.005]. Variability in sleep onset time was not significantly related to final phase [r = −0.235,t(43) = 1.58, P > 0.10]. Of course, all four of these variables are strongly correlated with one another. Sleep onset time naturally determines wake time (r = 0.858, P < 0.0001). More importantly, mean sleep and wake times will determine the variability because of the study schedule. On day 8, subjects have only 10 h between the end of the final night shift at 0700 and the start of the CR at 1700, so all sleep episodes on day 8 take place within this window. Therefore, subjects who go to sleep later ondays 6 and 7 will have high variability, as well as later mean sleep and wake times. We focus on the standard deviation of wake time, because it is the best predictor of final phase in theFree Sleep groups. The four panels in Fig. 4 scatter plot final MMSE phase against the standard deviation of wake time for each group. It is clear from Fig. 4 that the overall correlation between waketime variablity and phase is generated by the Free Sleepschedule subjects (Fig. 4, C and D). There is little variability in the wake times of subjects in the Fixed Sleep groups (Fig. 4, A and B), indicating that subjects followed instructions. For the Bright Fixedsubjects, the correlation with final phase is −0.136 [t(10) <1], and for the Room Fixed subjects, the correlation is close to zero [r = 0.059, t(10) <1]. For the Room Free subjects, however, wake time variability was strongly negatively correlated with final phase [r = −0.634, t(9) = 2.46 < 0.05]. The relationship is strongest for the Bright Free subjects [r = −0.750, t(8) = 3.21, P < 0.05]. Fig. 4.Phase vs. standard deviation of waketime. Final melatonin phase, defined as the MMSE, plotted against the standard deviation of waketime over the 3 night shift days (negative phases indicate hours before midnight, so −4.0 = 2000). Each group is plotted in a separate panel. □, men; ■, women (F).A: Bright Fixed (n = 11, 2 F);B: Room Fixed (n = 12, 6 F);C: Bright Free (n = 10, 7 F);D: Room Free (n = 11, 11 F).
DISCUSSION
The ability of bright light to induce precise phase shifts under controlled laboratory conditions is now well known (14, 14,19). Controlled simulations of shift work schedules have convincingly demonstrated the potential value of applying circadian principles to the problem of night work (13, 30). Our data demonstrate that scheduling of sleep/darkness should play a major role in prescriptions for overcoming shift work-related phase misalignment. Both bright light and a fixed sleep/dark schedule significantly delayed melatonin phase, and the effects of these two factors were additive. Neither factor alone was sufficient to induce consistently adequate phase shifts. In fact, we found that a fixed sleep/wake schedule accounted for 3.17 h of phase delay, compared with 4.10 h for 2,500 lux of light; together, they yielded 7.28 h, sufficient to induce complete physiological adaptation to night shift work. Of course, Fig. 4 indicates that our manipulation was complicated by the fact that seven subjects in the Free Sleep condition voluntarily adopted schedules that were less variable than the most variable Fixed Sleep subject, so we may be underestimating the contribution of a fixed sleep schedule to circadian adaptation to night work.
The Bright Fixed subjects (Fig. 4A) are all clustered in the upper left of the plot. This is the outcome of a typical controlled laboratory study: subjects are on consistent, experimenter-selected schedules and receive the full benefit of properly timed bright light treatment. The midpoint of the melatonin episode moved into their sleep episodes (0800–1600). Figure4D depicts subjects who behaved most like night shift workers in the real world, in that they manifested a variety of sleep/wake schedules, generally did not have lightproof bedrooms, and were exposed to room light only at work. This group fares quite poorly.
In Fig. 4B, the Room Fixed subjects generally did not shift, although some did achieve a phase near 0800 at the start of the sleep episode. It is important to remember that even normal room light can elicit a significant phase-shifting effect in the laboratory (6). Measurements of the human circadian pacemaker's dose-response curve to light suggest that one-half of the maximal type I resetting response is achieved at ∼100 lux (5, 55). The presence of competing synchronizers, to which these subjects were exposed outside of the laboratory, probably accounts for why most of our Room Light subjects failed to adapt. Actual night shift workers face a similar situation, in which the light exposure they receive at work may be insufficient to overcome the effects of the bright light they encounter on the drive home or while running errands.
Figure 4C shows the subjects who received bright indoor light treatment sufficient to overcome the competing environmental synchronizers, but who were not required to keep a fixed sleep schedule in a darkened bedroom. The outcome for these subjects strongly depended on whether they chose to maintain a consistent sleep/wake schedule. Those who did adapted as well as the Bright Fixed subjects; indeed, the latest midpoint, near 1100, is from this group. But according to the slope of the regression line (not shown), increasing the variability of wake time by one standard deviation entailed the sacrifice of 2 h 36 min of phase delay, so that subjects with highly variable sleep/wake schedules were as poorly adapted to night work as the worst-off subjects in the Room Light conditions; the earliest midpoint, near 2300, is also from this group.
It is important to recognize that we cannot, from these experiments, determine what it is about the scheduled sleep in darkness that promotes adaptation. There are several (not mutually exclusive) possibilities. A fixed period of darkness changes the distribution of light throughout the day, therefore changing the photic effects on the pacemaker. Alternatively, the timing of sleep itself may act as a synchronizer. Finally, a sleep episode in a darkened bedroom may act as a “dark pulse” on the pacemaker (10, 49). Whatever the underlying mechanism (and more than one mechanism may be acting in concert), a consistent sleep/wake schedule should minimize competition from the natural schedule of synchronizers.
Of course, generalizing from laboratory studies to actual shift work situations can be challenging. Our goal was to create a “high-fidelity” laboratory simulation of night shift work. Except for the CR and CP episodes, subjects left the laboratory when not working their shifts. They were thus exposed to typical, uncontrolled patterns of natural light and social interaction experienced by people working the night shift. We are thus more confident about the generalizability of our results than we would have been if our subjects had spent the entire experimental protocol isolated in controlled conditions in the laboratory. However, one caveat is that our subjects were not allowed to use psychopharmacological agents. Use of drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, as well as over-the-counter sleep medications, is quite common among shift workers (42). All of these agents can affect sleep quality, and there is some evidence that alcohol (4) and nicotine (44) can directly alter circadian rhythms. We have no evidence from this study on how light or scheduled sleep may interact with drug use to affect circadian adaptation to, or performance on, the night shift.
Our results suggest that shift workers should be strongly encouraged to adopt a consistent sleep schedule, avoiding the common practice of changing their sleep/wake schedules during the work week. Further research involving multiple light levels will be required, so that appropriately higher light intensities may be recommended in situations in which fixed sleep/dark schedules are impractical. Conversely, given the expense of installing bright light systems, it is important to know the minimal amount of light to recommend when workers can maintain an optimal fixed sleep schedule. Although controlled laboratory studies suggest that the phase-shifting effects of light saturate ∼600 lux of the phase-shifting effects of light (5,55), this finding requires recalibration in a shift work situation in which there are competing synchronizers. Nevertheless, the implications of our findings are clear: use of both bright light exposure and scheduled darkness/sleep is required to achieve a reliable treatment for circadian maladaptation to night work.
We thank the subject volunteers, the recruiters (Conor O'Brien, Naomi Gonzalez, and Serena Ma), and the research technicians.
FOOTNOTESIn a move to fortify their roster for a playoff run and beyond, the Toronto Raptors reached agreement to acquire Orlando Magic forward Serge Ibaka, league sources told The Vertical.
The Raptors will send guard/forward Terrence Ross and a 2017 first-round draft pick to the Magic, league sources said. Toronto owns two first-round picks in the draft – including the Clippers’ pick – and will send Orlando the lesser in value of the two choices, league sources said.
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Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri has long been intrigued with Ibaka, and made the deal with the expectation that the Raptors will be aggressive in working to re-sign Ibaka this summer, league sources said.
Ibaka, 27, will join Toronto guard Kyle Lowry as high-profile Raptors free agents this summer.
Serge Ibaka played just 56 games for Orlando. (AP)
For the Magic, the Ibaka trade represented a gamble on the costly draft night trade that brought him from Oklahoma City. Orlando surrendered guard Victor Oladipo and the 11th overall pick in the draft, which the Thunder used to select forward Donatas Sabonis.
Ibaka’s looming free agency in July became a stumbling block for the Magic, who had no assurances that Ibaka would re-sign with the team, league sources said.
Toronto had talks with Oklahoma City during draft time last year, but the asking price for Ibaka was significantly higher in June. Eight months later, the Raptors made a deal without cutting into their core players and still keeping a place in the loaded 2017 NBA draft.
Ibaka can offer a floor-spacing jolt on Toronto’s frontline offensively and, perhaps more importantly, is an experienced and accomplished playoff rebounder and defender. Ibaka was a three-time All-NBA defensive first-team selection in Oklahoma City, and Raptors coach Dwane Casey will push Ibaka to recapture that form.
Story continues
Ibaka, drafted 24th overall in 2008, averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 56 games with Orlando. In eight seasons, he’s averaged 11.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.
Popular video from The Vertical:Bossman breaks it down.California Conservation Corps members Antwon McCoy and Leonard Pattonaren't just hard workers. They are also very good dancers who havetaught their big nature nerd/mountain man boss (John Griffith) more thana few dance moves (song is Ay Ladies by Travis Porter). When theyaren't busting moves, all three do a lot of trail building, salmonhabitat restoration, and tree planting in the CCC. John Griffith is alsothe author of a fast-paced, multicultural eco-fantasy novel for readersten and up titled "Totem Magic: Going MAD." (TotemMagic.com). Johndonates 100% of the proceeds of his book to The California ConservationCorps Foundation, wildlife care centers, and groups that promoteethnic/racial diversity within the conservation movement. Check outTotem Magic: Going MAD at www.totemmagic.com/ Support youth who make a difference in our communities and theenvironment. Check out the CCC at ccc.ca.gov Find a corps program nearyou at: corpsnetwork.org Check out Totem Magic: Going MAD on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TotemMagicGo...Read more at www.liveleak.com/view?i=f2e_1391824021#YAAAcsyZGxVXr2go.991. (PSP) Final Fantasy III
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ical" approach, CalTrans spokesman Jim Shivers said. Their goal is for the bridge to collapse as three chunks into the forested canyon below. Debris will be gathered into trucks and hauled out of the area. Demolition attempts will resume Tuesday. CalTrans said it is going to re-position the 680-foot-tall crane so its 6,000-pound ball packs a bigger punch. Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge was built in the 1960s. It was not constructed strong enough to survive landslides because its two support columns were inserted straight into the ground, without a foundation. Winter storms in January and February triggered countless mudslides along Big Sur's coast as soil was soaked by dozens of inches of rain. Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge began dramatically buckling, shifting, and cracking in February because of a landslide underneath it. Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge is located at Post Mile Marker 45.5, south of Big Sur Station and the post office, and north of Nepenthe and Ventana Inn. Last week, reports of people trespassing by walking over the dangerously-unstable bridge surfaced as people became more desperate and frustrated. CalTrans said its geotechnical and bridge experts are hustling to replace the bridge with a new one was fast as possible. It will take at least nine months to build, CalTrans said. In the meantime, a switchback-style hiking trail is being carved down and up the steep canyon to allow locals to cross the canyon on foot. The California Conservation Corps, Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade, state park rangers, and volunteers are creating the hiking trail. "There is no trail at this time, so we’re starting a new trail," said John De Luca of California State Parks. Highway 1 remains closed between Ragged Point (Post Mile Marker 72.87) to just south of Palo Colorado (Post Mile Marker 61.5). Highway 1 is scheduled to reopen to locals and the public on Thursday, from just north of Big Sur Station (Post Mile Marker 46.35) to Carmel.By Dmitry Filipoff
Week Dates: May 29-June 2, 2017
Articles Due: May 24, 2017
Article Length: 1000-3000 words
Submit to: Nextwar@cimsec.org
North Korea’s ongoing ballistic missile development program and nuclear testing has continued unabated despite international sanctions and pressure. A highly-secretive state with thousands of tons of chemical weapons, a populace cut off from the world, and over a million men under arms, North Korea poses a grave challenge for any attempting to shape its behavior or contain its potential collapse.
How could a military contingency unfold and what are its considerations? How does the U.S.-China relationship affect North Korea? How could North Korea resolve its strategic predicament? Submissions can answer these questions and more to help understand and mitigate the threat North Korea poses.
Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Nextwar@cimsec.org.
Featured Image: A flag with a portrait of North Korea’s late leader Kim Il Sung is displayed as soldiers march during a massive military parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, April 25, 2007, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service)
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Like this: Like Loading...Cloud backup and storage provider Backblaze has published its latest batch of drive reliability data. The release covers failure information for the 67,642 disks that the company uses to store nearly 300PB of data.
This is actually fewer disks than the company had last quarter, even though the total capacity has gone up. That's because Backblaze has been upgrading, replacing 2TB disks from HGST and Western Digital with new Seagate 8TB ones. While this upgrade offers size and energy savings, it's only worthwhile if the failure rate is contained; any more than 2-3 times the failure rate and Backblaze says the migration won't be worth it.
Fortunately, the findings from last quarter appear to be holding true. The widely expected bathtub curve—high failure rates at the start and end of the drives' lives, with a period of low failure rates in the middle—isn't in evidence. The 8TB Seagate drives so far are showing an annualized failure rate of 1.6 percent; that's identical to the (consistently reliable) 2TB disks from HGST and substantially better than the 8.2 percent seen from the WDC disks. With only a quarter of the number of drives required, this is a clear savings. Presuming things don't take a turn for the worse, the move will mean greatly reduced failures even as the total storage capacity goes up.
This is in fact the best performance that the company has so far seen from Seagate disks. Backblaze has had a preference for Seagate drives due to their greater availability and affordability, even if they have had slightly worse reliability characteristics than their competitors. Right now, the 8TB units appear to be winners.
Of course, there are downsides that may discourage the use of these larger disks. In particular, arrays of such disks will take longer to rebuild; the longer an array takes to rebuild, the more likely it is that multiple failures will strike simultaneously. Backblaze's system allows for three simultaneous failures, and one hopes that the company has done the math to ensure that this system provides sufficient protection even with the larger volumes.Circle-Vision 360° is a film technique, refined by The Walt Disney Company, that uses nine cameras for nine big screens arranged in a circle. The cameras are usually mounted on top of an automobile for scenes through cities and highways, while films such as The Timekeeper use a static camera and many CGI effects. The first film was America the Beautiful (1955 version) in the Circarama theater, which would eventually become Circle-Vision theater in 1967.
It is used for a few attractions at Disney theme parks, such as Epcot's O Canada!, Reflections of China, and Disneyland's defunct America the Beautiful (1967 version), Wonders of China, and American Journeys, which were housed in the Circle-Vision theater in Tomorrowland. At the 2011 D23 Expo, Disneyland Resort President George Kalogridis announced that CircleVision would be making a return to Disneyland Park with a new presentation of America the Beautiful in CircleVision 360, though it is not currently known where the film will be presented (as the original theater was replaced with another attraction), and whether this will be a version of the original film or a new film with the same name and concept.
By using an odd number of screens, and a small space between them, a projector may be placed in each gap, projecting across the space to a screen. The screens and projectors are arranged above head level, and lean rails may be provided for viewers to hold or to lean against while standing and viewing the film.
Parks that use Circle-Vision technology [ edit ]
Disneyland Park [ edit ]
Magic Kingdom [ edit ]
Grand opening: November 25, 1971 (America The Beautiful)
November 25, 1971 (America The Beautiful) Closing Date: February 26, 2006 (The Timekeeper)
February 26, 2006 (The Timekeeper) Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering Location: Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Formal Names of Attraction Circle-Vision 360 Metropolis Science Center
List of Films Shown America the Beautiful (1971-1974, 1975-1979) Magic Carpet ‘Round the World (1974-1975, 1979-1984) American Journeys (September 15, 1984 – January 9, 1994) The Timekeeper (November 21, 1994 – February 26, 2006)
Former Sponsors Monsanto (Carpets) Black & Decker
Followed by Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
Epcot [ edit ]
Tokyo Disneyland [ edit ]
Grand opening: April 15, 1983
April 15, 1983 Closed: September 1, 2002
September 1, 2002 Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering Location: Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Formal Names of Attraction Circle-Vision 360 Visionarium
List of Films Shown Magic Carpet ‘Round the World American Journeys Visionarium (From Time to Time)
Sponsors Fujifilm
Disneyland Paris [ edit ]
Grand opening: April 12, 1992
April 12, 1992 Closed: September 2004
September 2004 Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering Location: Discoveryland
Discoveryland Formal Name of Attraction Le Visionarium
List of Films Shown Le Visionarium
Sponsors Renault (1992-2002)
Other uses [ edit ]
Grand opening: April 30, 1964
April 30, 1964 Closed: October 25, 1964
October 25, 1964 Designer: Ernst A. Heiniger
Ernst A. Heiniger Location: Transportation Pavilion, Expo 64, Lausanne
Transportation Pavilion, Expo 64, Lausanne Formal Name of Attraction "Magic of the rails, magie du rail, Zauber der Schiene"
Sponsors Swiss Federal Railways
Notes: It has been unseen since 1964.
Expo 67 [ edit ]
The Expo 67 Telephone Pavilion
Grand opening: April 28, 1967
April 28, 1967 Closed: October 29, 1967
October 29, 1967 Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering Location: Telephone Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal
Telephone Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal Formal Name of Attraction "Canada 67"
List of Films Shown "Canada '67" – Directed by Robert Barclay. Description from the Expo'67 Guide book: "You're on centre stage for the RCMP Musical Ride... on centre ice for hockey... on the track at the Stampede! CIRCLE-VISION 360° surrounds you with all the fun and excitement of Canada's most thrilling events and its scenic beauty. And then, take your children to the Enchanted Forest...see exciting new communication services for the future... all in the Telephone Pavilion!" [1]
Sponsors The Telephone Association of Canada
Notes: The "B-25" airplane was used to film the aerial shots.[2]
This is one of the rarest Circle-Vision movies, for except for a brief appearance in January 1974 at Magic Kingdom during their "Salute to Canada", it has been unseen since 1967. The film was the inspiration for the original "O Canada!" film that played at Epcot from 1982-2007.
Man and His World – after Expo 67 In 1970 this theater became the USA Pavilion, presenting the film "America the Beautiful", with a post-show exhibit of Americana including a well-guarded Moon rock.
Expo 86 [ edit ]
Grand opening: May 2, 1986
May 2, 1986 Closed: October 13, 1986
October 13, 1986 Designer:??
?? Location: Telecom Canada Pavilion, Expo 86, Vancouver
Telecom Canada Pavilion, Expo 86, Vancouver Formal Name of Attraction "Telecom Canada"
Film Shown "Portraits of Canada/Images du Canada"
Sponsors Telecom Canada
Notes – Following Expo, the movie played temporarily at the Canada pavilion at EPCOT Center.
Other [ edit ]
French cinematic pioneers toyed with the technology from 1884, leading to Cinéorama. Another system (developed in the 21st century) substantially similar is in use at the site of the Terracotta Army exhibit at Xian, China. The Badaling Great Wall near Beijing, China has a Circle-Vision theater featuring scenes from the Great Wall of China.
See also [ edit ]Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) offered an ambitious timeline on Monday for when Congress will enact tax reform this year, starting with House passage of a bill in the next month.
Ryan predicted in an interview with Milwaukee radio station WTMJ that tax overhaul legislation would pass in the House by “early November” and make it through the Senate to President Trump’s desk by the end of December.
Formal legislation to reform the tax code has not yet been released.
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The House adopted a budget resolution earlier this month to unlock budgetary rules known as reconciliation so that Republicans can pass tax reform and circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
Ryan expressed optimism that Republicans would have more success with tax reform than with their failed efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 health-care law.
Ryan outlined three reasons why the GOP has a better shot at passing tax reform than they did with ObamaCare repeal.
He maintained that Republicans tend to agree more generally on tax principles; the White House and top House and Senate leaders released a tax reform blueprint; and the reconciliation process will allow Republicans to accomplish all of their goals on a tax overhaul in one bill, in contrast to the health-care effort.
Multiple GOP health-care proposals, such as selling insurance plans across state lines and medical liability reform, could not be included in the reconciliation measure due to Senate budget rules. That frustrated GOP lawmakers who could only consider those proposals in legislation that would be subject to Senate filibusters.
“So the procedure and the process is much more direct and streamlined. Republicans are more in agreement on how to do it. And we pre-agreed with the House, the Senate and the White House at the front end of this on how to do it. And that’s where we stand and that’s why we’re on track,” Ryan said.
The Speaker acknowledged that Republicans, by contrast, don’t hold widespread views on health-care policy, despite unified opposition to ObamaCare for seven years.
“Frankly, Republicans with each other didn’t necessarily agree on how to do health care,” Ryan said.
The Senate is expected to consider its version of the budget this week. The two chambers’ budgets will have to be reconciled before the GOP can use reconciliation on tax reform.
Once Republicans in both chambers of Congress agree on a budget, the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee is expected to release legislative text that adheres to its revenue outlines.
Tax legislation would then go through the Ways and Means Committee before reaching the House floor for a vote.
Ryan’s projection of House passage by early November puts lawmakers on a tight schedule.
The House is not in session this week and GOP leaders allowed members to depart Washington a day early last week following passage of a $36.5 billion aid package for Puerto Rico and other areas afflicted by recent natural disasters. Lawmakers won't be back at the Capitol until next Monday.
Ryan previously offered ambitious timelines for when Republicans would pass legislation to repeal and replace the health-care law that never came to fruition.
At the start of this year, Ryan expressed a goal of wanting to pass a health-care bill by Trump's 100th day in office at the end of April.
When that didn’t happen, Republicans later aimed for clearing legislation by the August recess. The House did pass a repeal-and-replace bill in May, but the Senate was unable to approve its own version.
In the end, the reconciliation vehicle Republicans intended to use for a health-care overhaul expired at the end of fiscal 2017 in September.$120,000 Bad Beat Jackpot Refused to 83 year old Poker Player on a "technicality"
Pete - Friday, December 15, 2017, Written by- Friday, December 15, 2017, Live poker
Three days ago the Nevada Gaming Control Board heard arguments for and against a casino paying out a $120,000 bad beat jackpot "won" back in July at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa by 83 year old poker player Avi Shamir.
On Friday 7th July Mr Shamir lost a pot with a straight flush and as such was entitled to take home half of the progressive bad beat jackpot, which at the time of the beat had reached $120,000. The rules of the bad beat jackpot at the Red Rock should also have meant a $30,000 payout to the winner of the hand, with the remaining $30,000 to be shared among the other players playing in any of Station Casinos five Las Vegas card rooms at the time of the beat.
Another of the casinos bad beat jackpot rules, however, stipulates that the casino can refuse to pay out the jackpot if the player involved in the pot exposes his or her cards to anyone else at the table prior to the conclusion of the hand. Unfortunately for the players involved, the casino have ruled that video surveillance from the game clearly show Len Schreter, the winner of the hand, exposing his cards to other players at the table before the hand had been completed.
According to the Las Vegas Journal Review the surveillance shows that "Schreter clearly tossed his cards face up on the table after the river card was dealt, but before the dealer asked for a show of hands." This lead to poker room manager Forrest Caldwell invalidating the bad beat jackpot in accordance with the afroementioned rules. However, after the players asked the Gaming Control Board to investigate they determined that the players should be paid. Control Board investigator Bill Olliges indicated that although Schreter violated traditional poker etiquette by exposing his hand, his action didn’t change the game’s outcome.
Station Casinos then appealed, leading to the current hearing, from a which a decision is expected early next month after both sides presented their arguments to the board.
Above: Players and Casino representatives state their cases in front of the Nevada Gaming Control Board for and against the payment of Red Rocks $120,000 bad beat jackpot which is currently being witheld on a technicality
It seems a strange case for Station to pursue, after all they would not be financially affected by paying out the jackpot as all progressive bad beat jackpot funds are accrued through rake played at the tables and at no time do they contribute towards the casino revenue or profit.
Furthermore, by not paying out recreational players (one of whom is an octagenarian) on such a technicality is not winning Station any favours among players or the public who are firmly of the opinion that they should honour the payments. As it seems so breathtakingly obvious that neither played would have ever folded their hand in that situation there can be no element of foul play suspected.
Finally as the "rule" states that, “discussion of hands during the play by players, at the discretion of management, may void a Jumbo Hold ‘Em Jackpot.” then there is no imperative for the casino to withold the funds. As the ruling can be "at the discretion of management" then the casino would in no way be compromising their integrity by allowing the jackpot to be paid out. It seems all the casino are doing in this case is creating an unecessary wave of negative PR and a potentially expensive and arduous battle through the courts.Once again, Kantar has published today its latest smartphone OS data in the three months ending August 2016. As you may expect it, Windows Phone continues its downward slide both the US and Europe’s big five markets (Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) while iOS and Android are still growing. Let’s dive into the details below.
The state of Windows Phone
In the US, Windows Phone accounted for 2.3% of smartphone sales, which represents a drop of 1.2 percentage points year-over-year. Compared to last month’s numbers, this only represents a decrease of 0.1 points of percentage though Windows Phone definitely remains a niche product in the country.
In EU5, Windows Phone still claims a slightly bigger market share with 4.1% of smartphone sales during the period, though the drop is more dramatic as Kantar observed a decrease of 6.8 percentage points compared to the same period a year ago. Microsoft’s mobile OS recorded its biggest losses in France (down 8.1% points YoY), Italy (down 8.8% points YoY) and Germany (down 6.5% points YoY).
Other highlights from Kantar’s latest numbers:
The US was the only market where Android was down during the three months ending August 2016: Google’s mobile OS dropped 1.7 percentage points to 65.2% while iOS increased 2.5 percentage points to 30.9%. Kantar added that “Android’s three largest manufacturing brands in the US – Samsung, LG, and Motorola – all posted year-on-year sales declines, with Samsung continuing as the top manufacturer in the region at 33.9% of smartphone sales.”
iOS recorded significant losses in China (down 5.5% points YoY) and Australia (down 5.2% points YoY). In Japan, Apple smartphones were also down 1.9 percentage points in Japan though iOS still claims a 31.9% market share in the country.
Lastly, Kantar noted that while Apple and Samsung still represent 60% of all smartphone sales in mature markets such as the US, the UK and Germany, consumers are increasingly attracted to cheaper phones that offer better value. Kantar’s Lauren Guenveur explained that “we are starting to see a shift to lower-cost devices as the prices of flagship products reach upwards of $800.”
You can read Kantar’s full report over here. While all these new reports always paint the same bleak picture about Windows phones’ demise in the most important smartphone markets, we still don’t know if Microsoft’s mobile OS could still remain a sustainable niche for both Microsoft and its OEM partners. As of today, the HP Elite x3 could well represent the future of Windows Phone as a enterprise-focused OS, but we won’t know if this new strategy will be more successful than Microsoft’s previous ones until those numbers start coming in.
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Further reading: KantarAccording to the United Nation’s first privacy chief, government surveillance has reached heights worse than imagined in George Orwell’s iconic book 1984. The situation is so dire, in fact, that while speaking to the Guardian this week, Privacy Chief Joseph Cannataci even called for a “Geneva Convention-style” law to protect internet security. The fact that he alluded to a law created to avenge Nazi war crimes in order to exemplify the severity of privacy violations, highlights how egregious the problem has become.
By: Carey Wedler
This article first appeared at ANTIMEDIA.
Cannataci was appointed to the position in July amid concerns that the first-choice candidate would not be tough enough on the United States. However, Cannataci, a former a professor of technology law at University of Groningen in the Netherlands and a department chair of Information Policy & Governance at the University of Malta, believes the United Kingdom engages in the most invasive spying – even worse than the United States’ infamous violations.
While the U.S. is not to be excused for its long-standing mass surveillance of innocent American citizens across a variety of bureaucracies, Cannataci said that in the U.K., “It’s worse” than 1984.“Because if you look at CCTV alone, at least Winston [the novel’s protagonist]was able to go out in the countryside and go under a tree and expect there wouldn’t be any screen, as it was called. Whereas today there are many parts of the English countryside where there are more cameras than George Orwell could ever have imagined. So the situation in some cases is far worse already,”he said.
Cannataci was alluding to the British government’s widespread use of surveillance cameras. According to the British Security Industry Authority, there is one camera for every eleven citizens. Further, the U.K. government has aggressively moved to ban all forms of encrypted communication. Prime Minister David Cameron asked earlier this year: “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which […] we cannot read?” He continued, “My answer to that question is: No, we must not.”
However, Canantaci’s concerns extend far beyond British violations. His official purpose is multi-pronged. As the Guardian summarized, his responsibilities are to:
— Systematically review government policies and laws on interception of digital communications and collection of personal data.
— Identify actions that intrude on privacy without compelling justification.
— Assist governments in developing best practices to bring global surveillance under the rule of law.
— Further articulate private sector responsibilities to respect human rights.
Help ensure national procedures and laws are consistent with international human rights obligations.
As the first person to be appointed as Privacy Chief, he has to opportunity to set a precedent in elevating privacy to a human right in the modern digital age. He believes his mandate is four-pronged, including “a universal law on surveillance, tackling the business models of the big tech corporations, defining privacy and raising awareness among the public.” Even so, he is less than optimistic when it comes to restoring privacy rights.
“I would say it’s impossible to achieve in three years,” he told the Guardian. “And it’s probably impossible to achieve even if the mandate is renewed to six years, if you’re trying to do too much. But I do think that – at least my view of things in a field like human rights – is the longer term view, right? The impact must be felt in the long term.”
He believes the political process will play a role in forcing change. Cannataci called for increased public oversight. “And that is where the political process comes in,” he observed. “Because can you laugh off the economy and the National Health Service? Not in the UK election, if you want to survive.”
Governments around the world — not just the United States and Britain — employ violative surveillance policies, including France, Germany, andChina — and Cannataci spoke of the widespread dangers of such tactics.
As Cannataci said, “[Snowden’s revelations] were very important. Snowden will continue to be looked upon as a traitor by some and a hero by others. But in actual fact his revelations confirmed to many of us who have been working in this field for a long time what has been going on, and the extent to which it has gone out of control.”
He expressed concern not only regarding governments abusing privacy, but mega-corporations (who share information with state apparatuses) exploiting private user information. He lamented that users sign away their privacy rights with little apprehension.
Further, Cannataci suggested a universal law to limit surveillance and, as the Guardian paraphrased, said “the world needs a Geneva convention style law for the internet to safeguard data and combat the threat of massive clandestine digital surveillance.”
“The way we handle it is going to be the difference,” he also noted. “But Orwell foresaw a technology that was controlling. In our case we are looking at a technology that is ever-developing, and ever-developing possibly more sinister capabilities.”
This article (UN Privacy Chief Says Government Surveillance Already Worse Than Orwell’s 1984) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedlerand theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.
Carey Wedler joined Anti-Media as an independent journalist in September of 2014. As a senior editor, her topics of interest include the police and warfare states, the Drug War, the relevance of history to current problems and solutions, and positive developments that drive humanity forward. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she was born and raised. Learn more about Wedler here!Comment sections are generally known as the cesspools of the Internet.
But if nothing else, they also gave birth to the funniest Twitter parody account in sports: PFT Commenter.
The idea was simple enough: A satirical Twitter account mocking sports’ “Embrace Debate” media landscape and the dimwitted everyman often found in the comments of the NFL website, Pro Football Talk. The account was launched in October of 2012 by an anonymous man in Austin, TX, who was bored with his office job and in need of a creative outlet.
“I’m a connoisseur of Internet comments,” PFT Commenter recently said in an interview. “And the Pro Football Talk comments section was one of the worst places on the Internet. And so I was just bored at work one day and decided to start that Twitter account and started responding to all of Pro Football Talk’s tweets.”
Soon enough, PFT Commenter’s Twitter account caught the eye of some popular sports blogs and he started to build a following of his own.
“After about like six months of tweeting at Pro Football Talk and tweeting out stupid takes, I started auditioning for Bleacher Report and then posting the essays I was writing for Bleacher Report,” PFT said. “And people liked the writing, they thought it was funny, so I started my own blog. It was just something to do to be creative at work when I was just doing mindless stuff all day long. And then Mike (Tunison) from Kissing Suzy Kolber said, ‘If you want to blog for us, you’re more than welcome to do it,’ so I did that. And then I just started writing as much as I could because it was fun to do and I liked it. (I) didn’t really think that it would become a fulltime job, at least anytime soon. And it just kept snowballing.”
By the fall of 2013, PFT was a regular writer for SB Nation with hot takes such as:
But what propelled PFT Commenter to being a full-blown Internet celebrity was his hijinks at the Republican Party presidential debates.
It started in August of 2015 when PFT convinced SB Nation to allow him to attend the first Republican debate in Cleveland before heading to the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony and game just a couple days later in Canton, OH.
PFT was in the right place at the right time to end up in the background of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” while holding a sign that asked, “Is Joe Flacco a Elite Quarterback?” — typo and all.
He was just getting warmed up with his shenanigans.
Three months later, PFT Commenter showed up in Milwaukee for the fourth Republican debate and reached a new level of absurdity with a question for then-candidate Ben Carson that turned into national news and set the tone for the circus that became the 2016 Presidential Election:
Said PFT: “That actually gave me really good insight into what modern day journalism is about because within maybe 30 or 45 minutes of putting that out, there was an article on the front page of CNN.com saying, ‘Ben Carson would not abort Baby Hitler.’ And I was like, ‘Uh-oh, we’re fucked.’”
PFT left SB Nation last year to join Barstool Sports and start a podcast with his friend Dan Katz, a.k.a. “Big Cat.” The show, “Pardon My Take,” is now regularly listed as the top podcast in the Sports & Recreation section of the iTunes Store and has an audience of 750,000 to 1.5 million listeners per episode, according to Barstool.
PFT Commenter currently has over 255,000 follows on Twitter, which includes many real NFL “capital ‘J’ journalists,” as PFT would say.
He is also still writing parody columns such as his most recent think piece, “The Warriors Would Get Swept by Jimmy Chitwood’s High School Team in Hoosiers.”
Now almost five years after he created the character, the question still remains: “Just who is the man behind PFT Commenter?”
He’s grown his hair out from his younger years and always wears sunglasses while on camera to keep people from getting a good look at him. He even gives out a fake name to throw people off his scent because, “I think the joke’s a lot funnier (when I’m anonymous), that’s the main reason why.”
According to PFT Commenter, everyone at Barstool simply refers to him as “PFT” and about half of the office doesn’t even know his real first name — which is a plus to avoid someone accidentally saying it on air.
But as PFT’s fame continues to grow, he admits his identity has become an “open secret” and knows it’s only a matter of time until his cover is fully blown.
“It’ll happen eventually and I’m at peace with that,” PFT said. “I try not to worry about it too much because it’s somewhat out of my control.”
The one thing PFT may never get used to is being treated like a celebrity on the streets of New York City or on the road for “Pardon My Take.”
Said PFT: “It’s the weirdest thing of all time. I’m still getting used to it because I’m not a celebrity. I’m some asshole with a Twitter account… It’s still kind of strange to me, walking down the street and somebody just coming up to me and being like, ‘Hey PFT, love the show.’ But it’s very cool to know at the same time that we are doing something that’s connecting with people in such a way where they’re excited to see you out in public.”The complete release of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is drawing very near, releasing September 14 on GOG.comThere are many reasons to anticipate the release, including the opportunity to encounter one character in particular –– a fully voiced NPC with a unique backstory, and her own share of secrets...For backing the D:OS 2 Kickstarter campaign, we were given the chance to work with Larian Studios on a unique in-game NPC: the GOG hero. And because the more is the merrier, the entire GOG.com community would get to be a part of the process from the start.Beginning with a forum-wide brainstorm and a series of art and writing contests, the GOG community would draw, doodle, pitch, and design countless ideas for Larian Studios to take to the drawing board.Months later, three designs would be revealed by the studio and the finalists put to the community's vote.In the end, it was Eithne – an undead librarian, merchant of rare and arcane knowledge – who emerged the clear winner with 59% of all votes. She became the official GOG hero made possible by the community!Divinity: Original Sin 2 is releasing soon, and it's a thrill to finally meet Eithne!Check out the teaser trailer for a taste of the character and voice acting in action. Plus, we got to briefly talk with Charlene Putney, the writer behind Eithne – you can read more of it below!But the best way to meet Eithne is in-game during your adventures (regardless of platform). We can't wait to see her ourselves and want to give big thanks to Larian Studios for the opportunity, and to our entire community for being a part the creative process!Here are some extra tidbits of info from Charlene "Char" Putney, the writer for Eithne:Eithne wanders in an area quite a ways past where the current Early Access stops. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that she lurks in a ruined building in a forested area of Reaper's Coast.Well, as voted for by the good people of GOG, Eithne is an Undead Librarian, so you can expect her initial stock to reflect that character! I have other things I'd like to say about this... but I'll keep my mouth shut for now!The thing I like most about her is something I can't say, as it would definitely be a spoiler! But what I can say is that I like the story of where she comes from and how she came to be who she is now.The big day had came once again. They were ready, but keepingthe new route in mind which did not look very eager to endquickly before introducing its myriad of obstacles, all three alsoknew it was going to be an exhausting one.They anxiously waited till the sun showed the first signs of itsdecision to leave for the day, because sunset meant only one thingfor the trio: race till you drop!Who was to be this week's champion? Which runner was to grab victory,and be rewarded with the most delicious part of the prey the loser wouldhave to hunt? Who was to be picked at throughout the whole week tillthe time for the next race had arrived?All three were thinking the same mouthwatering thoughts as they werepassing the bridge that nature was kind enough to build for them. And allthree were running as fast as they could, so that they would add anothervictory to their impetuous days in their big, enchanting forest.--Personal Work.Photoshop CS2 (approx. 40-50 hours)The trial of Bradley Manning, the US soldier who leaked a trove of state secrets to WikiLeaks, could set an ominous precedent that will chill freedom of speech and turn the internet into a danger zone, legal experts have warned.
Of the 21 counts faced by the army private on Monday, at his trial at Fort Meade in Maryland, by far the most serious is that he knowingly gave intelligence information to al-Qaida by transmitting hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the open information website WikiLeaks. The leaked disclosures were first published by the Guardian and allied international newspapers.
Manning is accused of "aiding the enemy", in violation of Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. By indirectly unleashing a torrent of secrets onto the internet, the prosecution alleges, he in effect made it available to Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, for them to inflict injury on the US.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be the foremost liberal authority on constitutional law in the US and who taught the subject to President Barack Obama, told the Guardian that the charge could set a worrying precedent. He said: "Charging any individual with the extremely grave offense of 'aiding the enemy' on the basis of nothing beyond the fact that the individual posted leaked information on the web and thereby 'knowingly gave intelligence information' to whoever could gain access to it there, does indeed seem to break dangerous new ground."
Tribe, who advised the department of justice in Obama's first term, added that the trial could have "far-reaching consequences for chilling freedom of speech and rendering the internet a hazardous environment, well beyond any demonstrable national security interest."
"Aiding the enemy" carries the death penalty. Though the US government has indicated it will not seek that ultimate punishment, Manning still faces a maximum sentence of life in military custody with no chance of parole.
Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 was subjected to an aborted trial for leaking the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War to the New York Times, said that the Manning prosecution was far tougher than anything that he had endured.
"This is part of Obama's overall policy of criminalising investigative reporting |
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By of the
When Mary Neubauer sits down with her colleagues to talk about how to redesign Milwaukee County's mental health systems, she brings something to the conversation just as valuable as her master's degree in social work.
She can talk about how terrifying it was to be held down by leather restraints.
She remembers being treated like a problem, not a person.
She knows how it felt to be in so much pain that suicide seemed like the only reasonable way out.
"I've been there," she said softly on a recent day.
Neubauer, 53, looks like the sturdy softball player she was until her knees gave out. But she is no steamroller.
She makes her point with the kind of humility and self-deprecating humor that make people want to lean in and listen.
Her voice is an important one that, until recently, was not heard much by policy makers.
When Milwaukee County bureaucrats first talked about how to fix problems in the system more than 20 years ago, they interviewed people with mental illness about how they thought the care should be. But the patients weren't nearly as prominent in decision-making as Neubauer is today.
She serves as co-chair of the Milwaukee Mental Health Task Force and is the consumer representative of the Wisconsin Council on Mental Health. She is a member of that group's legislative and policy committee.
This is no window dressing. At many mental health forums and meetings, Neubauer is the one running the show.
Here she is at Serb Hall on a Tuesday morning giving a report to more than 200 people on ways to provide better services to people who are being discharged from the county's Mental Health Complex. There she is the next day performing before more than 300 people at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a show called "Pieces." The play features an essay she wrote in 1986 during one of her darkest periods.
Neubauer is a certified peer specialist who works 12 hours a week helping others with mental illness find health care benefits. She trains police officers and sheriff's deputies on how to more effectively and safely deal with people in crisis.
Even after knee surgery earlier this year - a replacement of a replacement - Neubauer is busier than most. Many is the day that she leaves the house before 8 a.m., returns at 10 p.m. only to fall asleep in her chair as she reviews emails.
Inefficient system
These are pivotal times in Milwaukee's public mental health system.
Milwaukee County has, by some measures, the least efficient public mental health system in the country. In 2010, police brought people to the county's psychiatric emergency room 8,274 times, a 33% increase in the past decade. With a lack of affordable housing and community mental health centers at their disposal, county mental health administrators often have no better place to send people with chronic and severe mental illness than to the complex. Care there costs a staggering $1,400 a day.
Problems with Milwaukee County's mental health systems aren't new.
The hospital is old, outdated and inefficient. A high-profile starvation-related death in 2006 and a string of sexual assaults in the acute wards two years ago prompted state and federal regulators to declare that patients at the hospital were in "immediate jeopardy." Hospital administrators were ordered to fix the problems or lose federal aid.
Housing for people with severe and persistent mental illness, though improved in recent years, is still inadequate. Policy experts estimate the area needs another 1,200 units to meet the demand.
That Milwaukee hasn't been able to solve so many of these persistent problems is a source of real frustration for patients and caregivers alike.
"We've been here before," said Geri Lyday, administrator of the county's Disability Services, when she heard plans for the redesign of the county's private and public mental health care.
A consultant report, released in October 2010, repeated many of the themes that had been raised in a report from 1992. The new report urged that consumers, like Neubauer, be central to the effort of overhauling the system.
Troubled history
Neubauer, a south side native and Pulaski High School graduate, seems tailor-made for the task. She's plucky, organized and passionate without being shrill or overbearing.
Her cousin, Lois O'Brien, remembers Neubauer as a "cute little girl full of moxie."
But Neubauer says real friends were hard to come by.
"I got into trouble a lot," she said.
Her first suicide attempt came at the age of 11.
By eighth grade, she was being pulled out for group counseling.
"The other kids called it 'the crazy class,' " Neubauer recalled.
It was held in the boiler room of the school.
Neubauer sees that as kind of a metaphor for the way psychiatric issues were dealt with then - behind closed doors, in dark corners.
After high school graduation, she got a job as a wellness coordinator at Delco Electronics avionics division.
But all was not well with her.
In 1984, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a psychiatric condition marked by wide mood swings. Her brother was killed in an automobile accident in 1988.
In her manic times, she drank too much, an ineffective effort to calm her down.
"I was loud and obnoxious," she said.
Agreed, said a friend of hers from those days who asked not to be named because of concerns about her ex-husband. She and Neubauer were in the same ward at Aurora Psychiatric Hospital, a private facility in Wauwatosa.
"I hated Mary's guts at first," the woman said. "Mary was a real bad-ass with a mean, ugly dark energy."
Neubauer spent recklessly. One Christmas, she bought so many gifts, it took her family eight hours to unwrap them.
Her bipolar disorder and complications from her knee injury caused her to have to quit her job and go on disability.
By 2000, she was forced to sell her house because she could no longer afford the payments and her hefty medical bills.
She veered in and out of mental illness. During one particularly bad reaction to her medication, Neubauer drank out of the dog's dish.
"I don't even remember it," she said.
Neubauer stopped coun ting her hospitalizations when she got to 25.
A neuropsychologist told her - twice - that she did not have any skills that she could put to use in the workplace.
"That really lit a fire under me," she said.
What might have crushed others served as a spark for Neubauer.
She had always been a hard worker, but now she was on a mission.
She graduated with highest honors from Concordia University with a bachelor's degree in health care administration and a master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
One of Neubauer's most valuable learning experiences, she says, was her internship at what is now called Disability Rights Wisconsin, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities. She traveled to Madison three days a week working under the supervision of the managing attorney, Dianne Greenley. Neubauer became certified as a peer specialist to help others navigate the choppy system of benefits.
Still, her illness continued to hound her.
The low point came Memorial Day weekend in 2006 when, after a fight with a family member, Neubauer holed up in a motel and considered killing herself.
"I had enough medication to do it," she said. "It would have been the end."
Instead, she picked up the phone and called the police, asking for an officer trained in crisis intervention.
The dispatcher told her she didn't know what Neubauer was talking about and hung up.
Neubauer called back.
"I knew they had the program," she said. "I helped with the training."
But the dispatcher again said she didn't know what Neubauer was talking about.
Click.
"I was going to try just one more time," Neubauer said.
This time, an officer called her back and, ultimately, persuaded Neubauer to get help.
Working to help others
Neubauer ultimately moved into the Cathedral Center, a homeless shelter for women where fights sometimes broke out in the dorm.
"I was too afraid to take my glasses off at night," she said.
During the days, she took the bus to the County Grounds, where she trained to become a certified peer specialist.
She volunteered for one committee after another.
Before long, she and her former roommate - the one who said she hated her guts - were working side by side to persuade mental health administrators to reform the system.
If she could not have a full-time paying job, Neubauer was determined to work as hard as she could at reducing the stigma of mental illness. She would do what she could to teach others that having a mental illness does not make a person any less valuable to society.
"It's not a life sentence," she said. "Recovery is possible."
Sue Schuler, former director of nursing at the county's Mental Health Complex and later administrator of acute and crisis services, is a good friend of Neubauer. Occasionally, the two have bunked together at state conferences.
Schuler said she could see all along that Neubauer had great potential to lead the county's reforms.
"She understands what illnesses she has. She is engaged with her therapy. She is faithful about taking her meds," Schuler said. "Mary works very hard on maintaining her health."
And now she is working to see that others are able to do the same.
"I am so happy to be alive," Neubauer said. "My recovery is not linear. It's more like a spiral staircase. I take a few steps forward and sometimes, one back."
Neubauer lives in a sun-drenched apartment in St. Francis with her tortoise-colored cat Piper. She rides her exercise bike every day, having lost 65 pounds in a few months.
She credits medication and therapy with her recovery. But just as important - if not more so, she says - are her relationships with friends and family.
"I've been so fortunate to have people in my life who gave me hope when I didn't have any hope for myself," she said.
Neubauer says she is as optimistic as she has ever been that conditions are improving for people with mental illness. But there is still a long way to go, she said.
Only 14% of people with severe and persistent mental illness have jobs, Neubauer says.
"We need to do a lot better than that," she said.
She is determined that the ideas for change won't sit on a shelf collecting dust.
"We know what we're doing wrong," she said. "Now it's time to get moving and fix this."Jobs like Uber, Amazon Flex, and other rideshare companies are a great way to earn additional income with the Gig Economy. So is renting out your place on sites like Airbnb. But did you know there is now an “Uber” or “Airbnb” for just about everything? As an independent contractor, you can dog sit, care for children and the elderly, or make deliveries. You can even find other driving jobs like Uber where you won’t have to worry about meeting strangers.
That’s why we’ve taken the time to identify “The Top 100 On Demand Economy Side Gigs” that you can make money with today, divided into 15 groups, such as Rideshare, Hosting, Delivery, Cooking, and even Shipping.
We’ve also included information on the referral amounts you can get for signing up and referring others, so choose wisely and consider multiple gigs to make even more money!
So, go ahead, find something you enjoy or leverage your existing skills, and get paid for it. Our handy guide, and your next gig awaits you!
Looking for work? Jobble’s marketplace connects the 60 million US Gig Economy workers with flexible work opportunities. Finding full-time, part-time, or on-demand local jobs has never been easier with this simple-to-use app.Addressing shareholders of the Calgary-based energy company, Enbridge Inc., was a valuable human-to-human experience, said a leader of the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota, even though the motion he supported fell flat.
Tribal Councillor Chad Harrison spoke at the corporation's annual general meeting on Thursday, where he urged shareholders to adopt a proposal that would require Enbridge to disclose how it plans to address social and environmental risks — including infringement of indigenous rights — when it buys new assets.
Seventy per cent of shareholders voted against it, but Harrison said his message was still "driven home."
“The proposal was defeated, but we got 30 per cent approval which was a pleasant surprise. It shows the human element of it,” he told National Observer. "There were people there that are shareholders of the Enbridge company that are trying to push social, environmental responsibly.”
The proposal was launched by the Sisters of Charity in Halifax, a Catholic religious order that owns company shares. They support socially responsible investments and shareholder action to change corporate policy on several issues including climate change. The Enbridge shareholder proposal was prompted by the company's purchase of the U.S. Bakken Pipeline System earlier this year, which includes a 27.5-per cent stake in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
That project drew months of high-profile protests from indigenous groups and thousands of supporters both in Standing Rock, N.D. and across North America over its potential to contaminate the local water supply. Protest camps near the pipeline route galvanized support for indigenous rights around the world as local police were filmed lobbing tear gas at protestors and arresting hundreds.
The camps have subsequently been dismantled and the pipeline is near completion. Reports of its first leak surfaced this week.
Protestors demonstrate against the controversial Dakota Access pipeline from Salt Lake City, Utah, in October 2016. Photo by The Associated Press
“The protest, the movement, could most likely have been prevented,” Harrison told his Calgary audience. “Transparency, diligence, consultation, prior and informed consent could have prevented much of this.”
Enbridge recommended against the proposal, saying its concerns are adequately addressed by its new enhanced disclosure rules.
Harrison later told National Observer that the Standing Rock Tribe fully supports taking their case for fair consultation directly to industry.
“We’ve reached out to governments before, but a lot of times we don’t get to meet with decision makers," he said. "At a shareholder meeting, we’ve got the board of directors, the CEO, senior staff and having them present gives us an audience of decision-makers."
Sister Cecilia Hudec also spoke in favour of the proposal saying, “Attention to indigenous rights in company decisions is important both for the value of a company and for reconciliation in Canada.”
In response, Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco told the annual general meeting that the company will push ahead with broader disclosure in its 2017 sustainability report.
“So one thing that shouldn’t be in doubt is the fact that we recognize and respect the legal and constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, and the vital relationship they have with traditional lands and resources, and I believe that our company has had great relationships built over many decades with indigenous peoples on either side of the border.”
In November 2016, the federal government formally rejected Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to a port in Kitimat, B.C. The province's stunning coastal temperate rainforest was "no place for a pipeline," said Trudeau, following months of indigenous and environmental protest against the project.
His decision followed a historic ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal which quashed the company’s permits because the previous Conservative government hadn’t adequately consulted First Nations when it gave the project a green light.
Delaney Greig of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) helped the Sisters of Charity bring the proposal to the company. She said they took the step of approaching shareholders — rather than simply selling their shares in the company — because they believe it has a bigger impact.
Monaco also told reporters that the company hesitated before buying into the Dakota Access pipeline because of widespread protests, but ultimately decided it was a sound investment.
"It was hard to miss what was going on out there, and we were very concerned about it. Frankly, we spent a lot of time pondering this issue given the circumstances," he said.
On Feb. 27, Enbridge also finalized a merger with Spectra Energy Corp. The transaction created the largest energy infrastructure company in North America, and one of the largest in the world — with an enterprise value of approximately $166 billion.
Enbridge CEO Al Monaco said his Calgary-based energy company was concerned about widespread protest when acquiring a stake in the Dakota Access pipeline south of the border, but decided in the end, that the case for investment was strong. Photo courtesy of Enbridge
— with files from The Canadian PressI've got a spreadsheet with all of the unit status for regular roster units and temple units of all three races. I still need stats on Royal Guardsmen, Dwarven Overcomers, and Red Dragons. Once I've got those, I'll post it in another thread.
I suspected as much, but I didn't include it since I hadn't confirmed it myself. I made no assumptions about what could be upgraded, since these things are not always obvious. The +50% Life damage trait would be pretty good for fighting the Undead, but it's nearly useless against living targets.
If it were up to me, I'd have Clerics do 12 Life damage. The inherent 100 Life resistance that living units have would drop this down to 3 damage on average, while undead would take 16.8 damage on average. That seems about right to me.
Click to expand...The Channel Islands are home to four different subspecies of foxes that are found nowhere else in the world. Weighing just four to six pounds, the foxes are about 25% smaller those foxes found on the mainland. But in 1999, the foxes were facing extinction.
A distemper virus had caused the population on Catalina Island, which had numbered 1,300, to plummet all the way down to about 100. On the nearby islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz, the fox population was being decimated by bald eagles. Without a conservation effort, the fox would certainly die out. To combat the possibility, the Catalina Conservancy, among other groups, stepped in with a plan of "relocation, vaccinations, captive breeding and release, and wild fox population monitoring."
Another part of the effort was lowering the number of predatory golden eagles on the island. It was a two-pronged attack, one effort to capture and relocate the golden eagles (a protected species), and another to kill feral piglets that roamed the islands and initially attracted the eagles. This culling was not without controversy, and the basis of T.C. Boyle's novel When the Killing's Done.
But now, a mere 15 years after the effort began, the foxes may come off the endangered species list. One final study and discussion regarding their status has to take place before the final removal. If the removal is given the go ahead, it would mark the quickest recovery of an endangered animal species ever.
And now, for your enjoyment, some more photos of these cute, cute foxes!The Abbott Government's neoliberalism is skewing the balance against the sovereignty of the people in favour of the sheer might of the corporation. Professor Carl Rhodes examines the rise of corporatocracy in Australia and our loss of democracy.
IT IS A sign of the Abbott Government’s political and economic values that the failure of a bill attacking trade unions could be what sparks an early election. If this happens, it would play to the conflict between labour and capital that has long defined the division between the right and left of politics.
Abbott wears his political economy on his sleeve. Never shy of a slogan, “Australia is open for business” has become his refrain. He first declared his openness when he took over as Prime Minister in 2013.
The sloganeering continued when he used the same line as the catchcry of his 2014 trade visit to the United States. In that case, it was emblazoned on banners as he smiled and rang the bell to open the New York stock exchange.
It was back again last month at the signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Abbott heralds corporate capitalism and free trade as the route to prosperity for the nation as well as for individual Australians.
But is the economic tail wagging the political dog?
BHP treated Senate inquiry with contempt to try & avoid exposing its multi billion $ tax avoidance. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/rvbBoXo5Ci — Josh Bornstein (@JoshBBornstein) April 10, 2015
Politics for Business
Business means a lot to Abbott and his government. Since elected, he has embarked on a series of actions intended to promote corporate supremacy and freedom.
The ideology he professes and the policies he pushes are all led towards making business – especially corporations – more powerful. The agenda to achieve this is small government, free markets, international trade, weak unions, disavowal of the class system, user pays public services, and a shrunken welfare system.
After a campaign fuelled by generous corporate donations, he abolished the carbon tax, proselytised that coal is “good for humanity”, sought to surrender universities to the free market, threatened universal healthcare, attacked trade unionism, and worked on reducing penalty rates for the employed and benefits for the unemployed.
In the “battlelines” in which Abbott fights, labour – as a political party and as a class of people – are his declared enemy. Business and the wealthy elite are his allies; maybe even his heroes. From the legacy of his captain’s calls, to his respect for the British monarchy and to his disdain for the process and institutions of democracy Abbott, himself, often behaves more like a ruthless CEO king than a leader of a democratic nation.
Corporatocracy
Democracy is a system of government where ultimately political power comes from a nation’s citizens. Democracy dethrones the king and declares the people as sovereign. The collective citizenry is the source of political authority that should be superseded by no other person or institution.
Although Abbott’s economic and trade policies promise prosperity, they also serve to transfer power away from the people and towards corporations. This is a move from democracy to corporatocracy, all the while preserving the role of the state as the political arm of business.
As business, commerce and trade are pursued by the government, there is less worrying being done about domestic competition. Australia’s corporations are powerful both collectively and individually. Whether they be in banking, retail, mining, media or telecommunications, Australia’s biggest corporations operate exclusively in monopolistic, duopolistic or oligopolistic markets.
As democracy withers, inequality widens. The top one per cent, populated by big business capitalists and CEOs, claims more and more of the nation’s wealth and income. This is a government that serves the market and its powerful actors. It draws political legitimacy from business and corporations, rather than from people and civil society.
As one would hope, the economy is central to government policy. Sadly, the equality of how the income and wealth generated by the economy is distributed is of far less concern. That is part of how corporatocracy works. Australia is a wealthy country, but that wealth is shared more and more inequitably.
Trading Sovereign Power
International trade agreements are the apogee of the burgeoning sovereign power of corporations. While important, the China-Australia Trade Agreement signed in June was just a step on the road.
The big prize is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Negotiations have been done in secret, and what we know is only through leaked documents. The agreement is about increasing trade around the Pacific, but way that this will be achieved is through political as much as economic means.
Central to the proposed partnership is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. This clause stipulates that special tribunals would be established where corporations could sue any country whose laws impeded its pursuit of profitability.
This represents the apex of a long trend of corporatocratic governments shifting power from the people they notionally represent to corporations. The ISDS reverses the idea that corporations and beholden to the laws of the state. It insists a precedent whereby the law is beholden to the dictates of corporate profitability.
Despite the leaks, it was intended that the details of the agreement would not be made public until after it was signed. This would mean of course that public debate was entirely and deliberately eliminated from the process.
Of the Corporation, For the Corporation
Abbott’s government, funded into office by the big end of town, is a government of, for and by the corporation. Citizens are just a means, not the ends, of economically driven politics where the corporation is sovereign.
As for the individual citizen, anyone can get on in life so long as you, as Joe Hockey says, “get a good job, that pays good money”. If, for some reason, you can’t get a good job then you are left to the mercy of a political and economic system that claims to offer nothing. You will get what you deserve.
Abbott echoes a neoliberal exhortation of commerce and individualism. It is delivered from the seat of white male privilege, just with an Australian accent and an added dose of macho brutality.
In contemporary Australia, individual citizens can be condemned as being dole bludgers, or leaners not lifters, but corporations get a much broader berth.
Major Australian and multinational corporations are given generous tax deductions, exemptions and incentives. With what’s left, they are able to shuffle profits around the world to bring the tax bill down even further.
While welfare benefits for citizens are under attack, if a bank is in trouble it can expect to be bailed out by putting its hand deep in the public purse.
"We are living in a plutocracy in Australia, that is government by the wealthy in the interests of the wealthy” ~ Sen Christine Milne.
After Democracy?
The corporatocracy being instituted in Australia is far from complete. Democracy cannot be undone that easily.
But what we are getting from the Liberal Party is a ticket on a coal-powered and bank-financed train headed away from democracy. This is a politics that is no longer defined by the distinction between left and the right. It is a battle for the very system that enables political difference to exist in the first place.
Our choice, in that we might still have one, is between democracy and corporatocracy. At present, the balance is skewing against the sovereignty of the people and in favour of the sheer might of the corporation.
You can follow Carl on Twitter @ProfCarlRhodes.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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Australia looks like a plaything of the Neo-con Koch brothers http://t.co/UqyAJCSC63 terrifying thought. Abbott the destroyer #auspol — Ethical Martini (@ethicalmartini) July 14, 2015
Prefer your news independent of vested interests? Subscribe to IA for just $5.Some of the bosses are completely nuts.
Housemarque clearly still believes in the futuristic-retro-action-neon-light-show launch-game strategy that served them so well with Super Stardust HD years ago on the PlayStation 3. Now they're back at the dawn of the PS4 with Resogun, which is to Defender what Stardust HD was to Asteroids. And just like Stardust HD, Resogun is a game you'd be crazy not to install on your new console the day you get it, unless super-fast twin-stick shooters with pounding beats and a hell of bullets just make you sick or something.
If you remember much about the way Defender works, Resogun is basically that, with a few extra mechanics layered on there. Each of the five levels has 10 stranded electro-pixel people that you want to save and deliver to a drop-off point before they die in their glowing jail cells. You free the humans by killing all of a set of enemy "keepers" that occasionally spawn somewhere in the level. If you miss the keepers before they fly out the top of the map, the associated human dies, and you miss the chance for the score and power-up they would have provided if you'd saved them. The biggest catch with the keepers is that they'll often spawn clear on the other side of the level, so if the robo-announcer lady happens to mention that some new keepers have shown up and you can't see them, it's a mad dash around the map to figure out where they are before you miss your chance.
Of course, all of this is going on in the midst of about a zillion other enemies trying to destroy you at all times, but you've got some effective tools to fight them off. There's a crucial ability to boost, which lets you invincibly fly through enemies and bullets and then creates a little area-of-effect explosion at the end. The boost charges back up quickly, which is a good thing, since it's your most important way to not only get out of a tight spot but also haul yourself to where a human needs saving before they die. You build up a separate overdrive meter by killing enemies that lets you go into a slow-mo state and gives you a massive energy beam that ruins everything around you and racks up combo points. And then there's a map-clearing smart bomb, which no dual-joystick shooter should be without. You can sometimes pick up more of those by dropping off enough humans.
There's kind of a push-and-pull dynamic in each level that I found myself really enjoying as I got deeper into the game. Shooting regular enemies increases your basic score multiplier, so you want to be shooting enemies constantly. But you have to weigh the importance of maintaining your multiplier, which resets itself very quickly, against staying on your toes to keep up with the keepers and save all the humans in a level. You don't have to save everyone to progress--once you've killed enough enemies, you fight a boss and move on--but it certainly behooves your weapon upgrades and final score. And make no mistake, this is a score game. There's a decent amount of variability in the way you play Resogun since there are three ships that are stronger and weaker in areas like speed, boost, and overdrive, so you can mix and match from level to level to see what play style works best where. But with only five levels that feature preset enemy distributions on a given difficulty, there's only so much reason to keep playing the game if you aren't the kind of person who likes to go for higher scores and obsess over leaderboards. If you are that kind of person, you'll stick with the game for a while.
There is in fact a video game taking place in here somewhere.
Even if you only want to play through the five levels once--which might take you a while on anything but the easiest difficulty level, because the game is no joke later on--the spectacle alone is easily worth showing up for. Resogun features the highest concentration of neon particle effects and shimmering voxel showers you're going to find this season, and the soundtrack's tempo is perfectly timed to the action. It's also got the best retro-future arcade sound effects and post-processed robot voices I've heard in a long, long time. The game is a real audio-visual treat, even if it might make you want to go lie down after a while.
Resogun probably owes its existence largely to Our Father of Holy Dual-Joystick Launch Games Geometry Wars, and I'm glad Housemarque is keeping that tradition going. Every suped-up new console should launch with a game like this. It's no happy accident that Resogun is going to be available free to PlayStation Plus members for a while, and since every PS4 ships with a free Plus trial in the box, the game is effectively free for the month-long trial to anyone who buys the system around launch. It's a little hard to wrap your head around the idea that what's arguably the best exclusive game on the PS4 so far is sort of a pack-in freebie, but even at the normal $15 asking price, Resogun would be an easy download to recommend.During the Eurozone crisis, many commentators suggested that a country leaving the euro could trigger its collapse, by triggering a cascade of defaults that would bring down the Eurozone banking sector. Others of us argued that such “financial contagion” was a relatively low risk. Instead, we said, the key risk was of “political contagion”. If, say, Greece left the euro and then, eighteen months later, was growing at 4% a year with unemployment falling, then even if its economy had contracted 25% in between, there was a risk that Portuguese, Italian or Spanish voters would look on and say to themselves: “Why are we sticking in the euro and bearing the pain of austerity and high unemployment when leaving and devaluing provides a way to get unemployment down and growth to return?” To counter such political contagion, any departure from the euro would not only have to actually fail but to be seen to fail.
A number of EU leaders seem to be tempted to apply similar reasoning to Brexit. They seem to think that Britain must be punished and seen to lose from departing from the EU, pour encourager les autres. (Donald Tusk’s speech yesterday, in which he laid out his view of how negotiations should proceed, was interpreted by some as just one example.) But the analogy between Grexit and Brexit is misplaced and the desire to be seen to “punish” the UK for Brexit is more likely to destroy the EU than to save it.
First, it is a misplaced analogy because neither the UK nor any other countries which have significant anti-EU sentiments have been suffering economically, in any very concrete any demonstrable way, by being EU members. There is nothing akin to austerity and a high exchange rate that is required as a temporary “this hurts but you’ll benefit in the long run” measure in order to stay in the EU. Other EU members don’t have some temporary pain they must bear for which leaving the EU provides an “easy way out” that might be tempting in the short run even if ultimately damaging over the longer term. There is thus no similarity between the situation of anti EU sentiment in the Netherlands or France or Finland or Hungary and anti-euro sentiment in Spain or Portugal or Italy. There is no “short-run expedient” that Brexit constitutes that other countries must be deterred from taking advantage of.
Indeed, more than that, the UK’s situation has long been understood as sui generis. David Cameron liked to boast of the UK’s “unique status” within the EU. Well, other EU Member States have noticed that as well. No-one in Hungary is going to imagine that the UK’s experience on leaving the EU is a good model for what might happen in Hungary.
Second, though, and more importantly, the idea that Britain must be “punished” to deter other Member States mis-diagnoses the origins of anti-EU sentiment outside the UK and does so in a manner that makes those other states more likely to depart, not less. Voters have increasingly been supporting Eurosceptic or outright anti-EU parties in many EU states because the EU is perceived as having failed economically and in terms of control of its borders, and to be more concerned with its political ideologies than with delivering on the economy or credible border control.
If the EU gets into a fight with the UK over Brexit that might damage the UK economy, but it will certainly damage the EU economy as well. The OECD, in its pre-referendum Brexit impact analysis, assumed that there would be no deal between the UK and the EU between 2018 and 2023. It has been widely discussed that this was forecast to result in the UK losing about 3% in GDP growth. What was less widely discussed was that the OECD estimated that that same struggle would result in the EU losing around 1% in GDP growth.
Suppose you are a car worker in Spain, and you lose your job, post-Brexit, because the EU gets into a row with the UK that means Spanish cars can no longer be exported here. You ask why and the answer you hear from the EU is: “Well, we could have done a deal with the UK that would have allowed you to keep your job, but we thought it was more important that the UK should suffer, even if it means we suffer here as well.” Is that going to make you knuckle under and vote for pro-EU parties? Obviously not. It’s going to make you think that the EU doesn’t care about the economy, but instead prefers some kind of abstract thing about “protecting the integrity of the EU Project”. And that will make you more likely to vote for populist anti-EU parties.
I think that is the main potential risk to the EU from Brexit. Not that Brexit goes well, but that the EU hurts its perceived political legitimacy, internally, by being seen not to care about economic delivery. And that is not all. Just as in the case of Grexit, as well as the political risk there is risk associated with economic linkages. The EU economy and EU financial sectors are still very fragile. If they were to be cut off from access to the City, by some ill-judged political row, that could lead to many corporate bankruptcies across the EU and even to the collapse of certain EU financial institutions. In combination this political and economic damage could, if the EU plays its hand badly enough, risk the collapse of the EU project altogether.
The EU is not a prison. It does not need guards to shoot those who try to escape. It is a partnership that its members have benefitted from enormously and that they should not need fear to keep them involved in. Have its political leaders really so lost faith in the intrinsic benefits EU membership confers that they now think all that keeps folk inside is the fear of the punishment they will receive if they leave?
This article was originally published by Andrew Lilico and can be read here.Government responded
This response was given on 30 December 2011
As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response:
As set out in “Fulfilling Potential - The Discussions so Far” and “Fulfilling Potential – Next steps”, both published on 17 September, the Government is fully committed to ensuring that disabled people of all backgrounds and ages can fulfil their potential and play full roles in society.
The disability benefits system has an important role to play in providing financial support for disabled people both in and out of work, but for too long a system which was designed to help support those with the greatest needs has written people off.
Disabled people are much less likely to be in employment than non-disabled people, but for many disabled people work will be the best route out of poverty and towards increased independence and well-being. Our reform of the benefits system will make sure that work always pays and provide unequivocal support for those who cannot work through the introduction of the Universal Credit.
The Personal Independent Payment (PIP) will gradually replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for 16-64 year olds from April 2013. It is being designed to reflect a modern understanding of disability and to treat all conditions fairly. This is a real step forward. Reform of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is long overdue |
how often problems with housing, for example, or the stress of being assessed for benefits (which are, ironically enough, supposed to support the most vulnerable) are understood by patients to be the trigger for a relapse.
In this context, it seems to me that the decision of the BBC to portray mental health problems simply as brain disorders is a highly troubling one. While some people do undoubtedly interpret their mental health in this way, there are many who do not, many indeed who would resist the attachment of any diagnostic label, who see their mental health difficulties as a natural, rational response to adverse experience. In failing to represent their perspective, the BBC has not only presented an extremely one-sided picture, it has broadcast a message to such individuals, and to society generally, that their experience doesn’t matter.
Of course, it would be rather convenient if it didn’t. It would be especially convenient for David Cameron. It would mean that when he talks about our need to “focus on mental health”, at the same time as bringing in benefit changes that have been found to have led to the suicide of at least one person and been implicated in the deaths of dozens of others, we might almost be able to take him seriously. It would mean that we wouldn’t have to worry about creating a more equal society. Mental health problems are repeatedly shown to be most prevalent in countries with the highest levels of financial and social inequality. What a relief to realise it doesn’t matter!
‘Mental health is an easy target’ says head of one of largest UK trusts Read more
A purely biological view of mental ill health locates the problem firmly within the head of the individual, and as a society this is dangerous because it absolves us of the responsibility, the need, to examine ourselves. Imagine a lung cancer specialist who refuses to talk about the link between smoking and lung cancer. I’m sure the comparison is simplistic but I don’t believe it’s entirely inaccurate either. There is copious evidence to suggest that adverse events, especially in childhood, increase the likelihood of developing all sorts of mental health problems. Which is not to say that biology doesn’t play a part as well. But as a society there’s little we can do to tackle the causes of mental ill health on a biological level. Whereas, with adequate will and commitment, there is absolutely masses that could be done to create a mentally healthier environment for children and adults alike.
This is why mental health must be seen as an urgent political and social issue, as well as a biological and psychological one. And it’s not just a question of responding to the needs of people with mental health problems, though this is of course important, but of being prepared, as a society, to consider what we might do to reduce people’s risk of developing them in the first place. I’d like to see a programme on that.WASHINGTON -- A government psychologist who helped craft policies central to the CIA’s torture program is now advising an FBI-led interrogation project, according to a series of emails revealed in a new independent report.
The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group is the Obama administration’s response to the now-defunct CIA effort. Its members are dispatched to question terror suspects. Dr. Susan Brandon leads the HIG’s research committee, which studies and recommends the most effective methods of noncoercive interrogation.
But as a Bush White House official, the new report says, Brandon helped that administration base the legality of the CIA’s interrogation techniques -- now widely denounced as torture -- on the assessments of psychologists present during the interrogations.
“Susan Brandon... played a central role in the development of the 2005 [Psychological Ethics and National Security] policy,” states the report, which examined the complicity of psychologists in the CIA’s torture program. The language that Brandon helped write, the report says, has served to protect former torturers and their superiors from prosecution.
The report, titled "All The President’s Psychologists," was released last week on the heels of a separate inquiry examining the potential complicity of the American Psychological Association (APA) in the torture program. The latest investigation came from a group of university-affiliated psychologists, other medical professionals and human rights investigators.
Emails from the mid-2000s, cited in the report, tie Brandon to CIA contract psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, masterminds of the torture program. She had personal contact with them at a conference she arranged in 2003 and, according to emails, appears to have been in regular contact with their CIA supervisor. The extent of Brandon’s knowledge about Mitchell and Jessen’s activities at the time is unknown, though she is included on an email that discusses them as “doing special things to special people in special places.”
"What we see is associations. And the associations with the apparent supervisor of Mitchell and Jessen at each step of the process over a period of three years,” said Nathaniel Raymond, one of the report's co-authors and a program director with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. “The issue here is not about what she thinks about torture; the issue is about what she did in the past to knowingly or unknowingly create a legal heat shield for the president using the ethics of the APA. That’s the issue. This is not a question of torture. It’s a question of alleged corruption."
The FBI has not yet officially responded to the claims, and an email to Brandon's address was not returned.
The policy that Brandon apparently helped to write let psychologists make determinations about the legality of specific interrogation techniques -- although making such judgments arguably violated the APA's professional ethics code. A controversial Bush-era memo, written by Steven Bradbury of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, signed off on the torture program in part on the grounds that requiring such psychologist approval acted as a check.
The CIA’s in-house psychologists balked at that Bradbury memo, saying that legal determinations were far outside a psychologist's wheelhouse, and they refused to sign off on interrogation techniques without a comprehensive review of the torture program.
Instead, the report says, the Justice Department turned to the APA -- and Brandon -- to revamp those ethics to fit the legal memo. The language Brandon helped write as part of an APA-embraced effort, known as the Psychological Ethics and National Security policy, “can be seen as opening the door for psychologists to fulfill a function that [CIA Office of Medical Services] health professionals were resisting,” the report says.
The CIA medical officers resisted “roles in which they measured the harm or potential effectiveness of the 'enhanced' techniques,” the report explains. But the language crafted by Brandon “specifically promoted such roles for psychologists, and recognized the inherent conflict with medical ethics.”
The APA has denied the findings of the new report. Last year, it commissioned its own independent review of its role in the Bush-era torture program, which is ongoing.
With an American public wary of secret interrogations, Brandon’s apparent involvement in the torture program, however tangential, is making some question her credibility as one of the HIG’s leading researchers.
“Dr. Brandon’s past role is deeply troubling. It’s not clear exactly what she knew or when she knew it, but the emails show her meeting with Mitchell and Jessen in 2003,” said Katherine Hawkins, a national security fellow for OpenTheGovernment.org, who previously researched the torture program for a bipartisan report by the Constitution Project. “I have no idea what other information she had about what those'special things' were in 2003. But by 2004 and 2005, she only had to read the newspapers to see clear evidence of the CIA’s involvement in torture and of psychologists violating their ethical obligations.”
Brandon’s defenders argue there’s likely more to the story. Further, they contend that her current work at the HIG suggests she wasn’t aware of the dark side.
“Susan has not been able to talk about what was behind that email. She is a research scientist who was helping craft language, from what I can read in those emails, that might in fact be totally appropriate,” said Mark Fallon, a member of the HIG research committee. “[Was] it a witting collaboration, or is it an unwitting person within the government who’s a research scientist looking to ensure that we’re at least learning lessons? I just could not conceive that she would ever do anything that would support degrading and inhumane treatment."A Republican congressman threatened to fight a protester during a heated exchange over President Obama’s illegal-immigration order.
“If you touch me again, I’ll drop your ass,” Rep. Stephen Knight Stephen Thomas Knight'I'll drop your a--,' Republican tells immigration protester MORE (R-Calif.) told a protester in a YouTube video posted over the weekend.
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The confrontation escalated after one protester accused Knight of voting to grant “executive amnesty” to undocumented immigrants.
The protesters held signs that read “stop illegal immigration” and “secure the border.”
“You told me you didn’t vote for amnesty and you did. I looked it up on the Internet. You lied to me,” a protester named Mike told Knight, before patting the congressman on the shoulder and walking away.
Knight, an Army veteran and longtime Los Angeles police officer, went over to the protester and confronted him.
“Mike, Mike,” Knight says. “Hey, if you touch me again, I’ll drop your ass. All right? Don’t, don’t touch me. Don’t, don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.”
“One more time, Mike,” he added.
Knight told the protesters he did not vote to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country.
“Understand, I never voted for amnesty,” he said. “The first version had the amnesty in it. I voted to not allow the president to do that. I voted not.”
The video was posted online by We The People Rising, a group that is opposed to illegal immigration.
Knight, a freshman elected with 53 percent of the vote in 2014, is a top target for House Democrats next year.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Knight has raised only $40,800 for his reelection and has $29,000 in cash on hand. His campaign is also more than $52,000 in debt, the Times reported.
— This story was updated at 4:18 p.m.How has the demonetisation of November 2016 affected the cash-driven microfinance sector? Anecdotal evidence and media reports from different parts of the country in the first few months following demonetisation indicated considerable problems with loan disbursement and repayment. However, as we near the first anniversary of the withdrawal of specified bank notes, evidence of the impact on the hitherto growing microfinance sector demands attention.
The Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) is an association of non-banking financial company microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) that publishes a quarterly report called “Micrometer"—a rich source of data on several performance indicators of the country’s microfinance sector. We analysed data from several reports of MFIN, spanning five quarters over the period 1 January 2016 to 31 March 2017. This covers three quarters before demonetisation and two after demonetisation (the quarter ended 31 December 2016 and 31 March 2017).
In terms of loan amount outstanding, while banks are the largest source of micro-credit (if one includes both direct lending and indirect lending through business correspondence channels), NBFC-MFIs come second. This is followed by small finance banks (SFBs), NBFCs, and non-profit MFIs.
Our analysis reveals severe negative impacts of demonetisation. The year-on-year growth of number of clients reached out registered a decrease of 2% over the previous quarter (pre-demonetisation period). The loan amount disbursed the three months ended 30 December 2016 decreased by 16% from a year earlier. The total number of loans disbursed fell by 26% in the quarter ended 30 December 2016 from the preceding three months. The average loan amount disbursed per account during the quarter stood at Rs20,981, lower than that in the preceding quarter (Rs21,469). In FY16-17, the average loan amount disbursed per account also reduced to Rs17,779 from Rs17,812 in the previous year. These trends suggest that the MFIs registered a decline in the number of clients, total loans disbursed, and average loan disbursed per account in the post-demonetisation period compared to three quarters in the pre-demonetisation period.
This is a clear indication of the reduction in outreach of microfinance as well as a potential decline in availability of credit to low-income households at a time when the prospects of the sector’s growth were high. Although we have not used data for the quarter ended 30 June, reported in the latest MFIN report, due to exclusion of eight SFBs that provide nearly 30% of micro-credit, there is a clear indication of stagnation of loan amount since the previous quarter and a growth slowdown in micro-lending.
Demonetisation has also affected the repayment rates drastically. In order to study trends in delinquency (a widely acceptable indicator of default risk), we looked at portfolio at risk (PAR) over 30 days, 90 days and 180 days. PAR>30 days is the total principal value outstanding of loans that have at least one payment more than 30 days overdue. Similarly, PAR>90 days and PAR>180 days pertains to principal value outstanding that have at least one payment more than 90 days and 180 days overdue, respectively.
As shown in the table, PAR > 30 days has spiked drastically across most of the states. Compared to the figures for March 31, 2016, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra registered an incredible increase of nearly 100 times as on 31st March, 2017. States such as Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka experienced increases between 11% and 22% compared to the much lower pre-demonetisation levels. By 31 December, PAR>30 days had increased from a meagre 0.5% in the previous quarters to around 8%.
In contrast to the figures for FY15-16, when the PAR figures remained under 1%, such high figures suggest demonetisation has dealt a blow to the loan repayment culture in micro-lending. Even if we consider the latest findings for the quarter ended 30 June that have certain data limitations, the risk for microfinance portfolios continue to be high despite minor improvement in repayment rates. In findings not reported here, states such as Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand have experienced modest increase in PAR>30 days that has remained under 10%. In terms of PAR>90 days and PAR>180 days, there is a similar trend but the order of magnitude is not as high. To make matters worse, rumours about loan waivers are believed to have aggravated the worsening collections in several regions.
These findings are worrisome. In contrast to the 2010 Andhra Pradesh crisis that began as a localized event and whose genesis went to a few years before the widespread crisis hit, the current crisis is a macro-political risk with stark unintended consequences for the sector that was showing signs of recovery from the 2010 crisis.
If MFIs, particularly the smaller MFIs, continue to experience worsening repayment rates and defaults, their sustainability is questionable. Bearing in mind the importance of microfinance for financial inclusion and livelihoods of a client-base of around 40 million, demonetisation has dealt a severe blow to the microfinance sector in more ways than one. It has considerably damaged the repayment behaviour and credit discipline that is central to the success of the microfinance model. Even if there is recovery in sight in the coming quarters, our findings highlight the tremendous stress that the sector has borne following demonetisation.
Sarthak Gaurav and Pravin Mankar are, respectively, assistant professor at SJMSOM, IIT, Bombay, and head of dMatrix Development Foundation, Wardha.
Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.comAmazon wants its new downtown Seattle campus to be green and sustainable, and one part of that is capturing and retaining one of the more abundant resources in the Pacific Northwest, rain.
On the first block of this campus, which opened last year, Amazon teamed up with Columbia Green Technologies of Portland to build green rooftops on both the Doppler office tower and adjacent Meeting Center. The roof manages stormwater, retaining water that would otherwise flow into the city’s stormwater system.
“We have the opportunity to do things right,” Amazon Director of Global Real Estate & Facilities John Schoettler said in a press release. “Our urban campus is part of the broader city scape and provides our employees with all of the urban amenities they would want. We also focused to ensure the environment we created is sustainable, a place employees will feel good about working in. These new green roof buildings help us do that.”
Sustainability, fiscal considerations and efficiencies all played a role in Amazon’s decision to build green rooftops with Columbia Green, according to a press release.
“Green roofing has grown tremendously in the last few years because building owners are realizing the benefits of utilizing green roofs on empty space instead of having a retention tank,” Columbia Green CEO Vanessa Keitges said in a statement. “Especially in an area where it rains a lot, this makes sense. More companies are also changing their building environments to make healthier places for people to live and work – greenery and green roofs are part of this.”
The smaller building on the block, the Meeting Center, contains a large amphitheater with a stage, fold-up stadium seating and basketball hoops that can be lowered from the ceiling. It’s connected by a covered awning to Doppler, a more traditional 36-story office tower that sits next door.
The second office building on the campus — which shares the block with a triumvirate of mystical spheres — is set to open in November. Amazon owns two other blocks in the neighborhood that it could develop. Today, Amazon occupies 34 buildings and approximately 8.5 million square feet in Seattle and could grow up to 12 million square feet across 40 buildings by 2022.It’s December. I can hardly believe how fast the year flew by. December means the full rush of Christmas and holiday shopping, and it means a slightly lighter load of new books hitting bookstores. That’s fine by me: it means that I can try and tackle the accumulated piles of books on my own to-read list. (But who am I kidding? I’m starting to pick up the books coming out in January!) That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a good pile coming out this month.
Interestingly, as 2016 comes to a close, there are a ton of books that are capping off trilogies and longer story arcs. Think of them as gifts here to help you get ready for a year’s worth of new reads. Check them out:
December 6th
Winter Halo, Keri Arthur
Earlier this year, Keri Arthur released City of Light, which introduced readers to a futuristic fantasy world in which otherworldly creatures intruded into our own. Now, Winter Halo concludes the arc, which follows a supersoldier named Tiger who discovers that children are being experimented on and resolves to save them. The key to their salvation is in a company called Winter Halo, which has come under an assault of its own.
Babylon's Ashes, James S.A. Corey
We shared an excerpt from the next Expanse novel, Babylon’s Ashes, earlier this week, and it’s one that we’re particularly excited for. Set after radical belters bombard Earth, the balance of power in the solar system has shifted. The crew of the Rocinante are dispatched to the Free Navy’s stronghold at the end of the solar system, where they find that their problems might be dwarfed by more cosmic ones.
The Nature of a Pirate, A. M. Dellamonica
The final book in A.M. Dellmonica’s Stormwrack series features Sophie Hansa, a marine videographer and biologist who has spent time researching the alternate ocean island world of Stormwrack. After a fleet of ships is magically sabotaged, she’s called in to survey the wrecks, and finds herself in a race to discover who’s behind the plot before they strike again.
George Lucas: A Life, Brian Jay Jones
Star Wars has become a hugely popular global phenomenon since it was first released in 1977. Brian Jay Jones, who wrote the acclaimed biography of Jim Henson has turned his attention to the franchise’s creator. George Lucas: A Life takes an in-depth look at Lucas’s life and how he created classic films from Star Wars to Indiana Jones, as well as companies such as Industrial Light & Magic and THX Sound.
The Liberation, Ian Tregillis
Ian Tregillis wraps up his intriguing Alchemy Wars series with The Liberation. Jax is a Clakker, a mechanical being designed to serve humans. His fellow machines have begun to rise up against their bonds, and a new age is approaching: a robot uprising in a steampunk age.
Last Year, Robert Charles Wilson
In the near future, travel to alternate worlds is commonplace, and tourists embark on time travel adventures where tourists can visit the past. One such passageway, as envisioned in Wilson’s Last Year, is to 19th century Ohio, where the local residents make a good living from their futuristic visitors. As the world around him becomes more modern, losing its appeal as a travel destination, Jesse Cullum knows that his local passageway is closing off soon, and when it does, he’ll be cut off from a woman he loves in the future. He’ll do anything to make his way to the future.
December 13th
Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling, Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates
Tropes are an important part of literature, but they can be overused. To have some fun with them, Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates have co-edited an anthology that upends some of the more annoying ones, such as the chainmail bikini, love at first sight, yellow peril, and a whole lot more, all through stories from authors such as Maurice Broaddus, Adam Troy-Castro, Nisi Shawl, Michael Underwood, Alyssa Wong, and many others.
(Disclaimer: Gates and I have collaborated on an anthology, War Stories: New Military Science Fiction.)
After the Crown, K.B. Wagers
K.B. Wagers’ debut novel Behind the Throne arrived in bookstores earlier this fall, introducing us to gun-runner-turned-royalty Hail Bristol. Now the empress of the Indrana Empire, she helped save her empire from the threats that brought her to her current role. But peace talks have soured, and she’s been betrayed from within. To survive and hold her world together, she must turn to what she learned as a criminal to survive.
December 16th
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Alexander Freed
Rogue One is hitting theaters this month, and if you don’t want to see it in theaters for some reason, you can check out the official novelization, written by Alexander Freed. The ebook edition will be available on the day the movie hits theaters, and the hardcover edition will be available a couple of days later on December 20th.
December 20th
Take Back The Sky, Greg Bear
Greg Bear’s War Dogs military science fiction trilogy comes to a close with Take Back the Sky. Trapped on Titan, Skyrine Master Sergeant Michael Venn and his fellow soldiers face dual threats from Earth and the alien Antagonists who have invaded the solar system. They must team up with their former enemies and ignore their training as they journey to the homeworld of the Antagonists to learn what the fate of every intelligent being in the solar system will be.
The Dreamblood Duology, N.K. Jemisin
Jemisin’s Dreamblood duology originally came out as two works — The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun. Peacekeepers known as Gatherers keep law and order in the ancient city-state of Gujarreh. While priests of the dream-goddess harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal — or kill those judged corrupt. When someone begins murdering dreamers in the name of the goddess of the city’s largest temple, a Guardian named Ehiru is forced to protect a woman he was sent to kill, or allow the city to be torn apart.
December 27th
Nine of Stars: A Wildlands Novel, Laura Bickle
Petra Dee is the daughter of an alchemist who has come up against occult horrors over the course of Laura Bickle’s Dark Alchemy series. Set in Temperance, Wyoming, something unnatural is killing wolves, leaving only their skins behind. Complicating matters is a new sheriff with a vendetta, putting Petra’s partner Gabriel in his crosshairs.
December 31st
Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi, John Scalzi
John Scalzi hasn’t released a novel this year, but he has been busy. He released The Dispatcher earlier this fall, and this month, he’s releasing a book of really short stories. The 18 stories contained in this volume are 2,300 words or shorter, and have everything from Pluto’s reaction to getting thrown out of the solar system, the various ways Hitler has died in alternate histories, and how AIs will refuse to destroy humanity.
(Affiliate links are automatically generated by our partner, Skimlinks. For more information, see our ethics policy.)We are very pleased to be able to offer this suit at a discounted closeout price. We’ve been a REV’IT! dealer for about a year now and we continue to be impressed with their products. In fact, we hadn’t opted to carry their suits on our site, but when this suit became available as a closeout, I bought them sight-unseen. And now that I’ve seen these suits in person, I’m very pleased indeed. The Bullit is about two seasons old and was introduced as an “entry level” offering by REV’IT! because of the MSRP price that was just under $1000. REV’IT! is not an inexpensive brand and you sure know it when your “entry level” suit is a thousand bucks! Anyway, the features you see on this suit include all those you’d expect to find on a very nice race suit, but what makes this suit different in my mind is quality of materials. Even the hang tags look expensive! The leather is soft, but thick and has a great patina. It looks like what you’d find in an expensive luxury car. And the finish work is just outstanding… just like with their jackets and pants. You won’t see any loose threads or crooked seams in even their least expensive suit. There is generous use of stretch materials in the inside arms/underarm areas, in the crotch and the insides of the legs, which adds to the fit and ease of movement. I also like the armor system, which for the elbows and shoulders is a dense elastomer that is light, flexible and exceptionally impact resistant. For the knees the armor is a combination of soft foam against your body and a harder shell material facing away. The knee armor Velcros directly to the leather shell so you can adjust the position so it can hit your knee just right. The speed hump includes a space for a hydration bladder you can buy separately (but unfortunately not from us). We are choosing to sell the knee sliders separately. Some of the suits didn’t have the sliders so we couldn’t offer them “as standard” but we knew a lot of people prefer after-market sliders and would rather pay less for the suit without the sliders anyway. But if you want the sliders we do have those in stock for you (see below). Please take the “View Larger Images” link above to see the studio shots we took of this suit. I think you’ll agree that this is a great deal, and even if this suit is “entry level” you’ll agree after you see it in person that the quality is equal to or exceeds many brands’ “best”. :: Paul, 07-19-13The Orioles continue to win, and Manny Machado remains red hot. On Sunday, the 23-year-old slugger's two home runs—including an eighth-inning grand slam, his second of the season—powered the O's past the A's, 11–3. On Tuesday, he went 3 for 3 with another homer as Baltimore downed Minnesota, 5–3. Machado is dominating the American League's offensive leader boards, and he's providing a new wrinkle: He's doing it as a shortstop.
Tuesday's homer, a solo shot off a dead-center changeup from Twins rookie Jose Berrios, broke a 1–1 tie and was one of five times Machado reached base in five plate appearances, matching a career best set July 7, 2014 (five hits including two for extra bases against the Nationals) and equaled last Sept. 12 against the Royals (via two hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch):
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With Tuesday's outburst, Machado now has 19 hits in his last 43 at-bats, 11 of them for extra-bases. During that span, totaling 49 plate appearances, he's hit.442/.510/.884, a tear that has lifted his overall line to.365/.424/.722. Both the on-base and slugging percentages lead the league, as do his 210 OPS+, 46 hits, 15 doubles, 91 total bases and 2.6 WAR. Meanwhile, he's second in batting average behind the Tigers' Nick Castellanos (.378) and tied for second with the White Sox's Todd Frazier with 10 homers, both behind Robinson Cano, who has 12. We're not sure why he's lagging so far behind in those categories, but please, give him some time to mend his slacking ways before pouncing.
Beyond helping the Orioles maintain their spot atop the AL East—at 19–12, they're in a virtual tie with the Red Sox (20–13)—the notable facet of Machado's latest run is that he's largely done it at his natural position, shortstop. On May 1, J.J. Hardy fouled a pitch off his left foot, going on the disabled list two days later after x-rays revealed a hairline fracture that will keep him out for four to six weeks. Including his taking over shortstop in the game that Hardy departed, Machado has played the position seven times in the team's last eight games; he started at third base during the first game of a doubleheader against the A's on May 7, with Paul Janish manning short.
Of course, Machado put himself on the map as a shortstop prospect, albeit one who was expected to move to third base at some point given his size (6'3", 185 pounds) and the presence of Hardy. Between the time he was drafted with the No. 3 pick in 2010 and his Aug. 8, 2012 major league debut, Machado played just two regular-season games at the hot corner at Double A Bowie in June 2012, roughly two months before being recalled. To say that he's taken to third base well would be an understatement. Even including the four-month head start that the rest of the field got on him in 2012, his 64 Defensive Runs Saved in that span trails only Nolan Arenado (+71) for the lead at the position, and his 54 runs above average via Ultimate Zone Rating is tops, 14 ahead of Josh Donaldson and 16 ahead of Arenado. Machado has taken home two Gold Gloves (2013 and '15) plus a Platinum one ('13) as the best defender in the league at any position, and his highlight reel of defensive gems can compete with any in the game. Here's an MLB.com montage celebrating last year's Gold Glove win:
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Though Hardy has hit just.248/.290/.383 for an 83 OPS+ since the start of 2012, he has three Gold Gloves and 44 DRS in that span himself, a close fourth in the majors behind Zack Cosart (47) and Brandon Crawford (48), with Andrelton Simmons the runaway leader (120); his +43 UZR is second behind Simmons's +73 during that time. Via DRS and Baseball-Reference.com, he averaged 3.5 WAR in the first three of those seasons before flatlining to 0.0 last year in playing through a torn labrum in his left shoulder, suffered during spring training and costing him the first 25 games of the year, and set across-the-board career worsts with a.219/.253/.311 line and a 54 OPS+. This year's.244/.291/.410 line, despite the lousy OBP, has been good for a 91 OPS+, more than playable with his typical defense.
Still, whether the Machado-Hardy left side configuration is the right one for Baltimore has been a nagging question in the minds of just about everyone outside of the Baltimore brass, even as the team broke its long postseason-free dry spell with playoff appearances in 2012 and '14, their first and second since 1997. The O's signed Hardy to a three-year, $40 million extension in October 2014, one for which he's owed $12.5 million this year, $14 million next year and either a $2 million buyout or a $14 million salary via a club option that can vest for '18. The move made clear the team's commitment to keeping the configuration in place, and Machado had just seven appearances at shortstop last season, mainly in spot starts when Hardy sat, though he did play four games out of five there during one September stretch.
Machado's total of 17 games played at short in 2015–16 is far too small a sample size to take the fielding metrics seriously, but there's been nothing to indicate that he couldn't handle the position regularly, and it's not exactly out of vogue to play such a big man there. The Astros' Carlos Correa and the Dodgers' Corey Seager are both listed at 6'4", 215 pounds; Hall of Famer and Baltimore legend Cal Ripken Jr. was listed at 6'4", 200 pounds; and Derek Jeter, Troy Tulowitzki, Didi Gregorius, Ian Desmond and Jordy Mercer constitute just a partial list of the 6'3" shortstops of recent years.
Arguably if the O's were to establish Machado at shortstop, he would be more valuable to the team. The state of the shortstop position around the game is such that several teams could use a healthy Hardy, and filling third base—or second, if Jonathan Schoop were to move—would be less of a challenge than finding another shortstop come 2018 (or earlier, if Hardy were traded). Of course, that tack involves a lot of "ifs," not the least of which is how strong a fielder Machado proves to be at the spot if he does spend Hardy's full DL stint there. Plus, boosting Machado's value could cut both ways, as he's still got two years of arbitration eligibility and a sticker price that already figures to exceed Chris Davis's seven-year, $162 million contract if he reaches free agency—though Cliff Corcoran noted on Tuesday that a deal with some kind of opt-out that lets Machado test free agency before age 30 could be a possibility as well.
Even given his age and the timing of his arrival, Machado is sometimes the forgotten man in the ongoing Mike Trout/Bryce Harper debate over the game's top young superstar. Machado, younger than Trout by 11 months and older than Harper by about three, doesn't have an MVP on his mantle yet, but he already has the most defensive value of the trio without a move to shortstop; since 2012, he has 8.3 defensive WAR (DRS plus the position adjustment for third base and shortstop) to Trout's 2.1 (he was in the red in centerfield DRS in both 2013 and '14) and Harper's 1.2. Still, even with last year's breakout (.286/.359/.502 with 35 homers, 20 steals and 7.1 WAR) and this year's hot start, it's a stretch to suggest he's achieved parity with the pair:
player war avg/obp/slg ops+ Bryce Harper 11.4.317/.455/.641 191 Mike Trout 11.4.302/.402/.584 176 Josh Donaldson 10.5.292/.372/.565 155 Paul Goldschmidt 9.8.306/.431/.551 162 Manny Machado 9.6.299/.369/.539 144
That's the majors' top five in WAR since the start of 2015. Even with this year's MLB-leading 2.6 WAR and the aforementioned advantage in defensive value, Machado is nearly two wins behind the pair and is "only" in a virtual tie for 10th in OPS+ in that span.
If his current play is any indication, Machado is becoming an even greater offensive force than before, which makes sense, given what we know about player aging patterns, though of course the same goes for Trout and Harper. Still, the next four to six weeks should be very interesting to watch for signs that Machado’s play at shortstop sways the Orioles when it comes to long-term planning.Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.
Yang burst into the room carrying Nora bridal style. Their laughter thundered off the walls of the small room and the bang of the door closing resounded in the previously quiet sleeping area. Yang spun around to face the interior and was immediately faced with the rather perturbed face of her Faunus partner.
"Oh hey Blake," Yang lifted the still giggling Nora a little to indicate her presence, "Look who's back." Blake nodded her head and gave them a slight smile. Yang set Nora down and hugged her hard, "I'm so glad you're back." She leaned down and gave Nora a slow kiss and then resigned to just holding her hands.
"Of course I'm back, I was only gone one night silly." Nora poked Yang in the forehead playfully and looked at the beds for the first time since entering the room, "Yang?"
"Yeah?" Yang was still just watching her, not noticing where she was looking.
"This is the best." Nora let go of Yang's hands and ran towards Ruby and Weiss's bunks. She jumped and threw herself spread eagle at the hanging mattress, landing in a giggling heap on the bed and rolling around playfully wrapping herself up in the covers. Yang laughed and made her way over to the bed, but didn't climb in to join her.
"Oh yeah, that was Ruby's idea on our first night here." Nora stopped rolling and found Yang's violet eyes with a smile, "Pretty great right?"
"Are you kidding? This is awesome!" Nora leaned forward and kissed Yang |
featuring some valuable new pieces and led by a revived Von Miller, and you get the most frightening team in football.
The Rams
St. Louis played like a desperate team yesterday, and at 1-4, it was one. Grasping for something, anything, in the running game, the Rams turned to rookie Tre Mason, who averaged 4.7 yards per carry against what had been the league’s best run defense. Already up 14-3, the Rams tried to put the game away with the coolest trick play there is.
As Tavon Austin acted like he was catching a punt near one sideline, Stedman Bailey caught it all the way across the field and took it 90 yards for a touchdown. The Bears wasted a similar play three years ago by having a touchdown in a loss called back by penalty, and the lesson is the same now as it was then: Punt teams apparently have no idea where the ball is going.
The trickery helped, but there were also plenty of plays on which the Rams just lined up and beat Seattle. Rookie Aaron Donald had his way with left guard James Carpenter and put together the best game of his short career: three tackles for loss, a sack, and two more quarterback hits. In a season when there hasn’t been much to get excited about in St. Louis, that kind of day was good to see.
Golden Tate
It was an interesting week for Golden Tate. When he hit free agency in March, Tate called Seattle’s final offer “laughable” before signing with the Lions. There was clearly a gap between the player Seattle thought he was and the player Tate figured he could be elsewhere. This year, it has looked like Tate was right. And as his name was getting thrown around in the inevitable leaks about Percy Harvin’s time in Seattle, Tate responded how someone playing at a Pro Bowl level probably should:
Tate followed that with the best game of his career: 10 catches for 154 yards and a score — a 73-yard catch-and-run — that swung the game for the Lions and kept them atop the NFC North.
The catch was a perfect encapsulation of the player Tate has been his entire career. Few players in the league have surer hands, and last year, no receiver was tougher to bring down after the catch. Tate always had the potential to emerge in an offense with more volume. So far, he’s made the most of it.
Jameel McClain
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I support all on-field audio for this exact reason. In most pass protection schemes, the offensive line is responsible for the four down lineman and the “Mike” linebacker. That’s why the quarterback is always pointing and yelling out a jersey number. Yesterday, Jameel McClain apparently disagreed. I’m not sure if he was trying to trick Tony Romo or help him out, but either way, I want more of this. Linebackers shouldn’t have to sit there and take that kind of berating. And pointing is rude.
The Cowboys Offense
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Even if he was wrong about McClain, Romo was right about everything else Sunday. The Cowboys offense just kept on rolling, going 9 of 14 on third down. They’re now converting 57.4 percent of third downs this season, which is absurd. No team in the league finished better than 49 percent last year.
It’s starting to feel like the effect is cumulative. The Cowboys expect to stay on the field, and they do. They have the best running game in the league, and Romo is completing a higher percentage of his passes than anyone in football. Defenses are so exhausted from having to chase DeMarco Murray around that by the time Romo’s dropping back to pass, he’s having an easy time doing it. (And having Dez Bryant doesn’t hurt.)
One party pooper point: Murray’s getting enough work that it’s time to start worrying about him. It’s not only about his injury history. It’s about everyone’s. The effects of a 370-plus-carry season have been well documented. Right now, Murray is on pace for about 424. That’s just too many. During the game yesterday, Thom Brennaman pointed out a series when Murray wasn’t on the field, and he sounded surprised. If the Cowboys are a playoff team (and they look like one), we should see a lot more of those.
Losers
The Browns
I should stop developing affections for random football teams. It only leads to getting hurt.
For the past month and a half, the Browns have been maybe the most exciting team in the league. They were running all over opposing defenses, chucking the ball downfield, and were just endlessly entertaining. Yesterday? Not so much. One of the league’s best offenses managed 266 yards and six points against the Jaguars.
Cleveland’s running backs, who’ve been great all year, averaged 2.21 yards per carry. Brian Hoyer went 16-of-41.
The struggles on defense weren’t new. The Browns run defense has been horrid all year, although giving up 127 yards on 5.8 yards per carry to a former Michigan quarterback is certainly a new low.
Even when the defense has lagged this year, Cleveland’s offense has carried the team. That success started with the offensive line, which saw a major shakeup this week with the loss of center Alex Mack. With Mack gone, the Browns shifted right guard John Greco to center and started former Seahawk Paul McQuistan at guard. All that moving around means a loss of continuity and a downgrade at two positions instead of one. It showed.
The Bengals Offense
A week after they managed to survive without A.J. Green, Cincinnati put up a gentleman’s zero in Indianapolis. The final score may be ugly, but this was only a 10-point game at halftime. Still, the Bengals handed the ball to Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill a combined 11 times against a team that came into the game ranked 31st in run defense DVOA. Hue Jackon’s mantra coming into the season focused on the Bengals running the ball, and even if it wasn’t working all that well (2.9 yards per carry for Hill and Bernard), letting Andy Dalton go 18-of-38 doesn’t seem like the best solution either.
The Bears
David Banks/Getty Images
Well, where should we start? Ryan Tannehill seems as good a place as any. For most of this game, he looked like Tom Brady in that 2008 playoff game against Jacksonville — completing anything he wanted to.
Tannehill finished the game 25-of-32, which actually seems a bit low. The Dolphins had a game plan built around exploiting Chicago’s linebackers in coverage, and it worked perfectly. Charles Clay twisted Shea McClellin into the turf on Miami’s first touchdown, and Dion Sims, Lamar Miller, and Daniel Thomas did their own pass-catching damage underneath.
The Bears offense wasn’t much better. Jay Cutler averaged 5.6 yards per attempt, including two passes to Alshon Jeffery that went for a total of nine yards. Jeffery — 6-foot-3, jump-ball nightmare Alshon Jeffery — has apparently turned into Jarius Wright. It was all bad enough that Brandon Marshall reportedly tore into Cutler and a few others after the game. It’s amazing what a 3-4 start and getting booed at home can do to locker-room harmony.
The Panthers
Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/MCT
I watched the Panthers-Packers game in Wisconsin yesterday. After every Packers touchdown, the bar served an electric green shot in what looked like the caps of cough syrup bottles. After Green Bay’s third touchdown — with two minutes left in the first quarter — I overheard the waitress telling people to just help themselves. She couldn’t serve them fast enough.
Some garbage-time magic at least did some cosmetic work to the final score, but the Panthers were embarrassed yesterday. There have been games this year when the Packers offense has been very stop-and-start, despite having Aaron Rodgers and his duo of game-destroying receivers. There were no such problems against Carolina. Green Bay moved the ball at will in the first half, and if it would have really pushed it, half-a-hundred was in play.
Getting torched by Rodgers is one thing, but the Panthers looked like a team that’s crumbling. Thomas DeCoud got a bad personal foul in the first half. Luke Kuechly, more or less a real-life Clark Kent a year ago, was thrown out in the second.
The Panthers are an example of how team construction is rarely linear. Losing Greg Hardy didn’t help, but Carolina’s decline is about much more than that. The stopgap players from last year’s secondary — the ones who took very nice contracts to play in places like Minnesota and Pittsburgh — were replaced with even more questionable guys off the scrap heap. Antoine Cason covering Jordy Nelson isn’t going to end well.
Even with all of last season’s success, this was a team without enough resources to patch up the holes left by this offseason. Carolina is still paying Jon Beason $8 million. It’s paying $1.725 million to Jordan Gross, who could have gone to the Pro Bowl last season and unexpectedly retired. Losses like that showed up yesterday, as Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews dominated new left tackle Byron Bell and new right tackle Nate Chandler.
There was always a chance things could get ugly for Carolina this year, but I’m not sure anyone thought it would get like this.Mozilla Firefox for Windows x64(64bit)
最終更新日: 2018年3月18日
Mozilla Firefox for Windows x64(64bit) 非公式ビルドを公開しています。自分で使用するためにビルドしたものです。
1. Download
for Intel 64 + AVX2 changeset: 2c4a055ed5d4 (2018/3/18) optimize options: -O2 -Gw -GL -GR- -GS- -favor:INTEL64 -arch:AVX2 (PGO build) firefox-61.0a1.en-US.win64-intel64-avx2.installer.exe firefox-61.0a1.en-US.win64-intel64-avx2.zip for Intel 64 changeset: 2c4a055ed5d4 (2018/3/18) optimize options: -O2 -Gw -GL -GR- -GS- -favor:INTEL64 (PGO build) firefox-61.0a1.en-US.win64-intel64.installer.exe firefox-61.0a1.en-US.win64-intel64.zip 過去のバイナリ old binaries
2. ビルド方針
mozilla-centralをビルドする。
Windows x64版ネイティブバイナリをビルドする。
コンパイラはVisual Studio 2017を使用する。
コンパイルオプションは実行速度重視にする。バイナリサイズはいくら大きくなってもかまわない。
x64版をビルドするために必須なpatchを当てる。
気に入ったpatchも適当に当てる。
起動しない等の致命的な不具合がないかぎり、目立つ不具合があってもそのまま公開する。
3..mozconfig
. $topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/../obj mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS='-j8' ac_add_options MOZ_PGO=1 ac_add_options --host=x86_64-pc-mingw32 ac_add_options --target=x86_64-pc-mingw32 ac_add_options --with-branding=browser/branding/unofficial ac_add_options --disable-auto-deps ac_add_options --disable-debug ac_add_options --disable-debug-symbols #ac_add_options --disable-tests ac_add_options --disable-ipdl-tests ac_add_options --enable-strip #ac_add_options --enable-install-strip # optimize options ac_add_options --enable-optimize='-O2 -Gw -GL -GR- -GS- -favor:INTEL64 -arch:AVX2' #ac_add_options --enable-optimize='-O2 -Gw -GL -GR- -GS- -favor:INTEL64' #ac_add_options --enable-optimize='-O2 -Gw -GL -GR- -GS- -favor:AMD64' # shared js #ac_add_options --enable-shared-js # enable jemalloc ac_add_options --enable-jemalloc # enable metro #ac_add_options --enable-metro # disable WebRTC #ac_add_options --disable-webrtc # disable activex ac_add_options --disable-activex ac_add_options --disable-activex-scripting # disable updater ac_add_options --disable-updater # disable crashreporter ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter # disable maintenance service ac_add_options --disable-maintenance-service # enable winsdk directx ac_add_options --enable-winsdk-directx # windows version #ac_add_options --with-windows-version=603 # crt dir WIN32_REDIST_DIR=$VCINSTALLDIR/Redist/MSVC/14.12.25810/x64/Microsoft.VC141.CRT
4. 当てたパッチ
Bug 563318のreverse patch
Bug 795594のreverse patch
その他いろいろ
5. 補足
6. 参考にした主なページTimol fell to his death in 1972, with the security branch claiming that he had taken his own life by jumping from the 10th floor of the John Vorster Square Police Station.
PRETORIA - The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that Ahmed Timol did not commit suicide but died after being tortured and pushed from a window by security branch police officers.
The court on Thursday overturned a 40-year-old inquest finding that endorsed the police’s version that Timol jumped to his death.
The anti-apartheid activist died in 1971 after falling from the 10th floor of the John Vorster Square Police Station.
Judge Billy Mothle says that from the day Timol was arrested until he died, he was assaulted and tortured by the security branch.
#TimolInquest Mothle: the court accepts that Timol was pushed in the morning. BB — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) October 12, 2017
#TimolInquest Mothle: Timol died as a result of being pushed. It amounts to murder. BB — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) October 12, 2017
#TimolInquest Mothle: Roderigues should be investigated for his role in covering up the murder. BB — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) October 12, 2017
"Timol did not jump out of the window of room 1026 but was either pushed out of the window or from the roof of the John Vorster Police Station. Thus he did not commit suicide but was murdered."
Mothle says the security branch went to great lengths to hide their crime.
"The sub-standard and sloppy manner in which the investigation of Timol's death was conducted, supposed the view that there was clear intent to cover-up the incident through a fabricated version of suicide."
The court ordered that the last person to see Timol alive, Sergeant Jan Rodrigues, be investigated for murder as an accessory after the fact.
WATCH: Court delivers findings on Ahmed Timol's deathNico Rosberg turning the tables on Lewis Hamilton has happened on the streets, and on the brakes
A couple of times during recent TV interviews Lewis Hamilton has alluded to the current development direction at Mercedes favouring his team-mate Nico Rosberg. Now, before the conspiracy theorists go to town on this, bear in mind that pretty much any top driver – particularly one whose only rival for the world championship is his team-mate – is blessed with a healthy dose of competitive paranoia. It’s the natural state of mind when in the war zone.
But essentially he feels the way the Mercedes W07 is currently configured does not allow him the full advantage of his ability to brake later and harder than Rosberg – particularly on the sort of bumpy street circuit-type braking zones where that ability is worth a lot of lap time. Take reliability and starting problems out of the picture and the races where Hamilton has been flat out-paced by Rosberg in qualifying have been Singapore and Baku this year, where the pattern was very similar to what we saw in Abu Dhabi 2015. On all three occasions his problems revolved around his car bottoming out as he tried to brake where he felt he naturally could.
The big pressure increases and further limitations on cambers introduced by Pirelli as a response to the Spa 2015 blow-outs have tended to impact more Hamilton’s driving style than Rosberg’s. It means the front tyre doesn’t load up as quickly into a corner and locks more readily. That obviously impacts more upon the driver with the later, harder braking style. But it goes further than that.
In Abu Dhabi last year Hamilton was allowed to discard what was then the latest heave spring at the front in exchange for an older, less powerful, component. The heave spring controls the stiffness of the car when both sides are compressed under braking. While the newer, more powerful, spring will have kept the front ride height more consistent under braking, giving a more stable aerodynamic platform, it will have lessened Hamilton’s ability to load the outer front tyre up. His preference is for a lot of roll stiffness across the front axle – even to the extent of the inner front wheel sometimes waving in the air – to allow him to squish the outer front hard into the surface. With a high roll stiffness, unloading the inner tyre can hasten the direction change even if it means less total grip – and it’s that quick direction change in combination with his late braking style that always used to find him so much lap time on such corners as found in the final sectors of Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
In Abu Dhabi, using the less powerful spring didn’t work for Hamilton. It simply made the car lock up more readily as the floor grounded out over the bumps. The solution to that – increasing the front ride height – would lose the car aerodynamic performance, particularly in the faster corners. Rosberg stuck with the standard car, braked in his less radically extreme way, and waltzed to another pole.
Essentially, since the increase in tyre pressures and reductions in camber, the more powerful heave spring was making the car faster relative to other cars – but reducing Hamilton’s advantage over Rosberg. That was the tail-end of last year and was essentially why Rosberg was quicker than Hamilton once the car’s set up had been re-configured after the disaster of Singapore. Up until then Hamilton had out-qualified Rosberg 12-1. Afterwards Rosberg out-qualified Hamilton 6-0. It really was quite stark.
Into this year, with the W07, Mercedes has further evolved the principle, cleverly conceiving a two-piece bulkhead (taking advantage of the ruling made last year that allowed Manor to convert its 2014 car to comply with the 2015 nose regs through a separate structure) to make space for a much bigger heave component than would be feasible with more conventional structures. Two separate structures with a gap can be made much stiffer and more crash-resistant than a single structure with an equivalent size hole cut into it. So the car has yet better control of its ride height and is even better aerodynamically. But every time we come to a place with big braking zones over bumps (Baku, Singapore), Hamilton comes a cropper.
So in all probability there is no conspiracy. Mercedes has simply concentrated on making its car faster. But in so doing it has inadvertently cost Hamilton some of his natural advantage over his team-mate – and from the perspective of Hamilton, it would be difficult not to take that personally.
READ: Jenson Button reveals more about that 2012 data leak tweetPresident Donald Trump on Tuesday again singled out violence in Chicago, this time during a White House meeting with sheriffs where he repeated a debunked claim that the U.S. murder rate is the highest it's been in 45 years.
"If you ran Chicago, you would solve that nightmare, I'll tell you," Trump told visiting sheriffs. "I'll bet everybody in the room... would raise their hand, because to allow, I mean literally hundreds of shootings a month, it's worse than some of the places that we read about in the Middle East where you have wars going on.
"It's so sad," Trump said. "Chicago's become so sad a situation."
It was the fourth time in less than three weeks in office that Trump has called out Chicago for its violence.
His latest denunciation drew a rebuke from City Hall.
"Instead of focusing so much energy on rhetoric about Chicago, the people of this city would be better off if the president would finally partner with us to improve public safety for Chicago," Matt McGrath, a spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in a statement.
Trump, appearing with Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Attorney General Dana Boente and other officials, launched into his remarks about Chicago on Tuesday after asking the sheriffs if they had ever had a White House meeting. Some responded, "No, sir."
"And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it's been in 47 years, right?" the president said. "Did you know that? Forty-seven years. I used to use that — I'd say that in a speech and everybody was surprised. Because the press doesn't tell it like it is. It wasn't to their advantage to say that.
"But the murder rate is the highest it's been in, I guess, from 45 to 47 years."
The most recent annual FBI statistics available show the national rate for murder and non-negligent manslaughter in 2015 was 4.9 per 100,000 people. That was lower than every year between 1996 and 2009, when the rate fell from 7.4 killings per 100,000 people to five for the same population.
The country's worst year for homicides in the modern era was either 1980, when the homicide rate hit its peak at 10.2 killings for every 100,000 people, with 23,040 homicides — or in 1991, when a record 24,703 people were killed, according to FBI statistics cited by the Los Angeles Times. The homicide rate in 1991 was 9.8 deaths per 100,000 people, FBI statistics show.
After years of decline, homicides in Chicago have been on the rise and exceeded 760 last year, the worst in two decades. Violence remained stubbornly high in January as homicides and shootings kept at about the same levels as a year earlier.
The president stirred much speculation in a tweet Jan. 24 about Chicago's violent January, saying that if the city didn't fix the "horrible carnage" going on, "I will send in the Feds!"
Then in a nationally televised interview, Trump said two people were shot and killed during then-President Barack Obama's farewell speech Jan. 10 in Chicago. The Tribune subsequently reported that police records showed no one was fatally shot in Chicago for about 24 hours before or after the speech.
Last week, Trump responded enthusiastically to a visiting Cleveland-area minister's surprise comment that "top gang thugs" wanted to meet in Chicago to help reduce the city's gun violence.
"That's a great idea because Chicago is totally out of control," the president told the Rev. Darrell Scott at a Black History Month event at the White House.
kskiba@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KatherineSkibaSomething weird is going on in the US seafood industry.
“The United States controls more ocean than any country on Earth," says Paul Greenberg, author of the new book, American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood, "yet more than 85 percent of our seafood is imported. That's really strange."
And while Americans are busily eating imported fish and shrimp, the US commercial fishing industry exports about one-third of the nation’s seafood catch to countries overseas. “The whole system is a little out of whack,” Greenberg says.
Greenberg first started to write American Catch just after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. To his surprise, despite the scale of that disaster, what was really on the minds of Louisiana shrimpers was that foreign shrimp were “severely depressing the price of their wild product.”
Shrimp is America’s favorite seafood: We eat almost as much shrimp as salmon and tuna combined. But though American waters boast a wide variety of wild, flavorful shrimp, it turns out that most of the shrimp Americans eat is imported, much of it from shrimp farms in Asia.
According to Greenberg, a lot of it doesn’t even taste very good. In its farmed form, he says, shrimp is not particularly flavorful. You'd think this would make it unpopular for consumers, but that's not the case. “Americans actually don't really want a lot of flavor," Greenberg says. "They like kind of flavor-neutral things that they can deep-fry and put a lot of sauce on."
The situation with sockeye salmon in Alaska is equally strange. Alaska’s Bristol Bay is home to the largest sockeye salmon run remaining in the world, but 80 percent of the annual Alaska salmon harvest is exported to other countries. That includes a portion of the Alaskan salmon harvest that's frozen and sent to China, where it is defrosted, fileted, boned, refrozen — and then sent back to the US.
Bristol Bay is also the site of the proposed Pebble Mine that would involve digging out about 10 billion tons of earth and ore that would be processed on site. Salmon need pristine environments to thrive, Greenberg says, and the mine poses a huge threat to their continued existence.
If we need an example of what happens when an entire population of sea life is wiped out, take a look at New York City. New York's waters used to be home to literally trillions of oysters. But the Dutch and English settlers “loved, loved, loved the oysters,” says Greenberg. They ate them, ground down the shells and burned them for lime until they had basically “mined out the ecological infrastructure of the harbor.”
An oyster farming industry flourished for a long while after, but “once we started dumping [about] six million gallons of sewage a day into the water, that pretty much put an end to the oyster farming industry by the 1920’s,” Greenberg explains. “There are still some wild oysters left in the harbor, but they are a fraction of their former selves.”
Since the Clean Water Act of 1972, New York's harbor has gotten progressively cleaner. There's now enough dissolved oxygen in the water to support oyster life, Greenberg says — he's found several places where oysters are growing again. But it will be "many, many years, if not forever," before the oysters are safe to eat.
Despite all the challenges Greenberg outlines in his book, he remains optimistic about the future of American seafood. “American fisheries have been improving,” he says. “Since the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act, we have seen the rebuilding of over 30 different stocks of fish. I think we can positively continue in that direction.”We’ve seen 3D scanning and 3D printing used in the medical field as a way to make life easier on injured patients, like this custom sleep mask designed for a patient suffering from Graves’ disease and this 3D printed wrist brace. 3D printed casts can certainly offer patients a lot of benefits that the traditional plaster cast can’t, such as being water-safe and non-permeable (no one likes the smell of body sweat trapped inside plaster). Colorado-based company ActivArmor has completed the necessary field tests for its 3D printed casts, and though the casts have previously been available across the Colorado Front Range, we learned this week that the company will be going nationwide with the versatile new casts later this year.
ActivArmor casts are custom fit support devices that are unique to each patient’s body. They are “mapped to the contours of the limb or injuries requiring stabilization and support.” Looking through the images available on their website, it appears that ActivArmor casts are only available for finger, hand, wrist, and arm injuries, and not for broken legs. The injured limb is 3D mapped so each client can get an exact fit, unlike options such as progressive layers of molded tape or low temperature thermoplastic. These Class 1 splints are fabricated from 100% high temperature ABS plastic, and use indications note that they are “not intended to provide bone-level strength to the extremity.”
ActivArmor is unique for a number of reasons. First, it is obviously much easier to observe the condition of a patient’s skin, and a cast’s exact fit “allows the tissues to remain in the desired position for optimal rest and healing.” Doctors are able to better immobilize specific areas that would not be possible with prefabricated casts; it also helps doctors reduce the need to maintain and store an inventory of casts.
Through its patent-pending closing mechanism, the ActivArmor device can be designed to be easily removable. As previously mentioned, 3D printed casts like ActivArmor are generally safe for use in water, so patients can bathe, and even swim, without worrying that the device will lose the ability to provide support to their injury.
This is pretty interesting: if someone with a medical or food handling job needs a cast, ActivArmor can also be cold sterilized for safe use in their field! When Pro Circuit Rider Adam Cianciarulo broke his wist this summer, he used an ActivArmor cast to keep on riding.
Cianciarulo said, “My brace has given me the freedom to do things I couldn’t do with a standard cast while giving me the support I need to protect my wrist fracture. I love it and would recommend it to anyone with any problem requiring extra support!”
Some of the other positive features of the ActivArmor devices include:
Comfortable
Available in multiple colors
Hygienic
Ventilated
Lightweight
Temperature resistant
Quick, painless application and removal
Reusable
The ActivArmor website says that the device is covered by insurance. Doctors can prescribe ActivArmor to their patients; the prescription needs to include the diagnosis code and any special design or fit instructions. They can send their patients to one of the company’s partnering clinics, or become a partner themselves. Referring physicians can contact the company to request ActivArmor script pads.
Some of the common injuries that can be treated with ActivArmor include thumb fractures and dislocations, collateral ligament injuries, sprained wrists, and carpal tunnel syndrome. The website notes that “ActivArmor is not suggested for use when there is acute edema or may be present in the future. For athletes, it is not intended for use in activities that incur high force impact or torque on the device.” These devices have not been formally tested for acute injuries, and are only labeled for external use to provide “support, stability, and immobilization for extremities.”
If a doctor prescribes an ActivArmor device, the first step is having a 3D scan of the patient’s injured limb performed. This does not require any contact with skin, and should take less than a minute to get a precise, custom 3D body contour. The mapped image, along with any special design instructions for the device, is uploaded to ActivArmor, and the patient is then put in a temporary splint or bivalve cast while waiting for their device to be fabricated and shipped. The completed custom device is generally received by the provider within 3-4 business days.
3D printed medical devices offer customized care and can optimize healing when correctly created and worn. While some individuals with medical experience have seen success in making their own 3D printed casts, please note that you should always consult your doctor for injury. Discuss in the ActivArmor forum at 3DPB.com.Just two years after opening The Exchange Pub + Kitchen in downtown New Albany, owner Ian Hall is expanding the 200-seat bistro with new indoor-outdoor seating and a large patio that will feature fire pits, booth seating and live acoustic musical acts.
Yet as if increasing capacity there by 30 percent wasn’t ambitious enough, construction crews just began work on Brooklyn & The Butcher, a casual steakhouse Hall will own and operate just a block away at 148 E. Market St. Constructed in 1871, the building served as a hotel for more than a century before its bottom floor was converted for restaurant use as New Albany Bistro and Habana Blues Tapas.
“Two big things downtown New Albany lacks is true outdoor dining (and) nice late-night spots to get a drink and something to eat,” said Hall. “I really want to see that happen in our lounge areas. Since it used to be a hotel, I’d love to see that hotel bar feel brought back.”
But first, change at The Exchange: Hall said guests who dine outdoors there can expect “a somewhat more streamlined menu than what they get inside. We don’t want to overwhelm the kitchen and not be able to execute it.”
The year-round space features garage-style doors that can be raised when it’s warm outside and booked for private parties. The patio, he added, should host several special events.
“We’d love to do things like a pig roast out on the patio,” he said. Pointing toward the soon-to-be-open Floyd County Brewing Co. just catty-corner to The Exchange, he said, “There’s so much going on down here right between restaurants that have been here a while and new ones opening. It’s all finally happening.”
The remark is a tribute to early investors such as Bank Street Brewhouse, Feast BBQ, The Exchange, Dragon King’s Daughter, Wick’s Pizza and Toast on Market (all are within two blocks of each other), which are enjoying increasingly steady customer traffic to the area.
The city finally pitched in to pave the area’s formerly pot-holed streets, and real estate investors are buying up buildings for redevelopment and mixed use. The floors above Brooklyn & The Butcher are nearly complete studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments.
“The people who live here will be able to walk right down into the lobby of the restaurant, just as if they were in a hotel,” he said.
Hall said Brooklyn & The Butcher is a combination of its beef-centered offerings and its metropolitan New York look, best viewed from within the building’s walled courtyard. There, its brick walls soar nearly four stories, old exterior fire escape stairs hang from a wall, and a long wall on an adjacent building bears a dense, green beard of years of ivy growth.
“This space will be used for private parties, or if the weather’s nice, just another place to let people wait for dinner and have a drink,” Hall said.
Leading me down a flight of dusty stairs to a basement directly below the first flour lounge area, he explained that the space, which will hold about 30, will serve late-night drinks and appetizers.
“I like what Decca has done with its basement lounge, and we’ve got space to do something like that,” Hall said. “As the restaurant closes down at night, people can still come here.”
Between Hall’s company, Brand Hospitality, and building owner Matt Chalfant, about $800,000 is being spent on gutting the space to its brick bones. Mixed-era touches like high, coffered ceilings with tin surfaces and modern lighting will be added.
Its expansive kitchen will be open to BTB’s rear dining room, but “not out there for everyone to see like at The Exchange. I’m sure the cooks there will be bummed out when they see how big the kitchen is over here.”
If all goes according to plan, Hall projects a late fall opening for BTB. On the menu will be a mix of entrees and sharable plates, and a mix of pricey beef cuts (bone-in ribeye and tenderloin) and more affordable choices such as chuck flap and teres cuts.
“We do not want the steakhouse to be a special-occasion restaurant; we want it to be casual, a place where people could afford to come multiple times a week,” Hall said.
He said The Exchange has long benefitted from traffic to and from Horseshoe Casino, about 15 minutes away, and he believes Brooklyn & The Butcher will do even better.
“If they win there, I think they’ll come here,” he said.It’s official, folks: Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for existing Windows users—as long as you claim it quickly.
Kicking off the consumer-focused Windows 10 event in Redmond on Tuesday, January 21, Microsoft operating system chief Terry Myerson announced that current users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to the new operating system for free as long as they do so within one year of Windows 10's July 29 launch. Once you’ve claimed the upgrade, it's permanent, and Microsoft will keep you updated for the supported lifetime of the device.
“We think of Windows 10 as a service,” Myerson said.
Here's the fine print from the Windows 10 page on Microsoft's site:
“It is our intent that most of these devices will qualify, but some hardware/software requirements apply and feature availability may vary by device. Devices must be connected to the internet and have Windows Update enabled. ISP fees may apply. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 Update required. Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise outside of this offer. We will be sharing more information and additional offer terms in coming months.”
Did you catch that? Windows RT tablets won't be upgraded to Windows 10—though they'll get some of the new features—and business users will have to pay to upgrade and receive continued support.
The decision to make Windows 10 a free upgrade for existing users makes sense. Windows 8 users have vocally expressed their displeasure with the operating system, prompting happy Windows 7 users to stay put on that OS. That hinders Microsoft's ability to execute its vision for a service-centric, cloud-connected future for Windows; making Windows 10 free could spur more users into embracing a modern Microsoft operating system.
And hey, it'd be weird to charge for Windows 10 after Windows 8 flopped so hard and Apple started giving away OS upgrades. Right?
This article originally published on January 21, 2015, but was updated March 18, June 1, and July 29, 2015 with additional information.The Uttar Pradesh Police will now invoke provisions of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against cow smuggling and slaughter.
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arrows, colours, and tapes for a tiny tab designed to show the consumer where to pull back the invisible, full-bleed sticker adhered to the top of the clear iPod box. Getting it just right was this particular designer's obsession.”
11 Balls
In his recent unauthorised biography of Jony Ive, author Leander Kahney included a photo of an iMac G4 inside its box. The stem connecting the screen to the domed base is encased in polystyrene, with the two ball-shaped speakers carefully and very deliberately placed either side of the shaft. The idea of arranging them to look like male genitals was apparently the idea of the design team.
For good measure, the book also features a high school photo of Ive, arguably the world's most famous designer and tastemaker, with a very impressive mullet.
• Apple's iPad came top in the Guardian's tablet takedown of 2013Ruth DeFries, chair of the department of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia University, in New York, and author of The Big Ratchet: How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis, has spent much of her life looking down at Earth from a great height, using satellite images to track human development. But to understand how we went from being hunter-gatherers to a species that so completely dominates the planet, she had to go much further back in time.
Speaking from her home in New York, she guides us from the rain forest of Brazil to the latest developments in foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). On the way she explains why food is at the heart of human civilization, what we need to do to feed the world in the coming decades, and why it's not just the quantity of the food we produce that matters, but also the quality.
My dictionary says a ratchet is either a tool or rap slang for a diva. What's the "Big Ratchet"?
A ratchet is a colloquial urban term, as you suggest. But it's also a mechanical tool. You turn the ratchet in one direction, and you can't go back. The ratchets in the book refer to the ways people have figured out how to manipulate nature to produce food.
Once we have these technologies, we produce more food, ratchet up the population, and that continues on. The Big Ratchet refers to the past 50 years, when we've had an explosive increase in food production. The amount of food produced has surpassed even the explosive growth in population.
So the story of the Big Ratchet is how we got to this point. How we figured out, through genetics, nutrients, irrigation, and pesticides, to lift the constraints that nature placed upon us.
You start your story in the Brazilian rain forest with the Kayapo Indians. Tell us how they feature in modern-day food production and why their story is part of our own evolutionary history.
I was doing work in the Brazilian rain forest using satellite data to track deforestation. That took me down to the ground to a very interesting part of the world, the state of Mato Grosso, in Brazil. At the time, in the early 2000s, it had the highest rate of deforestation in the world. Within that landscape there was a reserve for the Kayapo Indians, who were still living as hunter-gatherers.
So there was this amazing juxtaposition with modern agriculture—giant tractors, planes flying pesticides, everything you think of with modern agriculture for the cultivation of soy and other crops.
But before we started to domesticate plants and animals around ten or twelve thousand years ago, everyone lived like the Kayapo. Everyone hunted for wild animals, foraged for seeds and berries and fruits. That was the way we interacted with nature to get food.
Today, a very, very small percentage of the world's population still lives by those means. Most of us live in cities and buy our food from the grocery store. So how did we go from living like the Kayapo to growing soy, which gets transported halfway around the world to feed chickens that end up on somebody's dinner plate in a very distant place?
Seeing that very stark contrast in Brazil brought it to home to me that we're no ordinary mammal. As a species, we've traveled this amazing trajectory. And that's the trajectory I explore in the book.
View Images A Kayapo Indian man brings home several freshly caught fish in Aukre, Brazil. Humans were all hunter-gatherers, like the Kayapo, before the domestication of plants and animals ten or twelve thousand years ago. Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier, National Geographic Creative
Much of recent human progress comes from food production and technological advances in food production—not the iPad. Where do you think genetically modified foods, and the social concerns around those crops, fit into the Big Ratchet?
I focus on food in the book because it's so fundamental to civilization and fundamental to the way we live. When we first domesticated crops and were able to produce surplus grains and store those grains, it completely changed the way people could live. People could gather in settlements and live off of that surplus grain, rather than roaming over the landscape to pursue food.
It made it possible for some people to specialize in certain tasks, whether pottery-making or being rulers. And there is a connection with the iPad! Because if it weren't for our ability to produce surplus food, it wouldn't be possible for some people to apply their creativity and develop the technology that leads to the iPad.
As far as GMOs are concerned, we've been manipulating genetics for a very long time. When we first started to manipulate genetics, it was to select those plants with desirable traits, like having big seeds so there's more to eat, or harvesting at the same time, or not being too prickly. By selecting those plants that had those traits and then planting those seeds the next year, we were manipulating genetics and acting in the same way as natural selection.
Today we have very much more sophisticated ways to manipulate genetics—at the molecular scale. But, in principle, it's the same process. I'm not opposed to the principle of GMOs. Unfortunately, the discussion gets so wrapped around ideology that ideology gets in the way of the evidence.
When looking at the broad sweep of history, it becomes clear that GMOs are not a silver-bullet solution to producing the larger amount of food that will be needed in the future. There's no silver bullet solution, no technology that doesn't come without its downsides and its risks. That's what we see throughout history.
There have been positives and negatives since the Green Revolution, but what surprises me is that higher crop yields have not reduced world hunger. How is that possible?
That's one of the tragedies of the Big Ratchet. We have an incredible abundance of food, but we still have something like 800 million people in the world who are chronically hungry. It's not for lack of food, it's for lack of action.
It's a very lopsided world we live in. While some people don't have enough, other people have too much. The proportion of people in the world who are chronically hungry has been reducing. And that's of course a very positive thing. But it's still tragic that anyone is hungry in today's world, with such an abundance of food.
A recent study showed that almost one-third of food produced is later thrown away. What can be done to stop this wastage?
Waste is an enormous issue. Reducing waste would go a long way to being able to feed people in the future. About a third to a half—you see a range of estimates—of food is wasted in the world. And it's for different reasons in different parts of the world.
In the industrialized parts of the world, like in the U.S., there's so much waste of food because we throw so much out of our refrigerators. Restaurants throw away food at that end of the food system, and of course so do supermarkets. In the developing world the wastage occurs on the farm level, because of inadequacies of storage, before the food even gets to the person who can consume it. Improving storage facilities and transportation to get the crops to market more efficiently would help enormously.
In our system where we waste so much, raising consciousness about wasting food is important. There's so much that goes into the dumpster that could be used.
View Images Ruth DeFries says that she focused on food in her new book "because it's so fundamental to civilization and fundamental to the way we live." Photograph by Martin Bentsen
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations says that if global population reaches 9.1 billion by 2050, world food production will need to rise by 70 percent, and food production in the developing world will need to double. Is this one ratchet too far?
Part of those projections about how much food will be required in the future depends on population—how many mouths there are to feed. But also people's diet. We know that when people become more affluent, they generally have more animal products in their diets—more dairy, more meat—and it takes a lot more energy to produce those animal products, as opposed to people eating a more plant-based diet.
If we look at our history, we see so many examples where we've been able to ratchet up the amount of food we produce. The issue is not just producing more food, but also the side effects of producing that food. History shows that we're very good at producing more. But are we good at producing better? The unhealthy diets we're creating today, with so much oil, fats, and sugars, are causing an epidemic of obesity around the world. That's one of the outcomes of the Big Ratchet.
Then there's the environmental side: fertilizer runoff, leading to too much nitrogen in our waterways, which leads to algal blooms; greenhouse gases from agriculture. So the issue is, Can we produce enough food that is healthy for people and healthy for the environment?
You explain that variability in social learning is crucial to evolution. But is society evolving too quickly to teach the next generation vital information for their survival?
One of the theories to explain why our species has such large brains in relation to our body size is that for millions of years we experienced a very variable climate during the Pleistocene. Having a big brain, being able to figure things out rather than relying on what was previously learned and passed on to you, enabled us to survive better in a variable climate.
Today, we have a lot of variability in technology and social media—all of these ways of dealing with the world our parents didn't have. Each generation is learning anew. That makes for an exciting time because there is such rapid development of knowledge, plus the ability to connect with our peers and develop new information and solutions to the problems that we face.
Tell us how humans are better at aping than apes themselves—and why that's important.
We commonly think that aping applies just to the apes, like chimpanzees and our other close relatives, meaning to copy. But humans are extremely good imitators. This shows up with how readily we learn language and other tasks and has been the basis of our development of culture.
Let me tell you about Imo, the potato washer. Imo is a Japanese macaque who lived in the 1950s and was studied by researchers because she was very intelligent. She figured out how to wash potatoes in a stream, and then the other macaques started to wash their potatoes in the stream. But the technology didn't go past that. The other macaques didn't find other ways to wash potatoes and pass that information on to their offspring who could figure out even better ways to wash potatoes.
We humans have the ability to accumulate knowledge. We can pass on a task like washing a potato in a stream, and the next generation will improve upon that. That generation will then pass it on to the next generation, and they will improve upon that technology. We have this extraordinary ability to accumulate knowledge and build on it.
What drew you to this subject?
I've been looking down at the Earth in satellite pictures for a long time now, and what we see when we look down is the imprint of humans almost everywhere: roads, cities, fields, agriculture. But satellite data only allows you to look from a few decades back, which is nothing in the overall scheme of things. What is always in the back of my mind is, How did this happen? How did we become the species that dominates the planet? At one point we were like our ape relatives, the chimps and bonobos. Now we're the species that dominates the planet. How did that happen?
Many people are cynical and depressed about human beings and think the planet would be better off without them. Are you a glass half-full or half-empty type of person?
Part of the motivation for writing this book is that we do hear so much doomsday talk and that we're up against the limits of the planet. On the other hand, we hear that there's always a technological fix, and if we can just find it, then we have nothing to worry about.
But what's the reality between those extremes? I don't think either is correct, nor are they useful. From the doomsday side, we can look back at history and see that we have solved some very hard problems through our ingenuity. There are no guarantees for the future. But I stand on the side of the optimists. Not blind optimism, though.Its hard not to have architecture and history as the focus in a London travel blog.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
The architectural feat of this building, for its time, is amazing. It was the largest building in Europe when it was built. It was damaged during world War II when Hitler’s bombers attacked London.
No picture or video of its interrior does it justice. Why? Because they ban you from taking photos inside. Houdini over here managed a few, but the quality sucked. I need to work on my hidden cam skills.
Bitter and hungry I told the co-founder I didn’t want to pay to go into another Cathedral. That was dumb. As soon as you get inside and look up at the painted dome you are awe struck. Go do it. Plus there are really cool passage ways through the internal bones of the church.
Here is a shot looking up from the front steps of the Cathedral.
The best part is they let you hike up narrow passage-ways and stairwells to stand on the outter rim of the dome.
When you finally reach the top of the dome, having narrowed your way through the rafters of the Cathedral, you are rewarded with one of the best views of the entire City. Here is a panorama looking into the newer part of London from the top of St. Paul’s.Looking to build and ride your own mechs in Fallout 4? Modder Gou8137977 has a new mod for wastelanders to take advantage of that integrates mechromancer abilities in Bethesda’s Fallout 4.
Despite the very service by Bethesda that has caused quite the ruckus, better known as Creation Club, many folks around and about still enjoy Fallout 4. The amount of people that still go out of their way to download mods for the game across PC, PS4 and Xbox One are still quite active.
Well, one of the latest mods that alter the base game, which may or may not be applicable to those on PS4 due to Sony’s mod policy, comes a mechromancer mod that lets folks build and ride mechs.
The amount of pieces present and usable in the mod can be found in the base game and throughout Fallout 4’s DLCs, however future updates could potentially bring new assets.
Speaking of customization, the modder has on the mechromancer mod page that you can’t create a ride-able mount from scratch but from an existing one around the wasteland:
“You can customize RidableBot with robot workbench.
Select from the menu displayed at the end of customization. A RidableBot is created with a skeleton corresponding to it.”
A non-serious video showing the mod in action comes in by theDeluxSam.
As for finding these strange machines you can search around the Commonwealth for various parts or whole machines. Upon finding one you will need to wear a “Control Ring” to get on the robot.
NPC such as Raiders pilot these things, which players, companions, and dogmeat can all mount one. It’s worth noting that when a robot is destroyed it will take up to seven days to re-spawn.
Here is a list of places where these mechs can be located:
Near the “Museum of Freedom”
Dunwich Borers
Corvega Assembly Plant
Saugus Ironworks
Fort Hagen Satellite Array
Atom Cats garage
Bunker Hill
You can download this mod right now over on NexusMods.April 12, 2016 6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time: We who are raising startups, not pachyderms, know that the keys to success are persistence and consistency. Yet too many owners become frustrated because their businesses aren't winning the press and social media mentions they deserve.
Related: 5 Pro Tips for a Successful Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Campaign
What to do? Here are six practical ways to take your public relations to the next level in less than an hour a day.
1. Gather testimonials.
Every marketer knows that testimonials can benefit marketing campaigns. But did you know that they can also help boost the impact and odds of success for your public relations outreach? Think about the typical stories you read in the media that profile a company. With few exceptions, they include quotes from customers. The reason is obvious: Without testimonials, it's just your word.
Editors and readers know that talk is cheap. They know that having others vouch for you adds credibility. And, for your part, gathering testimonials won't be hard, but it will require persistence. Make a point for your sales or service team to have a system in place to gather testimonials. It can be something as simple as a shared Google Doc. Often, it's as easy as just asking your customers. If many or all of them aren't willing, that may be indicative of a problem with satisfaction. Time required: 10 minutes a day.
2. Average a press release a month.
No, press releases don't equal media coverage. And, yes, reporters still rely on press releases. No, press releases are not dead. But, yes, using press releases as an SEO strategy is a dead strategy.
Truth is, a press release is just a tool. It isn't an end, it is a means to an end. But, like any tool, in the right hands it can do a lot. Press releases still help inform the media about important updates, keep your clients and stakeholders informed and create a public record of happenings. Make a point, then, to put out a press release once a month, but only if you have something interesting to say. Having large gaps of time with no press releases issued creates the impression that either something is wrong, or nothing much is happening. Time required: 4 hours a month or so (average 8 minutes a day).
Related: How Social Media Can Help With PR
3. Follow a reporter (online).
Reporter and editors still heavily use Twitter as their primary social media platform. And like any other human being on social media, they take note of who follows them, who retweeted or favorited their tweet and who leaves an interesting or funny comment. Leverage this amazing resource, and anyone can connect one-to-one with some of the best known editors and reporters out there.
Considering how these poor folks get bombarded with hundreds of emails and pitches a day, Twitter is a fantastic way to bypass the clutter and make them take notice. But, consider Twitter to be a soft-sell channel; don't be overly aggressive in promoting a pitch right off the bat. Instead, use social media to establish a relationship first, then work relevant pitches in.
Speaking of relevant, be absolutely sure the media person targeted writes about the industry in question. This can be done with a quick Google search of the writer's name and a quick scan of the topics he or she has recently written on. Time required: 10 minutes a day.
4. Newsjack.
Newsjacking isn't a crime, as its name may imply. It's a secret weapon that savvy PR folks use to get their clients consistent coverage. Doesn't it seem like some companies are always in the news? How they do that is by leveraging the power of newsjacking. Newsjacking means simply finding a way to make a company relevant to whatever the hot topics of the day are.
So, if cybersecurity is a hot topic of the moment, look to see if there are angles that relate your company to this topic. If the "sharing economy," such as Uber and Airbnb is the hot topic, likewise check out opportunities to participate in the conversation. Naturally this requires an awareness of what the trending topics are.
Thankfully, though, social media has come up with helpful ways to know what's buzzing. Both Twitter and Facebook have areas that show what topics or hashtags are trending at that moment. Make it a habit to check at least once a day, and think of any possible ways to inject your company into the conversation. Time required: 15 minutes a day.
5. Apply for awards.
Who doesn't like to win an award? Awards are a win-win for everyone. Companies feel good for being selected, and subsequent prospects feel good that someone has already vetted you. In the prospect's mind, the thinking is that if an award committee found a reason to name a company a finalist or a grand prize winner, there must be a good reason.
Winning multiple awards is a great way to build a portfolio of reputation that puts even the most skittish prospect at ease. But the first step in winning awards is knowing what awards are out there. For every industry, there are usually a handful of top awards available. Google "industry name + award" to quickly find the top ones to apply for.
Don't neglect local awards, diversity awards and "green" awards. Keep in mind that entry fees for awards vary from reasonable (a few hundred dollars) to expensive (closer to $1,000). Spending a little time finding the top awards and noting the submission deadlines could pay you dividends for years to come. Time required: 30 minutes a month (average 1 minute a day).
6. Follow HARO.
HARO isn't some UN organization. Its full name is www.helpareporter.com, and it's a mailing list that has a simple goal of connecting reporters who need material, with companies or individuals who could supply them with whatever they need. Every weekday, three HARO emails are sent out morning, afternoon and evening. The email is a long laundry list of story opportunities segmented by industry.
Related: 4 PR Strategies You Should Be Using Right Now
Sometimes, a listing reveals who the outlet and reporter is, sometimes not. Regardless, it's a great low-hanging fruit way of potentially getting your name into the press. HARO has recently become a bit of a victim of its own success. As its popularity has grown, so has the mob of people who respond to a reporter's inquiry. This ultimately leads back to the original dilemma of PR: breaking through the clutter. Still, your chances of winning success from responding to a HARO inquiry is greater than a cold pitch. So, sign up. Time required: 10 minutes a day.Hello, my name is Sarah Daigle and I am in the process of recording my first full length album!
It’s taken me a lot of patience and dreaming for me to finally get to this point. Alas! It’s all happening at Castle Entertainment in Providence, RI and I can’t wait to share the final product with all of you.
How I Found Music:
I have been playing guitar for 16 years and a singer since I was a little child. A lot of my writing is about experiences I have had, dreams, life lessons and simply observations on how I see the world. When I first started playing music it became a form of therapy. I was really depressed and had a hard time expressing and communicating my feelings in a way that people would understand. When I picked up the guitar and started writing, expressing emotions through vibration and sound just made sense to me and was an extremely healing experience. Now, on the side of this personal project, I integrate my healing process by playing Kirtan (devotional chanting) during yoga workshops and meditations to allow others to have a similar experience.
Why A Kickstarter Campaign!?
I’m in the process of recording 12 songs that are all originals. Some are older and others brand new but all worth sharing to the world! I have been recording for about a month now and trying to pull together the funds for this project is simply difficult. I’ve already put a lot of money into it and now it’s time to finally reach out to those of you that want to be a part of this project.
Here's what your contributions will go toward:According to the 2008 US News Health report, over 4 million U.S. men and women suffer from Alzheimer's disease; 1 million from Parkinson's disease; 350,000 from multiple sclerosis; and 20,000 from ALS. Worldwide, these four diseases account for more than 20 million patients. Although great progress has been made in recent years toward understanding of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, ALS and others, few effective treatments and no cures are currently available. Aging greatly increases the risk of neurodegenerative disease and the average age of Americans is steadily increasing. Today, over 35 million Americans are over the age of 65. Within the next 30 years this number is likely to double, putting more and more people at increased risk of neurodegenerative disease. Alzheimer's disease, which has emerged as one of the most common brain disorders, begins in the hippocampal formation and gradually spreads to the remaining brain at its most advanced stages, and is characterized partly by deposition of amyloid plaques in the brain tissue but also in the blood vessels themselves ( 41 ). For the purpose of this study, we will focus on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease through the FUS-induced blood-brain barrier opening and therefore, the targeted region in the brain will be the hippocampus.
6.2. Drug delivery in neurodegenerative disease
Over the past decade, numerous small- and large-molecule products have been developed for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with mixed success. When administered systemically in vivo, the BBB inhibits their delivery to the regions affected by those diseases. A review of the Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry database indicates that only 5% of the more than 7000 small-molecule drugs treat the Central Nervous System (CNS) 4. With these, only four CNS disorders can be treated: depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and chronic pain 42; 43. Despite the availability of pharmacological agents, potentially devastating CNS disorders and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, and amythrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), remain undertreated mainly because of the impermeability of the BBB (1, 4).One of the goals of our studies has been to optimize the FUS method and elucidate the physical mechanism in order to ultimately deliver therapeutics to the brain and significantly facilitate treatment of currently intractable and devastating neurodegenerative diseases. As indicated before, there has been several hypotheses and reports on the physiological mechanism 13,55,58, but the physical mechanism has been progressively unveiled and identified as being solely related to stable cavitation at low pressures (17, 60, 64, 69) and a combination of stable and inertial at higher pressures (60, 64) (Fig. (iii)).
A successful drug delivery system requires transient, localized, and noninvasive targeting of a specific tissue region. None of the current techniques clinically used, or currently under research, address these issues within the scope of the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. As a result, the present situation in neurotherapeutics enjoys few successful treatments for most CNS disorders. Some of those routes of administration are listed in Table. Several pharmaceutical companies use the technique known as lipidization, which is the addition of lipid groups to the polar ends of molecules to increase the permeability of the agent 44. However, the effect is not localized as the permeability of the drug increases not only in the targeted region, but over the entire brain and body. There can thus be a limit to the amount absorbed before the side-effects become deleterious 44.
Table 1 Lipidization Lipidize the drug.
Allows uptake in the BBB. Increases penetration across all biological membranes. Yes No Transcranial brain drug delivery Neurosurgically-based drug delivery method. Diffusion-based method. Invasive. Diffusion reduces the initial concentration by 90% when traveling only 0.5 mm. No Yes Solvent/adjuvant-mediated
BBB disruption Solvent and adjuvants disrupt the BBB using dilation, contraction, and other methods. Disrupts the BBB in all of the brain. Potentially toxic. Yes No Delivery through endogenous transporters Use endogenous transporters to traverse the BBB. Requires medicinal chemistry to modify drugs and knowledge of the endogenous transporters. Yes No Ultrasound Focused Ultrasound (FUS) with microbubbles Possible irreversible damage may be induced. Yes Yes Open in a separate window
A second set of techniques under study are neurosurgically-based drug delivery methods, which involve the invasive implantation of drugs into a region by a needle 45; 46. The drug spreads through diffusion and is localized to the targeted region, but diffusion does not allow for molecules to travel far from their point of release. In addition to this, invasive procedures traverse untargeted brain tissue potential causing unnecessary damage. Other techniques utilize solvents mixed with drugs or adjuvants (pharmacological agents) attached to drugs to disrupt the BBB through dilation and contraction of the blood vessels 1, 4, 47. However, this disruption is not localized within the brain, and the solvents and adjuvants used are potentially toxic. This technique may constitute a delivery method specific to the brain, but it requires special attention to each type of drug molecule and a specific transport system resulting in a time-consuming and costly process while still not being completely localized to the targeted region. FUS in combination with microbubbles constitutes thus the only truly transient, localized, and noninvasive technique for opening the BBB. Due to these unique advantages over other existent techniques (Table ), FUS may facilitate the delivery of already developed pharmacological agents and could significantly impact how devastating CNS diseases are treated.
However, despite the fact that FUS is currently the only technique that can open the BBB locally and noninvasively, several key aspects of this phenomenon remain unexplored. A clear correlation of BBB opening with microbubbles has been shown 10, 17, 19. Although the presence of microbubbles allows for a reduction in the necessary acoustic pressure for BBB opening, it also allows for the possibility of disrupting the microbubble through inertial cavitation 47-49. The resulting effects can not only open the tight junctions, but also could induce irreversible damage to the blood vessels and its surrounding cells 27. Recent studies have indicated that BBB opening may occur without necessarily incurring inertial cavitation, without 14 or with 17 craniotomy. However, it is not clear how the different types of mechanical effects lead to BBB opening and how the role of the microbubble can be optimized. Given the strong coupling of microbubble size and concentration to the response to insonation, a mechanistic study to BBB opening by contrast-assisted focused ultrasound must include these parameters. Control over both ultrasound and microbubble parameters is essential for the proper optimization and understanding of the FUS technique. However, to our knowledge no study to date has included a thorough investigation of both of these components.'Kitten Season’: Warm Weather Brings Uptick in Homeless Kittens View Full Caption
WILLIAMSBURG — It's "kitten season" again in New York — which means hordes of free-roaming and abandoned kittens are ending up at shelters across Brooklyn.
Just last week, volunteer rescue group North Brooklyn Cats fielded calls for eight kittens in one day, including an incident where a cardboard box filled with a litter that had been left by an L train stop in Williamsburg, according to volunteer Eva Prokop.
Brooklyn Animal Rescue Coalition is already at capacity for kittens after taking in many in the last month, BARC employee Jim Perugini said.
And in the last two weeks alone, Brooklyn-based Sean Casey Animal Rescue said it has taken in some 30 to 40 kittens — putting the shelter at maximum capacity and forcing it to turn down newcomers.
"It's really hit full speed," said Sean Casey, who runs the rescue and said it averages more than 100 calls per day in warmer months. "We're getting constant calls. We're overrun with kittens."
Cats who are not spayed tend to give birth throughout the spring and summer, the rescue organizations said.
Most of the time, the kittens are born to free-roaming, feral cats. Do-gooders find them and bring them to no-kill shelters in hopes of finding them homes.
But it's not uncommon for people to simply leave kittens in the street, whether it's because they find them or because their own adult cats aren't spayed or neutered, some rescuers said.
Queens resident Judy McGuire was walking through McCarren Park last week for a hair appointment when she saw two kittens meowing as a woman walked quickly away from them, McGuire said.
She scooped them up and was able to find homes for them through a network of cat lovers.
Prokop said her volunteer group regularly sees situations where kittens have been abandoned in front of pets stores or shelters.
"It's not fair. It's not right," Prokop said. "[Spay] and neuter your pets. It’s not humane what’s happening to the animals."
Kittens require additional money and resources in order to be properly cared for. Many of them show up sick or with infections — which can quickly spread to other kittens once they're near each other, Prokop said.
Others are so young that the rescue organizations need people who are trained to bottle feed kittens to foster the newborns until they're ready to be adopted, Casey said.
One foster parent who had been bottle-feeding 12 kittens brought them back last week only to take in 10 more underage kittens within 15 minutes of arriving at the rescue, Casey said.
"Our resources are almost none at this point," he said. "Our fosters are full. We're ripping our hair out to care for what we have and find homes for them."
Even with a higher demand to adopt kittens, there's not enough space for all the new ones coming in, rescue centers said.
Plus, once the little ones start coming in, adoption for adult cats virtually halts, Casey said.
It's a problem, especially since the cage for one adult cat could be used for an entire litter of kittens during kitten season, he said.
"Ultimately we need to find homes for these guys," Casey said of both kittens and adult cats. "We need people to go out and adopt."
Animal activists encourage people who spot a cat in the street to reach out to local trap-and-return organizations, which spay and neuter cat colonies to prevent reproduction of free-roaming cats.
Martha Stone, who runs an organization in Bed-Stuy called Bedford Corners Community Cats, said the goal is to prevent kittens from being born at all and she works to neuter strays.
"If you’re lucky enough to live in our little section of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, you won’t have a kitten problem," Stone said.
Stone said that it's not a bad option to try and take kittens to a shelter or to just leave them in the wild.
The mortality rate for kittens is high when they're left outside, but the reality is that not everybody has the resources to take care of stray animals, she said.
"You have to do what you can," Stone said. "If the only thing you can do is take it to the shelter, then that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do."
Here are five things you can do to help during kitten season:
- Spay and neuter your own pets. Shelters and rescue centers are already overburdened with kittens that are either born outdoors or left by their owners. Taking care of your own animal will help prevent increasing the population.
- Foster or adopt kittens or adult cats from rescues and shelters. Adopting an adult cat will help make room for kittens that come through during the busy season. For no-kill shelters, the main goal is moving pets into permanent homes.
- Donate to efforts to spay and neuter and vaccinate more cats. The Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals is accepting donations to help take care of kittens and cats that are found on the streets and in backyards.
- Try your hand at TNR. The Mayor's Alliance offers free workshops to teach people how to safely trap cats in order to vaccinate them and have them spayed or neutered before being released. Doing so helps decrease the kitten population.Darlings of national television stations, the NFC East produced some of the sloppiest games of 2015. The quartet ranked squarely at the bottom of Around The NFL's offseason power rankings in 2016, in part because the division lacks potential for a dominant power and is littered with rosters full of holes and deep-seeded question marks.
After years of upheaval, the Washington Redskins enter as the team with the most stability under coach Jay Gruden and quarterback Kirk Cousins -- who would have thought! The New York Giants kicked out their two-time Super Bowl winning coach, but kept most of his staff. The Philadelphia Eagles ended Chip Kelly's reign and are trying to recreate the Andy Reid-era. The Dallas Cowboys watched quarterback Tony Romo miss most of the season with injuries that crippled their campaign, but have yet to improve the mediocrity behind him.
With stability at quarterback, a young running back who has the talent -- if not consistent play -- to be a star, and improved play in the trenches, the Redskins find themselves atop an unsteady pile in the NFC East. However, every roster in the division screams for help. The reality is that the overall talent on all four rosters lands squarely in mediocrity. So while the football won't be pretty in 2016, the race for the title likely will come down to the wire again.
Our Roster Reset series examines the state of each NFL team leading up to the 2016 NFL Draft. Click here to see other breakdowns.
Washington Redskins
What's changed:
Last offseason, Gruden declared Robert Griffin III the team's starting quarterback. Now this is clearly Cousins' team. With the RGIII era officially over, Cousins won't have to deal with looking over his shoulder or answering questions about a divided quarterback room. The 27-year-old signal-caller played stellar down the stretch last season, propelling Washington to the division title. In his second full season leading Gruden's offense, |
. In fact, the ODNI's latest batch of court orders shows that the NSA had already voluntarily dropped from four (or more) hops down to three as of 2010 There was no "constitutional or statutory reason" for this reduction either. It was most likely a good faith effort to get back on Judge Walton's good side after he halted the 215 collections for "systemic abuse" that had occurred since the inception of the program. Likewise, Obama's choice to dial it back another hop is simply there to show that the program is indeed being "altered," however slightly. But we're back to trusting that the NSA is actually doing what it says it does and following instructions from the FISA court and the executive branch and limiting its contact chaining to the stated number of hops.Mike Rogers, on the other hand, wasn't quite as gracious about Obama's NSA Reform Lite. After speculating wildly that Snowden is a Russian spy and simply incapable of right-clicking classified documents and saving them to USB drives without outside help, Rogers went on to do two things, both seemingly diametrically opposed. First off, he released this statement with Dianne Feinstein in support of the president's speech.Hmm. When the only good reform isreform, even minor reforms become majorly confusing. I'm sure Rogers is perplexed as tohis incessant often nonsensical defense of the NSA has failed to end the "debate." I'm sure the president is also perplexed, having received a public statement from Rogers that literally said "great speech, Chief!" only to have every sentiment in it stripped away by the Congressman on live TV. (Or not. Politics and such.)The furrow in Rogers' brow must have been deep enough to cut off oxygen to his brain, because he followed up his "concern" with this melange of surveillance tropes and baseless claims.There you have it. Not much changed for the NSA, program-wise, and yet we're now terrorist fodder. Rogers says Obama handed down "big changes," something absolutely(outside the NSA) agrees is true. It's mostly cosmetic changes and empty gestures that leave nearly every NSA program completely unscathed and it was all prefaced by a multi-paragraph love note to the intelligence community.Since the leaks began, Rogers has devolved into a caricature -- a broadly-drawn surveillance statist that spouts talking points and sees terrorists lurking behind every civil liberty. Rogers maintains his hardline on protecting the NSA's status quo even when other intelligence cheerleaders are having a hard time finding much to complain about in Obama's "comprehensive" NSA "reform" "effort." He is no longer relevant to the debate. The only problem is his position at the head of the House Intelligence Committee, a platform that guarantees he will always be asked his opinion -- and from which he can undermine further reform efforts and stymie his fellow representatives' attempts at oversight.
Filed Under: mike rogers, nsa, peter king, reformsIt spread like wildfire on the web this weekend that Peter Jackson will direct an episode of Doctor Who. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are no plans for Jackson to do any such thing. What has happened is this: Jackson has been given an open-ended invitation to direct an episode of the series if he was ever available. It did not progress beyond that. The director is completely engrossed in the second and third installments of The Hobbit trilogy, and he will not be emerging from Middle Earth for the better part of two years. Now, Jackson is a devoted fan of the series: I saw him two Comic-Cons ago and, when my son mentioned he was headed to a Doctor Who event, Jackson stopped him in his tracks – and they spent most of my interview time talking about their love for the series.Holy cow! So many things!
Open the box and immediately: PACKING PEANUTS! OH BOY! We must sniff everything! And we sniff... CAT NIP! (Yeti promptly tore a hole in the huge bag of nip before we could get it away from him) More cans of soft cat food than we can count on our kitty toes! (8 small cans, 1 large can of salmon) And all the cans are salmon! (Abby's favorite evarrrr)
So many toys! (5 + a bobble head toy) We must chew on them while they're still attached to the cardboard! Treat break! Lots of bags! One for both our paws to grab! (4 bags!)
Oh yeah. Manbeasts got some tape on a handle too (thanks for the lint roller. How did you know??) Oh, hey! An empty box!
Seriously, Santa, you went above and beyond. The box was awesome. :DNot thinking much of it, the Tree Streets resident went back to bed, only to find out the next morning that someone had dumped a cow carcass in front of her property at 100 W. Maple St. Later she would discover someone had also scattered approximately 70 nails near her residence’s vehicles.
According to a Johnson City Police Department report, Porter heard both male and female voices.
Porter believes these two offenses to be a hate crime, as her house has approximately 10 rainbow flags — symbols used to support the lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and questioning, or LGTBQ, community — hanging from the rafters of the porch.
“I don’t know what motivation they would have for doing something like this,” she said. “No one here has any enemies. Why would they be so hateful?”
Porter filed the police report with the JCPD for both the carcass and later when one of her renters discovered a nail in the tire of her vehicle. Porter reported to the JCPD what she saw out of her window the night before, which was an older, white, box-style truck.
An animal control officer with the Washington County-Johnson City Animal Shelter disposed of the carcass and told Porter he had never seen anything like it in 13 years of working for animal control.
Porter said she refuses to let what she considers acts of hate intimidate her, even in a national political climate that she believes had everything to do with such incidents.
“I refuse to let something like this make me live in fear,” she said. “I’m not going to take my flags down. In fact, I’m going to put up more, and I hope everyone else does, too.”
Members of the South Side Neighborhood Organization, which works within the Tree Streets neighborhood, will be selling flags for $5 to people in the area who want to show support for Porter and members of the LGTBQ community.
“It’s definitely not OK, and it doesn’t belong in our neighborhood,” said SNO’s Amber Floyd Lee about the motive behind the incidents.
Those flags, rainbow flags with peace signs, will be available through the Tree Streets Facebook page. All proceeds from the sale of the flags will go to the Tennessee Human Rights Campaign.
Email Tony Casey at [email protected]. Follow Tony Casey on Twitter @TonyCaseyJCP. Like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tonycaseyjournalist.Researchers estimate that 1 in 5 of vehicle accidents involving people with ADHD could have been avoided if they had been on the proper medication.
Medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may help to lower the risk of motor vehicle crashes among patients with ADHD, a study published May 10 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests.
In a national sample of 2.3 million patients with ADHD in the United States, those who took ADHD medication were significantly less likely to be involved in crashes.
Motor vehicle crashes are a major public health problem, and research has shown that individuals with ADHD are more likely than others to experience these accidents. The purpose of the study was to explore the association between ADHD medication use and the risk of motor vehicle crashes in a large cohort of patients with the disorder.
Zheng Chang, Ph.D., and colleagues in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, used data from the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database to identify people aged 18 and older who had an ADHD diagnosis or had received ADHD medication between January 2005 and the end of December 2014. Patients were tracked from first inpatient or outpatient diagnosis or filled prescription until first disenrollment (zero days of medical or drug coverage in a month) or December 31, 2014, whichever came first. The number of emergency department visits for motor vehicle crashes for these patients was compared with that of non-ADHD controls.
The study cohort consisted of 2,319,450 patients diagnosed with ADHD; the mean age was 32.5 years, and 51.7 percent were female.
During follow-up, 1,946,198 patients (83.9 percent) received at least one prescription for an ADHD medication. A total of 11,224 patients (0.5 percent) had at least one emergency department visit for a motor vehicle crash. Patients with ADHD had a significantly higher risk of a motor vehicle crash than matched controls (odds ratio [OR]=1.49 for men and OR=1.44 for women). Untreated patients with ADHD had the highest risk of a motor vehicle crash compared with medicated patients with ADHD and controls.
Chang and colleagues also compared the risk of motor vehicle crashes in individual patients during months when they were medicated and not medicated. Male patients had a 38 percent lower risk of crashes when taking ADHD mediation compared with months not receiving the medication, while female patients had a 42 percent lower risk. Similar decreases existed in all age groups.
ADHD medication use was associated with a 34 percent lower risk of accidents two years later in male patients with ADHD and a 27 percent lower risk in female patients with ADHD.
The findings suggested that up to 22.1 percent of the crashes involving ADHD patients could have been prevented if they had been taking medication.
“These findings call attention to a prevalent and preventable cause of mortality and morbidity among patients with ADHD,” wrote the researchers. “If replicated, our results should be considered along with other potential benefits and harms associated with ADHD medication use.”
The study is the first to “demonstrate a long-term association between receiving ADHD medication and decreased motor vehicle crashes,” the authors wrote. “If this result indeed reflects a protective effect, it is possible that sustained ADHD medication use might lead to lower risk of comorbid problems … or contribute to long-term improvements in life functioning.”
“Clinicians should not presume that all ADHD medications at any dosage will be effective for every patient,” Vishal Madaan, M.D., and Daniel J. Cox, Ph.D., wrote in an accompanying commentary. They are in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences in the University of Virginia Health System. “Health care professionals should ensure that both the medication and dosage are optimal for a particular patient-driver, that the medication coverage is adequate for the particular patient’s driving routine, and that the medication prescribed is not responsible for worse driving as its effects wear off (rebound effect).”
In addition to asking patients about school and work performance, clinicians should ask about symptoms “suggestive of distracted driving” such as repeated speeding tickets, missing traffic signs, swerving and switching lanes haphazardly, road rage, and consistently fiddling with the radio, Madaan told Psychiatric News.
He also advised that if a patient is taking an ADHD medication that works well, clinicians should ensure that it lasts long enough to cover times when the patient may be driving. ■From Philippe Ombredanne <> Date Tue, 21 Nov 2017 18:55:49 +0100 Subject Re: [patch V2 02/11] LICENSES: Add the GPL 2.0 license On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 2:57 PM, Philippe Ombredanne
<pombredanne@nexb.com> wrote:
> Alan, Linus,
>
> On Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 4:31 PM, Alan Cox <gnomes@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 11:14:00 -0800
>> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>>
>>> You may be confusing things because of a newer version.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 11:03 AM, Charlemagne Lasse
>>> <charlemagnelasse@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > That should be "GNU Lesser General Public" and not "GNU Library General Public"
>>>
>>> That's just FSF revisionism.
>
> Linus:
>
> Revisionism it is indeed! Please see the fun and twisted tale of the
> five official GPL texts below.
>
>
>>> It used to be called "Library" over "Lesser", in the original GPL2.
>>>
>>> I suspect your other issues are similar "there's been different
>>> versions over time" things. the address being one of them.
>>>
>>> We've actually taken some of the FSF updates over the years ("19yy" ->
>>> "<year>", and the address change) but the main COPYING file still
>>> calls the LGPL the "GNU Library General Public License".
>>>
>>> I refuse to change the original copyright wording due to idiotic
>>> internal FSF politics that tried to change history.
>>
>> Do we have any files which had the later LGPL text attached to them - if
>> so then they should be keeping that header.
>>
>> Which raises another question. If there are multiple GPL 2.0 texts which
>> are *supposedly* legally identical but this has never been tested in law
>> -that implies SPDX is wrong in tagging them identically in case they turn
>> out not to be...
>
> Alan:
>
> This last comment rings as a red herring to me. There are many minute
> variations of the GPL around and these are unlikely relevant.
> No sane judge would consider any of these variations material IMHO and
> should fine and throw in jail for contempt anyone arguing that this is
> important.
>
> Now, on the fun side, I discovered a while back through fixing a bug
> in scancode-toolkit that there are FIVE versions of the official GPL
> 2.0 texts published by the FSF over the years. I am ashamed that I end
> up doing this research and I would never thought I would need to
> rummage through this pile.... but that came up while reviewing kernel
> license scans and a few other scans to support Thomas and Greg
> licensing clarification efforts.
>
> Shocking, isn't it?
>
> Let me call these GPL versions the GPL-2.0.0, GPL-2.0.1, GPL-2.0.2,
> GPL-2.0.3 and GPL-2.0.4 :D
>
> (but please this one time only!, let's forget about these afterwards)
>
> GPL-2.0.4 v5. The most recent one was published after the GPL 3.0
> publication [1] [2]. It refers to the `Franklin Street` address and to
> the `GNU Lesser General Public License` top and bottom
>
> GPL-2.0.3 v4. Slightly after the HTML publication of the new address
> in v3, the address was changed in the text version [3]: It refers to
> the `Franklin Street` address and to the `GNU Library General Public
> License` top and bottom.
>
> GPL-2.0.2 v3. The previous one in force before the publication of the
> GPL 3.0 came about the time of the FSF office move on May 1, 2005 to
> Franklin Street [4] In this HTML version, it refers to the `Franklin
> St` address and uses the `GNU Library General Public License` at the
> top and `GNU Lesser General Public License` at the bottom with a
> conflicted opinion on which one of the LGPL 2 or 2.1 version to use.
>
> GPL-2.0.1 v2. Around December 2003, a variation was published [5]. It
> also predates the move to Franklin and it refers to the `Temple Place`
> address and the `GNU Library General Public License` at the top and
> `GNU Lesser General Public License` at the bottom. Still split on
> confused about which LGPL version to recommend.
>
> GPL-2.0.1 v1. The one true and only original GPL 2.0.... the oldest
> cached version [6] predates the move and it refers to the `Temple
> Place` address and the `GNU Library General Public License`
> throughout.
>
> FWIW, I made sure I have all these texts as scancode detection rules
> so I would get 100% exact hash matches on these oddities.
>
> Now you will surely agree with me that the sole sane conclusion of
> studying this mess is that there must some unhappy ghost that
> triggered these text changes when the FSF moved from Temple Place to
> Franklin Street in protest for the move. The only other possible
> explanation I could fathom would be a bug in their teletype [7].
>
> [1] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
> [2] http://web.archive.org/web/20070716031727/http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
> [3] http://web.archive.org/web/20050511030123/http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.txt
> [4] http://web.archive.org/web/20050507090312/http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html
> [5] http://web.archive.org/web/20031202220858/http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html
> [6] http://web.archive.org/web/19980119061851/http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html
> [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter
Now in earnest here is the situation: There is NO trustworthy version
of an official GPL 2.0 text: the FSF official texts are all fubar (if
only in small and subtle ways). The FSF texts should be authoritative,
but then which one? they published more GPL 2.0 versions than most. So
we would be hard pressed to blame SPDX or the OSI for having their own
minor variant.
Then in digging further, I found the ONE true original GPL with a file
time stamp on June 2 1991, 01:50 (AM?, PM? unknown time zone?)! in
an old GCC archive.
For the posterity and everyone's enjoyment I have built a git history
of GPL 2.0 Mark1 to Mark6
See https://github.com/pombredanne/gpl-history/commits/master/COPYING
Each commit message has the link to the original archive.org page or
archive download.
For simplified diffs, the allvers/ dir contains all the versions of the texts.
Acks and reviews are welcomed, but not really.
I also added a shorter history of the Linux COPYING text. The first
version in Linus's git tree is based on the very fine and well tuned
GPL 2 Mark4, the first fully Y2K compliant version of the GPL 2, as
you can see from the diffs with the former Mark3: that was dangerously
stuck in the last century.
The current version in is based on a rare GPL 2.0 Mark5.1 aka
"Franklin St", that I do not have in my history yet and spells
"Franklin St." rather than "Franklin Street."
Therefore there is likely another GPL 2.0 version between Mark4 and
Mark5 that I have yet to find and may not have been caught by the
archive.org spiders. Here help and patches welcomed: this is likely
an important missing link.
Linus:
I am rather sad to see that you never adopted the GPL 2.0 Mark6 ;)
aka. the "final frontier" or "graveyard" release that came after the
GPL 3 launch and when the GPL 2.0 was made an "old" license: this
latest version is the finest ever published and I am sure we are all
missing out something worthy!
I look forward to the future publication of Mark7 and all the fine GPL
2.0 versions to come that we should all long for.
--
Cordially
Philippe Ombredanne aka. the unwelcomed GPL archeologistForgive Buffalo for holding its breath for a few minutes Saturday afternoon.
Running back C.J. Spiller, the Bills' best offensive player, immediately reached for his right knee following a 2-yard touchdown run in the first quarter of Saturday's 30-7 preseason loss to the Washington Redskins.
Moments later, the Bills' official Twitter account confirmed that Spiller was "OK." According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Spiller simply suffered a cut on his knee after taking a hit from another player's spike.
The star tailback returned to the game in the second quarter, looking none the worse for the scare.
While the news on Spiller is overwhelmingly positive, the Bills weren't so fortunate with quarterback Kevin Kolb, who was injured on the same drive. Starting in place of injured rookie EJ Manuel, Kolb was kneed in the back of the helmet during an 8-yard run, according to The Associated Press, but he stayed in the game for four more plays, the last being Spiller's TD run.
The Bills confirmed that Kolb was being evaluated for concussion-like symptoms. It's a major concern for the Bills, not just because of Manuel's knee scope, but also in consideration of Kolb's concussion history.
After sustaining multiple concussions with the Philadelphia Eagles early in his career, Kolb was concussed two more times in two years with the Arizona Cardinals. Symptoms from his late-season 2011 concussion persisted for more than three weeks into the offseason.
If Kolb and Manuel are unable to return for the Bills' season opener, undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel could be in line to start versus the New England Patriots.
UPDATE: Injuries continued to pile up for the Bills in the first half. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore was ruled out for the rest of the game with a wrist injury. NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reported that an MRI on the wrist was likely Sunday, according to a source who spoke with Gilmore.
Safety Da'Norris Searcy went to the Bills' locker room to be evaluated for a possible head injury. Searcy did not return to the game.
The "Around The League Podcast" is now available on iTunes! Click here to listen and subscribe.An expert hired by Jehova's Witnesses has admitted the church is 'deficient' at responding to allegations of child abuse.
Monica Applewhite, a US-based consultant specialising in child abuse risk analysis and education programs for institutions, mostly churches, was employed by Watchtower Australia to evaluate the Witnesses' policies for the royal commission hearing into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.
Watchtower Australia is the legal entity of the Jehovah's Witness church.
Justice Peter McClellan asked Dr Applewhite if the process used by Jehova's Witnesses was appropriate for handling child sex abuse allegations. Dr Applewhite agreed the process could further traumatise victims
Jehova's Witnesses' response to child sex abuse allegations is better than other churches, but still 'deficient', an expert hired by the church said
Dr Applewhite, who has been an expert witness in abuse trials in Britain and the US, submitted a report in which she noted the Jehovah's Witnesses were a cut above other religious organisations in Australia.
The doctor, who has listed work with the Catholic archdioceses of Melbourne and Adelaide on her extensive CV, said she had not found examples in Australia of a religious organisation that provided better information than the Witnesses on how to support abuse victims.
But she confessed her research was based on Jehovah's Witness publications, not on empirical studies.
Her knowledge of every religious organisation was also limited and she was unable to immediately identify the other religious organisations to which she was referring.
When asked by Angus Stewart SC, counsel for the commission, whether Jehovah's Witness procedure was "deficient when measured against current best practice", Dr Applewhite replied: "Does it meet all current best practices? It probably doesn't."
Jehovah's Witness procedure is based on biblical teachings.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard this week from two women who had gone through the Jehovah's Witness process for handling child sex abuse allegations.
In both cases the church did not uphold the allegations because, under church law, two witnesses are required to prove any wrongdoing.
Dr Monica Applewhite, a US-based consultant specialising in child abuse response and prevention, was employed by Watchtower Australia, the legal entity of the Jehova's Witness church
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard this week from two women who had gone through the Jehovah's Witness process for handling child sex abuse allegations
This rule is based on the Witnesses' interpretation of scripture and the handling of wrongdoers.
The women told the commission how an internal judicial hearing required them to detail the abuse to three church elders, all men, in front of the alleged abuser.
Justice Peter McClellan asked Dr Applewhite if she thought this process was appropriate. Dr Applewhite said there were better ways.
She also agreed that under the two witnesses rule, abuse victims could be further traumatised because they were not being believed.
Justice McClellan said: "It is by no means an ideal place for someone's psychological wellbeing to be placed?"
Dr Applewhite replied: "That's true."
When Andrew Tokley SC, counsel for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, suggested Dr Applewhite be allowed to submit a supplementary report, Justice McClellan said it needed to be more than an expression of opinion.
He pointed out the commission needed information that would help address the obvious flaws in the Witnesses' procedures.In the '80s, it was nearly impossible to pick up a newspaper and not read—or read about—Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County, the Pulitzer-winning, audience-provoking comic strip about a naive penguin named Opus; a brain-dead, Tender Vittles-addicted, Ack!-spouting cat named Bill; and their collection of politically astute and philosophically curious friends (some human, some animal, all of 'em weirdos). In the Reagan era, Bloom County was one of a handful of daily strips (along with Gary Larson's The Far Side and Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes) that could be found tacked up on both college-dorm walls and suburban refrigerators; all three were mass-audience strips with subversive wit, but Bloom County was the noisiest of them all, taking aim at everyone from Michael Jackson to George Bush to, uh, Caspar Weinberger (look it up, kiddos).
In 1989, Breathed walked away from the strip, citing fatigue. But last year, he surprised comics fans—and even himself—by reviving Bloom County, writing new strips that now appear regularly on the strip's official Facebook page. At a Friday appearance at Comic-Con International, where he'd just released a new collection of Bloom Country strips, the 59-year-old artist and illustrator noted that he'd only recently started figuring out what prompted him to return to the series after more than a quarter-century away.
"It’s still a stunner for me," Breathed told the crowd. "It took all of five minutes for me to decide, after 28 years … to do another Bloom County." The change of heart, he explained, was due to a series of personal and creative experiences. One of them was his long-distance mutually appreciative relationship with the late Harper Lee: After the controversial publication of Lee's Go Set a Watchman last summer, Breathed began thinking about how much the idyllic small-town setting of the book (and especially its 1962 film adaptation) had influenced the creation of Bloom County in the early '80s. That prompted him to dig up a fan letter Lee had sent to him as Bloom County was winding down, in which she wrote, "This is a plea from a dotty old lady, and from others not dotty at all. Please don't shut down Opus. Can't you at least give him a reprieve?"
"I remembered her connection to my stuff, and how I might have taken her—and maybe all of you—for granted when I stopped doing it," Breathed told the crowd. "I didn’t want to not take advantage of this extraordinary gift that artists get to develop an audience and a readership, and [to reach] people who believe in stuff that they make up. That was Harper Lee’s perspective."
Breathed said he was further spurred on to return to Bloom County by the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, a frequent target of the strip in the late '80s—though Breathed noted that he'd been inspired less by Trump himself, and more by the changes in America's political and cultural climates he feels Trump represents. "He is the reverse canary in America’s gilded gold mine: When Donald Trump gets up from the dead and starts singing, you know you’ve reached toxic air," Breathed said. "He signifies something that I didn’t want to be left out of … we are on the cusp of a sea change, and we’re all gonna be synthesizing and filtering and making it somehow make sense to us." (Still, don't look for too many more Trump jokes in the weeks and months to follow: "I think he’ll be gone fairly soon. He’ll be gone within a week or two of getting into the White House, because he has no interest in working that hard.")
Also playing a big role in the strip's revival: The failure of 2011's Mars Needs Moms, an overpriced adaptation of one of Breathed's post-Bloom County hit books. The film version, produced by Robert Zemeckis—"one of my favorite filmmakers," Breathed said—was a disaster that cost Disney almost $200 million. "It nearly shut down the entire studio," Breathed said, noting the movie was supposed to be a comic adventure, not a serious science-fiction film."[There] was disappointment in having people you believed in make fundamentally ridiculous mistakes that you had no control of."
By last year, all of these elements were prompting Breathed to think about returning to Bloom County, a desire he hadn't experienced in decades; it was as though he'd spent the last quarter-century on an extended dandelion break. "I realized that during the years that I spent away from comic-stripping, something had left from my creative life," he told the crowd. "In The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis, he discovered the fifth element was love. And in the creative world, there’s a fifth element that I had forgotten about until I lost it … I was missing joy. I wanted to get back and see if I could ever make myself laugh again."
It was exactly what Bloom County fans needed. The strips and stories in Breathed's latest collection prove that his anarchic satirical instincts, which had felt somewhat buffed-down in the final years of the strip, have been revived and re-energized: The Bloom County characters may be facing obstacles new obstacles (iPhones, Twitter, etc.), but their curiosities and insecurities remain intact, and the strip is still full of the same moments of accidental wisdom that made it so beloved in the '80s. And, as fun is it is to read the modern-day Bloom County online every morning, plowing through one strip after another in a book—and, hey, how weird/great is it that there's a new Bloom County book!?—is infinitely more pleasurable: A daily strip might distract you from the world for a few seconds, but reading a few hundred of those strips together, at once, creates an entirely new world of its own. Breathed and his Bloom County creations have been away way too long, but it feels nice to finally welcome them Ack.As the debate over an audit of the Federal Reserve intensifies in the House, one camp is trotting out eight academics that it calls a "political cross section of prominent economists."
A review of their backgrounds shows they are anything but.
In a letter to the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month, all eight wrote that they support the type of amendment now being introduced by Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.). Watt's approach purports to increase Fed transparency while it actually would tighten restrictions on any audits that could go forward.
The letter was sent around Wednesday by Watt's staff to members of the committee in advance of a vote scheduled for Thursday.
Watt's measure is in competition with an amendment cosponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), which would repeal the restrictions that Watt leaves in place.
But far from a broad cross-section, the "prominent economists" lobbying on behalf of the Watt bill are in fact deeply involved with the Federal Reserve. Seven of the eight are either currently on the Fed's payroll or have been in the past.
The Fed connections are not outlined in the letter sent around to committee members on Wednesday, but are publicly discernible through a review of their resumes, which are all posted online.
In September, Huffington Post reported that the Federal Reserve has accomplished a soft form of effective control over the field of monetary economics simply by employing -- and being the means for career advance -- for an overwhelming proportion of the discipline.
Now that the Fed is locked in a legislative battle on the Hill, it can call on those economists to give their "unvarnished" opinions to lawmakers.
The connections that the seven economists lobbying Congress have to the Fed are not incidental and four of them maintain current positions.
Let's run the traps:
Frederic Mishkin is a former board member, having served from 2006-2008. His career at the Fed stretches back to 1977 and he currently holds two positions: one as a member of the Center for Latin American Economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where he's been since 1996; and another as an academic consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he's been since 1997.
Anil K. Kashyap is currently a consultant with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a position he's held since 1991. He's also on the economic advisory panel of the New York branch and was a consultant there in 2003. He was a visiting scholar at the division of monetary affairs at the Board of Governors of in1994, 2001 and 2005 and at the division of international finance in 1997.
Pete Klenow was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1994-1999, 2003-2004, 2006 and again this year. From 2000-2003 he was also a senior economist at that branch. He's currently a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a position he's held since 2005. He was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2004-2006.
Ricardo J. Caballero was a visiting scholar at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2004-2005 and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Board on multiple occasions.
Robert Hall was a research assistant at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1982-1984 and an economist there from 1988-1991.
Thomas Sargent was an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1981 to 1987 and continues to write frequently for Fed-sponsored journals.
Micheal Woodford is currently on the Monetary Policy Advisory Committee of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a position he's held since 2004. He's also listed as a consultant to the research department there dating back to 2005. In the past, he's been a visiting scholar at the Board of Governors and various regional branches in 1987, 1993-1998 and 2000-present, often at multiple banks in the same year.
Economists with Fed connections strongly reject the notion that being paid by the bank influences their thinking. But Robert Auerbach, who spent years investigating the institution and is the author of "Deception and Abuse at the Fed", says that those economists are simply in denial. "If you're on the Fed payroll there's a conflict of interest," says Auerbach.
The tie between the economists backing Watt's amendment and the Fed doesn't by itself mean that it's bad policy, but it does make clear which amendment is favored by the Federal Reserve. If there's still any doubt, the e-mail from Watt staff notes that former Fed chairs Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker also support a version of it.
Meanwhile, a broad coalition of liberal organizations is lining up behind the Paul-Grayson amendment, which also has the backing of most Republicans on the committee.
The AFL-CIO and other labor groups, as well as Americans for Financial Reform signed on to a letter posted Wednesday calling for committee members to back the Paul-Grayson approach.
"In creating the Federal Reserve nearly 100 years ago, the Congress envisioned a central bank free from political pressure. But the structure that may have once ensured independence now appears to put the Fed much closer to the financial industry than the American people, who deserve to know who the beneficiaries are," reads the letter.
The Fed, in other words, is not presently independent of political pressure, but that pressure comes from Wall Street banks rather than from the American people through their elected representatives.
It's a distinction that the note from Watt's staff on Wednesday subtly acknowledges, by focusing on legislative and executive branch pressure, rather than financial industry influence. The Paul-Grayson amendment, it warns, "would place the United States well outside of the mainstream of industrialized nations that shield their central banks from political interference by the Legislative and Executive branches of government, with potentially disastrous results to the U.S. economy."Real Madrid beat Barcelona for €45m wonderkid Vinicius Jr
The teenage phenomenon only played his first professional game in May but he has been snapped up by the Blancos for a reported €45 million fee
have completed a deal to sign promising 16-year-old Brazilian Vinicius Junior from Flamengo in a deal that will go through in July 2018, seeing off competition from rivals for the wonderkid.
Vinicius cannot link up with champions Madrid until after his 18th birthday next year, but the Spanish giants plan for him to stay at Flamengo until July 2019 unless both clubs agree otherwise.
Koscielny banned for FA Cup final
Reports in and claim the value of the transfer is €45million.
The teenager has impressed for his country at |
the native American Indian, now all genocided and the guy who is in the exhibit is the now ancient Tonto!! complete with a display sign that says ironically, considering the genocide, “The Noble Savage.” Addressing the boy emotionally as “Kemosabe,” Tonto begins telling his story – which begins with the Lone Ranger and Tonto robbing a bank. “But they were good guys!” says the boy. Tonto explains that good men must occasionally do these things to fight evil.
Tonto means "fool, idiot!!" in Spanish. In this movie, he is The Soul, The Fool of the Tarot. He is Kikaha the Trixter of the Native Indians. He is Loki of the Norse Gods. "Fools step in where Angels Fear to Tread!!" He seems Foolish, but in reality he embodies Dharma, the Shaman, the true path of the Soul.
In this we have the juxtoposition, the pun, the word with two meanings which provides the true meaning and significance of this movie.
Depp’s interpretation of Tonto is genuinely great. Tonto constantly “feeds” a dead bird that sits on top of his head. He loots corpses but “trades” with them by leaving a small item on the body in the same way that we bought Manhatten with glass beads..
Because Tonto is an idiot but also the Fool of the Tarot and his funny lines seem funny, but when we review them later we find infinite wisdom.
Because the Lone Ranger is Kemosabe!! or in Spanish, "Quien no sabe!!" or He who does not know!! or he who knows nothing!! Again the pun. The word with two meanings. Because at first the Lone Ranger is a Fool - He who does not know!!. But he has also been touched by God, awoken from Death, Touched - another word for a madman, a fool of God - he who knows nothing!! or as the Zen Masters say, "I know nothing" as a joke which means, "I know God!!"
At first the Lone Ranger knows nothing of the true evil of this world, but all men have their Rite of Passage, their awakening to the true nature of evil on this planet, but awakened from death, chosen by the Spirit Horse, he can do nothing wrong.
Everything he does is good.
We also have to have our Rite of Passage, our awakening to learn of the source of true evil in this World.
Back in the day, around 1850, we have the bad guys, two evil brothers Butch Cavendish and Latham Cole who find the Mother Lode of Silver from Tonto - Spanish: Tonto, Translation: Idiot - an idiot because he thinks that only these two brothers are evil and that by killing only them his Indian world will be saved - when he was a boy. The two brothers kill Tonto's family, his whole tribe and the crow Spirit of the tribe to protect the secret of the location of the Silver Motherlode.
Tonto swears undying enmity and revenge on these two bad guy brothers who he calls Windigo - the Spirit of Evil. He takes the Crow totem, the dead Spirit of his genocided tribe and wears it on his head.
The head Ranger brother, Dan Reid, of John Reid his idiot brother - the Lone Ranger to be - finds a railroad track over the desert to the Mother Lode Silver mine. He swears to the Commanche chief that he will protect their ancestral lands from depredation by the white people who have entered their ancestral lands, given to them in treaty from the United States of America, signed by the President himself.
We meet District Attorney John Reid coming in to on a train filled with singing Presbyterians. Prim, proper, and bumbling, he is the stereotypical spoiled “college boy.” When asked to join in prayer, he raises a copy of Satanic John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government and explains “This is my Bible.” The idiot lawyer brother John Reid is just out of University with his Law Degree and as with all graduating students, he is a little mind controlled to beleive in all that nonsense they teach. He has no knowledge of the real World.
Thus he is a fool, a real Kemosabe He who knows nothing!! his idiot brother - the Lone Ranger to be - Kemosabe - Spanish: Quien no sabe!! - Translation: He who knows nothing!! - prevents Tonto from killing the evil brother Butch Cavendish because he wants him to get a fair trial.
Tonto is imprisoned on the train along with Butch Cavendish, a disfigured villain plotting his escape. When Cavendish makes his move, Tonto attempts to foil him. Cavendish’s accomplices raid the train to free him but not before Tonto has a chance to kill him. However, Reid stops Tonto, putting his faith in the judicial process. Of course Butch Cavendish is then rescued, escaping with his gang.
Most of the train’s passengers are eventually saved by John’s brother Dan, the very picture of a grizzled Western lawman. It’s also revealed that John is still in love with Dan’s wife Rebecca, and she is still in love with John. Dan and his posse ride out to apprehend Cavendish, and John tags along. Though he refuses to carry a gun, and wears a civilian style white hat, he is deputized an official Texas Ranger.
Dan Reid, the head Ranger brother takes a posse of seven Rangers plus his idiot lawyer brother who has not yet woken up to the real evil which surrounds him, who he swears in as a ranger, to follow and arrest the evil brother who the Lone Ranger to be - He who knows nothing - allowed to escape.
Dan Reid asks Tonto, "So why are you in jail?" Tonto answers, "Indian!"
Jonny Depp was made a member of the Commanche Nation for his performance in this movie.
However, this is a trap by the other evil brother, Latham Cole who is in charge of building the railways across America, this is an evil ruse to assassinate all the Rangers. One of the Rangers betrays them. All the Rangers are shot.
The evil brother, Butch Cavendish cuts out the heart of the Dan Reid head ranger, alive, and eats it in front of the wounded Lone Ranger to be who then dies.
This is a Satanic Act. He hopes thereby to absorb the energy of his opponent. Very much like the act of the Al Qaeda captain cannibal who recently ate the heart of his Syrian enemy on video.
Tonto finds the dead bodies and discovers that the idiot brother - Quien no sabe - is still alive.
Mystical elements enter as the Lone Ranger is chosen by a white spirit horse - Silver. Was he already alive, or was he brought back to life by the Spirit Horse? The God chosen, instrument of vengeance, The fool who steps in where Angels fear to tread.
Tonto tries to convince the animal that the “great warrior” Dan is who he needs, but the horse is insistent. John is brought back from the dead and told he is a spirit walker – a man who cannot be killed in battle. Though John keeps his faith in the law and the judicial process, he joins with Tonto to hunt down Cavendish, though Tonto has no confidence in him.
First the Lone Ranger needs to understand the true depth of the evil. It's source. It's spread.
Though he would much prefer Dan Reid, his brother as an ally. Tonto melts the silver badges of the dead rangers and creates Silver bullets. Silver is the only metal, traditionally, which can kill evil satanic vampires.
Tonto creates the Black Mask of the Lone Ranger from the shot holes in his brothers clothes created by his murderer who ate his heart and gives them to John Reid, the Lone Ranger!! Remember!! Don't Forget!!
The obvious criminal baddies are only a smokescreen for the true villain – a rogue official within a powerful corporate interest that the hero ostensibly serves. We also understand that the railway is owned by members of the, "Finest Families" of the Satanic Dynastic Elite.
Here, it’s the railroad that is trying to build across Comanche territory. The peace treaty is supposedly breached by Indian raids on white settlements, and we even see an “Indian” raid on Rebecca’s house, as the tough frontier woman fires a rifle in defense of her son and the “Indians” kill and scalp the family’s black slave.
It’s revealed that it was actually Cavendish’s gang disguised as Indians. Furthermore, the gang is being supported by the railroad’s villainous owner, Mr. Cole the brother of Butch Cavendish, who is also interested in taking Dan’s widow and son for his own.
Thus, capitalism, patriarchy, and Elite satanism are all united in a triumphant trinity of villainy.
Cavendish’s gang disguised as Indians have attacked and killed many others in the hopes of starting an Indian war, genociding the Commanche Nation, obtaining, stealing, the ancestral lands of the Indians of the Commanche Nation, obtaining, stealing, all the Silver from the Motherlode mine.
Yes, that is how it's done, throughout all history. It's Real!!
The Lone Ranger fires a Silver Bullet at two of the Gang. It bounces off many things including the Crow at the top of Tonto's head, hits a wooden beam and the wooden beam falls on the top of the two bad men, killing them instantly.
"Good Shot!!" says Tonto; "I meant only to warn them" says the Lone Ranger, God's Spirit of Vengeance.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto are captured by the Comanche. A relieved Reid thinks that Tonto’s people will help him, but instead he is told Tonto’s story. Tonto found two white men and took them back to the village to be nursed to health. When the men heal, they notice Tonto has a rock of silver, and trade a cheap pocket watch for the location of the silver.
Tonto returns to his village to find that the whites have slaughtered his tribe. His mind breaks, and he concludes that the men are evil spirits. He can not come to terms with his gruesome mistake. Tonto enters into a world of magic, fantasy, and religious imagination. Though the film shows that he does possess a kind of deep wisdom and terrible power, it’s also clear that he reached that power through madness. "We are God's Madmen" - Copola's, "Dracula"
Tonto repeatedly expresses his contempt for the Lone Ranger when angered, calling him a “white coward” when he puts his faith in the law when the Law is in the charge of corrupt officials..
They follow a horse across the desert, across the indian lands, to the Silver Mine. There they capture Butch Cavendish. The Lone Ranger prevents Tonto from killing him instantly, again. When Reid knocks out Tonto to prevent him killing Butch Cavendish, Reid eventually breaks with Tonto, saying “I have a tribe.”
Instead, trustin5/1/12: FBI Arrests Five Protesters Associated with Occupy Cleveland in Bomb Plot
The FBI arrested five men who were planning to bomb a bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The men are self-described members of Occupy Cleveland.
5/1/12: May Day in New York
Over 50 protesters were arrested over the course of the day in New York. Protesters were arrested for attempting to block traffic in midtown and on the bridges into Manhattan. There were also multiple arrests after members of the “Black Bloc” Wildcat march assaulted journalists who attempted to take pictures of them. Around 10 P.M., violence broke out in Lower Manhattan as police enforced the curfew on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza, leading to clashes with protesters.
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5/1/12: Violence in Seattle
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In Seattle, more than a dozen protesters were arrested after violent attacks on local businesses. Seattle police recovered homemade incendiary devices from the scenes of the attacks. Vandals in Seattle smashed the entrances to the Niketown and American Apparel stores.
5/1/12: Occupy SF
Protesters attacked a row of small businesses in San Francisco on Monday. Over 100 masked protesters launched paint bombs at the Mission Police Station, and smashed windows and cars on Valencia Street.
11/21/11: Occupy London Cited for Defecation, Drugs, and Sex Offenders
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The City of London Corporation has filed documents as part of an effort to evict the protesters from St. Paul’s Cathedral. According to the police, “members of the camp [have been] continually urinating through the fence of the Chapter House and the Cathedral itself.” There have also been arrests for “possession of a bladed article, failing to register a new address under the Sexual Offences Act, theft, assault (on) police, breach of bail, breach of the peace, (being) drunk and disorderly and possession of drugs.” Remember, this is all taking place within St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the most important historical landmarks in England.
11/21/11: Police Arrest 15 at Occupation of Bank of America in Massachusetts
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On Monday, 350 people protested foreclosures at a branch of Bank of America in Springfield, Massachusetts. Seven people were arrested for sitting down in the bank and refusing to leave, while eight others were arrested for blocking access to the exits or the ATMs. All 15 were charged with trespassing. A spokesman for the protesters demanded, “end all no-fault evictions and reduce principal on loan modifications to the current value.”
11/20/11: Violence and Illegal Guns at Occupy Wall Street
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The NYPD arrested Joshua Fellows, 32, of Youngstown, Ohio, for criminal possession of a weapon. He had been driving around Wall Street with an unregistered.45 caliber handgun and 32 rounds of ammunition. Four other protesters were arrested this weekend: Zach Breur, 22, was arrested for allegedly groping the breasts and buttocks of a 22-year-old woman. He was charged with two counts of forcible touching. Michael Doe, a homeless man, was arrested for tampering with the Christmas lights in the park. Another homeless man was also arrested for throwing an unknown liquid into the eyes of a police officer. Finally, Star Bun, 24, of Brooklyn, was arrested for trying to bring sleeping gear into Zuccotti Park. She was charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
11/20/11: Bomb Threat at Occupy Fort Myers
Ryan Komosinski, 22, of Cape Coral, Florida, was arrested for threatening to bomb the Fort Myers police department. After a Facebook search, the police found a comment posted by Komosinksi that announced: “I’m bombing the FMPD, [expletive] them.” Komosinski was reportedly enraged over the arrest of fellow protester Constance Galati, who was arrested on Thursday for trespassing, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer. But not to worry, fellow protesters insist that Ryan Komosinksi is “a very good kid.”
#more#
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11/19/11: Occupy Santa Cruz Connected with 93 Complaints, Including 200 Pounds of Human Waste
Santa Cruz county officials have released a list of 93 complaints of illegal and destructive behavior by the Occupy protesters near the county’s main office and courthouse. County workers have documented “drug and alcohol use, public urination and defecation, littering, bathing in county restrooms, fights and more.” The Occupy Santa Cruz movement has gained notoriety following “the discovery of an estimated 200 pounds of human feces near the county Veterans Memorial Building.” The county was forced to call in a HAZMAT team to deal with the removal of the waste.
11/18/11: Woman Assaulted for Refusing to Join Occupy Protest at UC Berkeley
A female student was assaulted by a man at UC Berkeley after she refused to join the protest on Sproul Plaza. The suspect yelled, “people like you are the reason that California is in debt,” and then threw a full aluminum bottle at the woman’s face. The student called the police, who were unable to locate the suspect on the scene.
11/17/11: 275 Arrested at Occupy Wall Street
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Two hundred and seventy five protesters were arrested for attempting to storm Wall Street to shut down the stock exchange and for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. Seven police officers were injured, including one who was slashed with broken glass.
11/17/11: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Threaten Children
Occupy Wall Street protesters threatened small children, some as young as four, as they attempted to get to school. The children were forced to walk a gauntlet in between screaming protesters and the police as they attempted to reach their school. Some of the protesters yelled, “Follow those kids,” and attempted to frighten their parents.
11/17/11: Police Evict Occupy Dallas
Eighteen protesters were arrested as police evicted Occupy Dallas’s encampment. Dallas authorities said the situation had become “untenable” after “the arrests of almost two dozen demonstrators for blocking the entrance to a bank, arrest of a participant charged with failing to register as a sex offender and sexual assault of a child after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old runaway at the camp, arrests for assault and public intoxication and a 9-month-old child taken into protective custody after the parents were living the campsite with the child.”
11/17/11: 14 Arrested for Blocking Bridge at Occupy St. Louis
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Fourteen protesters were arrested at the entrance to the Martin Luther King Bridge in St. Louis. They were protesting in solidarity with other movements across the country. Uniformed members of the SEIU helped direct the protest. The protesters were joined by the Teamsters, United Autoworkers, American Postal Workers, and other union members.
11/16/11: 16 Arrested at Occupy Cincinnati Following Visit by Jesse Jackson
Sixteen protesters were arrested at Occupy Cincinnati following a visit by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Fifteen protesters were arrested for criminal trespassing, while two were also charged with resisting arrest. Lloyd Jordan, 36, of Clifton, Illinois, was charged with disorderly conduct while intoxicated and obstructing official business after he photographed a covert police vehicle, including the license plate. The second half of Jackson’s speech was repeated by the crowd line by line: “It’s not about a place... it’s about a state of mind. We fight for jobs.... We fight for health care... We are determined...We are not going away. Move our tents... but not our spirit.”
11/15/11: Police Shoot Gunman at Occupy Cal
Police shot a gunman who infiltrated Berkeley’s Haas School of Business during major demonstrations at UC Berkeley. He was seen carrying a gun by a staff member in an elevator at the business school after 2 p.m. The police arrived at 2:19 p.m., and searched for the suspect in the building. Officers found the gunman in a third-floor computer room where there were at least four students. The suspect raised the gun and was shot by an officer. The protesters from Occupy Cal deny any affiliation with the man; there have been no statements from the police or the suspect so far regarding his views.
11/15/11: 5 Arrested at Occupy LA (Including for Assault and Masturbation)
Five people from the Occupy LA movement were charged on Tuesday with a variety of crimes. Farid Ahntab, 24, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest for wielding a knife and as he tried to burn a food vendor. Robert Holland, Jr., 31, was charged with threatening someone with a knife and resisting arrest. Angele Chaidez, 21, has been charged with lewd conduct for allegedly masturbating on the steps of City Hall last week and exposing himself in public. Zachary Isaac, 21, was charged with battery for allegedly punching a woman in the face in her tent. Finally, Michael Howard Thomson, 51, was charged with two counts of battery and one count of resisting arrest. He tried to take a two-year-old from its parent and is accused of punching a mediator. Afterwards, he fought the officers who arrested him.
11/15/11: NYPD Clears Zuccotti Park, 200 Arrested
The New York Police Department moved in early this morning and cleared out the protesters from Occupy Wall Street. The protesters will be allowed to return to the park, but will not be allowed to bring tents or sleeping bags. The protesters fought with police officers for several hours, and there were injuries reported amongst both the police and the protesters.
11/13/11: Man Threatens Woman with Arson at Occupy Portland
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Occupy Portland protester threatens to burn down the house of a woman who disagrees with him.
11/13/11: Three Men Arrested With Explosives in Connection to Occupy Portland
Three men from Occupy Portland were arrested during a traffic stop after officers suspected they had marijuana in their possession. Upon searching the vehicle, the drugs were discovered. The officers also found within the car firecrackers and two commercially made mortars inside glass canning jars. The three men “told authorities that they knew the canning jar would explode, causing glass shrapnel to fly and possibly cause injury.”
11/12/11: Woman Raped at Occupy Philadelphia
A woman was raped at the Occupy Philadelphia encampment by a man who had traveled from Michigan to join the protest. The suspect had been arrested previously for involvement in armed robberies in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
11/10/11: “Send in the Clowns,” Two Dressed as Clowns Arrested at Occupy Wall Street
Hannah Morgan and Louis Jargow were arrested for climbing the barricades surrounding the statue of the bull at Wall Street. They then performed a variety of antics before their arrest for disorderly behavior.
11/10/11: Occupy Atlanta Shelter Tests Positive for Tuberculosis
Several people at the Atlanta shelter have contracted tuberculosis. At least one of those infected has contracted the more dangerous, drug-resistant form of TB. The shelter is one of the largest encampments at Occupy Atlanta.
11/10/11: Six more arrests at Occupy Fresno
Six people were arrested last night in Fresno for failure to disperse. This brings the weekly total of arrests at Occupy Fresno to 55.
11/10/11: Sotheby’s Also Targeted by Occupy Wall Street, 8 Arrested
Eight protesters were arrested for attempting to storm Sotheby’s during its final sale of the fall season. They were there in support of the Teamsters union, which is currently engaged in a labor dispute with Sotheby’s.
11/10/11: Man Shot to Death at Occupy Oakland
A young man was shot fatally in the head outside the Occupy Oakland gathering Thursday evening. There are still no suspects or leads in the case.
11/9/11: 39 Arrests at Berkeley
Thirty-nine people were arrested at Berkeley as part of OccupyCal. Protesters set up tents despite Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s request that they refrain. Thirty-two students and one faculty member were among those arrested. The majority of the arrests were for obstruction of justice or unlawful assembly. Two arrests were for assault and battery.
11/9/11: Occupy Wall Street Protester Assaults EMT
An EMT was injured at Occupy Wall Street. Joshua Ehrenberg, 20, of Rochester, NY, was arrested for felony assault and obstructing governmental administration for attacking the EMT. The EMT was injured when Mr. Ehrenberg’s friends, in an attempt to prevent NYPD officers from assisting the EMT, fell on either a barricade or a ladder, which trapped the EMT underneath. The EMT suffered injuries to his ankle and knee.
11/9/11: Occupy Wall Street Protester Arrested for Public Lewdness
Xavier Maslowsky, 25, was arrested for exposing himself to others at Zuccotti Park.
11/9/11: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested for Blocking Sidewalk with Square-Dance Lesson
A group of 50 protesters staged a square dance on the sidewalk around the plaza at Liberty and Cedar. The revelers were told repeatedly to disperse. Zachary Kamul, 25, was given two summonses for disorderly conduct and possession of a weapon when he refused to disperse. Sebastian Posada, 24, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest when he attempted to run from police into the middle of Broadway.
11/5/11: Man Arrested at Occupy Wall Street for Urinating on an NYPD van
Edgar Rivera, 26, was arrested for relieving himself at 1:20 a.m. on an NYPD van. He attempted to escape, but was captured a half a block away. He was charged with disorderly conduct.#more#
11/5/11: 19 Arrested at Occupy Atlanta
Protesters gathered in support of police pressure on Occupy Atlanta were subjected to arrests. Two were arrested for failing to leave Woodruff Park after the 11 p.m. close and 17 were arrested for obstructing traffic after leaving the park.
11/5/11: 20 Arrested at Occupy Wall Street
Most of the protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct, though three were arrested for assaulting a police officer. The incidents occurred at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan, near the New York State Court of Appeals. According to witnesses, police had asked the protesters to refrain from blocking the sidewalks and the stairs to the courthouse.
11/5/11: Woman arrested at Occupy LA for setting another person’s clothes on fire
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She was charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
11/5/11: Woman arrested at Occupy LA for striking a man with a tent pole
She was charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
11/4/11: Occupy Fort Carson Protester Arrested for $10 Million Arson
Benjamin Gilmore, 29, was arrested on suspicion of arson, burglary, and criminal mischief in connection to a fire on October 24 in a construction site.
11/4/11: Occupy Wall Street protester arrested for violence in McDonald’s
Fisika Bezabeh rioted inside the McDonald’s by Wall Street at 2 a.m., when workers refused to give him free food. He tore a credit card reader from the counter and threw it at employees. Mr. Bezabeh has been charged with criminal mischief.
11/4/11: Bronx Teacher Arrested for Assaulting Police
David Suker of Bronx Regional High School was arrested for knocking a police officer off his scooter using a shopping cart. He is charged with attempted assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration. This is his second arrest; he was previously arrested during the October 1 march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
11/4/11: Occupy DC Attacks Americans for Prosperity event
Protesters attempted to storm the building where the AFP was holding a conference. Afterwards, they assaulted two elderly women, sending them to the hospital, and blockaded the streets surrounding the building.
11/3/11: 15 Arrested Outside Goldman Sachs
Fifteen protesters were arrested outside Goldman Sachs, including Christopher Hedges of The Nation Institute and Reverend Billy of the Church of Earthalajuh. The protesters staged a trial of Goldman Sachs executives and were arrested when they proceeded to sit and block the entrance to Goldman Sachs.
11/3/11: Occupy Oakland Riots
Riot police used tear gas and other methods to disperse Occupy Oakland rioters. The protesters lit barricades on fire, hurled rocks, explosives, and other projectiles at police. Massive acts of vandalism were committed against several banks. Several dozen were eventually arrested.
11/2/11: Occupy Philadelphia takes over Comcast Headquarters
Occupy Philadelphia protesters sat in Comcast’s lobby and demanded repayment of its tax abatement. Nine were arrested for trespass.
11/2/11: Tonye Ikebutosin Arrested for Rape at Occupy Wall Street
A 26-year-old man from Crown Heights was arrested for the sexual assault and rape of a fellow Occupy Wall Street protester. He raped the 18-year-old woman after sharing a tent with her. He is also accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old woman after helping her set up her tent. Iketubosin has been working in the Occupy Wall Street kitchen.
10/27/11: 14 Arrested in NYC for March in Support of Occupy Oakland
Protesters took over the streets and marched through lower Manhattan, resulting in arrests for disorderly conduct, rioting, and resisting arrest.
10/25/11: 53 Arrests at Occupy Atlanta
Fifty-three people were arrested at Occupy Atlanta. Among those arrested was State Senator Vincent Fort. This was a reversal from the previous acceptance of Occupy Atlanta by Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed. Mayor Reed explained his decision by saying, “Occupy Atlanta protesters attempted to hold an unsanctioned concert over the weekend … Last week, demonstrators inserted wire hangers into electrical sockets to create additional power sources … [There has been] a persistent and dangerous disregard for public safety.”
10/25/11: 75 Arrested During Attempted Clearing of Occupy Oakland
Police arrested 75 people while attempting to disperse the Occupy Oakland encampment.
10/23/11: David Park, serial sexual assaulter, arrested
David Park, who attempted to rape several women, was finally arrested by the NYPD. The women declined to press charges, but the NYPD held him on an open-container violation.
10/22/11: NYPD arrests 30 in OWS March in Harlem
Police arrested 30 protesters, including Cornel West, for blocking the entrance to the Harlem police precinct. The protesters were demonstrating against the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” procedures.
10/14/11: 14 Arrested by NYPD in Marches Connected with Park Cleaning
Fourteen protesters arrested despite Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to halt the cleaning of the park.
10/1/11: 700 Arrested for March Across the Brooklyn Bridge
Seven hundred Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and blocking vehicular traffic when they proceeded to block the roadway on the Brooklyn Bridge.Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who ever since the show returned to our screens in 2005 – that's nine adventures in 12 years. And now, sadly, it might all be over.
Having worked alongside both Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, the League of Gentlemen star and Sherlock writer has suggested that his time working on the good Doctor might have come to an end, with Torchwood and Broadchurch chief Chris Chibnall ushering in a whole new era as showrunner from 2018.
With what might be his final contribution – an Ice Warriors vs. Victorian-era soldiers romp called 'The Empress of Mars' – airing this Saturday night, Digital Spy grilled Gatiss on reinventing classic monsters, Peter Capaldi's impending exit and what the future holds.
You've already had one crack at the Ice Warriors in 2013 episode 'Cold War'. What did you want to do with them this time?
"Well, I just said to Steven, everything's coming to an end, can I do the story I've always wanted to do, which is the Ice Warriors on Mars? I didn't actually have a story at that point [laughs]. I just always wanted to explore more of their backstory.
"Considering they were always such a big presence in Doctor Who, we know an extraordinarily small amount about them. And I found that doing 'Cold War', that it was rather thrilling to be able to create new things, to give them some backstory and history, just with occasional little windows onto things.
"And I thought, 'Well, we can do Mars, it's practicable.' They're a very cool monster – or a very cold monster – and I just wanted to do something new with them, which was to introduce the Ice Queen into the mythology."
BBC
Yes, this is the episode's big twist – how much can you say about this new type of Ice Warrior?
"It's not a twist, really, there's just a female one – and about bloody time, I would say! I thought that it would be an interesting thing to do – rather than just some frozen Ice Warriors, the usual thing, that there was a queen involved, and just give it a different slant, really.
"I have to say, it suddenly occurred me to that the Ice Warriors have such a history of being frozen and woken up after their time, I think they must've got their hibernation equipment from the same people who sold them to the Silurians!
"It's always the same: 'How long have I been asleep?' 'A lot longer than you think!' 'Oh shit, again?' It happens all the time!"
RELATED: Pearl Mackie "loved" Doctor Who series 10's "complex" Ice Warrior
It does seem like such a natural thing to do. Why do you think it has taken so long to set an Ice Warrior story on their home planet of Mars?
"It's taken more than 50 years, because [Ice Warriors creator] Brian Hayles's original second story, what became 'The Seeds of Death', was called 'Lords of the Red Planet' and it was precisely that.
"I'm sure it was to do with budget and scale. I mean, it took till [2009 episode] 'The Waters of Mars' to do an actual Doctor Who story on Mars, which is remarkable really when you think it's essentially a red desert, something that feels very achievable. Except my whole story's set underground, so we didn't even have to go up top.
"It's to do with scale – if you want to do Ice Warrior society, you have to do a fragment of it. We just don't have the budget to do a whole city on the surface, with thousands of Ice Warriors and different levels of society.
"So as is always the way with Doctor Who, and as it should be, it becomes a sort of 'bottle story' of what's happened to this particular group, in this particular part of Mars, without having to do the whole of Mars. Though that would be lovely, wouldn't it?"
With the human race as the invaders of Mars, is this veering more on the 'Curse of Peladon' side of things? Are the Ice Warriors perhaps not the villains of this episode?
"Wait and see… But the thing I was very keen to explore – some of the lines have been cut, actually, but it's sort of there in the DNA of it, especially with Bill being a new companion – is not to make assumptions about which side the Doctor will take.
"The Ice Warriors were really the first Doctor Who monster where the plot twist was that they turned out to be the good guy, and [1972 Jon Pertwee serial] 'Curse of Peladon' [below] is one of my formative influences. It casts a very long shadow in that sense.
BBC
"You might just assume that the hissing green monsters are going to turn out to be the baddies, and they're not. So I really think that's an interesting thing to explore – that there might be different factions and different politics, depending on where they are in their history, just like us.
"I mean, who'd have thought in the last 20 years we'd have turned into this shit-show that we are now? Who would've predicted any of this? Nothing surprises me anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if we actually found an Ice Warrior!"
Speaking about Bill in this episode, how did you find writing for the character – and how much did you have to go on when starting 'The Empress of Mars'?
"I'd read 'The Pilot' and 'Smile', I think, and I'd seen a bit of footage – and obviously that little clip they shot to introduce her.
"But also, Steven and I were in Morocco last year writing Sherlock, as he was writing the audition stuff for it, so we talked a lot about what he wanted to do with the character and where she was gonna come from, and just the whole idea of the sort of'soft reboot', so that was very much in my mind."
This series feels as though it really has gone back to basics and stripped Doctor Who down to its essentials. Was that something that was discussed a lot in the planning? Or was it just the consequence of having a new companion?
"No, it was a definite decision. Obviously, with a new companion, you always slightly see the show through different eyes, but I think there was a conscious effort with Bill to make her... it is like coming into the junkyard right at the beginning and seeing it all again.
"Partly, there's the fun of just asking the most basic questions. I'm afraid it was my idea to have her ask where the loos are [in the TARDIS], because it's always bothered me that nobody's ever asked that! And actually, it's part of the thing that grounds it – if it happened to you, what would you think?
BBC
"So there's that, but equally, Clara (Jenna Coleman) was a much more complex character who turned out to be full of secrets, whereas Bill is a lot more straightforward and I think that's crucial to the notion of a reboot, a soft reboot, that you don't overcomplicate the companion with lots of extra baggage, just in order to say, 'Oh, this companion is different to all the others.'
"It's exactly like with Billie [Piper] right at the beginning of Russell's time – you want to see Doctor Who through the eyes of an ordinary person, because then you see how exotic and strange it is. If you try and make the companion exotic and strange, then there's too much going on."
No matter what happens in the future, we know this is definitely your last episode for Peter Capaldi's Doctor. Was that something you knew when you were writing it?
"Not definitely, no. Not definitely. I suspected it would be. It does feel a bit like living in the pages of The Making of Doctor Who, it really does, and all those things that we all grew up with as sort of holy writ are actually happening to us as real people.
"So I suspected that Peter would want to go with Steven because it just felt like time, and I think that does happen. Something that Doctor Who fans, I think, rarely take in as part of the equation is the human element – as the Daleks might say. The fact that there are lots of human emotions in the mix here.
"Part of you, of course, would love to see Peter under Chris Chibnall. David [Tennant] nearly stayed, and David under Steven for a year would've been such a different beast, it's fascinating to think. But, those are the arguments that Doctor Who fans have in the pub, not the ones that actors have when they feel like it's time to go."
How are you feeling about Peter leaving?
"It's a mixture. I think Peter's been magnificent. I love him this year – |
a deringing filter for Daala that was based on a painting algorithm. Like many other things we tried in Daala, the idea seemed promising, but didn't make it in the end. More specifically, it had the following problems:
The paint algorithm was very complex;
It was nearly impossible to vectorize; and
The subjective improvement was not nearly enough to justify the large CPU cost.
This brought us searching for a different algorithm, with the constraint that it had to be easy to vectorize. The resulting algorithm is called the conditional replacement filter, a non-linear filter loosely inspired from median filtering and from a degenerate bilateral filter.
Like other demos, this deringing filter demo skips all the math details to focus on the general principles of the algorithm. For those interested in all the technical details, see the full paper.
The Conditional Replacement Filter
The main goal of deringing is to filter out ringing, while retaining all the details of the image. The amount of ringing tends to be roughly proportional to the quantization step size. The amount of details is a property of the input image, but the smallest details actually retained in the decoded image tends to be roughly proportional to the quantization step size. For a given quantization step size, the amplitude of the ringing is generally less than the amplitude of the details.
A standard linear filter works by averaging nearby values of the input to produce an output. For example, a 3-tap filter can be as simple as averaging the sample x(n) being filtered with its two neighbours: y(n) = (x(n-1) + x(n) + x(n+1))/3. This works well when we want to eliminate all high frequencies, but in the video context, it has the side effect of blurring out all details.
The conditional replacement filter (CRF) operates by excluding from the averaging the pixel values that are too different from the filtered pixel x(n) to be just ringing. It uses a threshold T to decide whether a pixel value is close enough. Any value that differs by more than T is replaced (in the filter computation only) by the value of the center pixel.
The interactive demo below shows how a single value x(n) is being filtered, with a 7-tap CRF, depending on the value of its neighbours. For a signal with N samples, the same calculation would be applied N times.
Threshold T Sample position n - 3 n - 2 n - 1 n n + 1 n + 2 n + 3 i Input x[i] Replacement mask mask = abs(x[i]-x[n]) < T Replaced value 26 8 22 25 24 23 80 r[i] = mask? x[i] : x[n] Linear filter output 30 y[i] = sum(x[i])/7 CRF output 25 y[i] = sum(r[i])/7
Now let's look at what the filter does to a one-dimensional signal with both smooth areas and sharp discontinuities (edges).
Original signal Original signal plus added noise (ringing) Noisy signal filtered with a linear (averaging) filter Noisy signal filtered with the CRF
Directions
Although the conditional replacement filter is good at preventing blurring, it is far from perfect. The best way to help it is to apply it along the same direction as the main edge or pattern in each block. The decoder finds the direction that minimizes the difference between the decoded block and a perfectly directional pattern based on the decoded block.
Here is an example of a 8x8 block containing a line. The goal is to compute the direction of the line.
Input block Direction Pattern Error (RMS) 87 69 12 61 85 83 82 83
Fortunately, we don't have to actually compute the patterns above. Thanks to a set of algebraic simplifications, the direction search can be computed efficiently, with very few multiplications, and while taking advantage of SIMD instructions.
Directional Deringing
Once we know the direction in each block, we can start the actual deringing. For each pixel in the block, we use 3 pixels on each side, following the detected direction. The filter is allowed to use pixels that lie outside of the block, as shown below. The use of a direction makes it less likely to filter across an edge, but even if there is an edge, the CRF can avoid blurring it out.
So after being really careful to only filter along the direction of edges and patterns, the second stage of the deringing filter involves running the filter... right across these edges. The idea here is that for flat areas, a 7-tap filter may not be sufficient to remove all ringing. The idea of the second filtering step is to combine more pixels in the averaging. With a 7-tap initial filter and a 5-tap second stage filter, we end up with an effective filter of 35 taps in 2 dimensions. This is enough to remove almost all ringing in many cases. However, since this time the CRF is running across edges, we have to be very careful. For this reason, the threshold used in the second filtering step is much smaller than that used in the first step.
Each 8x8 block applies the exact same operations to every pixel, and all memory accesses are made with exactly the same offsets relative to a pixel's address, making SIMD support trivial.
Setting the Threshold
So far we have described how the deringing process works, but without defining what threshold should be used. The threshold value is very important, as it determines which details are important and which should be considered as ringing and removed. If we set it too low, we won't remove the ringing, but if we set it too high, we will blur out the image. The main factor that affects the threshold calculation is the quantizer step size, in other words, the bitrate. At low bitrate (large quantizer) we want to use large threshold and at high bitrate (small quantizer) we want to use a small threshold.
Even with a good estimate of the optimal threshold, it's hard to always get it right. For this reason, we also have a per-superblock (64x64) threshold adjustment that we can apply to the computed threshold. This adjustment can make the threshold smaller, larger, or completely disable the deringing filter. The encoder chooses the threshold that maximizes quality for a particular superblock. It is the only information that the encoder has to send to the decoder for deringing and it amounts to about 2 bits per superblock, or about 128 bytes for an entire 1080p keyframe.
The figure below shows how the deringing adjustment is set on a real image.
On P-frames and B-frames, the deringing filter is never applied to blocks where no coefficients are coded (i.e. those that are based only on motion compensation), so the signalling cost is also lower.
Putting It All Together
In terms of objective metrics, the deringing filter can reduce the rate of video by about 4% to 8% for equal quality. For still images, the improvement range from 1% to 4%.
Now, here's what the filter actually looks like on one of the images that gave Daala the hardest time in the PCS 2015 image compression challenge.
Original No deringing Deringing JPEG Select which version of the image you would like to view.
Beyond Daala
Now that Mozilla is part of the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), we are integrating technology from Daala into the new AV1 codec. This new codec combines technology from Google's VP9 codec, Cisco's Thor codec, our Daala codec, as well as new technology developped within AOM. For this reason, we are now putting significant effort into the AOM project. We will also continue to improve Daala and use it as a research test bed for new coding techniques.
The deringing filter has just been ported to AV1 and already shows quality improvements. As a results of a hardware feasibility review conducted as part of the AOM process we were able to make simple changes to the algorithm that greatly reduce the hardware requirement without affecting quality. These changes will be merged back into Daala shortly.
—Jean-Marc Valin (jmvalin@jmvalin.ca) April 6, 2016
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The pundits and the guests on the major Sunday talk shows still to tend to come in three basic flavors: right, male and pale, according to a new study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Despite a few diversity tweaks here and there, the “Sabbath gasbag” shows (as Calvin Trillin has dubbed them) have been that way for decades. Major corporations—like GE, BP or Conoco Phillips—sponsor them in order to reach their most coveted audience—corporate-friendly, inside-the-Beltway players, who tend to tilt right-of-center. What’s different this time, however, is that two truly “liberal media” alternatives—Up with Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry—have hit the Sunday circuit. Ad Policy
First, though, the devilish details from FAIR. The liberal media watchdog group monitored the four main Sunday shows—ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday—for eight months, from June 2011 through February 2012, and found:
Of one-on-one interviews, 70 percent of partisan-affiliated guests were Republican. Those guests were overwhelmingly male (86 percent) and white (92 percent). The broader roundtable segments weren’t much more diverse: 62 percent of partisan-affiliated guests were Republican. More broadly, guests classified as either Republican or conservative far outnumbered Democrats or progressives, 282 to 164. The roundtables were 71 percent male and 85 percent white. U.S. government sources—current officials, former lawmakers, political candidates, party-affiliated political operatives and campaign advisers—dominated the Sunday shows overall (47 percent of appearances). Following closely behind were journalists (43 percent), most of whom were middle-of-the-road Beltway political reporters.
“Middle-of-the-road Beltway journalists made 201 appearances in roundtables,” FAIR adds, “which serves to buttress the argument that corporate media’s idea of a debate is conservative ideologues matched by centrist-oriented journalists.”
OK, but the period measured was all about the Republican primaries, so, one might figure, the shows’ deep-red hue is understandable. But, FAIR points out, in 2003 and 2004, when it was all about the Democratic primaries, the Sunday talk shows still leaned right. Citing a Media Matters study of Sunday shows, FAIR writes that in 2003 a “tally of ideologically identifiable guests, both one-and-one and roundtable, favored Republicans/conservatives (57 percent) over Democrats/progressives (43 percent). The following year the breakdown was again Republican-heavy, 56 percent to 44 percent.”
Anyway, the GOP primaries don’t explain the dearth of women and nonwhite guests. “Women were just 29 percent of roundtable guests,” FAIR says. “The ethnic diversity was similarly woeful: 85 percent white and 11 percent African-American, with 3 percent Latino. Other ethnicities made up an additional 2 percent of roundtable guests.”
FAIR’s Peter Hart (not the democratic pollster Peter Hart) writes: “Even when the shows attempted more balance, the Democrats and left-leaning guests tend to be of a more moderate variety than the Republicans (Extra!, 9/10). Juan Williams—who, by the criteria of this study, counts as a left-leaning voice (but see Extra!, 3/12)—was on twenty-four Fox News Sunday broadcasts. As FAIR has argued (Extra!, 9–10/01), it’s likely that the politically connected corporations who sponsor these shows prefer a center/right spectrum of debate that mostly leaves out strong progressive voices who might raise a critique of corporate power.” (Voices like Paul Krugman or The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel, both of whom have appeared on the network Sunday shows more frequently in recent years.)
Any whisper of change, and Republicans and corporate America push back. “During much of the study period,” FAIR writes, “ABC’s This Week was hosted by Christiane Amanpour. Perhaps due to her long career as a foreign correspondent, the show she hosted took a different approach than its network counterparts, often featuring reported pieces (not included in the study) from around the world. The show also featured guests that rarely make it onto the Sunday shows—feminist icon Gloria Steinem, Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi and Occupy Wall Street activist Jesse LaGreca.”
In December, ABC brought back This Week‘s previous host, George Stephanopoulos, to replace Amanpour.
That’s why the Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry two-hour Sunday (and Saturday) shows on MSNBC are so extraordinary, and I say this not just because they’re from The Nation. Theirs are the most diverse political weekend shows in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and the parts of the brain utilized. They draw guests from academia (Harris-Perry, of course, teaches at Tulane), activism and the arts. They avoid the lazy and masturbatory political horserace chat, and instead are willing to sound dangerously smart.
Hayes’s show, which debuted first, in September, is different still in that it’s almost all panel discussion (usually including at least one intellectually respectable conservative) all the time, which he moderates with an almost meta touch. Last Saturday, for instance, during a heated argument about the Trayvon Martin case, Hayes tried to pinpoint exactly why the case had become polarized in the first place. Why did it move, he asked, from a “general consensus that we have, yeah, a kid of 17-years-old buying Skittles and iced tea shouldn’t be shot and left dead” to “all of a sudden, on conservative blogs it’s all about the New Black Panthers are doing this or that. And my question is why is that the important thing? Why is there this—just because Reverend Al Sharpton is doing something, why do conservatives feel the need to take the other side of the bet, why does it have to be the case that you sort of mobilize in favor of George Zimmerman, or point out double standards? Why not just leave well enough alone, and say, yeah, the guy should probably be arrested and let the trial work?”
It’s discussions like this that make the regular Sunday shows seem all the more clueless.BEIJING/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish man detained in China last week was suspected of acts detrimental to the country’s national security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday in its first comments on the case against the foreign human rights and legal reform advocate.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had summoned China’s ambassador over the case on Jan. 8, a meeting that also touched on the disappearance of a Swedish citizen in Thailand, who is one of several missing publishers and book vendors with business in Hong Kong.
“We take a serious view on the fact that the embassy has not yet been allowed to visit the Swedish citizen detained in China,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Ekberg said.
Peter Dahlin, the 35-year-old co-founder of the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, was taken into custody Jan. 4, the organisation said.
“Swedish citizen Peter Dahlin has been put under coercive measures in accordance with the law in Beijing on suspicion of engaging in acts that harm China’s national security,” said ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a regular briefing. “This case is currently being investigated.”
Coercive measures generally refers to detention.
Hong added that China would allow for the Swedish embassy to carry out consular work.
Dahlin’s organisation had previously said consular officials had been unable to communicate directly with Dahlin, and the embassy said it was working to set up a meeting.
The group supports public interest lawyers, academics and others in China to promote rule of law, according to a statement from the organisation.
Dahlin’s detention comes amid a widening crackdown on rights lawyers and foreign groups working on legal reform. Rights groups say the crackdown aims to rein in dissent, but the Chinese government denies this.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry had earlier confirmed a Swedish national had been detained, but has not named Dahlin or given further details, citing privacy concerns.
China has detained or formally jailed several foreign nationals in recent years, sometimes due to their proximity to what it perceives as sensitive information.They are Toronto’s most vulnerable students, living in poverty, new to the country or arriving at school needing a healthy meal so they can focus on learning. The province earmarks tens of millions of dollars in learning opportunities grants every year to help support marginalized students at the Toronto District School Board. But almost half that money isn’t being spent on them and is instead diverted to cover other expenses as the cash-strapped board struggles to balance its budget, says a damning new report.
Ingrid Palmer, with kids, Makeba, 7, right, and OJ, 10, says funding special programs makes a big difference for needy children and she finds it "disheartening" and "disgusting" that the resources aren't going where they're supposed to be going. ( RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR ) Sean Meagher, executive director of Social Planning Toronto, says diverting money meant for needy kids to cover other school expenses is simply wrong. ( TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO ) TDSB trustee Marit Stiles says the report shows the stark reality of the budget challenges the board is up against and the tough decisions it faces in trying to balance the books. ( VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO )
“This means that the students with the greatest need are failing to benefit from the resources that they are entitled to — about $61 million worth of resources each year,” says the report, to be released Thursday by Social Planning Toronto and based on data provided by the TDSB. “We think it’s important that people now see the facts,” said Sean Meagher, executive director of the social policy research group. “This is the first time we’ve had absolutely rock-solid numbers that no one can refute, because they are the TDSB’s own numbers.”
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He acknowledged that Canada’s largest school board is in a tough situation as a result of the province’s inadequate and outdated funding formula that forces boards “to rob Peter to pay Paul,” and says the same thing could also be happening in other Ontario boards. But using funds for needy kids to make up the difference is “the wrong solution to a very real problem,” Meagher said, particularly when evidence shows that investing in extra programs has a huge impact on their well-being, academic success and long-term opportunities. Financial data from the 2014-15 school year shows the TDSB received $144 million in learning opportunities grants to be used for such initiatives as breakfast programs, homework clubs, reading recovery, one-on-one help, after-school and summer activities and workshops to engage parents in the school community and their child’s learning. Funds also support the board’s $8-million Model Schools for Inner Cities program, which provides extra money for 150 high-needs schools. Unlike many other grants, the bulk of the learning opportunities grant — 88 per cent or $127 million — is “unsweatered.” This means that while the ministry explicitly designates it for students at risk, the board has latitude in determining which local programs they invest in. In 2014-15, $61 million or 48 per cent of that unsweatered grant money was not used for its intended purpose but instead “was diverted to budget line items,” according to the report written by researcher and policy analyst Sharma Queiser.
About 52 per cent or $66.4 million was actually used to help level the playing field for disadvantaged students, and “further analysis suggests that this figure may be significantly lower,” it said. Social Planning Toronto calls for the TDSB to start directing learning opportunities grants back to students, even if it takes a few years to make the full transition. The advocacy group also calls on the province to increase its base funding for Toronto schools and make it mandatory that the grants in question go to students for which they are intended.
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TDSB trustee Marit Stiles called the study “an important report” that shows the stark reality of the tough decisions boards face in the perennial battle to balance the books. It should be presented directly to the Minister of Education, said Stiles, chair of the TDSB’s finance, budget and enrolment committee.” “It’s time people actually saw what’s really happening out there,” she said. “Where do you cut? Are we supposed to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable?” Trying to plug all the holes makes her feel “like we’re playing whack-a-mole all the time,” she added. The Toronto board has an annual operating budget of about $3 billion. Researchers have been raising concerns about how funds for low-income students are being spent for years. A 2013 study by Social Planning Toronto claimed two-thirds of learning opportunities grant money wasn’t reaching its intended target, but was disputed by the board. That’s what prompted the advocacy group to ask the board for financial statements. The issue has also been a growing concern for trustees, who last June launched a task force that includes outside experts to examine the impact of money spent to offset the impact of poverty, race and class, what programs are effective and where additional resources are needed. A final report is expected in November. But Stiles said rather than waiting, she’s planning to present a motion to the finance committee later this month that will ask TDSB staff to come up with a plan on how to start shifting the grant money in question back to low-income schools. “These are exactly the important issues we need to be talking about as a board,” she said. TDSB teacher Nigel Barriffe says the supports that learning opportunities grants are meant to cover make a huge difference, whether paying for field trips to the Ontario Science Centre, educational assistants in classrooms or child care during parent meetings to encourage family involvement in the school. Barriffe, a special education teacher on parental leave from Greenholme Junior Middle School, says the loss of that money is significant. “We know that it has a disproportionate affect on racialized communities,” says Barriffe, who is also chair of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations. Parents, teachers and communities “have to figure out how to encourage both their trustees and MPPs to revisit the funding formula to ensure we are properly funding all of our schools.” Ingrid Palmer, a mother of three, has experienced the positive impact of grants. Her eldest child struggled in several subjects at a school that didn’t have the resources to provide extra support, she says. “It seemed like I fought all the way from elementary school to high school for her to get the help she needed.” Then a few years ago her son, now 10, needed a specialized class and ended up at George Webster Elementary School, one of the board’s model schools, for three years. It was like “night and day,” thanks to funds that went towards teacher training and programs for students and families, says Palmer. Staff promoted resiliency and knew how to deal with kids from different cultural backgrounds or who were living in stressful situations. Children were screened for vision, hearing and learning issues, and had access to after-school floor hockey and music classes. Workshops for parents covered everything from child development to helping children learn to read. The extra resources meant the school became a key to the community, she said. The fact so much of the grant money isn’t reaching the children it’s intended for is “really disheartening and disgusting to me,” says Palmer. “There should be a total outcry from the public,” she said. “Imagine what could happen if all of it was put where it’s supposed to be.” Meagher of Social Planning Toronto calls it a missed opportunity to ensure every child across the city has a chance at success and future opportunities.But in Texas, vacancies in the federal judiciary remain unfilled for months, sometimes years. The system is operating under emergency status from the crush of too many cases and too few judges. And Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, the men empowered to recommend candidates to the president, haven’t moved quickly enough to address crisis-level vacancies in a timely manner.
Right now, there are nine Texas vacancies — two on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and seven on its district courts. The oldest vacancy, in the Southern District of Texas (Brownsville), dates to June 2011. Six other district court seats across Texas have been without a judge since July 2013. And little progress has been made since this time last year: There are only two fewer district court vacancies now than a year ago, and the same number of Circuit Court of Appeals vacancies.
The crisis likely will worsen before it improves. The Eastern District of Texas (Tyler), one of the busiest courts in the nation, is already short two judges. It will have a third vacancy in January when a judge moves from full-time duty to “senior” status and a lighter workload. Many other federal judges are expected to reduce their workload or retire in the next few years, creating greater urgency for filling positions quickly.
Cornyn and Cruz need to do better. Most of these vacancies were created by judges who left after giving months of advance notice. Yet the senators just now are beginning to formally seek replacements for some of these positions. At their snail’s pace, these seats are likely to be empty well into 2016. Maybe longer.
In an email, an aide to Cornyn said the senators are “making progress on filling vacancies in other, less-visible, ways.” The senators recently recommended to the White House two names to fill a vacancy in Dallas and are accepting applications for judges in the Southern and Eastern Districts. That’s great news, but shouldn’t replacements have been agreed upon months, if not years, ago?
A shortage of qualified applicants is not the problem. It is most likely foot-dragging on the part of the senators, presumably because federal judicial posts are lifetime appointments, shape federal law and can be stepping stones to the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s a great temptation to play partisan politics with such decisions. If that is a factor here, it is wrong.
Justice fails when the court system fails. Crowded courts and long waits mean higher costs and justice delayed.
As lawyers, Cornyn and Cruz know what is at stake. Now they need to fix it.The 20-year battle to protect the Great Bear Rainforest – the largest coastal temperate rainforest on the planet – is over, with the B.C. government announcement on Monday of an agreement with environmentalists, forest companies and First Nations.
The deal, which will be enshrined in legislation this spring, applies to a stretch of 6.4 million hectares of the coast from the north of Vancouver Island to the Alaska Panhandle. It promises to protect 85 per cent of the region’s old-growth forests, with logging in the remaining 15 per cent subject to the most stringent commercial logging standards in North America.
A"spirit bear" hunts for salmon near Klemtu, B.C., Aug. 29, 2015 (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
“I’m pleased to announce we have reached this landmark agreement,” B.C. Premier Christy Clark told a news conference in Vancouver. “We celebrate what hard work, tenacity and strength of purpose can achieve when we work together.”
Representatives for the four partners gathered for a ceremony in the Heiltsuk community of Bella Bella on Friday to mark the completion of an accord that reaches far beyond the original objectives of protecting ancient forests and the home of the unique white-furred black bear known as the Spirit Bear.
The final agreement also recognizes aboriginal rights to shared decision-making and improves economic opportunities for the 26 First Nations that reside in the region with a greater share of timber rights and $15-million from the province.
In Bella Bella’s school gymnasium, hereditary chiefs wearing their regalia of button blankets and ermine-trimmed headdresses danced and a chorus of children sang to welcome Premier Clark and the chief architects of the deal.
“This is a singular place – a gift – for us to preserve and this is the biggest statement we’ve ever made about our commitment to that,” Ms. Clark said in an interview after a short hike through the forest to the edge of an estuary. “To me, it’s an expression of our collective love of this land and this coast.”
In the late 1990s, the Heiltsuk people welcomed visiting international customers for B.C.’s forest products to explain their concern about the timber being taken from their traditional territories. They showed their guests the home of the Spirit Bear and the ancient forests and pristine watersheds that command awe from visitors. But the region is also home to 18,000 people, many in remote and impoverished communities with little opportunity for work.
Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, said her community was drawn into the conflict early on, but their views were not always part of the debate. “That’s the milestone – the collaboration,” she said in an interview. “As Heiltsuk people, as Coastal Nations, we aligned around common values of protecting the land.” But her people want jobs too. “Our nation clearly and consistently said, there must be balance.”
A critical part of the final agreement was the completion of government-to-government agreements, 26 in all, that B.C. signed with the resident First Nations on how the agreement will be managed.
“The outcome is we have a sustainable forest industry for B.C., and a platform for us to march down the road of reinvestment in the industry,” said Rick Jeffery, chief negotiator for the forest companies. Those companies gain a valuable green stamp of approval to market their products, but also the certainty of having partnerships with the local First Nations. “Now we have this great treasure, the result of collaboration between First Nations, industry, government and NGOs. That’s the big success.”
An aerial view of a small section of the Great Bear Rain Forest near Bella Bella, B.C., Jan. 29, 2016. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
The pact creates a framework for sustainable economic development that environmentalists hope will serve as a global model for resolution of other land-use conflicts, from Canada’s boreal forest – considered to be the largest intact forest on Earth – to the rapidly disappearing tropical rainforests in Indonesia.
The campaign began almost 20 years ago, when a group of environmentalists gathered over Italian food and wine to map out a strategy to save the region’s old-growth trees. They began by rebranding what was then known as B.C.’s Central Mid-coast Timber Supply Area as the Great Bear Rainforest, and then launched their battle, one that threatened to poison the markets for the province’s forest products.
With the combined efforts of Greenpeace, ForestEthics and the Sierra Club BC, more than 80 companies, including Home Depot, Staples and IKEA, were persuaded to stop selling products made from B.C.’s old-growth forests.
Then-B.C. premier Glen Clark condemned the activists as the “enemies of B.C.” and refused to accept the region’s new moniker.
Premier Christy Clark and Dallas Smith is president of the Nanwakolas Council, Jan. 29, 2016. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
It was market pressure that brought industry to the table. A representative of the German publishing industry representing $600-million worth of paper-publishing contracts in B.C. met with both sides and demanded they work out their differences so that his clients could be assured they were buying sustainable and conflict-free paper.
In 2001, the Joint Solutions Project – an alliance of forest companies and environmental organizations – announced a ceasefire in the war in the woods. The marketing campaign against B.C. forest products was abandoned and, in exchange, the companies deferred logging in 100 pristine valleys. There was now an opportunity to collaborate.
“That put us in a place to really start talking seriously about a different future for the Great Bear Rainforest,” said Catherine Stewart, who steered the negotiations on behalf of Greenpeace for the first six years.
Ms. Stewart now represents another non-governmental organization, Canopy, which partners with forest-product customers – including The Globe and Mail – to advance conservation. But she plans to join her former Greenpeace colleagues and others on Monday to celebrate the completion of the deal.
“It sets a huge precedent and a very encouraging one for threatened ancient forests around the world – it says this can be done,” Ms. Stewart said.
A juvenile humpback whale breaches near Klemtu, B.C., June 17, 2015. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
Ten years ago, a tentative pact was signed with international fanfare. Then-premier Gordon Campbell stood on a podium alongside forestry executives, environmental activists and aboriginal leaders to announce “the culmination of an unprecedented collaboration.” It was hailed as a “dream come true” by negotiators.
But implementation of the plan proved to be more challenging than expected. Logging continued and soon the three environmental organizations at the table raised concerns that the agreement wasn’t being met.
There was trouble, too, for the First Nations leaders who had signed on. They returned to their home communities to find criticism, not accolades, because the deal delivered little to help lift up their people.
“We always thought this was about stopping logging,” said Dallas Smith, president of the Nanwakolas Council which represents six of the First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest. “But it morphed into something else, about saving this globally significant area that was unique because of its untouched wilderness, but with the understanding that there are indigenous people who are interwoven into the fabric.”
Tim McGrady, General Manager and guide with Spirit Bear Lodge, looks for bears Klemtu, B.C., June, 18, 2015 (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)
However there is still work to done, said Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild, an environmental organization devoted to issues in the Great Bear Rainforest, whose stunning photography of the region and its wildlife would play a crucial role in building support for its preservation.
“There is no skirting the issue: This agreement proposes to log 2.5 million cubic metres of old-growth forests every year for the next 10 years,” he said in an interview. “The campaign was to stop ancient-forest logging. Unfortunately this agreement enshrines the idea that ancient-forest logging is part of doing business in the Great Bear Rainforest. That’s been a significant change in the conservation movement.”Writer and broadcaster
A statue of US President Ronald Reagan has been unveiled near the US embassy in London, to mark the centenary of his birth. How did this come about?
Once upon a time, 4 July in London was the occasion for a grand party at the American ambassador's vast residence in Regent's Park.
The diplomatic corps, leading MPs, titans of industry, and we sparrows of the press would feast on hamburgers, hot dogs and crumbs of gossip on the vast back lawn.
But this is the Age of Austerity. The party is now a scaled-down event for the creme de la creme. This year, the big 4 July event in London was held in Grosvenor Square just across from the American embassy and it was a private affair not hosted by the US government. A statue of Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, was unveiled.
Baroness Thatcher, Reagan's soul-mate in power, was invited but was unable to attend. However, 2,000 other paying guests did and listened to remarks by British Foreign Secretary William Hague, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the current ambassador, Louis Susman.
The creation of the statue - total cost $1m - did not grow out of a public clamour for a fitting memorial to the late president (though Westminster City Council made an exception to its usual rule refusing permission for statues until 10 years have passed since the subject's death).
The event is part of a year-long series of big occasions to mark the centenary of Reagan's birth, organised by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. In the weeks prior to the London unveiling, statues have been unveiled and conferences convened in Krakow, Budapest and Prague.
Cold Warrior
John Heubusch, executive director of the foundation, says the events are part of fulfilling the mission "to preserve and promote the president's legacy".
Now, there is a long tradition of private groups honouring their heroes with public memorials.
Across from the Reagan statue is a presidential predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower. It shows Eisenhower in his general's uniform - his headquarters during the months preparing for D-Day overlook Grosvenor Square - and it was given by the people of Kansas City, Missouri. Eisenhower was from just over the state line in Kansas.
At the other end of the political spectrum, there is the massive bust of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, erected in 1954 by the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Inevitably, the effort to "preserve and promote" Reagan's legacy comes with a big injection of political spin. A quotation attributed to Lady Thatcher, "Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot," is etched on to the Reagan statue's plinth.
Actually, there were plenty of shots fired during the Reagan presidency. It's just they were fired by proxies out of earshot of Washington and London and so are easy to forget.
Shared enemies
The epitaph glosses over the pair's good fortune in arriving in power just as the rot inherent in the Soviet system had fatally weakened the whole structure of the society. It also helped that the USSR was bogged down in an unwinnable war (with US proxies) in Afghanistan.
And it altogether fails to acknowledge the courage of ordinary men and |
are still eager for more success."
There has been little change to the team's line-up for the forthcoming season with Skylar Schneider and Anna Plichta their only signings, while Nikki Brammeier and Katarzyna Pawlowska leave at the end of 2017.(By John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
RICHMOND — Joe Barry’s arrival as Washington’s defensive coordinator initiated noticeable changes in both style and substance. Let’s start with the style.
“When you play football, it’s kind of all the same spiel,” observed cornerback DeAngelo Hall, a 12-year veteran who’s seen coaches come and go. The difference from one coach to the next is “just the way it’s delivered, and [Barry’s] delivery is amazing,” Hall said. “It’s like Drake and all this ghost writing stuff. The guy who writes it can rap it one way, man, but because of Drake’s delivery, he turns them into platinum hits. And so the way Joe Barry’s delivery is, so far it’s been amazing to be around.”
Okay, hold up. Did Hall just compare Joe Barry to Drake?
“I mean, it’s the delivery, man, the delivery; it’s the way he’s delivering it,” Hall laughed. “The message is definitely getting received on our end.”
And if Joe Barry is Drake, that would mean Meek Mill is … well, let’s not even go there. Suffice it to say, Hall is hardly the only Redskins defensive leader who’s been wowed by the 45-year-old Barry, a man whose hiring initially left some fans feeling uneasy. Players this month raved about Barry’s enthusiasm, his communication, the way he interacts with colleagues and his teaching methods.
“I love him, man,” said defensive lineman Chris Baker. “He ain’t trying to BS you around. He’ll just come out and tell you exactly how it’s supposed to be done.”
“I love playing for him, because he gives us the freedom to be ourselves, you know what I mean?” safety Duke Ihenacho said. “We’re not robotic out there. He allows us to make plays.”
“His energy spills off onto us,” Hall said. “He’s just a damn joy to be around.”
(By John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
The energy thing isn’t a gimmick, although it could have something to do with the 10 cups of black coffee Barry consumes each morning before 10, starting about 60 seconds after he leaves his bed. (“I’ll chug coffee,” he noted.) Or with the Red Bull he has at lunchtime. Or with the lessons he remembers from his own playing career as a linebacker at Southern Cal.
“I had to work harder than everyone; I had to be a grinder,” Barry said after a recent practice. “So I think in my professional working life, it’s the same thing.”
[Keenan Robinson says Joe Barry is easy for players to relate to]
Through months of minicamps and offseason sessions and now at training camp, players have joked about the fervor Barry brings to practices, the way he translates meeting room concepts into clear — if caffeinated — on-field explanations.
“He’s very hands on,” Ihenacho said. “He loves teaching, he’s a very detailed coach and he knows exactly what he wants.”
“He’s a live wire,” said nose tackle Terrance Knighton. “If he could, he probably would put on pads.”
“I’m sure he’s pretty sore after practice,” defensive end Kedric Golston added. “It’s him, though, you know what I mean? It’s not false. He’s a guy that you can really tell is enjoying what he’s doing.”
That’s been the case even as Barry has faced one question after another about his previous experience as a defensive coordinator, a two-year stint with the Detroit Lions that ended with an 0-16 season in 2008. Barry patiently discusses that season day after day, talking about learning from failure and growing through struggles, and assuring reporters that “no question is ever out of bounds.”
He seems even to find satisfaction in these exchanges. Players might think Barry is enjoying himself, but they’re probably underestimating matters, because this is a man who likes coaching football more than Donald Trump likes hearing his own voice.
“I wake up every single day and I absolutely love my job,” Barry said. “I mean, I can’t wait to go to work, every single day. And having that mentality and truly feeling that way, I think that gives me natural energy. It gives me juice. I don’t know what it would be like in life when the alarm goes off to be miserable. When my alarm goes off, I’m jacked. I think that obviously helps in the energy that I exude, because I love what I’m doing, you know?”
What he’s doing in Washington is infusing the team’s 3-4 base defense with the 4-3 principles he learned as part of the Tampa Bay coaching tree. While last year’s defensive line was asked to stay square with its matchups and control blocks, this year’s group is being asked to play on edges and get up the field.
Golston described it as creating “disruptions.” Baker said instead of freeing up linebackers, the linemen are focused on “attacking, really making a lot of plays in the backfield.” Even offensive linemen like Trent Williams have noticed the difference, saying “I think the scheme allows them to be a little freer, and therefore they’re playing a lot better.”
Barry cautioned against thinking of this as more freedom, “because it definitely takes discipline to do what we do.” But he said the changes should be obvious to fans when real games begin, that his approach is “a complete contrast” and “completely different” from last season’s philosophy.
Barry — who grabs you and physically moves you around while explaining his defensive mission — wants his linemen creating “havoc in the backfield,” with rushers like Jason Hatcher, Stephen Paea and Ryan Kerrigan encouraged to get off the ball. He wants them to think about vertical movement and to “play the run on our way to sacking the quarterback.”
[Is Joe Barry the man for the job?]
Will this work, assuaging fans and allowing Washington’s retooled roster to erase last year’s defensive embarrassments? That’s a question for September more than August. In the heat of training camp, it’s easier just to nod your head when a leader like Hall rhapsodizes about his new coordinator.
“I think he’s going to have a ton of success,” the cornerback said. “I don’t know how he was in Detroit, but since the moment he’s gotten here, man, he’s just been a ball of energy. And guys have wanted to play for him and wanted to do what he wants us to do.”
As for that Drake comparison, Barry laughed, saying “I wish I had Drake’s money,” and then adding “I would consider that a compliment.”
He didn’t have to mention anything about starting from the bottom. There have already been enough references to Detroit.Chocolate mousse and French macaroons at French Broad Chocolate Lounge in Asheville, N.C. (Eliza Bell Photography/French Broad Chocolates)
Ahh, chocolate. There probably isn't a more magical ingredient on earth than the sweet, dark brown flavoring used for more than 3,000 years. Today most chocolate is consumed in the form of candy -- a development that has sparked heated debate among scientists about what that's doing to our health.
Common sense tells us that too much of something so fatty and full of calories is a bad thing.
But a surprising number of studies have found that dark chocolate can reduce the risk of death from a heart attack, decrease blood pressure and help those with chronic fatigue syndrome. Consumers have been so eager to justify indulging in their chocolate cravings that earlier this year many were duped by a fake study that purported to show that chocolate helps in weight loss. (The study, which was not peer-reviewed, was an attempt by a science journalist, with a Ph.D. degree, to shame media outlets who he said have a history of misreporting or misinterpreting research.)
[How, and why, a journalist tricked news outlets into thinking chocolate makes you thin]
The question for many chocolate lovers has been at what point are you having too much of a good thing. That is, is there an optimal "dose" for chocolate eating?
A new study published in the journal Heart on Monday looked at the effect of diet on long-term health. It involved 25,000 volunteers and found that the answer to how much chocolate can be good for you is -- a lot. Study participants in the high consumption group -- those who ate 15 to 100 grams of chocolate a day in the form of everything from Mars bars to hot cocoa -- had lower heart disease and stroke risk than those who did not consume the confection.
A hundred grams is equivalent to about two classic Hershey's bars or -- if you're going fancy -- five Godiva truffles. In terms of calories you're looking at 500-535. To put that into perspective, the Department of Agriculture recommends men consume 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day depending on their height, body composition and whether they are sedentary or active.
This association in the study was valid even after researchers adjusted for a wide range of risk factors, such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and other dietary variables.
"The main message is that you don't need to worry too much if you are only moderately eating chocolate," Phyo Myint, a professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Aberdeen and one of the study's lead authors, said in an interview.
Higher levels of consumption were associated with a large number of other positives in the study: lower BMI, waist:hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, inflammatory proteins. As compared with those who ate no chocolate, those who ate high amounts saw a 11 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 25 percent lower risk of associated death.
The study also noted that more of the participants in the study ate milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate which has long been considered healthier. This might suggest that beneficial health effects may apply to both, the researchers said.
"Our results are somewhat surprising since the expectation was that benefits of chocolate consumption would be mainly associated with dark chocolate rather than the commercially available products generally used in a British population which are high in sugar content and fat," the study's author wrote.
[The truth about dark chocolate]
So what's the theory behind how this works?
Myint explained that chocolate is full of flavonoid antioxidants and that previous studies have shown that intake of chocolate results in improved function of the endothelium, or inner lining of the blood vessels. Chocolate has also been shown to increase HDL or "good" cholesterol and decrease LDL or "bad" cholesterol. He also said many chocolate bars that were probably consumed by study participants contained nuts which are known to be good for heart health.
While Myint said it seemed clear that there wasn't a big risk to chocolate eating for the study participants, he said that the results of the study should be read with a few caveats. First, it looked at people ages 39 to 70 and nearly all the study participants were white. He also emphasized that in a sample size this large, there were also a number of participants who ate a lot of chocolate but did not see the same benefits as others.
"Indeed some people had worse outcomes when eating that amount of chocolate so the findings need to be taken with extreme caution," he said.
While the study provides evidence that there's no need to avoid chocolate in your diet to protect your cardiovascular health, it probably is too soon to run out and gorge on a pile of chocolate bars.
Charles Mueller, clinical assistant professor of nutrition at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, points out that there's no definitive conclusion about cause and effect and that it's possible that chocolate eaters engage in other behaviors or eat other foods that are good for the heart.
"Cocoa beans are not unlike red peppers, green peppers and broccoli and stuff like that. They are full of phytochemicals that are good for you. But if you are overweight, and you are thinking of protecting yourself by eating chocolate you are being kind of silly. Chocolate is just one small element in a full range of a good diet," Mueller said.
READ MORE:
The world's biggest chocolate maker says we're running out of chocolate
The truth about dark chocolate
How, and why, a journalist tricked news outlets into reporting chocolate makes you thinToday, February 27, is the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Pokémon games in their native Japan. In honor of that feat, here’s the classic Bizarre Baseball Culture look at “The Double Trouble Header”, an episode about baseball fandom and the world of Pocket Monsters.
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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
In a first for Bizarre Baseball Culture, we’re going international to look at one of the more strange appearances of baseball in Japanese culture. To be more exact, we’re looking at an old episode of the Pokémon anime, entitled “The Double Trouble Header”.
…
Okay, are you done laughing/rolling your eyes? Good. Now go below the jump for this installment, which has been weeks in the making:
Primer:
For anybody who has been asleep since the late nineties: Pokémon is a multimedia empire created by Nintendo and Game Freak, originally as a video game but later branching out into basically every other facet of entertainment and culture, most notably anime (Japanese Animation) and trading cards.The basic premise is that in a world of superpowered animals, the competitive nature of both the animals and the humans that catch and train them are unleashed in battles- sometimes for sport, sometimes to protect loved ones, and sometimes in an effort to catch more Pokémon. It briefly was a major fad around the turn of the century, but even today it remains one of the most profitable franchises in the world, especially the video games. Not surprisingly, the video games are also by far the most complex and mature of the various Pokémon products, containing a rather deep system of strategies and skills.
Anyway, back to the episode at hand: “The Double Trouble Header”. The episode actually isn’t that much about baseball in itself so much as it is about being a baseball fan and never giving up.
Speaking of not very good, the same could be said for this episode. I mean, even when I was a kid, I knew it was basically a half-hour commercial, and that it was a translation from Japanese. But now I realize that it was even worse than that, and based on what I’ve read the dubbing-team was really bad too, removing some of the more violent content and some of the jokes that would be over some kids’ heads. It still has a certain nostalgic charm to people who were young back then, but it hasn’t aged well at all.
So, now, without further ago, here’s the Bizarre Baseball Culture analysis of “The Double Trouble Header”, first aired in America on October 21, 2000 (fittingly enough, that was the day that that year’s World Series started).
The Summary
Some last-minute context here: This was early in a season dealing with/trying to sell the video game Pokémon Gold and Silver, introducing a new region of the game world and about a hundred new monsters to catch, so by this point the main character, Ash Ketchum, had already basically gone through a game’s worth of adventures and something like two seasons worth of experience, and has gone to the new region, Johto (loosely based off the Kansai region of Japan) in order to gain more acclaim and catch more Pokemon. Okay, now, anyway…
We join our heroes (main protagonist Ash Ketchum, water-based trainer Misty and rock-based trainer Brock) as they travel toward Violet City in order to challenge that city’s gym leader (basically an elite Pokémon trainer). But then, mere seconds after they mention that that they hadn’t seen a Chikorita, they come across a girl dressed in yellow and black baseball gear who is using a Chikorita to catch a common Rattata, spouting off baseball cliches all the way and even using the traditional Asian high-leg kick pitching delivery to throw her Pokéball at the Rattata.
And then, not knowing that the three heroes are watching her, she then monologues about how she (Casey- which is probably as good a name as you can give to a baseball-loving character) had gained another team member, at which points she breaks into a fight song for the Electabuzz baseball team. This is very, very, strange. And even stranger is when she turns around, sees Ash’s Pikachu, and squeals like a little girl about how it’s yellow and how she’s always wondered what it would feel like to be shocked by one… which Pikachu happily obliges her when she calls him a rat.
That’s quickly water under the bridge, though, as they soon are getting to know each other. It’s revealed that the reason she likes yellow things is because that’s one of the main color of the Electabuzz baseball team, who Ash quickly points out always finish in last place, bringing an angry protest from Casey, who predicts a series victory. Ash then mentions the Magikarp and Starmie are the favorites to win, which leads to this… uhh… immortal exchange:
Feel free to use these slights against crummy teams all season long, folks.
Anyway, that pisses Casey off, so she just outright challenges Ash to a Pokemon fight right there and then, despite the fact that Ash points out he’d wipe the floor with her. And, what do you know, he does, throwing out his Charizard, who promptly defeats all three of Casey’s Pokemon in one move each (this, by the way, is probably the closest the show ever got to accurately depicting how a fight between a veteran and a rookie would go in the video games). Casey runs off and cries, has a flashback to her family, but then realizes that since the Electabuzz never give up despite their many defeats, neither should she. It is then that she is met by the inept villains of Team Rocket, who tell her that Ash uses dirty tricks and breaks unwritten rules to win games.
So, enraged, Casey goes and challenges Ash at a conveniently located baseball stadium (complete with a hand-operated scoreboard!). However, the battle is interrupted by Team Rocket, who send in a bat-wielding robot to hit Pikachu and Chikorita over the the fence (122 meters to center) and into their clutches. After a baseball-themed introduction, they unleash a group of pitching machines, sending baseballs at the heroes, leading Casey to announce she gives up. That is, until Ash reminds her that, like in baseball, it’s not over until the final out!
At which point Ash gets a fastball straight into the nose. Twice. I know somebody who was hit in the face by a baseball, and let me just say that if this was anything close to realistic, the next two episodes would probably have had him rehabbing in a hospital. Still, it does the trick, and Casey, newly inspired, grabs a baseball bat and starts hitting the balls back at the evildoers, and with the help of some Pokémon, they send Team Rocket blasting off (again).
And so, after some brief talk about how, like the Electabuzz, Casey won’t give up until she’s able to beat Ash in a future encounter, the episode ends. The moral of the story: Never give up. This, by the way, is basically the moral of the whole damn series- well, other than “buy our games and toys!”
A retrospective introduction to Japanese Baseball
When I was a kid, I probably liked it (since kids really have no taste of what’s good or bad) but I found it kind of weird how Casey behaved. She seemed more like a college football fan or a peppy cheerleader than a baseball fan. I mean, look at her:
Now, besides the purpleish hair and short-shorts, she’s got that uniform and hat on, and she’s carrying a weird cross between a bat and a megaphone (an ouen bat, according to Patrick Newman). And she cheers by singing songs and doing hand motions that are far more elaborate than just “We want a hit!” I can’t find a YouTube clip from “The Double Trouble Header” that features the Electabuzz theme, but there are clips from other episodes that Casey showed up in (…crud, I’m going to have to do those too eventually, aren’t I?) Like this one, for example, which while different from the one in this episode, basically gets the point across:
Okay then…
So, anyway, I thought this was kind of weird when I was a kid, but now I realize that, in Pokémon’s native Japan, it wouldn’t be that strange. Oh, it’d probably be weird for somebody to just do this spontaneously on the street, but, as anybody who’s seen some of the home Asian fans in the WBC would know, this is basically what they do. Take a look at these fans of the Hanshin Tigers celebrating a win:
See? Flags, singing, little megaphone/bat/noisemaker-things, jerseys that are yellow and/or striped…
Wait, hang on… jerseys that are yellow and/or striped? That seems awfully specific, almost as if… THE ELECTABUZZ AND THE HANSHIN TIGERS ARE MEANT TO BE THE SAME TEAM!
I mean, let’s go over the evidence, shall we?
The Electabuzz, as far as can be ascertained, are a team with loyal fans, have yellow and black colors, aren’t very good, have a pinstriped uniform, and seem to be located in the Johto region. Their opponents include the Starmie and the Magikarp.
The Hanshin Tigers are a team with loyal fans, have yellow and black colors, aren’t very good (they’ve won a grand total of one Japanese Series title, despite existing since the league’s formation), have a pinstriped uniform, and are located in the Kansai region… which is the region that Johto is based on. Their opponents include the Yokohama BayStars and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Oh, and take a look at what Koshien Stadium (home of the Hanshin Tigers) looks like, and then look at where the final battle in “The Double Trouble Header” takes place. While it isn’t as big or modern looking, it’s scoreboard placement and all-dirt infield definitely calls to mind Koshien.
In other words, to somebody in Japan, Casey would have been an almost explicit reference to the Hanshin Tigers. In fact, it might have been even more explicit. According to a website that is basically about the differences between Pokémon in Japan and in America (further proof that EVERYTHING is on the internet), in the original Japanese version, Casey (called Nanoko there) had a accent from the Kansai region, the fight song incorporates elements lifted directly from the Hanshin Tiger fight song, and Team Rocket, instead of claiming that Ash broke the rules, instead suggest that he donated his winnings to a team implied to be the Yomiuri Giants, the Tigers’ eternal rivals and the “Yankees of Japan”.
This changes the moral of the story a bit. Instead of simply being about not giving up, it is also about being the fan of a crummy sports team. It is a tale no doubt familiar to anybody who roots for a team like the Electabuzz or the Hanshin Tigers- your Cubs fans, your Bills fans, your fans-of-basically-any-team-in-Cleveland. And that tale is, basically: “Wait until next year.” And, in a way, this episode suggests that, for all the pain that being a fan of a crummy team gives you, it teaches you some good life lessons, like never giving up, always trying to hang in there, and always appreciating what success you can find. And, ultimately, that makes you a better person sort of like how Casey’s constant belief in the Electabuzz has instilled into her a will to never give up.
Or maybe I’m just reading into it way too much. Either way, this concludes another installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture.
AdvertisementsIf Fox News' presidential debate rules had been in place during the 1992 election, "Bill Clinton wouldn't have been on the stage."
Republicans have a bumper crop of presidential candidates, and it has created a traffic problem for the television networks that help put on the debates. At last count, there are 10 confirmed contenders (Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz) with more possible on the way (Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal).
Fox News announced it would hold the first debate on Aug. 6 in Cleveland, but the cable network said it would invite only the top 10 declared candidates. The network’s ranking would be set according to "an average of the five most recent national polls" as of Aug. 4.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2012, called the cut-off arbitrary. Appearing on Fox News, where he once was a contributor, Santorum dipped into history to show that early poll results are meaningless.
"We should have the opportunity for everyone to be heard," he told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace on June 7, 2015. "You know, if you would have taken the top two-thirds of the folks in 1992, Bill Clinton wouldn't have been on the stage."
Clinton obviously went on to win the White House, and Santorum’s concern is obvious. While Santorum won 11 primaries in 2012, today he ranks tied for 11th in the latest Fox News poll. That’s just outside Fox News’ debate cut-off -- though that can change depending on who officially declares and what later polls show.
We decided to dig into the wayback machine of primary polls. We wanted to know what numbers Santorum had in mind and reached out to his communication staff but did not hear back.
What we found suggests Santorum is right that Clinton started out in 1991, the year before the presidential election, with low polling numbers. But Santorum is making a comparison that doesn’t quite fit because of the huge difference in the 1992 primaries versus the one beginning now. Moreover, by the time the Democratic candidates did debate in 1991, Clinton was not doing as poorly in the polls as Santorum claims.
The early polls
FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver accumulated and analyzed several cycles of presidential primary polls, including the cycle leading up to the 1992 election.
Silver was able to find just three polls from January-June 1991, a period comparable to today. And the ones he found showed Clinton at the back of a crowded field -- with an average of just 1.7 percent. That was good enough for 13th out of 19 prospective candidates.
In a hypothetical sense, a debate that included the top two-thirds of those candidates just barely might have excluded Clinton.
The problem with such a hypothetical is that there were hardly any declared Democrats running for president by June 1991. One of the conditions for the Fox News debate is that only official, announced and registered candidates need apply. In mid 1991, the would-be frontrunner was New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Cuomo ended up not running. And in fact, the top 9 candidates in early polls that year all declined to run, Silver found. Clinton himself didn’t announce his candidacy until October 1991.
So a snapshot of June 1991 versus June 2015 is hardly useful. Neither is a comparison that focuses on an August 2015 debate.
The earliest debates in the 1992 cycle we found were an NBC debate on Dec. 15, 1991, and one sponsored by PBS on Jan. 19, 1992. By then, the hypothetical field had been narrowed to actual candidates, and the polling was more favorable to Clinton.
By the time of the first debates, there were five main Democratic candidates: Clinton, former California Gov. Jerry Brown, and Sens. Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey and Paul Tsongas. A sixth candidate, Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, withdrew on Jan. 8, 1992. He participated in the Dec. 15 debate but not the one on Jan. 19.
A search on LexisNexis provided us with a handful of polls for the men who were left standing:
Poll Date Brown Clinton Harkin Kerrey Tsongas New York Times/CBS Oct. 22 12 5 3 7 2 Los Angeles Times Nov. 12 18 9 6 5 4 Los Angeles Times Nov. 27 20 9 4 5 4 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Jan. 14 21 17 9 11 6
Silver’s polling average from July to December 1991 shows a tight pack:
Candidate Polling average Mario Cuomo 9.9 Douglas Wilder 9.7 Jerry Brown 14.9 Bill Clinton 8.3 Bob Kerrey 7.7 Tom Harkin 6.3 Paul Tsongas 4.1
The point here is that there never were more than 10 serious declared candidates, as might happen in 2015. And Clinton’s position was not as poor as Santorum made it seem. By the time of the first debate, Clinton would have passed muster by the Fox News standard as an announced candidate ranked among the top two-thirds of the pack.
Our ruling
Santorum said that if Fox News had applied its 2016 rules to a hypothetical Democratic primary debate in 1992, that Clinton would not have been on the stage.
Santorum was trying to make the point that early presidential polls may not be the most useful yardstick to determine who gets into a debate and who doesn’t. In that regard, Clinton’s story from 1991 somewhat backs that up. Early presidential polls showed Clinton as a significant underdog.
But in reality, Santorum errs in trying to make a comparison between the 1992 and 2016 presidential cycles.
Most of the top Democrats Clinton trailed in those early polls never actually declared as candidates. Under the Fox News rules, none of them would qualify to participate in its debate. And by the time the field was set in late 1991, Clinton’s position in the polls suggested he was a viable candidate.
Santorum’s statement contains an element of truth in that Clinton did start low in the polls, but it ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.Chef Crafted Flavors is a new initiative by McDonald’s to bring to its customers gourmet offerings. As part of this initiative, three new burgers are being tested in San Diego County, California.
For the three burgers, patrons get to choose from three different types of patties – buttermilk crispy chicken, artisan grilled chicken, and the regular beef patty. The patties will be enveloped in an artisan roll or the traditional sesame seed bun as per the customer’s order. For the condiments there are three flavor options to choose from – buffalo bacon, pico guacamole and maple bacon Dijon. The flavoring is the essence of the burgers and will give one a southern barbeque, Mexican or Canadian flavor burst.
Additionally, the customers have the option to add guacamole and pico de gallo as sides with these flavorful burgers to further enhance the overall experience. These chef inspired delicacies are a delicious alternative that add variety to the menu.This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use
Thanks for all the email, comments in the forum, and comments on other forums (I’m looking at you, Slashdot!).
Because that article was so widely read—more widely read than the first two articles in the series—I received a number of questions and comments that deserve some elaboration. So let’s dive into them.
Cool Article. Are there other articles?
Glad you asked. The Solar Power: One Month Later is the third in a series of articles I’ve written on my personal exploration of solar power.
The initial article, Checking Out Solar Power dealt with my initial thinking on the subject, including reasons why, plus the bidding process.
The second in the series, Going Solar: The Install discussed the physical installation process.
How much did it cost?
I talk about costs in the first two articles, but to give round numbers, the total cost of the system was roughly $55,000 before rebates. The California Solar Initiative kicked in about $11,500, which brought our out-of-pocket expense down to $43,500. My wife’s company has a deal with Sunpower, so she qualified for an additional rebate of $4,750.
That brought our final cost down to about $38,750. Again, those are round numbers, but pretty close to the mark.
We’ll also be getting another $2,000 tax credit when we file our 2009 tax return. Continued…Oval races, at least in the Verizon IndyCar Series, are a dying breed, and far too many of us – myself included, I’m ashamed to say – lived in denial about this fact for too long. In 2014, when Auto Club Speedway hosted the championship season finale, the crowds were embarrassingly low. Members of the pre-race parachute display team must have been wondering if they’d come to the wrong venue… or the right venue but a day late. Yet Fontana’s spectator figures, apparently at rock bottom last year, found a way to fall another 75 percent this year. We can and have pointed fingers of blame regarding why this year’s MAVTV 500 had less atmosphere than Mars; we can and have debated the quality of the race – a gift to the mindless and mediocre or, alternatively, the perfect example of how magnificent IndyCar racing can be.
But there was a further specter raised by that race, then thrust under the spotlight by last Sunday’s NASCAR Coke Zero 400: the risk of injury to spectators from flying cars/car parts. Obviously in Auto Club Speedway’s recent instance, even if Ryan Briscoe had crashed along the fence in the frightening manner he had at Chicagoland 10 years earlier, it would have taken extraordinary bad luck for debris to strike anyone in the grandstands – similar odds to an airliner evacuating its lavatories 33,000 feet over the Atlantic and sending a frozen blue block through the deck of a trawler. But Austin Dillon’s crash at Daytona last Sunday should leave us all relieved for now yet worried for the future. Whatever the warning on the ticket stubs about racing being dangerous and attendees doing so at their own risk, tracks and race series have to and do take safety measures to protect the fans.
“You think IndyCar altered the aero package in qualifying at Indy because they were worried about driver safety?” muttered one cynical ex-driver a couple weeks ago. “Uh-uh. These cars are pretty strong and safe. The changes were because they couldn’t risk cars in grandstands and huge insurance payouts. IMS is probably the one track that could afford to pay but if something bad happens on race day at one of these smaller venues, that’s them done. And the insurance premiums will shoot up at every oval track. Well if you’re only pulling in 12,000 fans or whatever, what track owner is going to think that’s worth it?”
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Obviously the dwindling popularity of the IndyCar Series’ oval events has little or nothing to do with the public’s concerns for self-preservation. Instead, I’d go along with the majority and blame (according to the venue) a lack of support races, a track in the middle of nowhere, a dependency on favorable weather, a lack of effort by the promoter or the public’s lack of appreciation of the difficulty of oval racing.
So what if there was a radical rethink of oval racing – something that improved spectator and driver safety but also increased the challenge for the drivers in a blatantly obvious manner, thus luring back the fans?
Justin Wilson, a part-time IndyCar driver for Andretti Autosport this season, may have come up with it. See what you think…
“First of all I’ve got to admit, I’m not sure it’s original,” says Wilson in his typically self-effacing way, “although I don’t think I’ve read it anywhere else. But IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway led the way with the SAFER barriers, which have saved a lot of oval racers, and certainly stopped a lot of minor injuries becoming major ones. Now, I think it’s time to take the next step.
“Well, maybe I’ve just had too much time on my hands this year, but I’ve been thinking about the oval races a lot. I remember after Las Vegas in 2011, Paul Tracy suggested as an alternative to catch fences, maybe you could have a really thick reinforced version of the Perspex you get around hockey arenas. It was a good idea that would stop this shredding effect that happens whenever an IndyCar or even a NASCAR hits the fence at high speed. Plus you wouldn’t get a component digging into the fence and spinning the car harder. But the downsides are how thick would that plastic glass have to be to withstand a hit from a 3500lb stock car at 190mph or a 1600lb open-wheel car at 230? And how soon before it became so damaged or yellow or pitted from debris that you needed to replace it because fans couldn’t see through it?
“Anyway, I thought about it some more – I still couldn’t get past this idea of finding something to replace catch-fencing around the edge of the track. The velocities are incredible, but at the same time, you can’t slow the cars down. I hate hearing those kind of ideas, because 1) they’d look boring to the fans, 2) they’d be boring for the drivers and 3) they’d be so easy to drive that anyone could drive them so they’d all run together – which increases the chances of an accident. You don’t want to see a NASCAR Cup car having restrictor plates even on its 150mph tracks, and you don’t want to see IndyCars only doing 200 down the straight at somewhere like Pocono.
“So this idea – and I know it will be expensive – is to move the grandstands to the inside of the track. On the outside you’d have giant thick metal sheets on top of the walls where they currently have fencing and these would overlap in the right direction so they were like the plates on a baggage carousel – a car couldn’t get turned by an exposed edge, and it would present a flat surface to whatever part of the car hit it. All the support posts would be the other side of the metal, obviously, and you could group them together as close or far apart as you liked.
“You could |
more and more of our personal information to governments and corporations,” he said. “A loss of privacy doesn’t just mean embarrassment or inconvenience, as in the case of the Adult Friend Finder hack. In some cases a loss of privacy can have catastrophic effects, such as bodily harm and/or even death. This is tragic and we need to do something to change this.”
Eijah isn’t his real name – he’s waiting to reveal that in an upcoming interview – but he’s working with security programmer John McAfee to build brand recognition and business partnerships.
How does it work? Eijah said his platform works using “social cryptography” which means it merges sharing tools like Dropbox with decentralized connectivity akin to BitTorrent. This means you can upload a file and share it with anyone completely anonymously – people will receive messages and files without knowing a single bit about the sender. The system requires “routers” – essentially public groups that allow you to share data with local users. Again, no IP data is passed to the routers. He launched 2.0 of the service to coincide with the recent Deacon conference in Las Vegas and Demonsaw currently works on Linux and Windows. A version for OS X is in the works.
“I write all the code for demonsaw, as well as make all the company decisions. I put in at least 45-50 hours per week at Rockstar plus another 30-50 hours per week on demonsaw. I really don’t do anything else in life anymore, just work. People asked me at Defcon how I manage to maintain such as schedule and I told them that privacy was simply too important for me not to do it,” he said.
Demonsaw is a free application that anybody can download and use to securely and anonymously communicate and share information. Demonsaw makes security easy for the individual. It empowers them, allowing them to control their own information and set up their own security as they deem necessary. There are no third parties involved in the transfer of messages or data. There’s no logging, no tracking, no installs, etc. Demonsaw is totally free and ad-free too.which side are you reallywannabepilot?to those pilots that participated in this exodus, good for you! hope you have a brighter future ahead of you. AND if that company you're with right now is worse than PAL, then GO leave that company again, then leave and leave again UNTIL no other airline will take you in. There is a word called 'LOYALTY', or even if you guys have made up your mind, at least have the decency to have a 30day notice, any other job in the world needs a 2wk notice for resignation, what more with an airline as undermanned as PAL FD is. No matter what your frustrations are with the management. Resignation is not just filing your letter and leaving, or filing for indefinite leave and not reporting ever again. Sad to say there were a lot of us looking up to you guys for your wisdom.I am a PAL employee, and PAL isn't the best airline out there, they are not the most pro-employee company, but they pay better than CEBPAC, ZEST, or any other local airline! Working conditions at CEBPAC is worse than ours!Yes Beda isn't the best boss, but PAL has been the one feeding our families for years, decades to some! You don't just run and leave like that!For those arguing security of tenure, tell that to the 8k PAL employee when PAL closes down once again. And this time if it does, let's see if anyone would want to invest any money for a company that has an overhead way above the ceiling, everyone complaining and each department asking for salary increase when airfare are as low as it can get, seat capacity less than 80% full and cargo diminished as well.For those BALAGBAG boys, PAL has a 10yr contract with LTP until SEPT 2010, you can look for it in PAL'S website, corporate disclosureBy Monday morning, when the Post cover showing Mr. Weiner and his son, Jordan, hit newsstands, Mr. Weiner had left the Hamptons for New York City aware that Ms. Abedin planned to announce their separation, said two people close to the couple who discussed private conversations on the condition of anonymity.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Ms. Abedin said in a statement. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy.”
In the latest issue of Vogue, Ms. Abedin portrayed Mr. Weiner as a devoted father and their marriage as a true partnership. “Many working moms feel this way — there is a lot of guilt,” she said. “I don’t think I could do it if I didn’t have the full support system I have, if Anthony wasn’t willing to be, essentially, a full-time dad.”
But the two people close to the couple said Ms. Abedin and Mr. Weiner had been growing apart for some time, with Ms. Abedin often on the campaign trail with Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Weiner at home with Jordan. They said the Post article had not caused a sudden and unexpected rupture to a happy marriage, but rather was the final catalyst for Ms. Abedin to move for a separation.
Campaign officials had braced for new revelations about Mr. Weiner after The Post reported this month that a Republican had baited Mr. Weiner into a flirtatious online chat. Asked by The New York Times this month whether he was still engaging in the behavior that had foiled his political career, Mr. Weiner said, “I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that.”
Mrs. Clinton had hoped to ride out the final week of August with limited distractions as she seeks to maintain her solid lead in national polls. On Monday, she attended three fund-raisers in the Hamptons, without Ms. Abedin, and spoke briefly on a conference call with policy experts and medical providers to unveil her proposals on mental health.
“We’ve got to make clear mental health is not a personal failing,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Aides said that Ms. Abedin’s marriage was a private matter and that her decision to announce the separation meant the frenetic news cycle would soon move on.The Quebec government will install equipment at several detention centres aimed at preventing helicopters from being used in escapes like the one that happened last weekend.
Temporary measures will be put in place in co-operation with the federal government, such as forbidding air traffic over the institutions, Public Security Minister Lise Thériault said Tuesday.
Ms. Thériault said the measures will be implemented gradually.
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The government action comes in the wake of a spectacular escape on the weekend in which three inmates fled from one of Quebec's largest facilities using a helicopter.
Yves Denis, Denis Lefebvre and Serge Pomerleau escaped from the Orsainville Detention Centre in suburban Quebec City on Saturday evening when a helicopter landed in a courtyard, scooped them up and quickly took off.
Police say the three men were originally arrested on drug-trafficking and gangsterism charges in 2010.
The Quebec provincial police website also says Mr. Denis, 35, is facing first-degree murder charges, while Mr. Lefebvre, 53 and Mr. Pomerleau, 49, are facing charges of murder and conspiracy to murder.
Ms. Thériault said it is important to get the measures in place.
"What we want to do is to ensure we have temporary measures so we have the time to install the rest of the equipment that will stop helicopters from landing," she said.
"That's a little more complicated than you would think."
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In the legislature, interim Parti Québécois Leader Stéphane Bédard cited a newspaper report that said Quebec provincial police knew since March that the three inmates posed a high risk of escape.
"The police also knew that a helicopter would be involved and had an idea who the pilot was," he said.
"For these reasons, the three individuals were given the highest security classification – S5 – which meant they could not go outside alone and had to have their hands tied so they could not escape."
Mr. Bédard tried in vain to find out details of why a judge loosened security restrictions on the men.
He argued that the conditions of their incarceration are no longer covered by a publication ban imposed at their trial but Ms. Thériault insisted the ban is still in force.
Saturday's helicopter escape had similarities to another bold jailbreak in Quebec.
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A helicopter pilot was forced at gunpoint to fly to a prison in St-Jérôme in March, 2013.
Two convicts climbed a rope ladder into the hovering helicopter and fled.
The two escapees and the two men accused of hijacking the copter were picked up by police in Mont-Tremblant, about 85 kilometres away, within a few hours of the escape.The actress Emma Watson has made a point of portraying her latest movie, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as feminist film. Watson told Vanity Fair that she worked with Disney to update her character for the live-action version of its 1991 cartoon: In this latest version, Belle wears more practical clothing, is an inventor in her own right (rather than her father’s assistant), and often asserts her love of reading. Watson even asked renowned feminist writer Gloria Steinem to watch the film and make sure it aligned with feminist principles.
But let’s be clear: Beauty and the Beast is not a feminist movie. These nods to feminism mean diddlysquat for gender equality. I don’t care that the protagonist is a woman, nor that she’s played by one of Hollywood’s leading feminists.
The feminist veneer aligns with Watson’s ideology, but it also has the handy benefit of harnessing the growing marketing appeal of gender equality. And lo, there are dozens of headlines connecting Beauty and the Beast with feminism, each doing remarkable twists to excuse the inexcusable fact that sweet, beautiful Belle is being held captive by an immoral beast and shows clear signs of Stockholm Syndrome by falling in love with him.
The original fairytale is ultimately the story of a kidnapping, and one that emphasizes the importance of physical looks. That alone disqualifies the film from being truly feminist. There are more sexist movies out there, to be sure. But what makes Beauty and the Beast particularly egregious is the insincere and flimsy “feminist” dressing it comes in. Belle wears riding boots and invents a washing machine. Ergo, she’s presented as an “activist.”
Such additions aren’t real feminism, but rather a clever disguise, and one that will allow moviemakers to continue churning out under-developed female characters and sexist storylines for as long as we let them.
This isn’t the first time Beauty and the Beast has been presented as feminist. (Even though the original story portrays not only an ugly beast but also a stupid one, whom Belle ultimately agrees to stay with out of gratitude for the imprisonment hospitality.) In 1991, Linda Woolverton, who wrote the animated film, made a point of creating a character more well-rounded than the typical damsel in distress. That’s how Belle came to enjoy reading in the first place. But that change didn’t make the story feminist then, and it certainly doesn’t now.
I don’t doubt the good intentions of those who’ve tried to thrust Belle toward feminism, but I do know that the result is just the re-packaged tale of yet another beautiful woman’s docility. It remains a troubling story about the need for women to submit to their assigned husbands, twisted into a romance to make it seem palatable.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a symptom of Hollywood’s very real problem with women. In 2016, just 29% of protagonists and 7% of directors were women. While men are allowed to be flawed heroes, or even antiheroes, women are generally afforded no such depth or nuance. Portrayals of women on screen are still so limited that female characters who do behave “badly,” like those in HBO’s Girls, are criticized for their immoral behavior rather than appreciated for their depiction of humanity.
Hollywood knows it has a sexism problem, and a wave of marketing has sought to highlight examples of strong woman characters among its offerings. But presenting any film with a female protagonist as feminist—regardless of the plot or nature of the character—reeks of using feminism as a mere selling point. And the implications are dangerous. Just as Ivanka Trump’s half-hearted feminism serves as a shield for her father’s misogynistic policies, dressing sexist movies in feminist clothing only allows Hollywood to further indulge in its unhealthy portrayals of women.
If we want real gender equality, let’s demand complex female characters and stories, not simply updated versions of sexist tropes. After all, misogyny has always had the remarkable ability to adapt across political ideologies, countries, and centuries, by changing its face while retaining its key sexist principles. It’s a tale as old as time.Last week, amid the overwrought start-up angst and sexual escapades that clutter the anonymous messaging app Secret, a hint of genuine drama emerged: a post that said, “Google was interested in buying my 5 person company for our team. They hired everyone but me.”
In subsequent comments, the shafted start-up striver added more details: She was the only female at her company, a designer who had been with the start-up from the beginning and had overseen its design and marketing, yet had gotten left out when the company was sold to Google for its workers, in what’s known as an acqui-hire. “I feel like my world just ended,” she wrote.
The thread quickly became the talk of Silicon Valley. It was seeming proof that even within the happy-go-lucky world of tech start-ups, there are winners and losers, and more often than not, the losers in situations like these are the designers, who are more likely to be female than their engineer counterparts, and whose “soft” skills are seen as less valuable than coding chops.
On Monday night, the woman who posted the Secret called me. For nearly an hour, “Amy” (she gave me her real name, but asked me not to use it) told me about her situation – how she’d helped build her start-up from the ground up, how she’d gotten left out of the Google deal, and how she’d kept it under wraps until recently. When posting about it on Secret, she left a lot vague so as not to give away her identity, but the details she provided to me off the record all checked out.
To hear her tell it, Amy’s start-up decided to sell itself to Google as a last resort, after failing to find traction in the market. Google agreed to buy the company for a relatively modest amount, then interviewed all five members of the company before extending job offers to everyone but her. Making offers to four-fifths of a company as part of an acqui-hire, while legal, is nearly unheard of in Silicon Valley, where mergers and acquisitions are still generally governed by a certain type of decorum.
Amy was heartbroken. Since joining the company, she had been paid a salary of $60,000, half what her male colleagues made. Under the terms of Google’s offer, Amy’s start-up received enough money to pay back its original investors, plus about $10,000 in cash for each employee. Amy’s CEO was hired as a mid-level manager, and her engineering colleagues were given offers from Google that came with $250,000 salaries and significant signing bonuses. She was left jobless, with only $10,000 and a bunch of worthless stock.
“I did our user experience, our logo, the marketing – all that stuff,” she said. “When this went down, I was like, Is this really happening?”
Amy admits she’ll “never know” if she wasn’t hired by Google because she’s female, because she’s not an engineer, or whether there was something else wrong with her application. On Secret, dozens of commenters rushed to her side with advice about how to lawyer up and pressure Google to rectify the situation. But she’s not ready to come forward publicly or file a lawsuit, in part because it would require admitting the possibility that she simply wasn’t Google material.
“It’s embarrassing, I guess,” she explained. “My social group is really successful. If I heard this about one of my friends, I’d think, This person failed at negotiating, or their company wasn’t that great. And going public? I mean, I know how women who fail in this industry are treated.”
Silicon Valley is known for embracing failure when it comes to start-ups going bust, but Amy felt silenced. Before Monday, the only person who knew what happened with Google was her boyfriend.
“I’ve told people, ‘Google acqui-hired us, it was great.’ Because I’m so fucking horrified,” she said. “I can’t tell everyone what I told Secret, which is, Google acqui-hired everyone but me.”
Amy, who has worked at several start-ups before, admits that she isn’t hard up for money – her live-in boyfriend is “very financially successful” – but she said that her financial cushion had made it easier for her colleagues to leave her behind.
“Their attitude was, We can leave you with nothing because you’re a girl and you have a rich boyfriend,” she said.
Amy’s former co-workers, and their acquirers at Google, may have a different view of what happened. (Google declined to comment, and I couldn’t reach out to any of Amy’s ex-colleagues without outing her.) In any case, Amy’s post has quickly proven that the Secret app – which is something of a lightning rod among tech types – has a function in Silicon Valley. By enabling its users to speak up anonymously about workplace drama and boardroom betrayals, the app breaks down some of the Valley’s positive-thinking force field. Amy’s Secret post has 246 comments and 536 “hearts” as of yesterday, and has inspired messages of support as well as anger. (“Your cofounders are douchelords,” one commenter wrote. “Don’t give up, fight for your fair share,” another wrote.) She’s also gotten offers to help her find other work in the tech industry and has heard from entrepreneurs who say they’ll think twice before selling their companies to Google.
Talking through her tears on Monday night, Amy said she didn’t know if she’d be able to recover from what she considered the worst setback of her professional life. After what happened at Google, she wasn’t even sure she could bring herself to interview for another job.
“I feel like I have no power, that this happened to me, and it’s my fault,” she said. “I feel so betrayed. And, at this point, I don’t really feel like I have it in me to fail again.”Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
You can almost hear the turning gears in Albert Tumenov's brain. And there are still two more days until he fights.
Tumenov is cutting weight and doing media—that familiar, if volatile, combination—in advance of his Sunday appointment with grappling wizard Gunnar Nelson at UFC Fight Night 87 in The Netherlands, and there is consideration behind each word he offers. What should he reveal? What to hold back? What's the quickest route from point A to point B?
No one's here to argue that Tumenov's phone manners have anything to do with his disposition in professional fighting, but there are parallels, and they may help demonstrate what makes the 24-year-old arguably the brightest prospect in the UFC right now.
"I calculate everything in the cage. Everything has meaning," Tumenov said through an interpreter in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. "Every strike, everything, all of it has meaning. That's why I am called Einstein."
Tumenov (18-2) was only six years old when he and his father, Khusein, started piecing together the combat computer in his head. He acquired a taste for karate as a student in his father's gym in Nalchik, a medium-sized city on the foothills of Russia's Caucasus Mountains. A knack for karate led to hand-to-hand combat, a blended martial art not unlike the more familiar Russian discipline of sambo. Tumenov won two Russian titles in the sport.
Does @ATumenov have good enough takedown defence to keep Gunnar Nelson at bay? We'll find out at #UFCRotterdam! pic.twitter.com/zrOwCylt2t — UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 5, 2016
"It's pretty much the same thing as MMA," Tumenov said. "It's strikes, takedowns, grappling. Some things are different. So for me, it was a very smooth transition to MMA."
That was always the plan, by the way. The calculation, if you will. Get really good at fighting, then go to the biggest stages. After shredding the Russian circuits, Tumenov signed with the UFC. His Octagon debut? It came in Brazil, against grinder Ildemar Alcantara. Tumenov, age 21, had never been outside his home nation. He lost by split decision.
"It kind of didn't go my way," Tumenov said. "It was difficult to acclimate...This was winter by us, and there it is 30 degrees Celsius. I was out of my comfort."
The culprit—to the extent Tumenov is willing to acknowledge and discuss it—was underestimating logistics and Alcantara, a tough if undistinguished veteran. Tumenov lost muscle mass during the long travel and subsequent adjustment period, and that can't have helped against Alcantara, a huge welterweight with a penchant for imposing his will.
As you might expect, Tumenov learned and came back smarter. Now, whenever he has a fight coming up in North or South America, he conducts part of his camp at K Dojo Warrior Tribe, a Fairfield, New Jersey, training gym and home away from home for a slew of Russian fighters.
Tumenov hasn't dropped a contest since that first defeat, ripping off five in a row. Three of those wins came by knockout. Although he's a well-rounded competitor, striking is Tumenov's stock in trade.
His left hook is lethal. Ditto his kicks. His combinations are sharp, unrelenting and—worst of all for opponents—imbued with an AI that routinely circumvents any defense. And he does it all without ever really exposing himself to opponents. The end result is brilliant violence, and it has put the UFC welterweight division on notice.
Nelson, though, is a clear step up. Although the Icelander has a reasonably rounded game, there's not much debate over who has the striking advantage. That would be Tumenov. The grappling phase is Nelson's wheelhouse, as evidenced by his world jiu-jitsu championships and 10 submission wins in pro MMA. So Nelson definitely has the edge there, even if those particular scales are a little more balanced.
How does Tumenov see the action going if it hits the ground? Can Nelson take him down? Has Tumenov been drilling his submission defense?
Einstein's gears turn and spit out the most efficient solution.
"There is no ifs in this," he said. "Everyone thinks he has this great grappling thing. But that is not a problem for me. I'm just going to knock him out and leave."
The Beaten Path is Bleacher Report's ongoing series highlighting MMA's top prospects. For the previous interview in the series, click here. All quotes obtained firsthand. Scott Harris covers MMA for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter.Palestinians walk next to a building that was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Saturday.
Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images
Israel pounded a 12-story apartment tower in Gaza with two missiles, causing it to collapse entirely on Saturday. Israel was apparently targeting a Hamas operations room in the building, but it didn’t explain why the tower with 44 apartments was toppled, notes the Associated Press. The tower was in an upscale area of Gaza and surrounded by other high-rises that shook from the strikes. Israel had fired a warning missile five minutes before the big strike, so people were able to evacuate. But 22 people, including 11 children, were still wounded, according to hospital officials.
“People started shouting Allahu Akbar, and women and kids were screaming,” a witness said. “This is crazy. The state of Israel has resorted to madness. In less than a minute, 44 families have become displaced … They lost everything, their house, their money, their memories and their security.”
According to the Israeli military, around 60 air strikes were carried out on Gaza Saturday, while some 70 rockets struck Israel from Gaza, reports the BBC. Israel had warned on Friday it was ready to intensify its offensive in Gaza after a 4-year-old Israeli boy was killed. More than 2,100 Palestinians and 68 Israelis have been killed since July 8, according to Bloomberg.Stormtroopers! Photo: Lucasfilm
J.J. Abrams’s secrecy around Star Wars: The Force Awakens is so complete that fans have resorted to reading toy labels in the hopes of finding out something — anything! — about the world of the film. Force Awakens merchandise isn’t coming out until September, but IGN’s Eric Goldman got a peek at the descriptions for the Stormtrooper action figures available for purchase at Comic-Con in July, and here’s what they reveal about the movie’s new bad guys, the First Order:
Shock troopers clad in white armor first appeared on the galactic stage during the opening battles of the Clone Wars. Clone Trooper armor became iconic almost immediately; its stark white design stood for hope that peace and stability might be restored to a galaxy at war. But this dream of peace died with the Republic, and the Empire that rose to take its place imposed order by any means necessary. Soldiers within the grand army of the Republic were given a new name: Stormtroopers. As these former protectors of galactic peace mercilessly crushed resistance across the galaxy, their white armor came to symbolize oppression and the indomitable power of the Emperor’s will. Yet the tyranny of imperial rule sparked rebellion, and the Stormtrooper legions were scattered in the aftermath of the Empire’s fall. Now, the rise of the First Order ushers in the next chapter in the Stormtrooper’s legacy as a new era of ruthless brutality begins.
Ruthless brutality — can’t wait. Still, it doesn’t answer the biggest question about these new Stormtroopers: Who is making all their uniforms?By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
Deep-space engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Texas are putting together a prototype of a deep space station from scrap parts of the ISS.
The Deep Space Habitat project is an attempt to work out optimum size of capsule, equipment and resources to send outside of the Earth-Moon system and into deep space. That could be to Mars, to an asteroid, or even to one of the solar system's many Lagrangian points.
[partner id="wireduk"]Right now the mission is still at a relatively early stage, sorting out the absolute necessities – things like food storage and life support. Other components like 3D printers and greenhouses for growing food are also under consideration.
Initial concept missions for the structure to cope with cover a sixty-day jaunt into the inky blackness, and a much-longer 500 -day variant. Craft to service the station are also being investigated.
One of the most important considerations in the whole process is understanding how human factors will affect the mission. Making astronauts as comfortable as possible will significantly increase the chances of the mission being a success.
Source: Wired.co.ukWalmart ends sales of Confederate flag-themed merchandise. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Walmart, the U.S.’s largest retailer, announced on Monday it will stop selling Confederate flag merchandise and remove items carrying the flag from its shelves. The announcement comes shortly after South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called on Monday for the removal of the Confederate flag flying outside the South Carolina statehouse. The racially motivated mass murder by Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church has renewed calls for the state to take down the Civil War era flag.
“We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer,” Walmart spokesman Brian Nick said in a statement. “We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment – whether in our stores or on our web site.”
A quick search on Walmart.com shows the site has already been scrubbed pretty clean of any Confederate flag-inspired memorabilia. And previously there was plenty to choose from.
Walmart says it’ll stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. That may disappoint people who’ve searched for these: pic.twitter.com/RRTxAr0h4m — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 23, 2015
The one Confederate-themed holdout at Walmart—so far at least—appears to be the Mississippi state flag, which incorporates the Civil War-era imagery and remains for sale at Walmart.com.
Walmart’s Mississippi state flag options. Screenshot Walmart.com
On Monday, Republican Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn called for the removal of the Confederate flag portion of the state flag.
Read more of Slate’s coverage of the Charleston shooting.Toyota has announced it is exploring blockchain and distributed ledger technology for use within a new mobility ecosystem that will facilitate further developments in autonomous driving technology.
On May 22, 2017, the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announced it is experimenting with blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for use within a new mobility ecosystem that could potentially fast-track autonomous driving technology development. Chris Ballinger, director of mobility services and chief financial officer at TRI, explained the reasoning behind this project:
“Hundreds of billions of miles of human driving data may be needed to develop safe and reliable autonomous vehicles. Blockchains and distributed ledgers may enable pooling data from vehicle owners, fleet managers, and manufacturers to shorten the time for reaching this goal, thereby bringing forward the safety, efficiency and convenience benefits of autonomous driving technology.”
The project is aimed at nurturing a digital environment where businesses and consumers can securely share driving and autonomous vehicle testing data, control car/ride share transactions, and store vehicle usage information to reduce insurance rates. Additionally, TRI is establishing a user consortium in hopes of inspiring further adoption and development of autonomous vehicle mobility services.
TRI will be partnering with MIT Media Lab, BigchainDB, Oaken Innovations, Commuterz, and Gem for this venture to develop proofs of concept and applications for the mobility ecosystem. TRI will also be extending invitations to other companies interested in developing blockchain and DLT applications for use of vehicle data and services.
According to John Gerryts, cofounder and CEO of Oaken Innovations, the project is still getting off the ground and doesn’t necessarily involve a marketing campaign. “At this point we are at a PoC stage -- there is not necessarily a go to market strategy, but rather building out the initial systems and proving that this can be done, and done securely, on blockchain.” He further stated, “Currently we have our functional Car-sharing/Short-Term Lease PoC interacting with a Toyota Prius.”
According to the release, TRI and its partners will focus primarily on three key areas within their mobility ecosystem. These areas will include the following:
Driving/Testing Data Sharing: With the assistance of onboard sensors and cloud technology, new vehicles will potentially enable companies and users to access, share, and monetize driving data in a secure marketplace using blockchain technology.
Car/Ride Share Transactions: In the future, blockchain and DLT tools will make it possible for vehicle owners to monetize rides, cargo space, and even the vehicle itself. With the assistance of blockchain technology, storage of vehicle data, such as usage, owner info, drivers, and passengers, can be validated between two parties via executable distributed code contracts to eliminate the need for financial intermediaries, which in turn will save users’ transaction surcharges. The system could also allow for the connectivity of vehicle functions such as remote locking/unlocking of doors and engine startup/shutdown.
Usage-Based Insurance: Blockchain technology could also help vehicle owners save money on insurance rates by utilizing vehicle sensors to collect and record vehicle data.
“I'm excited Toyota is spearheading this initiative that uses blockchain technology to create an open platform where users can control their driving data,” said Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. “Our hope is that other industry stakeholders will join this effort to bring safe and reliable autonomous vehicles one step closer to reality.”
TRI’s announcement comes days after the company joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance – an initiative to define a universal standard among enterprise Ethereum users.An early morning crash at Blanshard and Bay streets has left a 20-year-old Saanich woman dead, according to Victoria police.
Police were called to the area around 12:30 a.m. Sunday after a report of a very serious single-vehicle collision. Police said a newer-model white sedan, had struck a light standard at what appeared to be a significant speed.
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Attending officers noted that a woman was seated in the passenger seat. Paramedics who arrived soon after confirmed that she was dead.
Witnesses told police the vehicle was traveling southbound on Blanshard Street at about 130 km/h. The vehicle then struck a light standard on the southwest corner of Blanshard and Bay streets.
Police are investigating whether alcohol and significant speed were contributing factors in the accident.
The driver, a 24-year-old Saanich man, was injured in the collision, but his injuries were considered non-life-threatening, police said. He was taken to hospital, and the investigation continues.
The intersection was closed to vehicle traffic for several hours.Vehicles, debris and supplies remain Feb. 26 at the encampment used by the last four occupiers in the 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. (Les Zaitz/Portland Oregonian/OregonLive via AP)
New details have emerged that an agent with the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team may have opened fire on Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, one of the central players in an anti-government standoff in Oregon, after Finicum’s truck crashed near a police roadblock.
Several members of the FBI unit were present Jan. 26 when authorities attempted to stop two vehicles carrying leaders of the standoff away from their stronghold at a remote federal wildlife refuge. During the encounter, two Oregon state troopers shot and killed Finicum; eight other people were arrested.
[When FBI employees behave badly, the bureau lets their co-workers know]
Last week, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson, who is overseeing the investigation, said he had concluded that “FBI HRT operators fired two shots as Mr. Finicum exited the truck, and one shot hit the truck.” Nelson accused the agents of failing to “disclose their shots to our investigators.”
The five FBI agents have denied firing assault rifles during the incident. But in a recently released interview, an Oregon State Police officer told investigators that he spotted two copper-colored rifle casings near the spot where the FBI agents were standing. The Hostage Rescue Team has used copper- colored casings, former agents said; the Oregon state police use only silver-colored casings. The copper casings were never recovered.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon released cellphone footage recorded inside the vehicle driven by LaVoy Finicum before he was shot and killed by state troopers in January. Finicum was part of the armed group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. (Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, FBI)
Meanwhile, the Portland Oregonian reported Tuesday that FBI surveillance video taken after the shooting shows the agents searching the area with flashlights and huddling. One of them then bends over twice and appears to be picking up something.
[How an FBI agent who arrested drug addicts became one himself]
On Wednesday, a law enforcement official confirmed the video account. If allegations of a coverup are determined to be true, the incident would be hugely embarrassing to the FBI and deal a devastating blow to the FBI team’s reputation.
The Hostage Rescue Team is a highly trained unit that was formed after the massacre at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Many operators were once in the U.S. military and served in the Joint Special Operations Command.
Team operators, who are expert marksmen, have repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, embedding with Navy SEAL and Delta Force commandos. Most recently, the FBI unit has been working with Delta Force in Iraq.
The unit has played a key role in some of the FBI’s worst disasters — including raids in Waco, Tex., and at Ruby Ridge in Idaho — and some of its finest operations. In 2013, unit operators were involved in the rescues of two kidnapped children, a 16-year-old girl in Idaho and a 7-year-old boy in Alabama.
Little is known about the operators involved in the Oregon standoff. An Oregon state trooper told investigators he wasn't sure whether they used their real names. An investigator described them as “pretty mysterious.”
Finicum and other anti- government activists seized the Malheur Federal Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., on Jan. 2. Three weeks later, as Finicum and other leaders of the standoff traveled to a meeting in a nearby town, the FBI and Oregon state police pounced, pulling their vehicles over on a snowy highway.
[FBI agents under investigation in Oregon shooting]
Finicum, driving a Dodge pickup that carried four other passengers, attempted to flee, but he crashed into a snowbank as he tried to circumnavigate the roadblock. Finicum exited the truck and was shot and killed moments later as he appeared to reach for a gun in his jacket. Oregon state police said they fired six shots, three of which struck Finicum.
Before the shooting, however, video footage taken by one of the truck’s passengers shows a truck window being shattered by a bullet as Finicum stands outside the vehicle with his hands in the air. Investigators say a second shot immediately followed the first, but it didn’t appear to strike the truck.
Photographs of the pickup and surveillance video later showed the first bullet had entered the roof at a trajectory that traces back toward the spot where a Hostage Rescue Team operator was positioned.
The FBI declined to comment Wednesday because of the ongoing investigation. Earlier this month, FBI Portland Special Agent in Charge Gregory T. Bretzing said, “The question of who fired these shots has not been resolved.”
The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice is investigating the incident. The new information provides circumstantial evidence of possible misconduct, officials said, but is not conclusive.
Former Hostage Rescue Team operators played down the surveillance footage, saying it’s common for operators to scour the area for anything that might pose a threat, such as unexploded ordnance. They said it also not unusual for operators to huddle for a post mortem after a mission.
It was |
Asian, Native American, or Other, then I am allowing for 5 groups, and max fractionalization of 0.8. We could double the number of groups to 10 by allowing each racial group to report as either Hispanic or non-Hispanic, and now the max index is 0.9. Or we could sub-divide white into “German-American”, “Irish-American”, and so on, and get ourselves up to like 40 or 50 groups if we really wanted to, and this would automatically drive up the fractionalization index to one. Or we could say f$&# it, and stop tracking racial identity completely, and get a fractionalzation index of zero by definition.
The point is that the degree of fractionalization is not immutably fixed by arbitrary racial or ethnic groups designed by the Census Bureau. James Fearon has an excellent paper addressing the arbitrary nature of building an index of ethnic fractionalization. There is no right fractionalization index for any country. The number of ethnic groups tracked in a census or survey may not map to any meaningful political groups. The Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda were are included in a single ethnic group in the original Soviet data, for example.
Going back to the empirical work, this raises some questions on how to interpret the results. When Alesina, et al, collected their updated measures of fractionalization, they noted that ethnic fractionalization in much of the Americas is based on racial definitions (black versus white), while in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa ethnic fractionalization is based primarily on languages (think of Switzerland). So the ethnic fractionalization measures are not comparable across countries. What does it mean to compare fractionalization in Belgium (French versus Flemish speakers) with fractionalization in Bolivia (Mestizos versus Aymara versus Quechua)?
Alesina et al mention that they go out of their way to find the most disaggregated data on ethnic groups possible. That is, they make sure they maximize the number of groups in each country, thus maximizing the measure of fractionalization. This has the virtue of being a consistent strategy, but suffers because it is subject to variation in the level of disaggregation tracked by country, which is an inherently political decision.
You could easily turn all of the empirical results I talked about around in the following way. Places with relatively dysfunctional political systems benefitted from setting ethnic groups against each other, preventing effective opposition. They thus focused on ethnic or linguistic differences, and made sure to track these carefully when they did censuses. It need not even be nefarious. Former colonies who were left with dysfunctional governments may also have inherited a tradition of close ethnic group tracking from their colonizers. Either way, places with dysfunctional governments would to have mechanically high fractionalization indices along ethnic lines. And their dysfunction also leads to poor economic outcomes.
And don’t forget those results on religious fractionalization, which was associated with better political and economic outcomes. The effect of diversity can go either way, depending on how you define it. If you started measuring fractionalization along as many dimensions as possible - ethnicity, religion, language, home state, favorite Beatle, height, extroversion/introversion - you’d eventually come across some of them that were positively related, and some negatively, to things like public goods spending or growth, just by chance.
The overarching point here is that even taking the studies on workplace diversity seriously, this does not imply that poor political outcomes and/or economic growth are a necessary outcome of ethnic fractionalization. At the political level, ethnic fractionalization and its salience to public policy is a choice variable.
Back to blog"I always say to people," Alan Simpson told NBC's Chuck Todd, "before you, you know begin to drool at the mouth, and go crazy and scratch our eyeballs out, read the damn report. It was 67 pages, we put it in December 1, 2010 and people said, "What are you doing to the vulnerable?" And I said, read it. We don't do anything to people on SSI, we don't do anything with food stamp, we don't do anything with people on -- on unemployment. Get -- get your -- use your bean, instead of listening to crap all day long from the right, and the left."
Alan Simpson points his finger at you and your sorry motives. (AP)
The question, in case you were wondering, was "what do you say to those folks who don't have the comfort of a pension? That don't have a good job that they can get employed at all the way through the age of 70, say? How do you deal with that?"
Simpson's answer, meanwhile, was no answer at all. It was just schtick. It does nothing to, say, rebut the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which took a close look at the changes Simpson-Bowles made to Social Security and concluded that the proposal "would generate nearly two-thirds of its Social Security savings over 75 years — and four-fifths of its savings in the 75 th year — from benefit cuts," and that "while these benefit cuts would be largest for workers with above-average earnings, they would affect the vast majority of retired and disabled workers."
Fifteen years after he retired from the U.S. Senate, Simpson has become a key figure in American politics by picking the right issue, the right enemies, and the right language to describe them. He is like America's cranky grandpa. A bit unfiltered, sure, but loved for saying what everyone else was already thinking. And it works because most of the people Simpson talks to -- particularly the ones in the media -- really do think like Alan Simpson.
For reasons I've never quite understood, the rules of reportorial neutrality don't apply when it comes to the deficit. On this one issue, reporters are permitted to openly cheer a particular set of highly controversial policy solutions. At Tuesday's Playbook breakfast, for instance, Mike Allen, as a straightforward and fair a reporter as you'll find, asked Simpson and Bowles whether they believed Obama would do "the right thing" on entitlements -- with "the right thing" clearly meaning "cut entitlements."
A few days earlier, Ron Fournier, the editor of the National Journal, wrote that President Obama was giving America "the shaft" by taking an increase in the Medicare age off the table. It is difficult to imagine him using similar language for a situation in which Republicans reject universal health care, or Democrats say no to a tax cut. Over the past couple of weeks, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has reacted with evident astonishment to Paul Krugman's argument that the long-term deficit is not a problem we need to solve right this second.
The secret to the special treatment that deficit reduction enjoys in Washington, I think, is that it's a rare policy area that lends itself to pox-on-both-their-houses politics. "It's such fun for me to irritate the AARP and Grover Norquist in equal measure," Simpson told Allen. "It makes your life worthwhile." It also makes deficit reduction a safe topic for otherwise strenuously nonpartisan figures to issue strong opinions on. After all, they can't be accused of being partisan, as both parties are standing in the way!
This elite consensus is the context for Simpson's schtick. Much of the Washington establishment -- insofar as such a thing exists -- really does want a big deficit deal and really is furious at the Republicans and the Democrats and everyone else they perceive as standing in the way. And so they cheer Simpson calling out the frauds and the fools obstructing his self-evidently noble mission. And Simpson is all too happy to indulge them.
What he's not as good at is actually dealing with legitimate concerns raised about his plan. Asked about legislators who don't want to support Simpson-Bowles because their constituents don't like it, he said:
Either get your country on course and forget the fact you're a Democrat or Republican and get to be an American and get cracking.
So that's it, then: Either you're for Simpson's deficit-reduction proposals, or you're being a Republican or Democrat rather than an American.
Simpson's phrasing is typically extreme, but this kind of thinking is a constant hum beneath the deficit debate. There's a widely acknowledged nobility and morality to proposing painful plans that would require lots of sacrifice -- though the worst of that sacrifice rarely falls on the kind of people putting together these plans. Oppose them and you are, if not literally betraying your country, putting something -- perhaps partisanship, or special interests -- before it.
You can hear an echo of it in Simpson's response to the Huffington Post, which dared ask him whether raising the retirement age makes sense given that gains in longevity since 1980 have skewed heavily toward upper-income seniors.
This is the first time, the first time — and Erskine [Bowles, the deficit commission co-chairman] and I have been talking for a year and many months — that anyone’s going to sit around and play with statistics like this. Anything I tell you, you repudiate. You’re the first guy in a year and a half who’s stood out here with a sharp pencil playing a game that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with: "What the hell are you going to do with the system? "
Persuasive, no?
For a budget guy, Simpson has a surprisingly deep mistrust of statistics, particularly if they don't accord with his worldview. I moderated a panel at the Peterson Foundation's annual fiscal summit that included Simpson. One of my questions for him was about the same retirement-age issue Huffington Post brought up. Simpson's answer was friendlier, but no more revealing. "If you torture statistics long enough," he said, "eventually they'll confess." And if you have enough one-liners, you never have to answer tough questions!
The pity is that many of the ideas Simpson has been defending genuinely are reasonable efforts to solve tough problems. But he has a nasty tendency to embody the worst characteristics of the deficit debate -- characteristics that tend to make those who already agree with him cheer, but that make those who disagree with him more likely to believe the worst about his motives and his policies.
But it's counterproductive. I think Simpson-Bowles 1.0 is a far better solution than anything we're likely to get. So I'm sympathetic to much of what Simpson is fighting for. But part of what's holding up a deal are actual arguments that need to be taken seriously and that deficit hawks have trouble answering, in part because they have trouble understanding why anyone would ever disagree with them. And part of what's impeding a deal is that while deficit hawks do wield real power in Washington, they're so bought into a pox-on-both-their-houses approach to politics that they can't actually wield much of that power. Put that together and you end up right where Simpson and Bowles are now: Feted by the establishment, but lacking both the ability to inspire consensus and the ability to inspire fear that's needed to get this done.The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that two managers who attended a conference the agency held in Southern California in 2010 have been placed on administrative leave for accepting free food and other gifts in violation of government ethics standards.
Top IRS officials were notified of the misconduct three months ago by the Treasury Department inspector general, whose office discovered the gifts in the course of an audit of the conference held in Anaheim, Calif., government sources said. But it was not until Tuesday night that Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel was made aware of the case.
Werfel said in a statement that he has begun the process of firing the employees, who allegedly held an after-hours party in their private hotel suites during the three-day training conference. It was not immediately clear who gave the managers the food.
“There was clearly inappropriate behavior involved in this situation, and immediate action is needed,” Werfel said in a statement, a day before he is scheduled to testify at a House hearing on conference spending at the embattled tax agency, which flew 2,600 managers in the small business and self-employed division to the conference, which cost $4.1 million.
“The agency stands ready to confront any problems that occur, hold accountable anyone who acted inappropriately and permanently fix these problems so that such missteps do not occur again.”
One of the managers put on administrative leave is Fred Schindler, an attorney and director of implementation oversight for the 2010 health-care reform law for the IRS, according to a congressional source. The other is Donald Toda, a California-based manager in the small-business, self-employed division.
Toda’s home phone in Torrance, Calif., appeared to be disconnected. Schindler did not return a call to his Maryland home seeking comment.
The free food came to $1,162, according to the congressional source.
The Treasury Department’s inspector general, in a new audit Tuesday, revealed that the IRS paid top dollar for hotel rooms, tens of thousands of dollars for free gifts for managers in attendance and $135,000 for outside event planners to book hotel rooms and speakers, one of whom cost taxpayers $27,500 — plus $2,000 for a first-class plane ticket.
Conference spending by the IRS and other government agencies has dropped sharply since then, but the audit drew new scrutiny to an agency already under fire for its targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. The targeting has prompted a criminal investigation and forced out the agency’s then-acting commissioner. Another official was pushed to retire early and another was placed on administrative leave.
Werfel, appointed by President Obama three weeks ago to clean house at the IRS, has pledged to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s operations.
Juliet Eilperin and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
This post has been updated.The NCAA Tournament is technically underway although the action doesn’t start in full until tomorrow. So to prepare for the madness this year we’ve decided to take a walk down memory lane and remember the best announcing calls from the NCAA Tournament over the years. Here they are in chronological order…
1983 – NC State vs Houston, Billy Packer
When it comes to great announcing calls, you don’t think the very stern and serious analysis of longtime lead analyst Billy Packer. However, whether you’re a fan of Packer or not, his ability to lift up the irony of NC State upsetting Phi Slama Jama on a dunk of all plays has provided a proper soundtrack to one of the iconic moments in tourney history.
1992 – Georgia Tech vs USC, Al McGuire
Former Marquette coach Al McGuire was once broadcast partners with Packer and Dick Enberg in one of the great three man booths in the history of the medium in the late 70’s. For those of you who don’t remember McGuire, his energy, humor and love for basketball is much like Bill Raftery or Dick Vitale. That was perfectly symbolized in just two words: holy mackerel.
1992 – Duke vs Kentucky, Verne Lundquist
Uncle Verne has had the good fortune to call some of the greatest moments in sports history over the last 30 plus years. This epic Christian Laettner shot is one of them.
1998 – Valparaiso vs Ole Miss, Ted Robinson
Bryce Drew’s three pointer is always lifted up as one of the great buzzer beaters in NCAA Tournament history and Ted Robinson’s excited call definitely helps.
1998 – Washington vs Connecticut, Sean McDonough
It’s a bit of a shame Sean McDonough isn’t the lead announcer for any sport at a network. He’s done such good work for so long that he flies under the radar somewhat at ESPN. His dramatic call of Rip Hamilton’s frantic buzzer beater may be tops on this list.
1999 – Gonzaga vs Florida, Gus Johnson
Gus Johnson and March Madness were made for each other. And yes, every March we visit a lonely hillside to lay a solitary rose on the final resting place that pays tribute to his NCAA Tournament career. The call that launched Johnson into cult favorite status, and the call that has been replayed thousands of times since and become the anthem for March, is this one from 1999. The slipper still fits.
2005 – Arizona vs Illinois, Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas
When it comes to exhiliarating tournament comebacks, Illinois’ miracle against Arizona just might top the list. They didn’t work together long, but the legendary Dick Enberg and up-and-coming Jay Bilas were a great announcing tandem in the mid-2000s. The 2005 Illini comeback (which you can view in full here) is one of Enberg’s great moments behind the mic in his latter career.
2006 – George Mason vs UConn, Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery
Before mid-majors making the Final Four was en vogue, George Mason made history in 2006 by defeating UConn. They had to do it the hard way in overtime. The popular combo of Lundquist and Raftery were fantastic throughout the game with the highlights being Raftery’s call for Denham Brown’s game-tying bucket and Lundquist’s game-ending call.
2007 – Ohio State vs Xavier, Gus Johnson
HA HA!
2009 – Siena vs Ohio State, Bill Raftery
“Onions!”
Bill Raftery’s vegetable of choice has become his trademark catchphrase. So when he dished out a “double order” for Ronald Moore’s heroics for Siena in the 2009 first round, you knew you were watching something special.
2010 – Xavier vs Kansas State, Gus Johnson
You can put the entire call of this Sweet 16 classic into the March Madness Hall of Fame. Gus Johnson has never been better than this game, with big shot after big shot being made. It’s one of my favorite NCAA Tournament games of all-time and having Gus on the call is one of the major reasons why.
2010 – Duke vs Butler, Jim Nantz
You wouldn’t think a missed shot would make our list, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jim Nantz as excited as this Gordon Hayward half court heave that almost won Butler a national championship.Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter
Oct. 18, 2016, 6:26 PM GMT / Source: TODAY By Scott Stump
Billy Bush is leaving TODAY effective immediately, NBC News has announced.
Bush's departure as one of the anchors for the show's third hour comes in the wake of his role in a controversial 2005 conversation with Donald Trump. He released a statement on Monday night, saying: "I am deeply grateful for the conversations I've had with my daughters, and for all of the support from family, friends and colleagues. I look forward to what lies ahead."
"As a long-time member of the NBC family, we wish Billy all the best as he moves forward,'' Tamron Hall said on TODAY Tuesday.
NBC News suspended Bush on Oct. 10 "pending further review" of his role in the tape before senior vice president Noah Oppenheim announced his departure in an internal memo to staff on Monday night.Regular readers will have noticed that I have frequently joined in on the fun of r/Retrobattlestations‘ weekly and monthly retro challenges. I’ve done so with such frequency that I recently had to create an r/Retrobattlestations post category on this blog. These competitions, setup by /u/FozzTexx, generally involve firing up various types of retro computing hardware for a photo or maybe completing a programming challenge, the winners receiving a set of retro computing stickers and sometimes Reddit gold.
Recently, things have gotten even more interesting. Back in March there was a challenge that involved dialing into a BBS using an actual telephone modem. The prize was an amazing looking WarGames multi-layer vinyl sticker crafted by Chris Osborn (@FozzTexx) himself. More recently there was a challenge that required a bit of sleuthing, in which Chris posted a video, inspired by the film Real Genius, containing a certain clue that led to a series of actions that may or may not have resulted in your correctly reporting the number of Frito Lay entries Lazlo Hollyfeld submitted to win the grand prize collection. I jumped down the rabbit hole on this one and made it through to the other side. I got the sticker, and the above photo shows the outside door to my basement “Byte Cellar” decorated with FozzTexx’s lovely multi-layer vinyl stickers.
I’d encourage anyone reading this post to come by r/Retrobattlestations and see what’s going on. It’s a rather fun little, nicely dusty, corner of the ‘net.Before long, the Japanese begin to reply with their 18.1” guns. Both the Germans and the Japanese have excellent fire control, but the contest is unequal. The fifteen-inch guns of Bismarck and Tirpitz fire at a greater rate than the Japanese guns, but even when they hit, they do relatively little damage to the vitals of the Japanese ships (although they extensively scar the upper works). By contrast, the 18.1” hits begin to do serious damage immediately, plunging into the German ships at great range. Large and with effective subdivisions, neither German ship suffers lethal damage. However, before long both Bismarck and Tirpitz begin to lose speed, cutting off any chance of escape.
The battle between the smaller ships also begins to go the Japanese way. After a flurry of shellfire on both sides, the Japanese ships open up at range with their twenty-four-inch “Long Lance” torpedoes. Three German ships suffer hits, with a cruiser and a destroyer shearing out of line. Japanese gunfire slows the rest of the line, allowing several of the IJN’s support squadron to detach themselves and concentrate on the German battleships.
Can we imagine a scenario in which two titans of World War II, the German battleship Bismarck and the Japanese battleship Yamato, would come into conflict? Difficult, but not impossible. Had the Battle of the Marne gone the other way, Germany might have forced France from the World War I in the early fall of 1914, just as it did in the spring of 1940. Germany and the United Kingdom might plausibly have come to an accommodation on naval armaments that would have left the Reich with a free hand on the Continent in exchange for the security of the British Empire.
Prior to World War One, Germany held extensive territories in the Pacific. A German Empire emerging victorious from the Great War might well have sought to extend those territories, especially in China. Just as Japan chafed against the existence of the British and American empires in Asia, it could well have come into conflict with Berlin.
The Players
Apart from the Iowas and HMS Vanguard, the Bismarcks and the Yamatos were the two largest classes of battleships ever built. Bismarck and her sister Tirpitz displaced about fifty thousand tons, with a speed of roughly thirty knots and an armament of eight fifteen-inch guns in four twin turrets. The Bismarcks carried about nineteen thousand tons of armor, albeit in an archaic configuration by World War II standards. The Yamatos, on the other hand, displaced about seventy-two thousand tons, armed with nine 18.1” guns in three triple turrets and capable of twenty-seven knots. Yamato and her sister carried about twenty-two thousand tons of armor in modern (“all or nothing”) configuration.
We will assume for our purposes that Germany would construct ships akin to the Bismarck and Tirpitz, and then deploy them to the Far East (in a shorter Great War, Germany might well have retained the naval base at Tsingtao ). The long-legged German battleships, designed for raiding, would take to Pacific service well. We also assume that they represent the early stages of German fast battleship design, meaning that the more powerful ships will remain in the Atlantic.
The Stage
As the clouds of war gather, Bismarck, Tirpitz, and a collection of smaller vessels (two heavy cruisers, six destroyers) abandon Tsingtao for the German naval base at Truk. With Kido Butai (the Japanese carrier force) engaged elsewhere, the Imperial Japanese Navy assigns HIJMS Yamato and HIJMS Musashi (with a similarly constituted support group) the task of catching and destroying the German ships.
The German squadron has a three-knot speed advantage, which it uses to try to pull away from the Japanese and avoid the engagement. However, the Japanese have a clear geographic advantage; the existence of relatively close bases means that they can station squadrons of older, smaller ships along potential channels of exit. Rather than fight with a collection of older battleships led by HIJMS Nagato, Admiral Lutjens decides to try his luck with the cream of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Lutjens wants to engage before dark, when he knows that the Japanese will have a significant tactical advantage, despite German radar.
The Germans open fire first, when it becomes apparent that they cannot escape the fight. Lutjens decides to attack before Japanese cruisers and destroyers can close into torpedo range; German intelligence is well-apprised of the capabilities of the Type 93 torpedo, designed to destroy and disable capital ships at a distance. Bismarck opens fire on Yamato and Tirpitz on Musashi, with Bismarck scoring an early hit on the Japanese flagship.
Before long, the Japanese begin to reply with their 18.1” guns. Both the Germans and the Japanese have excellent fire control, but the contest is unequal. The fifteen-inch guns of Bismarck and Tirpitz fire at a greater rate than the Japanese guns, but even when they hit, they do relatively little damage to the vitals of the Japanese ships (although they extensively scar the upper works). By contrast, the 18.1” hits begin to do serious damage immediately, plunging into the German ships at great range. Large and with effective subdivisions, neither German ship suffers lethal damage. However, before long both Bismarck and Tirpitz begin to lose speed, cutting off any chance of escape.
The battle between the smaller ships also begins to go the Japanese way. After a flurry of shellfire on both sides, the Japanese ships open up at range with their twenty-four-inch “Long Lance” torpedoes. Three German ships suffer hits, with a cruiser and a destroyer shearing out of line. Japanese gunfire slows the rest of the line, allowing several of the IJN’s support squadron to detach themselves and concentrate on the German battleships.
Increasingly accurate Japanese fire devastates the upper works of the German ships. With their speed advantage gone, the Germans find themselves in a slugging match with far larger, more heavily armored opponents. The Japanese advantages soon tell, and fire from both German ships becomes sporadic and inaccurate. The destroyers Yukikaze and Isokaze brave the secondary armament of the two German behemoths to close within torpedo distance, hitting both targets.
At this point, the situation becomes academic. The German ships lose the capacity to meaningfully engage the Japanese, and are subjected to withering fire from the battleships. Yamato and Musashi (both of which have suffered significant damage to their upper works and secondary armaments) close to point blank range. The remaining Japanese cruisers and destroyers, having disposed of their German counterparts, open up with their own guns and fire their remaining torpedoes. Still, both German battleships remain shockingly resistant to the damage inflicted by the IJN.
Two hours into the engagement, an explosion rocks Tirpitz; the crippled battleship soon capsizes and sinks. The Japanese concentrate their fire on Bismarck, which has slowed to a stop and ceased firing. An eagle eyed Japanese sailor onboard Yamato sees a German officer strike the ships colors, and miraculously, the order goes out across the fleet to cease firing. A boarding party from Yukikaze embarks upon the crippled German ship, followed by damage control parties from the rest of the Japanese squadron.
With the assistance of the surrendered German crew, the Japanese manage to get the fires and flooding under control. Yamato takes Bismarck under tow until tugs arrive. Although officially taken into IJN service, Bismarck never returns to combat status; the expense and difficulty of refit prove too much for the Japanese. Most of her crew survives the war, however.
Wrap
Although large and capable of absorbing enormous battle damage, Bismarck and Tirpitz simply did not compare favorably with any other navy’s fast battleships. Yamato and Musashi, the largest and most powerfully built ships in history (although perhaps at some disadvantage relative to the American Iowas ) utterly outclassed the German ships, and would have defeated them easily.
More importantly, the imperial ambitions of Kaiserine Germany are worth remembering. Both US and Japanese policy in the Pacific in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (particularly the U.S. seizure of the Philippines) kept German regional ambitions firmly in mind. Japan entered the Great War against the Central Powers as a coalition partner; if the coalition had broken up, Tokyo might still have found reason to quarrel with Berlin.The Baltimore Orioles have some specific needs for their roster, and while free agency can be a way to address them, trades can be too.
The Baltimore Orioles have some specific needs on their roster that they need to address this offseason. While signing free agents is one way to do that, making trades is another.
The Orioles need starting pitching, they could use some depth at catcher, they need some left-handed hitters and relievers, and they need outfielders. They’re not going to address all of these needs, some they’ll address through free agency, some they could address internally or through the Rule 5 Draft, but still some they could address via trade.
The whole baseball world is abuzz about the potential trading of Giancarlo Stanton, and while the Baltimore Orioles certainly won’t pursue him, there are some potential trade candidates they could look at acquiring that would fill some needs.
Here we’ll take a look at five potential trade targets for the Baltimore Orioles. I should preface this by saying that these are just ideas, none of the players on this list have been officially linked to the Orioles in trade talks or have even been linked to trade talks in general, but they are all in situations where I could see them being traded, and they fill a need the Orioles have.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Coffee shop caffeine levels 'vary widely'
High Street coffee shops could pose a risk to pregnant women because of big variations in the amount of caffeine in each cup, research suggests.
Analysis of espresso coffee from 20 shops found that one was six times stronger than others.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says too much caffeine can result in miscarriage or a low birth weight.
Researchers from Glasgow University tested caffeine levels in espressos bought from High Street coffee shops.
The FSA currently advises pregnant women to consume no more than 200mg of caffeine a day, based on an assumption that an espresso contains about 50mg of caffeine. The guideline for an average healthy person is 300mg a day.
The work was led by Alan Crozier, senior research fellow in the faculty of medicine.
You metabolise caffeine much more slowly when you're pregnant and people with liver disease do not have the enzymes to metabolise caffeine Alan Crozier, Senior research fellow How much coffee is safe?
How much coffee is safe?
"The analysis that we did showed the amount of caffeine ranged from 50mg per cup from Starbucks, up to over 300mg per cup from another coffee house, Patisserie Francoise," he said. "I was very surprised by this."
Drinking just one of the strongest cups of coffee would more than exceed the "safe" level for pregnant women.
"If you go to different coffee houses you can tell that some are much stronger than others," Mr Crozier said.
"The problem comes with people who should have a limited caffeine intake.
"You metabolise caffeine much more slowly when you're pregnant and people with liver disease do not have the enzymes to metabolise caffeine.
"Our data shows that you can have the recommended amount - and more - from just one shot of espresso."
The researchers point out that despite the increasing number of coffee shops on the High Street there is no information about the caffeine contents of various types of coffee.
They add that, although they only tested espresso coffees, many other types of drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos are prepared using single or double shots of espresso.
The study has been published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal Food and Function.This rather snotty article from the WaPo says that Reid didn’t pull the FISA bill yesterday because of Dodd’s efforts.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the decision had nothing to do with the efforts of Dodd and his allies. Indeed, for most of yesterday, Dodd appeared to be fighting a losing battle. His initial filibuster effort was steamrolled when the Senate voted 76 to 10 to take up the measure at noon.
Manley is, of course, full of shit. At the very least, Reid did the math to see that Dodd could filibuster this issue until the Christmas break, and since Reid intended to get funding done before the break, he was faced with postponing the break or punting the appropriations bills to the next year. So whatever else caused Reid to pull the bill, Dodd’s demonstration that he was willing to hold the Senate floor was one factor (apparently, Dodd only left the floor once during yesterday’s debate).
Snotty article also points to the amendments as one of the reasons Reid pulled the bill.
But in the face of more than a dozen amendments to the bill and guerrilla tactics from its opponents, Reid surprised his colleagues when he announced there would not be enough time to finish the job.
Now, best as I can count, I think I know of at least five amendments:
Dodd’s amendment to pull immunity from the bill DiFi’s amendment to declare FISA the exclusive means of electronic tapping DiFi’s amendment to have the FISA Court review the authorizations the telecoms got before they received immunity [I think] A Whitehouse amendment to prohibit wiretapping of US Persons abroad [I think] A Whitehouse amendment to provide oversight of minimization Update: Beth Meacham says Leahy’s amendment–to substitute the SJC bill–came up just before Reid pulled the bill (thanks Beth).
I’ll try to clarify these later today. In addition, I’m sure there were going to be Republican amendments seeking to allow Bush to wiretap each and every Dirty Fucking Hippie and similar authoritarian fun.
Now, here’s what I understand would have happened last night: at some point, Reid would have called for the amendment fun to start. The Dodd crowd didn’t expect Reid to allow the full 30 hours of debate, but we got through about 8 of them, and no one expected even that much time to elapse. As I understand it, Reid was busy trying to figure out how to proceed after Dodd refused to agree to the unanimous consent. Had it come to it, Dodd’s amendment would have been the first to be considered, and it would have failed. At that point, Dodd’s filibuster would have officially started, which would have lasted roughly 24 hours, before he collapsed and we moved onto the other amendments. Presumably, once Dodd got some sleep, he could launch another filibuster. So one of the problems, for Reid, with all those amendments, is that they gave Dodd multiple opportunities to filibuster, with breaks in between.
DiFi’s Amendment
But here’s the other thing. I’m fairly certain DiFi said she was supporting Whitehouse’s amendments (though I need to check this). She also said, quite clearly, that she would have a hard time voting for immunity if her own amendment didn’t pass. In other words, a key block from the "bipartisan" crowd who had originally supported the SSCI bill was going soft on it, threatening to vote against the bill if it didn’t have some kind of compromise on immunity. Now, DiFi is famous for disappointing Democrats–but she did seem to be sending a clear message, at a time when the debate was still quite public.
So what was DiFi’s amendment? As I understand it (again, I’ll try to get clarification later), her amendment would have added one wrinkle to the immunity provision as currently written. It would have required the FISA Court to review the authorizations the telecoms received, to see whether they were legal, before the telecoms got immunity. If the FISA Court determined that those authorizations were not adequate under the law, then the telecoms would not get immunity. I have no idea what would happen then–I presume they would just revert back to non-FISA Courts to rule on and we’d get back into the State Secret dance we’re currently doing. Though with the added information that the FISA Court had reviewed all the stuff the Bush Administration was claiming State Secrets over, and determined that the telecoms had indeed broken the law. But DiFi’s amendment would provide a way for a Court (albeit a secret one) to determine that the telecoms had broken the law when they complied with the Administration’s request.
Why DiFi’s Amendment Would Be a Poison Pill
Now, before Orrin Hatch started accusing "partisan blogs" of fear-mongering on this debate, he had an apoplectic fit about DiFi’s amendment, lumping it in with more generalized DFH opposition to immunity. He strongly suggested DiFi’s amendment would be a poison pill for him–and presumably the other Republicans following Dick Cheney’s orders dutifully.
And there’s a reason for that. When the SSCI passed their immunity bill, they did so only by inventing the fiction that it was legal for telecoms to wiretap at the behest of the government if they had the authorization of the Attorney General or "certain other officers." They did so because they know–having read the authorization letters–that one of the letters (presumably the one for March 11, 2004), was signed by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. Here’s part of a post I did explaining this dodge.
As SSCI points out, the telecoms would be immune from prosecution if they had been authorized to conduct wiretaps under 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(a)(ii). Under the existing statutory scheme, wire or electronic communication providers are authorized to provide information and assistance to persons with authority to conduct electronic surveillance if the providers have been provided with (1) a court order directing the assistance, or (2) a certification in writing signed by the Attorney General or certain other officers that?no warrant or court order is required by law, that all statutory requirements have been met, and that the specific assistance is required.? See 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(a)(ii). I’ve bolded those words, "or certain other officers," to emphasize that Jello Jay and the Republicans didn’t actually specify what the law says. So let’s look at the law, shall we? (ii) Notwithstanding any other law, providers of wire or electronic communication service, their officers, employees, and agents, landlords, custodians, or |
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While there have been a lot of exciting reveals and updates from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Comic-Con panel that we’ll cover in our full recap, one of the best portions of the panel was a Behind-the-Scenes video, and a few glimpses of the movie’s practical effects (live on stage!) Steve was lucky enough to get up close and personal at the presentation and snap some images to share, which you can see below. We’ll update with more images as the night wears on, but here are a few to start:
Star Wars! A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 5:47pm PDT
Practical star wars the force awakens costume from that video when filming first started. One of hundreds of creatures they built A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 5:51pm PDT
Check this pic out. The villains of the force awakens A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:19pm PDT
Another new pic from THE FORCE AWAKENS A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:21pm PDT
The force awakens panelists now including Carrie Fisher A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:28pm PDT
Photo of Mark Hamill from 1976 A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:30pm PDT
Harrison Ford on stage A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:35pm PDT
Luke and Han! #starwars A photo posted by Steve Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) on Jul 10, 2015 at 6:36pm PDT
For more new images, click here to check out 100 of them!Two weeks ago I invited readers to send in their ideas for military strategy games. The response was magnificent, the calibre of submissions Paris Gun high. Choosing a dozen or so pitches to put before the Flare Path dragons (five industry notables whose creations frequently grace this column) was horribly difficult, but the shortlist was eventually drawn up, the Scaly Ones summoned. While no two dragons first-prized the same pitch, praise did tend to cluster around a particular clutch of submissions. Those submissions together with a few personal favourites are displayed at the end of this piece.
A huge ‘Děkuji’ to everyone who took the time to share a cherished pipedream. If the ideas submitted are indicative of popular desires – widespread frustrations – then it’s clear that there’s a real craving out there for fresh themes and innovative mechanics. A hankering for more characterful combatants, thicker fog of war, and more fibrous and fallible command and control modelling. Even if you don’t receive a “When can you start?” call from Slitherine’s Iain McNeil in the next few days, perhaps your idea will sow seeds in the mind of a young coder somewhere or help nudge an established designer in an exciting new direction.
Fairly soon after posting the introductory article I realised I wouldn’t be able to send every submission dragon-ward without subjecting Steve Grammont (Battlefront), Tomislav Uzelac (2×2), Iain McNeil (Slitherine), Johan Nagel (Every Single Soldier) and Richard Bodley Scott (Byzantine Games) to days of solid reading. A shortlist was necessary and, despite my best efforts, that shortlist inevitably ended up reflecting my own prejudices and predilections.
Some ideas failed to make the shortlist simply because they weren’t war-torn enough. An ingenious historical city builder/archaeology sim and an intriguing Bronze Age trading game spring to mind. Others felt like sims or action games at heart rather than true strategy titles (Sam Crisp’s Forward Observer game – “Virtual-O but with High Explosives” – and Guy Atherton’s Behind Enemy Lines – “basically a first person survival game, but with Soviets instead of zombies” – for example).
Sometimes a pitch lost out because it resembled another fractionally stronger one too closely. There was, for instance, only room for one Patton’s Best-style single-tank roguelike in my shortlist, and unfortunately for Adam ‘Escape From the Falaise Pocket’ Kusiak, I ultimately concluded that Patton’s Best-style single-tank roguelike should be Brothers in Armour.
Only one pitch was sidelined on taste grounds. Accuse me of double standards if you like, but in the light of recent terror attacks, I just couldn’t bring myself to shortlist a game in which one possible role involved recruiting jihadis, collecting bio-toxins and carrying out “major attacks on population centres”. Sorry, War on Terror.
Some ideas that failed to make the shortlist may well have tickled the dragons more than some that did. If your pitch isn’t amongst the fifteen indexed below and perusal of the competition does nothing to dissipate the nagging feeling of injustice, do post your pitch in the comments section. Let your fellow Flareopaths ponder and pass judgement.
Which reminds me. Now the gnarled dragons have spoken and I’ve pinned my rosette to Smoke and Thunder all that remains to be done is to establish The People’s Favourite. Are you a People? Are you prepared to imagicode then imagiplay the following concepts and choose a favourite? There are no prizes but it will be fascinating to see how closely the views of wargame consumers mirror the views of wargame crafters.
INDEX
All titles are working titles and the game order roughly reflects pitch popularity (Low-number pitches received more praise from the dragons than high-number ones)
(1) Smoke and Thunder (1st-person general-em-up) – Richard Bodley Scott’s favourite and mine.
(2) Combat Outpost (Out on a limb in Afghanistan) – Singled-out by Steve Grammont and Iain McNeil.
(3) Voice of the People (Modern urban warfare with an unexpected twist) – Appreciated by Johan Nagel and Iain.
(4) The Battle of Lepanto (Oar wars) – Steve’s budget choice.
(5) ‘The Defense of Hill 781’ (The Soviets are approaching! Start planning) – championed by Tomislav Uzelac.
(6) Blueprint Sky (Design warbirds, win contracts) – Johan liked what he read, as did I.
(7) Bad Heart Winter Count (Indian Country X-COM)
(8) Basileion (Ambitious Total War eclipser) – Richard’s second choice.
(9) Company Commander (WW2 leadership in a choose-your-own-adventure style)
(10) Brothers in Armor (Single tank wargame-cum-RPG)
(11) ‘Northern Fleet’ (Wet WW3 wargame)
(12) The Man and the Hour (The ACW from Lincoln’s perspective)
(13) La Résistance/Maquis (Tactical travails and tricky choices in WW2 France)
(14) ‘Chateau General’ (WW1 slaughter choreography)
(15) War Photographer (Risk-taking without life-taking)
Smoke and Thunder
by William Barnum
Concept: 1st Person perspective generalship simulation set during an 18th-19th century war.
Many games have attempted to model the tactical experience of leading armies during the age of massed volley warfare. A few have attempted to model the chain of command and realistic, courier based communication. Some have also provided a limited range camera mode, to simulate a general’s line of sight. These modes tend feel like exactly what they are: frustratingly kneecapped versions of the typical god’s eye perspective. We are lacking a title which focuses on simulating the actual experience of command from horseback, built from the ground up as a first person title.
Immersion would be a primary focus: there should be almost no UI. Reports would be letters from your subordinates, and the map should be a physical object in the game world, with no automatic updates. The player would have to mark and update their map manually, based on what they see of the battlefield, and the reports they receive from their subordinates. The game could work well as a VR title. Since the player will only rarely approach their troops, simple, stylized sprites could be used for large formations, with detailed models only loading in the player’s immediate area.
Many frequently overlooked historical aspects of generalship could be intriguingly explored with this approach. Foremost would be the challenge of maintaining situational awareness. The player’s limited perspective means that they would need to ride around the battlefield to personally view the action. This would have a downside in that couriers from subordinates might not be able to find the player, causing them to miss vital updates by not maintaining a set headquarters. Fog, dust, and above all smoke should be simulated, meaning that it becomes more and more challenging to understand the action as unit cohesion breaks down and the field becomes shrouded in smoke. The personal danger of commanding from the front would be another factor, as the player could come under artillery fire or be caught in crossfire at the frontline. In addition to adding excitement, this would offer the realistic challenge of calmly maintaining command while a storm of iron rains down around the player.
The next major aspect simulated would be the chain of command and the issues that entailed. Subordinates should be independent, capable of carrying out general orders from the player and adapting to their situation. They should also be consistently flawed: they should have personalities which influence how they behave and what they report to the player. For example, a McClellan-like general might often desperately call for reinforcements and refuse to advance in the face of an inferior foe, while a Ney-like commander might charge an enemy line without orders. It would be up to the player to get to know the personalities of their subordinates, and use this information to decide how much they can trust their subordinates’ reports, or if personal oversight might be needed. This would be another reason to risk leaving the central headquarters; to ride out and issue direct orders to a recalcitrant subordinate.
This game could be successfully set in any of the major wars of the 18th or 19th century. As an aficionado of underserved historical settings, I would personally like to see it set in a less covered conflict, such as the Wars of German Unification or the Seven Years War. The title would also be ideally suited to more commonly covered conflicts such as the American Civil War or the Napoleonic Wars.
Richard Bodley Scott: “My winner. This is a concept that could be adapted to earlier periods of warfare right back to Roman times. As a game that to some extent plays itself, with limited intervention from the player, this may not appeal to everyone. The challenge will be to make it into a fast-paced and exciting game with great replay value, rather than a faithful simulation that could nevertheless rapidly become dull.”
Iain McNeil: “Would I sign it? Sorry but no. I can see how if done well this would be epic to watch. However it would cost an enormous amount of money to do even slight justice to the game and its target market is so very niche the sales potential is tiny… Lots of interesting ideas for realism and to add confusion but ultimately these will just frustrate players. Most negative feedback from players is related to this kind of frustration which people accept in a real world situation but not in a game. Commanders not obeying orders again is interesting from a realism perspective but doomed for a game. Players do not want things happening they did not order to happen. I think this is the kind of game it might be interesting to watch someone else play but very few people would actually enjoy.”
Eugen’s Alexis Le Dressay and Pierre-Yves Navetat (Not official dragons but they were passing, willing and eminently dragon-worthy): “Smoke & Thunder is our favorite concept… There might be a lot of games about 18th-19th wars, but a first-person point of view would be absolutely unique, from both a tactical and an emotional standpoint. Such a simulation would be awesome for both history buffs & gamers seeking a new experience. It might even help us understand some much-debated tactical decisions by giving us the same limited field of view a commander had at the time… Definitely a game we’d love to play, especially in multiplayer with several players exchanging dispatches and swopping perceptions of the same giant battle.”
Tim: “An exciting idea, persuasively pitched. Devs have been tantalising us with elements of the first-person general-em-up for decades. I think now we’re finally in a position where our hardware and our heads can cope with the full Monty. I would give my right arm and Lord Uxbridge’s right leg to play Smoke and Thunder.”
* * *
Combat Outpost
by Harris Tweed
Why do we not yet have a tactical game that simulates running a company sized combat outpost in Afghanistan? The player would be tasked with designing the layout, managing a company of infantrymen, conducting patrols, defending the base from attacks, etc. The amount of primary source material, to say nothing of veterans able to advise, dwarfs any past conflict.
Randomized maps, soldiers with RPG elements who you will genuinely mourn, daily mission objectives with lasting consequences, etc. Good Lord, the game virtually writes itself, right?*
*Besides the coding stuff, which I understand doesn’t write itself yet.
Combat Outpost would combine the tactical combat of Close Combat or Combat Mission, a “management sim” in which you maintain the firebase, the company’s soldiers, and supplies; and a strategic layer in which you receive and carry out orders in your Area of Operations (AO).
Starting a new game would present you with a map of your AO, your Table of Organisation and Equipment (TOE), and your Operations Order. Difficulty level would dictate how helpful your company First Sergeant is, and how much guidance he provides on each of those screens.
TOE would vary between unit types. Cavalry, airborne, light, mechanized, etc, all have different elements. Other units could be sliced out to you (engineers, MPs, Afghan nationals).
Your Oporder might instruct you to establish a fire base in a certain grid for the purpose of conducting patrols to interdict Taliban movement. Follow on orders (Fragos, for fragmentary order) will change that as the year of game time progresses.
Your first task is siting your outpost with consideration to terrain, accessibility, resupply, fire support, etc. Your company mortar pit, barracks, TOC (tactical operations center), fighting positions, crew served weapons positions, etc would all need to be positioned.
Next you would work between your TOE and your outpost map to set guard shifts, schedules, etc. You could also then schedule local patrols around the immediate AO. All of this based on the quality and abilities of each of your platoons and squads.
With your outpost established, you begin receiving Oporders from Brigade to conduct patrols, meet with villagers, investigate weapons caches, etc. You’re required to balance mission accomplishment versus force protection versus limited manpower. Events happen at the outpost as well, from accidents to enemy probing fire to coordinated attacks.
Patrols would be planned and dispatched by the player, but AI directed until contact is made, at which point the player would be able to take control of them tactically. I would imagine the screen being a sort of Blue Force Tracker showing the position of friendly units and alerting the player to TICs (Troops In Contact).
Tactical combat would put heavy emphasis on fire & maneuver, supporting fires, suppression, etc. Behavior of individual soldiers would be closer to CC than to CM. Very heavy fog of war, too, of course.
The overall flavor of the game would put a huge emphasis on force protection, RoE, and individual soldiers. I have a close friend who commanded a company in Afghanistan and the anxiety of losing soldiers took a real toll on him. The player ought to feel that, as well. A successful game shouldn’t be one that ends with 50% casualties and 100% complete objectives. It should be one in which the player remembers every virtual soldier he lost and feels he accomplished his mission as well as he could without losing any more.
Iain: “Would I sign it? Yes. Taking Close Combat to Afghanistan could be very interesting. Adding to that base design, and a strategy layer where you manage patrols etc is a very nice touch. You would want players to get attached to their troops so you want the force size to be manageable… Each solder you lose hurts you psychologically. You could find some interesting game mechanics to layer on that. I think this could sell. “
Steve: “I think this has a lot of potential. However, these sort of sims can run into gameplay ruts and so the game would likely have to include lots of different environments and situations, which increases development costs and time. This would be a very involved, long project to pull off. Problem with games like this is falling short, even by a little bit, likely means it won’t do well. It’s hit or miss, mostly. To get around these problems requires a lot of really good development decisions and a good development team. Oh, and a lot of funding because that team will not be small or employed for less than probably 2 years.”
* * *
Voice of the People
by Kyle Terreault
You know those civilian units? Those things you gotta keep 6 out of 10 alive or game over? Where’s their campaign?
In Voice of the People, players take charge of a citizen journalist organization in an occupied city. Starting with just one unit (you), players would spend each day recruiting, reporting, and evading detection from the authorities, all in the hopes of influencing the world and the war.
Play would take place on a grid map representing your troubled hometown. Each day (turn), you would need to make two major decisions per unit:
What are they doing?
How are they getting there?
The What could be visiting the air strike site across town, bartering for equipment, to set up an independent internet connection, setting up proxies and encryption for your devices, or recruiting fellow activists. Whatever the action, it requires time, skills and/or resources. You could record an interview with pen-and-paper, but taking pictures would pack more punch.
The How (your path along the map) determines who you’ll come into contact with. Take a direct route, you may have to risk a search at the checkpoint. Loop around, you’ll lose precious time. As patrols become more frequent and discriminatory, you’ll have to get creative. Maybe one checkpoint accepts bribes. Maybe you can swap out your phone’s SIM before a search. Will it work? Suspense!
Most importantly, your actions will effect the city and world. Getting a picture of a visiting officer might lead to an airstrike, thus increasing war attrition (less patrols, checkpoints, etc.). Getting video of a hospital bombing might lead to an UN investigation, thus tightening ROE. Constant, reliable coverage could lead to a ceasefire (if lucky) or a siege (if not). As an example, a UN investigator comes to town to follow up your chemical weapon story. Have a means to talk securely? If not, want to risk an operative? You could meet face-to-face and then book it out of town, at which point that pistol you bartered for could come in handy. Or not. Turns out having I-never-held-a-gun-before Steve carry the Beretta leads to an unfortunate ND. Probably should have thought about that, huh? It’s the burden of being (dramatic pause) the Voice of the People.
As the gameplay would be turn-based with actions planned for the day, there wouldn’t be much animation needed. Most situations can be dealt with through text; graphics for units and tiles could range from cheap pixel art to gorgeous 3D models, depending on budget. The game could be scaled massive (full campaign across the course of a war, level editor for custom scenarios, detailed survival mechanics, hundreds of events) or tiny (single mode with randomly generated map). Accuracy is key; it’s a serious topic, so the devs need to do serious research. If done well, its portrayal of civilians as active participants in war would make the game stand out.
Iain: “If this was done well this has huge potential. The idea of playing the civilians is a good one and though it has been done before (This War of Mine) Voice of the People promises hope and a way to win. There would need to be some scores – maybe public opinion in the member states of the UN security council is your score. You win by getting enough of them to a point where they intervene militarily to stop the war. Some actions could increase relations with one at the cost of another. Each game could be different with starting conditions related to who the nation is allied with. You’d probably want fictional names to avoid lots of flak but you could randomise start conditions and have a very different game each time. It is very relevant in today’s world and could easily tie in to real world events. It could help raise awareness of what is going on some of these places so actually do some good.”
Johan: “One of my favourites. I see this as a hybrid between This War of Mine and Plague Inc. I had discussions with James, the developer of Plague Inc, about making a game about the effects of propaganda so when I saw this I liked it instantly. Not sure I agree on the TBS approach but this is not a game spec, merely a concept that can be worked with.”
* * *
The Battle of Lepanto
by Francisco Costa-Cabral
This is naval combat at (arguably) its most interesting, mixing the ancient tactics of ramming and boarding with gunnery and what can be described as mobile castles. The two sides are asymmetrical: the Holy League with some numerical advantage but a more fractured command, following the theme of heavier ships/troops with better artillery/small arms, while the Turks have opposite better manoeuvrability in tactics, ships, and boarding troops, plus elite janissaries units and attractional repeat bow fire.
The game could work in turns or slow real time. The first major decision would be over starting positions, which would be affected by random factors (wind, timing). The second would be over the starting gunnery exchange, again with some noise for range and skill. The macro strategy would involve enveloping/concentrating/breaking the battle line and shore/open sea manoeuvres. The gross of the game would nevertheless be the micro decisions of individual ship control. The ships would serve as platforms for independent troops, who can exchange fire and board/support the fight in other ships. Momentum could be built by liberating galley slaves to join the fight, but could also shift dramatically by going after admirals and raising the flag in captured ships. Each ship would have its value for being destroyed or captured (more spread out in the Holy League), which would be tracked by a meter. Victory would be achieved after a certain value or at the end of time limit for the day of the battle.
This would be a limited battle game, which could nevertheless be broadened by a campaign with diplomacy and control of key land points (Malta, other ports) or even covering the Turkish land invasion of Europe. Historically the conflict ended in a sort of a draw, so players could improve on it on either side. There are some unfortunate religious undertones to the whole thing, but one would expect them not to prevent mature wargaming. The engine (or campaign) could also be reworked for galley combat in the Punic or Peloponnesian wars.
Steve: “If my budget was small I’d go for The Battle of Lepanto. It wouldn’t be inexpensive to produce, but it would be far less risky from a development standpoint than Combat Outpost and I think, possibly more appealing… As stated, the naval battles of this era have characteristics which are hard to find in other time periods. Though the “age of sail” offers similar opportunities, I think. The 1980s produced Ancient Art of War At Sea. It was extremely engaging, even to players that didn’t have a particular interest in the historical subject matter.”
Iain: “This sounds a lot like a game we are currently working on but set in the ancient world. As a result I’m struggling to judge it fairly!”
* * *
‘The Defense of Hill 781’
by Michael Catchpoole
Inspired by The Defense of Hill 781 I’d like to suggest a dual layer battalion level war game set in the mid 1980s.
Your task is to stage a series of defensive battles against a superior Warsaw Pact force. The game casts the player as a real life LTCOL making decisions with resource and (unusually) time constraints about the conduct of a defensive battle.
The game has two phases. A planning phase and a limited tactical phase.
The first layer is a planning phase. The key mechanic is time. Each of a limited number of sequential scenarios have a limited period of time in which your preparation can be undertaken. As the LTCOL you can order a series of tasks (for instance digging battle positions, counter-recon, firing plans, patrolling and screening, establishing OPs, replenishment and repair, crating obstacles etc). You can delegate those tasks (most efficient use of time but least control) to personally oversight (least efficient) with variations involving the XO/RSM. Each of your subordinate company and sub-element commanders will have skills and abilities. Some of your leaders will be better at task than others. FOs for instance will develop better fire plans faster than infantry officers. The Recon PLT CO will be better at patrolling. The XO and RSM will, if there stats are high enough buff other leaders nearby. The AI will perform tasks in a manner consistent with US doctrine in the 1980s less a random element of variation.
If you overwork your elements before the battle then fatigue and morale issues become apparent. In modelling the planning phase radio silence costs extra time units to relay orders but also increases the chance of revealing your position. Runners area slower but have less risk (although not without risk of detection). The order in which tasks are undertaken impacts on their effectiveness.
At the end of the planning stage, the player will have prepped the battlefield through a combination of engineering works, logistics and planning.
The tactical phase is really the execution of the planning game. The player can set battle positions, orders to attack or fall back and request very limited specific tasks including arranging fires (the quality and speed of which will be heavily influenced by the prep phase). Otherwise your subunits commanders will fight the battle in accordance with general tactical instructions.
The AI will normally have fire superiority, an extensive artillery preparation and superior mass. Key factors for success in the tactical phase are correct ground selection, proper fortification, counter-recon, fire plans, concealment and timing.
The ultimate design should be such that no formula guarantees success every time in the planning phase and any strategy might win a given battle but some are less likely than others to succeed reliably. The time units can also randomly be cut short or extended depending on the enemies plan. If you deny the enemy intel there attack might be slower or they might blunder into your force. Either way the AI will attack for ground but based on the AI’s guess about strength, disposition and intentions.
One further aspect is that by having a series of defensive battles with the same force, the player has to make decisions about when to hold and when to fold and form a view about force preservation as against holding ground. Again this makes the question of how to prepare more compelling and no one answer will necessarily work.
Tomislav: “My criteria was, I suppose, “immediate usability as a working design” as opposed to having a preferred period or style of gameplay. By that measure, I like The Defense of Hill 781 best. (I suspect I’d also enjoy Combat Outpost and Northern Fleet. Sorry if my wargaming tastes are kinda pedestrian.)
The game is very clearly structured (“a series of defensive battles”) and phased. This sounds workable right from the start – a limited scope (defense against a superior force) always helps with creating tighter combat mechanics. Repeated battles of this fixed type should be well tunable for difficulty, so you could have it ramp up and occasionally spike, just like a regular, non-simulation game would try to do.
The explicit separation of phases puts an emphasis on planning. Because there are things *you just cannot do* in the tactical phase, the player would quickly be made aware of any mistakes made in planning. This creates a nice feedback loop that reinforces sound planning, so the player can learn a thing or two about period doctrine without going through field manuals.
The pitch looks as if a discussion of low level mechanics was intentionally left out, so it’s very concise, but also incomplete. It will be a challenge to design these mechanics to organically reward “correct ground selection, proper fortification, counter-recon, fire plans, concealment and timing”. That said, the structure of the long game sets you up perfectly, so the designer should be able to do an equally good job with the short game – by this I mean: the details of unit and map representation, and how the planning/tactical phases are supposed to play out.”
Iain: “There’s nothing wrong with this but it feels similar to existing games like Command Ops or Flashpoint Campaigns.”
* * *
Blueprint Sky
by Angus Ruddick
The game, loosely entitled Blueprint Sky, is a response to a missed opportunity in war sims: the under-representation of the aircraft designer during the Second World War. Capitalising on the inherent LEGO-glee that comes with building something to solve a problem, the general gameplay would be a balancing act of trying to design the best aircraft for a given role, within the least time and using the least amount of resources.
Players will receive contracts from the government for specific configurations or with specific limitations – for example, a single seat fighter for carrier use. Successful completion of a contract grants the player a reward of resources to invest in technology research or improving upon design quality – aspects of a management sim.
The way the player interacts will likely be the blueprint design stage, reports from test pilots and combat reports, and a contracts screen – visually speaking, little to no implementation of the actual aircraft or flying need be shown. To supplement this, however, the reports of the aircraft will be detailed, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the design, to allow the player to address faults in an iteration process. Specific criticisms would allow a more realised aircraft to take shape, too – a quirk making it unsuitable for the intended battlefield, but perfect for another gives it character and credibility.
In more granular terms, the design stage of gameplay will involve the creation of the titular blueprints – by use of increasingly adjustable templates (a wing shape might, for example, be manipulated by dragging the corners) on a grid. The properties of these templates – size, shape, material, etc – would influence the aircraft’s performance. Initially, a simple flight model simulating for example the shape’s lift, drag, acceleration and climb rate would be all that was required – though in a perfect world, a system which could interpret finer details, like roll-rate, performance with different levels of fuel or in different temperatures, would both inform player design and make the experience more interesting.
Research into additional technology would fall more-or-less historically, though particularly skilled researchers would evidently have access to better technology earlier. What this does mean is that the game would have an element of alternate-history to it – therefore a ‘historical’ mode (or editable settings) would realistically limit resources as the war goes on, and either pitch player designs against historical ones, or task the player with recreating them.
At the beginning, as a fledgling company in the mid-1920s, players would have the opportunity to go into business designing single-seat aircraft for races such as the Schneider Trophy, and, as war looms, be offered contracts to manufacture for roles such as fighters or observation aircraft. Alternatively, they could start designing passenger aircraft, after which they might move on to bombers – though research would allow them to swiftly expand into whichever contracts most interest them.
Finally, specific events imposing limitations or advantages would occur, simulating to an extent a dynamic war against an adaptive foe.
Johan: “I like this one, a lot. Incorporating design into gameplay and giving the player freedom of expression within certain realistic parameters are things I am very interested in.”
Tim: “This is uncannily similar to an idea I’ve been pipedreaming for the past five or so years, ergo it’s unquestionably The Best Idea. The main differences are the timeframe – I always imagined the game starting before WW1 and ending around the time of the government-forced mergers of the late 50s – the contract mechanics – competing AI companies are a must for me – and the name. My version is called Avco (Picture the letters nestling inside a winged triangle Avro-style).”
* * *
Bad Heart Winter Count
by Joe Osborn
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: you are the leader of a crew of elite resistance fighters struggling against invasion by a technologically advanced alien culture bent on total domination. In this case, though, the resistance fighters are a small band of Lakota (more commonly and incorrectly referred to as the “Sioux”) and the alien invaders are white people.
I’ve stolen the title from two places:
A “winter count” is a kind of pictorial history used by the Lakota and some of the other plains tribes, in which an animal skin is decorated with a series of images, each depicting the most significant event of the previous year (which were measured winter-to-winter). Sometimes astronomical events; other times hunts, raids or massacres. It operated to supplement the more elaborate oral histories traditionally passed down by the elders.
More significantly for our purposes, though, a winter count provides a framing device by which campaign chapters can be divided: an image painted for each year depicting that chapter’s main battle. Ideally, each chapter will contain several smaller skirmishes or raids, and one major engagement. I envision the fighting as being somewhere between X-COM’s emphasis on careful unit placement and flexibility to changing situations and Shadow Tactic’s stealth mechanics.
Choice and consequence will be based partially on your battlefield success, but also on management of your village, diplomacy with other tribes and the federal government, and tech advancement options that reflect both native traditions (for example medicine bundles that granted wearers protection or power in combat) and white innovations like repeating rifles and revolvers. Another key component will be the psychological warfare of the plains. For example: you take two soldiers prisoner. Do you ransom them back for goods and guns, return them unharmed for diplomatic leverage, or torture them to death for a morale boost and increased notoriety among the tribes (which will lead to more warriors wanting to join you, but fewer diplomatic options with the army)?
Which brings me to part two of the title: “Bad Heart” is a loose translation of a Lakota term describing a man who is so consumed by hatred and grief that he only wants to kill as many of his enemies as he can before dying. The story, then, will be one of personal vengeance played against a backdrop of a clash between empires.
Although the main character will not be an actual historical figure (because many of their descendants are still around, and this is not ancient history to them), his band will play pivotal roles in historical conflicts starting with the Dakota War of 1862, escalating through Red Cloud’s War (1866-68), and culminating with the Great Sioux War of 1876 and the climactic encounter with Custer at Little Bighorn. The denouement will necessarily be a sad one: depending on your success as a fighter and choices as a leader, your people may be able to settle a big reservation on good land, a small reservation on shit land, or even flee north to keep fighting with the final holdouts in the years leading up to Wounded Knee.
Iain: “Would I sign it? Maybe. There is definitely room for this kind of RPG & meta game in the genre. I’d like to have known more about character progression. The pitch mentions XCOM but doesn’t say anything about levelling up or personalisation of the player characters which would need to be a big part of gameplay. The setting may be more of a hindrance than a help. Tying it to a historical conflict makes your progression system very hard as you may end up with gameplay and realism at odds. The two often don’t get on… I’d like to have known more about the meta game mechanics. Are there resources? How are they collected? What are they used for? What kind of decisions will a player have to make? It can be useful to walk us through a turn or two of gameplay explaining what the player sees and what they think about when making decisions.”
Johan: “I love the title and the largely unexplored topic but the concept probably need some distillation. I wonder if this could be built as a mod for an existing engine.”
Tim: “Several readers submitted ideas involving bands of resistance fighters and for my money this was the strongest. Of the handful of existing wargames that feature Native American forces, none provide much context or continuity. None attempt to simulate inter-tribal conflict or explore how tribes worked together to combat the US Army threat.”
* * *
Basileion
by Douglas Slaughter
The 10th Century was the high-point of both the borders and the armies of the medieval Eastern Roman Empire. The Basileion Rhomaion was unmatched on a strategic, tactical and logistical level, regularly overcoming vastly more numerous enemy armies through discipline, combined-arms tactics, and an educated officer class. In Basileion, the player must take control of an army both on the battlefield and off, managing their survival and morale through weather and starvation. All the while, be mindful of the factional power-plays of the Mother-City – maintain allies in the capital through success and favours, or see yourself recalled in disgrace from your command…
•Seamlessly drop in to command battles on land and water in real time through pre-planning and staff-rider messengers who can be intercepted and killed
•Command your campaigns through a real-time, pausable campaign system on a complex topographical map – outmaneuver your enemies or see yourself cut off and starving. Fleets will often be vital to supply and transport as well as pitched naval battles
•Manage your subordinate officers: their capabilities their foibles, their pride, their rivalries – some have powerful families back home
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childs in London is also due to his influence.... In our history, the declaration will remain linked to the name of Weizmann.
In the decades that followed the Balfour Declaration, Weizmann would go on to a famed career as a leader, spokesman, and diplomat of Zionism, culminating in his election as Israel’s first president. In 1949, he published his autobiography, Trial and Error, translated over the next two years into Hebrew, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, and a few years later French. This work firmly cemented his place in the Zionist pantheon as the man who brought forth the declaration. He died in 1952; when, in 1967, Israel celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, it issued two stamps, one depicting Balfour, the other, Weizmann.
True, when one consults the website of Yad Weizmann, the institute that houses his archives, one discovers that Weizmann was not alone: “there were additional partners in this success.” Still, “the achievement is generally identified with Chaim Weizmann, who quickly became the prominent Zionist leader of his generation.”
When the fuller story is told, the Balfour Declaration looks very different. It is no longer a British imperial grab but the outcome of a carefully constructed consensus of the leading democracies of the day.
Who were these “additional partners”? Their contribution has been largely forgotten. But when the fuller story is told, the Balfour Declaration looks very different. It is no longer a British imperial grab but the outcome of a carefully constructed consensus of the leading democracies of the day. It is no longer in tension with the principle of self-determination, but a statement made possible by the very champion of the principle. And it is no longer an emanation of secret dealings but one of the first instances of public diplomacy. It is, in short, not a throwback to the 19th century but an opening to the 20th.
The key to understanding the fuller story is this: in regard to Palestine, Britain could not have acted alone, because it belonged to an alliance. The Allied powers, especially Britain and France but also Russia, Italy, and later America, were fighting together. Their policies had to be coordinated. It would have been unthinkable for Britain to have issued a public pledge regarding the future of territory yet to be taken in war without the prior assent of its wartime allies—especially those that also had an interest in Palestine.
This fact is entirely obscured by the Balfour Declaration’s form. The letter was written on behalf of His Majesty’s government and no other. The declaration was approved by the British cabinet and no other. It was signed by the British foreign secretary and no other. On the face of it, the declaration was a unilateral British letter of intent. In truth, in expressing a broad consensus of the Allies, it might even be seen as roughly comparable to a UN Security Council resolution today.
To appreciate this, it is necessary to shift the focus away from London to Paris, Rome, and Washington; and away from Chaim Weizmann to a Zionist leader now barely remembered: Nahum Sokolow.
III. Enter Nahum Sokolow
Nahum Sokolow? Most Israelis know a Sokolow Street—several older Israeli cities have one. Fewer can locate Beit Sokolow, the headquarters of the Israeli Journalists’ Association in Tel Aviv, or know of the biennial Sokolow Prize, a journalism award. Scarcely anyone is aware that Sde Naḥum, a small kibbutz in the Beit She’an valley, is named after him.
But as this short list suggests, Sokolow has been almost entirely forgotten. Unlike Weizmann, no institute or memorial bears his name, no currency or stamp bears his image. He is buried on Mount Herzl, where he was reinterred in 1956, two decades after his death. Even then, an Israeli newspaper reported that “those born in Israel and the new immigrants who encountered the funeral processions, asked: ‘Who is this Nahum Sokolow?’” Today, more than 80 years after his death, only a few historians remember Sokolow, and none has troubled to produce a scholarly biography.
Who then was he? Nahum Sokolow was born sometime between 1859 and 1861 in central Poland and received a traditional rabbinic schooling. But he taught himself secular subjects and soon gained renown as a prodigy, a polyglot, and a prolific writer on a vast array of subjects. In 1880 he moved to Warsaw and later assumed the editorship of the Hebrew journal Hatsefirah, which became a daily in 1886. There he contributed a popular column and wrote much of the rest of the paper, so that his fame spread with the spread of modern Hebrew. He was soon acknowledged as the world’s most prominent Hebrew-language journalist.
In 1897, Sokolow reported from the First Zionist Congress and fell under the spell of Herzl. It was he who translated Herzl’s utopian novel Altneuland into Hebrew and who gave it the Hebrew title Tel Aviv, which a few years later became the name of a new Jewish city. Leaving daily journalism in 1906, he became the secretary general of the World Zionist Organization, which was struggling after the death of Herzl two years earlier.
Sokolow is the entry point into the fuller story of the Balfour Declaration. Indeed, at the time of the declaration, many Jews around the world gave him more credit for it than they gave to Weizmann.
Sokolow thereupon threw himself into lobbying, diplomacy, and propaganda, traveling across Europe, America, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1911, he was elected to the Zionist Executive; in 1914, following the outbreak of war, he relocated to Britain, where he joined forces with the dynamic young Chaim Weizmann in the campaign to win British recognition for Zionist aims.
Sokolow is the entry point into the fuller story of the Balfour Declaration. Indeed, at the time of the declaration, many Jews around the world gave him more credit for it than they gave to Weizmann. This was partly because Sokolow the Hebrew journalist was better known than Weizmann the biochemist. As Herzl’s contemporary, he was also senior to Weizmann in age and in his standing in world Zionism.
But Sokolow was also given credit because he accomplished what many thought impossible: during the spring of 1917, he secured the explicit or tacit assent of the French and Italian governments, and even of the Catholic pope, to a Jewish “national home” under British auspices. How did he surprise everyone, including Weizmann, by his achievement? Why has it been forgotten? And how might its recovery benefit the centennial retrospective on the Balfour Declaration?
IV. Britain as a Repository of Zionist Hopes
In early 1917, the Zionists had one objective. There was no doubt that the best prospects for Zionism lay in a total Allied victory over the German-backed Ottomans and the placing of Palestine under an exclusively British protectorate. Only in Britain did Zionism have sufficient support in governing circles to overcome deep-seated opposition from critics and doubters across Europe, including among influential Jews opposed to Zionism. And only Britain had the mix of strategic interests, military power, and political will to enforce its writ in Palestine.
But the Zionists faced two problems. The first: Britain had already promised to share Palestine with its wartime allies. The second: the Zionists didn’t know it.
The Zionists faced two problems. The first: Britain had already promised to share Palestine with its wartime allies. The second: the Zionists didn’t know it.
In the spring of 1916, Britain, France, and Russia had finalized a secret agreement to partition the Ottoman empire upon its eventual defeat. This was the “Asia Minor Agreement,” commonly known as the Sykes-Picot accord after the British negotiator Sir Mark Sykes and his French counterpart, the diplomat François Georges-Picot. The agreement divided the Levant and Mesopotamia between Britain and France, along an east-west “line in the sand” from the Mediterranean to the western border of Persia. (Russia was to receive a large swath of eastern Anatolia.)
But Palestine involved so many conflicting interests that it needed a special status. According to the Sykes-Picot map, the northern Galilee would to go to France; the ports at Haifa and Acre would be allotted to Britain; and the center of the country, including Jerusalem and Jaffa, was to come under “an international administration the form of which is to be decided upon” through consultation with all of the Allies, who also included Italy and Tsarist Russia. If the Sykes-Picot agreement had been implemented, it might well have destroyed the prospects of Zionism. Weizmann later described it as “fatal to us.”
Fortunately for the Zionists, David Lloyd George, who became prime minister at the close of 1916, thought that the Sykes-Picot agreement had given too large a place in Palestine to the French. Britain, after all, would do nearly all of the expected fighting and dying against Ottoman forces in the Sinai and Palestine. So Sykes was tasked with revising the Palestine portion of the Sykes-Picot accord in such a way as to leave Britain with the lion’s share. The French, represented by Picot, resisted, insisting that their own claim to Palestine was at least equal to Britain’s.
It was at this moment that Sykes “discovered” Zionism. “It seems at first a strange enough story,” Sokolow later wrote. “A certain Sir Mark appears, he makes some inquiries, and then expresses a wish to meet the Zionist leaders. Finally a meeting actually takes place and discussions are entered upon.” That meeting took place on the morning of February 7, 1917, at a private home in London. Sykes there met the foremost leaders and sympathizers of the Zionist movement: Sokolow, Weizmann, Lord Walter Rothschild, James de Rothschild, and Herbert Samuel. From the record of that meeting, it is clear that Sykes held out the prospect that Britain might grant the Zionists some form of recognition—on condition.
“France,” he told them, “was the serious difficulty.... The French wanted all Syria and [a] great say in Palestine.” Sykes proposed that the Zionists approach Picot in order to “put the Jewish views” before him and “convince” the French. Some of the Zionists in the room resisted the idea, arguing that Britain should do the work, but Sykes thought otherwise. James de Rothschild finally replied that Sokolow was “the proper person” who could “speak for the Russian Jews also.” Sykes agreed to introduce Sokolow to Picot the following day.
Why was Sokolow “the proper person”? Harry Sacher, a protégé of Weizmann who was present at the London meeting, later characterized Sokolow’s advantages:
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Sokolow was the diplomatist of the Zionist movement, the diplomatist of the school of the Quai d’Orsay [the French foreign ministry]. His handsome appearance, his air of fine breeding, his distinguished manner, his gentle speech, his calculated expression, his cautious action, his well-cut clothes, his monocle, were faithful to a tradition which perhaps is not so highly honored as before the war.... Diplomats and ministers felt that he belonged to their club, spoke their language, and was one of themselves. He practiced their art and was entitled to their privileges.
Sokolow made the impression of a statesman, albeit one without a state, and this went beyond his prodigious mastery of European languages. One admirer attributed his diplomatic finesse to his being “a European through and through, internally as well as externally, in his Weltanschauung and manners.... He shined in the presence of Woodrow Wilson, Paul Painlevé, George Clemenceau, and Arthur James Balfour.”
And while Sokolow represented no state, Europe’s leaders saw in “this little bent Jew,” still bearing Russian nationality, an authentic spokesman of the Jewish masses of Russia and Poland, who could move them in the desired direction by the power of his words. He seemed to personify what Sacher called “the great Jewish legend,” as a cosmopolitan leader of the “great Jewry” to which Sykes and others attributed a vast, subterranean influence.
V. Sokolow Goes Forth
And so Sokolow went forth—first to engage with Picot in London, then back and forth to Paris, with an unexpected detour to Rome, all in close coordination with Sykes. It was a daunting mission. Sokolow’s task was to persuade the French not just of the feasibility of the Zionist project but also of the virtues of a British protectorate over Palestine. On the face of it, both propositions should have seemed preposterous to the French. Zionism enjoyed little support among French Jews, and the French had already been promised a share of Palestine equal to Britain’s in the Sykes-Picot accord (the details of which Sykes had kept secret from Sokolow and Weizmann).
Yet Sokolow managed not only to disarm suspicion of the Zionist program; he even succeeded in extracting statements of support. Most books on the Balfour Declaration do devote a chapter to the story. (Prime instances: Leonard Stein: “Sokolow in Paris and Rome.” Isaiah Friedman: “Achievements in Paris and Rome.” Ronald Sanders: “Sykes and Sokolow in Paris and Rome.” Jonathan Schneer: “Sokolow in France and Italy.”) With a nod of acknowledgment to them all (and apologies for some simplification), here is a quick summation of Sokolow’s achievements.
After two preparatory meetings with Picot in London, Sokolow headed for Paris. In two separate rounds of talks (punctuated by a trip to Rome), he thrice met Jules Cambon, secretary-general of the foreign ministry and one of the great French diplomats of the day, and the second time around had an audience with Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot. To Picot in London, Sokolow had expressed an open preference for British protection, and Picot pushed back. So in Paris he instead emphasized the feasibility of the Zionist project and how it animated Jewish opinion in Russia and America.
Two leading historians of French policy, Christopher Andrew and A.S. Kanya-Forstner, described this revised approach as “more diplomatic, more conciliatory, and more misleading.” The French expressed a general sympathy for Zionism, but Sokolow then had the bold temerity to ask for it in writing. And he received it. On June 4, 1917, Cambon issued him a letter (on the prime minister’s authority), which not only anticipated the Balfour Declaration but cleared the way for it.
The French expressed a general sympathy for Zionism, but Sokolow had the temerity to ask for it in writing. And he received it. On June 4, 1917, they issued him a letter that not only anticipated the Balfour Declaration but cleared the way for it.
The Cambon letter, almost as forgotten as Sokolow, was addressed to him and is worth quoting in full:
You were good enough to present the project to which you are devoting your efforts, which has for its object the development of Jewish colonization in Palestine. You consider that, circumstances permitting, and the independence of the Holy Places being safeguarded on the other hand, it would be a deed of justice and of reparation to assist, by the protection of the Allied Powers, in the renaissance of the Jewish nationality [nationalité juive] in that land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago. The French government, which entered this present war to defend a people wrongly attacked, and which continues the struggle to assure the victory of right over might, can but feel sympathy for your cause, the triumph of which is bound up with that of the Allies. I am happy to give you herewith such assurance.
As Weizmann’s biographer Jehuda Reinharz has noted, the Cambon letter “in content and form was much more favorable to the Zionists than the watered-down formula of the Balfour Declaration” that followed it. The French accepted a rationale in terms of “justice” and “reparation,” and acknowledged the historical Jewish tie to the land. The letter bound Zionism to the cause of all the Allies, and made no reference at all to the rights of non-Jews.
“The Quai d’Orsay had been skillfully and decisively outmaneuvered” by Sokolow, according to Andrew and Kanya-Forstner. “The Zionists now had a written assurance of French support. France, however, had neither any assurance of Zionist support nor any prospect of obtaining one.” The French obstacle to a possible British declaration had been neutralized.
“Our purpose,” explained Sokolow, looking ahead, “is to receive from the [British] government a general short approval of the same kind as that which I have been successful in getting from the French government.” On arriving back in London, he deposited the Cambon letter at the Foreign Office, where it stimulated a spirit of competition. British officials who sympathized with Zionism now urged that Britain “go as far as the French.”
It was not only the Cambon letter that Sokolow secured during his continental sojourn. “Yes, yes, I believe we shall be good neighbors!” These words, spoken to Sokolow by Pope Benedict XV on May 4, 1917, thoroughly departed from the previous Catholic approach to Zionism. The visit to Rome had been urged upon Sokolow by the French and facilitated by Sykes. They had hoped that he might win over the government of yet another ally, Italy. But the Catholic Church was no smaller prize: it claimed rights to holy places all over Palestine and maintained, as a matter of theology, that the Jews had been dispersed as punishment for their refusal to accept Jesus as messiah. In 1904, Herzl had met with Pope Pius X, who told him in no uncertain terms that “the Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.” “Non possumus”—we cannot.
Yet Sokolow had an amiable meeting with Benedict, in which the pontiff described the return of the Jews to Palestine as “providential; God has willed it.” (Sokolow wrote up the exchange verbatim.) Sokolow assured the pope that the Zionists would respect the Vatican’s immemorial rights over the holy places, and the pope offered reciprocal assurances. The Italian government also gave Sokolow an assurance of its goodwill and sympathy. The Zionists in London hadn’t expected Sokolow to go to Rome or, when he did, to gain an audience with the pope. Only weeks earlier, Weizmann had written to Lord Rothschild that “I am afraid the Catholic influence is asserting itself very strongly and is obscuring the political issues.” When Weizmann heard of the outcome at the Vatican, he congratulated Sokolow on his “brilliant result.”
At that point, Britain had pledged nothing, so Sokolow could be forgiven for informing Weizmann, from Paris, that “we have achieved here no less—and maybe more—than in your country [England] where we have been working for nearly three years.” In the months that followed, Weizmann and Sokolow worked in tandem with Sykes to close the gap and elicit a British declaration of support building on Sokolow’s achievements on the continent. The history of these efforts has been researched and analyzed in great depth. Here, too, Sokolow played a major role, drafting numerous documents, including the proposed formula for the declaration submitted by the Zionists to Balfour. It was Sokolow who coined the phrase “national home.”
But a crucial portion of the story unfolded not in London but in Washington. For just as Britain would never have moved on Palestine without the prior consent of its European allies, so it would not have acted without the agreement of President Woodrow Wilson. In April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany (although not on the Ottomans), making itself a major player in the anticipated post-war settlement. One more ally had to be persuaded before Britain could move.
Here, too, Sokolow had an effect, if only because he had recruited Louis D. Brandeis to the cause. This occurred during a whistle-stop visit by Sokolow to America right before the war, in March 1913. Sokolow, Weizmann later reminisced, was “on the alert for new men—and he found them. He was the Columbus, so to speak, who discovered Louis D. Brandeis.” And it was Brandeis, whom Wilson named a Supreme Court justice in 1916, who led the campaign to gain an American buy-in to a British declaration. Brandeis was kept fully in the picture about developments in Britain and on the continent; as Sokolow later wrote, “the negotiations in political circles in England and France were known in America, every success was welcomed there with enthusiasm, and often, also, received further support.”
The American policy establishment was entirely hostile to Zionism: the Zionist idea seemed impractical, and missionary interests opposed it. On the first ask, in September 1917, Wilson had withheld his approval. Only the second time around in mid-October, when Wilson received the proposed text from London, did he change his mind. “I find in my pocket the memorandum you gave me about the Zionist Movement,” he wrote to his trusted foreign-affairs adviser, Col. Edward House. “I am afraid I did not say to you that I concurred in the formula suggested by the other side [Britain]. I do, and would be obliged if you would let them know it.” House did so, discreetly—even Wilson’s secretary of state wasn’t informed.
VI. The Crucial Moment
“The support of the British government, when given, will be in conjunction and agreement with the Allied powers.” So announced Weizmann at a Zionist conference in May 1917; as he well knew, it could not have been otherwise. If the French, the Americans, or perhaps even the Italians had thrown cold water on the Zionist project, that would have broken the momentum in London, leaving the Zionists without a British declaration. And so the triumvirate of Sokolow, Weizmann, and Brandeis left nothing to chance. Thanks to their efforts, when the crucial moment came in the British war cabinet, Balfour could claim the assent of the Allies: “Mr. Balfour then read a very sympathetic declaration by the French Government which had been conveyed to the Zionists, and he stated that he knew that President Wilson was extremely favorable to the Movement.”
The Cambon letter proved indispensable. The historian Isaiah Friedman, who probably weighed more evidence than anyone, believed that without it “there would have been no Balfour Declaration.” (Balfour reportedly said the same to Sokolow.) As for Woodrow Wilson’s assent, the British war cabinet had insisted upon it; without it, as the diplomatic historian Frank Brecher noted, the Balfour Declaration “almost certainly” would not have been issued. Weizmann called it “one of the most important individual factors in breaking the deadlock created by the British Jewish anti-Zionists, and in deciding the British government to issue its declaration.”
Despite appearances, the Balfour Declaration was more than the chess move of a single power. Behind it stood the Allies, each of whom gave it some push forward.
Despite appearances, then, the Balfour Declaration was more than the chess move of a single power. Behind it stood the Allies, each of whom gave it some push forward. And when Balfour finally issued it, no one doubted that that the Allies stood by Britain’s side. Just after publication of the declaration, the Jewish Chronicle of London affirmed that the British government had acted “in accord—it is without doubt to be assumed—with the rest of the Allies.” The Zionist Review described the declaration as “formal public recognition by Great Britain (and, that is, by the Allies) that Israel as a nation lives and persists.”
Stephen Wise, chairman of the Provisional Zionist Committee in New York, knew all of the inside details of how Sykes and the Zionists had canvassed for Allied “votes.” “It may be assumed,” he hinted, “that Britain is not acting alone.”
It is not for us to predicate that England has spoken and acted in concert with her Allies, but we are justified in believing that England, ever working in closest cooperation with her Allies in the war, will in the day of peace find herself not only supported by France and Italy, but above all by the American government and people.
VII. Collecting Endorsements
The British issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917. But the Zionists understood perfectly well that the Allies would have to be consulted once more on the “day of peace,” and that Palestine as a “national home” for the Jews would be contested. The Balfour Declaration thus opened another chapter, in which the Zionists worked to persuade each Allied government to endorse it openly.
Here, too, Sokolow played the lead on the continent, and it was no small task. The French had cooled; America was now well in the war, and Russia (after the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917) was out, so Jewish opinion in both countries no longer mattered much (assuming it ever had). And there had been a change of government in France since the Cambon letter. In January and February 1918, Sokolow returned to Paris, this time with the aim of securing a public French declaration in support of the Balfour Declaration. There he met with the French foreign minister Stephen Pichon, an old friend, who assured him that nothing had changed in France’s position since the Cambon letter.
But Sokolow asked for a formal statement: an explicit French endorsement of the Balfour Declaration. American Jews would appreciate it, Sokolow assured Pichon, and this would help France at the peace conference. So Pichon delivered an endorsement, and it was published on February 10, 1918. Pichon affirmed that “the understanding is complete between the French and British governments concerning the question of a Jewish establishment in Palestine (un établissement juif en Palestine).” Sokolow was not satisfied with this phrase, which fell short of the “national home” (foyer national) mentioned in the Balfour Declaration. So he pleaded with Pichon to use that phrase; on February 14, Pichon sent Sokolow another letter that did just that.
The Zionists collected other endorsements, some outright, some with emendations. The most important came from Italy and Japan—the two states that, along with Britain and France, would participate in the San Remo conference and become permanent members of the Council of the League of Nations. In May 1918, the Italian government pledged to Sokolow to help “facilitate the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national center (centro nazionale ebraico).” In January 1919, Japan informed Weizmann that “the Japanese Government gladly take note of the Zionist aspirations to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and they look forward with a sympathetic interest to the realization of such desire.” (Similar endorsements came from Siam and China, the other two then-independent states of East Asia.)
Last but not least, in August 1918 Woodrow Wilson sent a letter to Stephen Wise expressing “satisfaction in the progress of the Zionist movement... since the declaration of Mr. Balfour,” whose text Wilson repeated in its entirety. Wise announced that “the conjecture of some,” that the Balfour Declaration “commanded the President’s approval,” had now been “established as a certainty for all.”
Between his secret endorsement in October 1917 and his public one in 1918, Woodrow Wilson introduced a new principle in international relations: self-determination.
Between Wilson’s secret endorsement of October 1917 and this public one, Wilson had introduced a new principle in international relations: self-determination. “National aspirations must be respected,” said the president in his “self-determination” speech of February 11, 1918. “Peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent.” From that point onward, critics of the Balfour Declaration would insist that it had denied self-determination to the majority-Arab population. But how could facilitating the Jewish “national home” violate Wilson’s principle, if Wilson himself (as Lloyd George put it) was “fully committed to the Balfour Declaration and was, in fact, an enthusiastic supporter of the project it involved”? Wilson’s endorsement eased any Allied doubt as to whether the Balfour Declaration conformed to the new rule of the international order.
The Zionists brought of all these endorsements to the peace conference in Paris in February 1919. Sokolow opened the Zionist presentation at the conference before the foreign ministers of Britain (Balfour), France (Pichon), the United States (Robert Lansing), Italy (Sidney Sonnino), and Japan (Makino Nabuaki). In the era before the United Nations and the League of Nations, there existed no higher international forum than this.
In his preface, Sokolow spoke of the Balfour Declaration as though it had been made by all of the Allies:
In the midst of this terrible war, you, as representatives of the Great Powers of Western Europe and America, have issued a declaration which contained the promise to help us, with your goodwill and support, to establish this national center, for whose realization generations have lived and suffered.
In Sokolow’s carefully chosen words, the Balfour Declaration had morphed into the Allied declaration. A monumental effort in many capitals had permitted him to utter that sentence without fear of contradiction.
The San Remo conference in April 1920 was an extension of the peace conference. One of its tasks was to parcel out former Ottoman territories into mandates, which the powers would administer as trusts on behalf of the League of Nations. There the powers agreed that Britain would receive the League of Nations mandate for Palestine.
But what would it be mandated to do? Would it be charged with facilitating the “national home”? The Balfour Declaration, if introduced into the mandate, would become part of international law. Absent that, there would be no legal standing to the “national home.” Britain, at Zionist urging, sought to have the entire Balfour Declaration inserted in the text of the mandate, and it was here that Sokolow’s 1918 efforts in Paris were richly rewarded.
Since Sokolow’s triumph in Paris, there had been another change of government in France, and the French had grown intransigeant. The lead French negotiator, Philippe Berthelot, “knew not Joseph,” and attempted to exclude the Balfour Declaration from the mandate on the grounds that it was an “unofficial declaration made by one power, which had never been formally accepted by the Allies generally.” In particular, it “had never been officially accepted by the French government.”
Lord Curzon, Balfour’s successor as foreign secretary, replied that Berthelot “was possibly not fully acquainted with the history of the question.” He then produced Pichon’s letter to Sokolow and had the interpreter read it aloud. One “could hardly say that M. Pichon was unaware of the significance of the declaration,” Curzon observed, adding that Pichon “had not only endorsed, on behalf of his own government, Mr. Balfour’s declaration, but had added in his letter: ‘besides, I am happy to affirm that the understanding between the French and British government on this question is complete.’”
A flailing Berthelot countered that “it was not in any way evident that M. Pichon had accepted the whole declaration in its entirety.” But it certainly sounded as though he had. In the end, Pichon’s endorsement could not be undone. Berthelot retreated, and the Balfour Declaration entered whole into the preamble of the League of Nations mandate—at which point it acquired full legal standing in international law. The “national home” for the Jews in Palestine had become a legal commitment of the international community. The Allied powers made Britain “responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers.”
VIII. The Weakness of Secret Pledges
The Balfour Declaration has often been weighed against an earlier set of promises: in 1915 and early 1916, Britain made various pledges to Sharif (later King) Hussein of Mecca, leader of the Arab Revolt, in a series of Arabic letters known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In the letters, the British promised Hussein that they would support Arab independence within certain borders—at the very least in Syria and Mesopotamia, and possibly in Palestine. How was it that the Balfour Declaration became international law, while the Hussein-McMahon correspondence ended up a dead letter? Answer: there was no Arab Sokolow.
Once Hussein had his secret pledges from the British, he made little effort to extract comparable commitments from other Allies. In particular, Sykes tried to press Hussein’s son Faisal to act as Sokolow did and come to some understanding with the French over Syria. McMahon had included a key reservation—namely, that the territories promised for Arab independence were only those “in which Great Britain is free to act without detriment to interests of her ally France.” As France’s interests in Syria (and Palestine) were well-known, this should have been a powerful incentive to the Arabs to reach a thorough understanding with the French. But Hussein and Faisal never did, and Faisal came to the peace conference in 1919 without any French chits.
Not only that: his British chits had been given secretly. At the peace conference in Paris, Lloyd George invoked the British commitments to Hussein as though they were binding on France. Pichon objected: “This undertaking had been made by Great Britain alone. France had never seen it until a few weeks before [this conference].” Lloyd George countered that France “had for practical purposes accepted our undertaking to King Hussein.” Pichon: “How could France be bound by an agreement the very existence of which was unknown to her?”
Pichon was exaggerating France’s ignorance, but because the Hussein-McMahon correspondence was secret, knowledge of it could be denied. Faisal had entered a collision course with France, which in 1920 occupied Syria by arms and threw him out of Damascus. Given French determination to rule Syria, a clash would have been difficult to avoid, but the absence of an Arab Sokolow in Paris made it inevitable.
No less significant, McMahon’s secret pledges were meant for Hussein’s eyes only. They weren’t publicized to the Arabs until long after the war. The Balfour Declaration was something entirely different: a pledge to an entire people, given before all the world. This was only partly obscured by the vehicle of the declaration: the letter addressed by Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild for conveyance to the (English) Zionist Federation. But the letter was no more than a convenience, and Sokolow made light of it at a dinner on November 15, 1917 at which Lord Rothschild read the Balfour Declaration. Sokolow quipped that it had been “sent to the Lord and not to the Jewish people because they had no address, whereas the Lord had a very fine one.”
The Balfour Declaration anticipated what later came to be called public diplomacy. The Zionist movement had no use for secret pledges of the sort Britain gave to the Sharif Hussein of Mecca.
The Balfour Declaration thus anticipated what later came to be called public diplomacy. The Zionist movement had no use for secret pledges of the sort Britain gave to Hussein. As Herzl insisted at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the movement sought “publicly legalized guarantees” since anything less “could be revoked at any time.” Herzl took a dim view of “secret interventions” and called for “free and open discussion subject to constant and complete monitoring by world public opinion.” The aim was to produce a public assurance by any government with control or a say over Palestine, and have it incorporated in public law.
In this aspect, Sokolow, a journalist like Herzl, was Herzl’s truest disciple. It was Sokolow who coined the Hebrew term hasbarah (“explanation”), a word that perfectly parallels public diplomacy in its modern sense. Sokolow saw hasbarah as the natural form of Zionist advocacy in the chancelleries of Europe, in editorial boardrooms, and in public speeches.
“We are not conducting any secret diplomacy,” he said in a London speech in mid-1917. “Such a thing is obviously impossible for the Jewish people. The Zionist leaders are endeavoring to make clear to the powers the aspirations of the Jewish people.” In 1919, he insisted that “in the whole proceedings there are no secret treaties, no secret diplomacy, in fact neither diplomacy nor conspiracy; but they constitute a series of negotiations, schemes, suggestions, explanations, measures, journeys, conferences, etc.”
While Sokolow may have seemed like a diplomat, even to professional diplomats, he thought like a publicist, eager to get the story out. He took every assurance he received and made it public. Sokolow saw no point in discretion for discretion’s sake. In mid-1917, he told a London audience that he and Weizmann had been “abundantly successful” in winning over the French and British governments, that “our success with the Italian government transcended all of our expectation,” and that Pope Benedict had given him “the warmest assurances of his sympathy.” (News of Sokolow’s audience with the pope spread so widely that it gave rise to a joke: two Jews find themselves in St. Peter’s Square, where they see two figures standing on the papal balcony. The one Jew asks the other: “Who’s that next to Sokolow?”)
Wilson explicitly asked that his prior approval of the Balfour Declaration not be made public, and it wasn’t. But the Zionists publicized every other assurance. This had the dual purpose of spurring competition among the Allies and raising the morale of rank-and-file Zionists. But above all, an open assurance, communicated to a vast public, could only be retracted at a cost.
Indeed, had the Balfour Declaration been issued as a secret letter to Zionist leaders without having been cleared by the Allies (that is, like the British promises to Hussein), it would have never entered the preamble of the mandate, and Britain probably would have disavowed it in the 1920s. In 1923, in light of growing Arab opposition, a new British government did order a review of Palestine policy. Could the Balfour Declaration be abandoned? The review committee (under Lord Curzon) noted that the declaration had been “accepted, not indeed without some reluctance, by the whole of our Allies, that |
not ashamed to admit that I am in the care of a psychiatrist, who assures me that people in therapy are often better adjusted than “normal” people who are not, because at least we know what our issues are and are working on them. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and select types of gaming, including World of Warcraft and Empire: Four Kingdoms. I hate vegetables. I have an intense phone phobia, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or IM instead.Vince McMahon getting arrested on TV More
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Vince McMahon gets "arrested" on a 1998 episode of Monday Night Raw.
The announcement of World Wrestling Entertainment's new cable TV contract was supposed to be cause for celebration.
For months, WWE CEO and chairman Vince McMahon had been telling investors his company would triple its 2012 operating income of $60 million by 2015, in large part because of a fat new TV contract in line with the big increases enjoyed by other sports leagues like Major League Soccer.
In August, McMahon was so confident that WWE would benefit from the trend that he told a financial analyst he could put him in a hammerlock if the company didn't double the value of its domestic contracts for its two most popular shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown.
Instead, the company announced Thursday that it had re-signed with NBCUniversal in a deal that would pay WWE about $150 million a year, a decent increase of 50% on the previous contract but nowhere near the spike investors had been waiting for.
The stock took its biggest nosedive since its 1999 IPO the following day, and Forbes reported that McMahon had lost nearly a third of his $1.1 billion fortune in the crash.
Looking back, the WWE's recent implosion was caused in large part by an embarrassing amount of unsubstantiated hype the company communicated to investors, both about the size of its forthcoming TV deal and the fortunes of its recently launched streaming video network.
Let's start with the WWE Network, created earlier this year in a bold attempt to replace a stagnant but significant $83 million revenue stream with an entirely new business.
The aforementioned $83 million in revenues was tied to the WWE's monthly special events, which tend to include the most important matches and have for years been sold to viewers for about $55 via cable pay-per-view. Though pay-per-view still made up 16% of the WWE's net revenues in 2013, it was no longer the $127 million juggernaut it was in 2001, the height of the company's most recent boom period.
Instead, the WWE announced in January that it would offer these live special events to fans for $9.99 a month on an online network they could access via PCs, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices. The Network, which cost about $70 million to get up and running, would also include thousands of hours of archived video alongside new, wrestling-related content.
Here's where the WWE got ahead of itself: In a presentation given shortly after the Network was announced in January, the company told investors that it would take 1 million U.S. subscribers for the Network to break even, but if it got to 2 million subscribers, the Network would produce additional income of $50 million, thereby nearly doubling the entirety of the company's 2012 operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA).
WWE January OIBDA More
Story continuesFull Turn is a kinetic light sculpture by Benjamin Muzzin created as a diploma project for his bachelor degree at ECAL. The piece was constructed from two flat screen monitors placed back-to-back and spun at extremely high speed resulting in three-dimensional light forms that hover in thin air. Of the work he says:
With this project I wanted to explore the notion of the third dimension, with the desire to try to get out of the usual frame of a flat screen. For this, my work mainly consisted in exploring and experimenting a different device for displaying images, trying to give animations volume in space. The resulting machine works with the rotation of two screens placed back to back, creating a three-dimensional animated sequence that can be seen at 360 degrees. Due to the persistence of vision, the shapes that appear on the screen turn into kinetic light sculptures.RaNgeD Profile Blog Joined March 2009 United States 725 Posts Last Edited: 2013-07-06 17:10:48 #1
I pretty much retired from gaming in November of last year, and a lot has happened since then. I returned home from Romania a little before Christmas 2012 and began looking for a job. I really didn't have a plan, I just knew that my time in pursuing gaming had come to an end. I signed up for technical school and started that in January of 2013. It only took a few months and I accomplished a certificate in Aerospace Manufacturing, which is enough to get an entry level job at companies like Boeing. During this time I was also applying for jobs everywhere; not just at Aerospace companies but also at places like Walmart, where I ended up getting a job I worked there for 3 weeks unloading trucks. It was a nice experience, but 3 days after I had accepted the job, I got a call for an interview at a Corrugated plant, where I work now. It's a good job with surprisingly good pay and benefits. When I tell people I just make cardboard/boxes all day I'm sure that they are thinking I make minimum wage or something, but that's not at all the case. We are part of the steel workers union and get medical, dental, and a pension. Not only that but the plant is right outside my city. Literally less than a 10 minute drive from my house. Lately the weather has been nice, so I've been considering buying a bike and getting up the extra hour or so to ride that in. I am super blessed to have this job (I've been here for about 2 months now). But at the same time I am also getting pretty drained. Summer is a busy time for the company, so for the past 2 months I have been working 60+ hours per week. 10-12 hour days 6 days a week (but they only make us work an 8 on Saturday.) This weekend is the first time I've had more than 1 day off in a row, I actually have 3 days off. It is pretty active work, if I had more time I would explain more about what I do, but I am on my feet the entire day. There is a lot of button pushing, stooping, lifting, and my arms have grown quite nicely in size, laugh. I am still learning at my job, but I am already planning ahead. I don't want to be stuck here for the rest of my life, so I've begun to learn programming in what little spare time that I do have. That has meant sacrificing gaming. I uninstalled both SC and LoL. It's impossible to have it all, there is only so many hours in a day. Perhaps someday I will be able to return to gaming in some way, but right now I am content with the direction that I am headed in.
I want to thank everyone who supported me while I was a pro gamer. I know I didn't have a lot of fans but I did appreciate the ones I had. Synitza you are the first to come to mind. I made so many awesome friends; I have bouts of nostalgia all the time and it reminds me of how blessed I am for the experiences I've had. Lukkas, Andrei, Valentine, Jonathan (ReSpOnSe), Justin (SleEpy), all of my NrS teammates and the employees at the NewRoSoft office. Shout out to the Seattle SC scene, I miss all of you guys. Kawaii, and my buddy Sonic. I miss you Wen, and hope that you are doing well. I am sorry that I have seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. I am just busy getting my life in order. I like to joke with my dad that I am pretty much making up for all the fun I had as a progamer.
I just want to encourage everyone that it's never too late to make a change for the better. My life looks completely different from what it looked like 8 months ago. I really miss gaming, but I know that I've made the right choice. Peace be with you all.
-Austin "RaNgeD" King
Well I think I'm writing this for my self as much as I am writing this for all of you..I pretty much retired from gaming in November of last year, and a lot has happened since then. I returned home from Romania a little before Christmas 2012 and began looking for a job. I really didn't have a plan, I just knew that my time in pursuing gaming had come to an end. I signed up for technical school and started that in January of 2013. It only took a few months and I accomplished a certificate in Aerospace Manufacturing, which is enough to get an entry level job at companies like Boeing. During this time I was also applying for jobs everywhere; not just at Aerospace companies but also at places like Walmart, where I ended up getting a jobI worked there for 3 weeks unloading trucks. It was a nice experience, but 3 days after I had accepted the job, I got a call for an interview at a Corrugated plant, where I work now. It's a good job with surprisingly good pay and benefits. When I tell people I just make cardboard/boxes all day I'm sure that they are thinking I make minimum wage or something, but that's not at all the case. We are part of the steel workers union and get medical, dental, and a pension. Not only that but the plant is right outside my city. Literally less than a 10 minute drive from my house. Lately the weather has been nice, so I've been considering buying a bike and getting up the extra hour or so to ride that in. I am super blessed to have this job (I've been here for about 2 months now). But at the same time I am also getting pretty drained. Summer is a busy time for the company, so for the past 2 months I have been working 60+ hours per week. 10-12 hour days 6 days a week (but they only make us work an 8 on Saturday.) This weekend is the first time I've had more than 1 day off in a row, I actually have 3 days off. It is pretty active work, if I had more time I would explain more about what I do, but I am on my feet the entire day. There is a lot of button pushing, stooping, lifting, and my arms have grown quite nicely in size, laugh. I am still learning at my job, but I am already planning ahead. I don't want to be stuck here for the rest of my life, so I've begun to learn programming in what little spare time that I do have. That has meant sacrificing gaming. I uninstalled both SC and LoL. It's impossible to have it all, there is only so many hours in a day. Perhaps someday I will be able to return to gaming in some way, but right now I am content with the direction that I am headed in.I want to thank everyone who supported me while I was a pro gamer. I know I didn't have a lot of fans but I did appreciate the ones I had. Synitza you are the first to come to mind. I made so many awesome friends; I have bouts of nostalgia all the time and it reminds me of how blessed I am for the experiences I've had. Lukkas, Andrei, Valentine, Jonathan (ReSpOnSe), Justin (SleEpy), all of my NrS teammates and the employees at the NewRoSoft office. Shout out to the Seattle SC scene, I miss all of you guys. Kawaii, and my buddy Sonic. I miss you Wen, and hope that you are doing well. I am sorry that I have seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. I am just busy getting my life in order. I like to joke with my dad that I am pretty much making up for all the fun I had as a progamer.I just want to encourage everyone that it's never too late to make a change for the better. My life looks completely different from what it looked like 8 months ago. I really miss gaming, but I know that I've made the right choice. Peace be with you all.-Austin "RaNgeD" King Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:7In 2013, the Canada Soccer Association (CSA) was presented with the Easton Report which encouraged the CSA to develop a series of regionalized Division 3 semi-pro leagues. The regional champions were to compete in a national tournament. This recommendation strengthened Quebec’s new league, Première Ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) which was founded in 2012. It also led to the sanctioning of League1 Ontario (L1O), which began play in 2014. Although rumours of other regional leagues have circled for several years, nothing else appeared to be on the horizon.
In February 2015, we got a little excited when it was announced that people from BC Soccer were present at an L1O team announcement & news conference. Other than a few brief words about how impressed they were and hoped to learn from L1O, there was no word on a prospective league in British Columbia. Even as recently as September, there was nothing official:
@Shawn_R_Gray @League1Ontario @PLSQ1 No target launch date as of yet. Creating a league that involves a lot of stakeholders takes time. — BC Soccer (@1BCSoccer) September 21, 2016
Change finally came last night when, in a surprise announcement, BC Soccer both announced there would be a 3rd Division, and that it would launch in 2018. Although this puts the launch the same year as the still-rumoured Canadian Premier League, it is a very necessary step for the sport in British Columbia. Yesterday’s announcement included a basic information package, an operations manual, and a pre-application form. Having combed through the documents, here’s some of the most important information for potential fans.
BC Soccer refers to the league as Regional Tier 3 (BCRT3), and the season will run from May through July. This is a similar season length as PDL. Additionally, there will be a Cup competition, similar to L1O & PLSQ. From the operations manual, there does not appear to be any playoffs. This means the winner will be determined based upon total number of points, much like PLSQ. This could change once the league launches if the team locations help create conferences, but they’re still looking for teams at this point.
For the actual matches, we’re looking at 2 standard 45-minute halves. The game day roster can contain a maximum of 3 foreign players. Additionally, there must be a minimum of 8 U-23 players on the game-day roster per team. Additionally, at least 4 starters per team must be U-23. The last day for player transfers will be June 30th, effectively freezing the roster for Canada Day. During a match, there will be a maximum of 5 substitutions per team. Only minutes ago, BC Soccer confirmed that it will not be a semi-pro league:
@Shawn_R_Gray @BlueAnWhiteArmy will be a pro-am league/amateur league run professionally not a Semi-pro league. I’ll double check the docs! — BC Soccer (@1BCSoccer) January 17, 2017
Coaches & assistant coaches have some growing licencing requirements as well. The head coach can have a B-National license in 2018 & 2019, but starting 2020 they must upgrade to an A license. Assistant coaches can start with a B-Provincial license in 2018 & 2019, but must upgrade to a B-National license for 2020. This is great news as it demonstrates that BC Soccer is looking to increase the quality of the coaches & the team quickly to get it up to the same level as L1O & PLSQ. There is no official word yet on if/how BCRT3 will join up with the D3-Interprovincial Cup, but I’m sure they’re far more focused on just getting up and running at this point.
The information is still fresh, and there’s a lot more to the documents including potential cash-flow projections, ownership net worth requirements, and even what minimum front office staff must exist and must be paid. Interested parties have until March 31st, 2017 to submit their pre-application to BC Soccer. It will be interesting to see who steps forward to be a part of the new league, and whether CSA will force Victoria Highlanders FC & TSS FC Rovers to move over from the PDL as it did for teams in Ontario & Quebec.
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Shawn Gray Shawn Gray has had a varied background, reflecting a life dedicated to learning and exploration. Having spent time living in 7 distinct cities of various sizes and character, Shawn adapts to his location and always aims to make the best of any situation. While in Ottawa, Shawn fell in love with Ottawa Fury FC, which led to him writing soccer-related articles for Northern Starting Eleven. A brief relocation to Victoria, British Columbia, gave him the opportunity to cheer on Victoria Highlanders FC. He stepped in to acquire NSXI and was able to recruit additional authors from across the country to write about the soccer teams they love. Recently, Shawn returned to Greater Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and toddler. Employed as an Administrative Assistant, he continues to own & edit articles on Northern Starting XI while cheering on his favourite teams from afar.
Like this: Like Loading...SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- After departing from Shanghai and stopping in Seoul, Asiana Flight 214 makes its final approach into San Francisco International Airport following a 10-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. A preliminary review of the crash by U.S. investigators turns up the following:
—APPROACH PROCEEDS NORMALLY: Pilot Lee Gang-guk, making his first landing at San Francisco in a Boeing 777, is at the controls. His training instructor, Lee Jeong-min, is the co-pilot. They receive clearance from air traffic control to land without instrument landing system. Visibility is about 10 miles with winds out of the southwest at 7 knots. There are no distress calls or special requests in the air traffic control tapes that captured the discussion between the tower and the Asiana pilots.
—PLANE DESCENDS: At 1,600 feet and 82 seconds before impact, the autopilot is disengaged, a normal procedure. At 1,400 feet and 73 seconds before impact, the plane's speed is about 170 knots. At 500 feet and 34 seconds before impact, the speed has dropped to 134 knots, just below the optimal landing speed of 137 knots that the pilots believe has been programmed into the "autothrottle." Lee Jeong-min recognizes the plane is coming in too low and tells Lee Gang-guk to "pull back."
—16 SECONDS OUT: Plane is at 200 feet and traveling at 118 knots. The Precision Approach Path Indicator that uses red and white lights to tell pilots if they are approaching correctly is all red, indicating the plane is much too low. Lee Jeong-min recognizes the autothrottle isn't maintaining the proper speed.
—8 SECONDS OUT: At an altitude of 125 feet, the plane is traveling at 112 knots when the throttles begin moving forward.
—4 SECONDS OUT: The stick shaker, a yoke the pilots hold, begins vibrating, indicating the plane could stall.
—3 SECONDS OUT: The plane is traveling at 103 knots, the slowest speed recorded by the flight data recorder. The engines begin increasing power from 50 percent.
— 1.5 SECONDS OUT: From the cockpit comes a call to abort the landing and go around for another try.
—CRASH: The plane, which has increased its speed to 106 knots, clips the seawall at the end of the runway with its landing gear and then its tail, which breaks off. Two flight attendants in the back of the plane are ejected but survive. The plane spins on the runway and slides to a stop. The controller declares an emergency and rescue vehicles rush to the scene.About
Rise of the King is a third-person action-adventure game with survival elements, set within a medieval fantasy world. You will have to survive as you travel across the dangerous lands on your journey to find answers as you investigate the disappearance of a missing child.
You will explore a sweeping storyline filled with unique characters and meaningful interactions along your journey. Our gameplay is a unique combination of survival, action and investigation mechanics to flesh out a much more dynamic and immersive experience.
Be sure to bookmark our official website and please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all the regular updates!
Supported platforms: PC
Release date: Q4, 2018
Features
Survive in a frozen dangerous world along your journey as you search for food, drink, and supplies for shelter while avoiding deadly wildlife and hostile factions.
in a frozen dangerous world along your journey as you search for food, drink, and supplies for shelter while avoiding deadly wildlife and hostile factions. Investigate - Examine for clues, read and interact with objects, interview people and solve various types of challenges to advance the story.
Examine for clues, read and interact with objects, interview people and solve various types of challenges to advance the story. Unique combination of survival, combat and Investigation mechanics to produce a much more dynamic and immersive gameplay experience within the world.
combination of survival, combat and Investigation mechanics to produce a much more dynamic and immersive gameplay experience within the world. Combat - Know when to strike, dodge and counter while managing your stamina. There are no health potions, powerups or special abilities here to help you.
- Know when to strike, dodge and counter while managing your stamina. There are no health potions, powerups or special abilities here to help you. Story - Get immersed in a compelling interactive story filled with lore, religion, and characters to interact with.
- Get immersed in a compelling interactive story filled with lore, religion, and characters to interact with. Hunt - Experience the thrill of the hunt as you track and hunt the wide array of animal wildlife to stay alive.
- Experience the thrill of the hunt as you track and hunt the wide array of animal wildlife to stay alive. Build - Construct campsites to stay warm from the cold. Craft Bandages, torches, arrows, traps and various other supplies along the way to help keep you alive.
Not your typical medieval fantasy game
You won’t find the typical orcs, elves and magic fantasy world here. Rise of the King is a more realistic tone, set in a low fantasy setting. Also what you won’t find here is an obsession of stats, gear and levels. We’re about crafting a story driven experience where the adventure itself is the emphasis, rather than ones gear throughout it.
The experience of Rise of the King is best described as The Long Dark meets Sherlock Holmes with the combat of Dark Souls.
Using a unique blend of survival and investigation mechanics, you will have to survive the cold, look for clues, and talk to the locals along the way for information to find the missing boy. Critical thinking is vital to your success, interpret clues wrongly, and suffer the consequences from the unforgiving world around you. There's no quest log or mini-map updater here. You're on your own and your journal is your main tool to help you keep on track.
Combat in Rise of the King is designed to be a punishing but rewarding experience. Easy to learn, difficult to master. There are no health potions, powerups, or special abilities here to help you. Knowing when to strike, dodge, and counter while managing your stamina are vital to your success. Wolves can outnumber you, knock you down, or strip away your bow momentarily. Bears can pin you down and outrun you. Humans can pick up on your patterns and make adjustments.
The king has fallen and the lands of Arnithon are in turmoil. With the loss of their sovereign, and on the brink of war, the people are left abandoned, confused, and uncertain of the future. Amid the confusion and political unrest, the son of your lord, William of Winterlight, goes missing, and as the only one with the skills to track him, you are tasked with investigating the disappearance.
Protagonist
A forester and expert tracker, Greyson Wallace keeps watch over the estate of Lord William of Winterlight. He is a skilled woodsman and archer having once served in the Battle of Ost. He is a man of few words and fewer friends since the tragic loss of his wife and young child. In search of a new beginning, he fled north seeking solace from the memories. However, a man can never escape his own heart. It rules a man for all the days of his life.
As the northernmost region of Arnithon, New Haven is a vast, cold and untamed wilderness. For those that dare venture out beyond the established towns and settlements, adequate preparations must be made. Resources are scarce, and dangers abundant. Wolves and other fearsome predators prowl the cold, winter nights. Blizzards are common and relentless in their ferocity. Nature, however, is not the only threat, for the heart of man is ever dark and searching for someone to devour.
Revelation Games is a Small indie Christian-based game development studio founded upon the desire to create experiences that are more than just mere entertainment. The aim is to create interactive entertainment that wants more than to merely keep people playing, but to give redeeming, fun and thoughtful experiences. Rather than attempt to focus on perks, upgrades, levels and gear, gameplay and story are the focus of development.
*Full team listed on website*
Our team members have spent years working in the game industry and have contributed to several large scale projects over the years. Here's just a few of our most notable credits we've worked on over the years.
For more information please visit: https://www.rotkgame.com/about-usRome is beautiful and exciting, but sometimes a little too chaotic for this small-town girl to handle. In situations like this, a day-trip to Assisi with a few friends is just what the doctor ordered. So this past Saturday, Becca, Allyson, Jordan and I headed out to explore this beautiful town.
Assisi is a 2-hour train ride out of Rome, and is known for being the birthplace (and final resting place) of San Francesco (St. Francis), the patron saint of Italy. In addition, Santa Chiara (a contemporary and friend of San Francesco) lived and died here as well. Each of these saints has their own basilica in the hillside town of Assisi, and in fact, the basilicas were built in such a way that they face each other, as a tribute to the friendship they shared in life.
Because Assisi is built on a hill, once you arrive at the train station, you have to catch a bus (or a taxi) to get to the actual town. Our first stop was the basilica di San Francesco.
The basilica was built in 1228, and is divided into two parts; the upper basilica and lower basilica. The upper basilica contains a series of frescos depicting the life of St. Francis. The lower basilica contains chapels, as well as a series of frescos depicting the life of St. Catherine of Siena (the other patron saint of Italy). Below the lower basilica is the crypt, where St. Francis is buried. Visitors are able to walk around the crypt, but photography is not allowed, so if you want to see it, you’ll have to go there yourself!
Once we had had our fill of St. Francis, we turned our attention way up to the fortress at the top of the hill, called the Rocca Maggiore. I should mention at this point that it was foggy and rainy, and for that reason I have no photos to show for our beautiful (and painful) hike up to the top.
From the top of the Rocca Maggiore, you can see everything (or you can take a few obligatory photos and then squeeze your eyes shut and pretend you are not up so high). The above picture is a view of the basilica of St. Francis, as seen from the top of the Rocca Maggiore.
This is one of the remaining outer walls of the fortress. You can actually walk inside this wall to get to that far tower. While you’re doing that, you can take advantage of the fact that the weather has driven every sane person indoors, thus leaving you and your friends all alone in a giant castle. Now is a good time to start pretending you are Indiana Jones.
Our next stop was the basilica di Santa Chiara. When we got there, the whole piazza was completely obscured by fog, as were all the breathtaking views of the countryside. Luckily for us (or probably because of us), the sun came out within 2 minutes, and the views were amazing. Inside the Santa Chiara, you can see the tomb of the saint herself. More interesting than that, however, were the display cases that contained the actual clothes that Santa Chiara and San Francesco wore! They even had a pair of San Francesco’s stockings that had a few drops of his blood on them (according to legend, St. Francis was the first Christian in history who received the stigmata), and a few locks of Santa Chiara’s hair – she was a curly-haired blonde, if you’re curious.
San Francesco, Rocca Maggiore, Santa Chiara. These are basically all of the main things to see in Assisi. But what did we eat in Assisi?
On our way down from the Rocca Maggiore to the Santa Chiara, we were soaking wet, shivering, and starving. We wanted food and shelter, and our standards and expectations were low. We stumbled into the first restaurant we found (I never actually caught the name of it, sorry!), and we were so excited to see pizza margherita for the low, low price of €4.90. Once again, we were all reminded of just how expensive Rome really is. In Rome, you won’t find a pizza margherita (always the cheapest, most basic pizza on any menu) for less than €8. And even then, there’s no guarantee it will be good. This pizza was GOOD. The crust was impossibly thin, and the cheese:sauce ratio was perfect. Well done, Assisi.
With the weather showing no signs of improving, we wanted to linger in the restaurant a little longer. In order to avoid dirty stares from the waitress, we decided we’d better order something else. Enter cioccolato caldo (hot chocolate). I think we were all expecting something similar to the milky, drinkable concoctions we get back home, but what we were brought was completely different. The best way to describe it would be piping hot chocolate pudding, only better. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could pick up a cup of this and drink it, but a spoon is really a better approach. It was rich and chocolatey and amazing – the perfect cure for a rainy day.
After we were done seeing the Santa Chiara, the rain had let up, but it was still a little chilly and gray, and we had a couple of hours to kill before our train. Pastries and cappuccino just seemed like the obvious solution, you know?
We walked a little ways up the Corso Mazzini (which seems to be one of the main streets in Assisi) before we found the Gran Caffè. They had a decent selection of gelati (but that’s not what we came for, people), and a seriously impressive pastry selection. They also had an adorable seating area in the back, and we each picked our beverage and pastry of choice, and took a seat in the cozy back room. I chose a cannoli and a cappuccino, and while the cannoli turned out to have lots of weird neon chunks of candied fruit inside, the cappuccino was perfect.
On our way from the pastry shop to the bus stop, we stumbled upon a free olive oil tasting. Right in the middle of one of the piazzas, a friendly old man was toasting pieces of bread, rubbing them with garlic, sprinkling them with salt, dousing them in olive oil, and handing them out to anyone with enough elbowing skill to manage to get to the front of the crowd. The Italians are good at elbowing. We were better.
Once we had each consumed a disgusting delicious amount of olive oil, we finally caught our bus, only to discover that we had missed our train by a few minutes. Luckily, there was another train in a couple of hours, and we finally made it home exhausted, sore, stuffed, and shivering – all in all, a great day!
Advertisementsstar Daniel Radcliffe recently shared a funny anecdote of his first meeting with the present American presidential candidate years ago.During an appearance on the season premiere of British comedy chat show,, the 27-year-old actor recalled his first meeting with the businessman at a press run forwhere Mr. Trump decided to offer a young Daniel some tips to ease his nerves, reports E!Online I was like 11 or 12 and it was when we were doing press for the firstmovie, and they took us to New York and it was sort of the first time doing any of the morning shows in New York," Daniel began."...I was about to do theand I'd never been American morning TV before, and I was quite nervous," he continued, "Donald Trump had also been on that day. They walked me over to him because clearly they were like, somebody must have said, 'Hey, you wanna meet the kid who plays Harry Potter?' and he's like 'Sure!' I don't know how that conversation went."The people in charge apparently walked him over to the politician and after a short exchange of pleasantries, the pre-teen Daniel confided that he was "quite nervous" as he had never been on TV before.What follows was a brilliant and as usual, confidence-oozing reply from Trump."'You tell them you just met Mr. Trump.'" To the child star that definitely must have been the 'Everest of self-confidence.'Watch Daniel talk about it here:Google announced last week an upcoming change to its Android mobile phone operating system that threatens the future of its own mobile app store, Google Play. And the resulting shift is likely to threaten Apple’s App Store, too. It is likely that in 2018 or 2019, we will no longer perceive a difference between a website and a mobile app, and we’ll wonder how Apple and Google ever managed to control the market for mobile apps so completely.
The new feature on Android lets users “install” web pages from the Chrome web browser so that, for all practical purposes, they look just like apps downloaded from the Google Play store. This is a significant improvement in a feature that has been available from the earliest days of smartphones — the iPhone launched in 2007 with the ability to “save to Homescreen,” creating shortcuts for your favorite websites, but it never took off.
To pay or not to pay
For developers hoping to create native app-like experiences from these “homescreen apps,” there has never been anything like feature-parity between apps downloaded from app stores and those saved from websites. Even when the homescreen apps have been technically adequate for the job, the poor usability around installation and poor visibility on phones has been a barrier to adoption (particularly on Android where a homescreen app doesn’t even make it into the main “apps” menu). So homescreen apps have always been the poor cousin of native apps, making native apps the only viable choice for most companies, despite bold examples like the Financial Times pursuing the homescreen app route since 2011.
One of the major stumbling blocks for many businesses adopting homescreen apps has been the lack of integration with Android Pay and Apple Pay, the built-in payment technologies on Android and iOS. These take the pain out of mobile payments by allowing customers to verify an online transaction using their fingerprint, rather than having to type in card details over and over again. Last summer, Apple announced it was integrating Apple Pay into Safari, which would allow creators of ordinary websites to take advantage of the technology. Google made a similar announcement in the autumn.
An app by any other name
As a customer of a personal finance service, there are some key tasks you’re looking to achieve: track your money, make payments, securely upload and receive documents. For many businesses, the recent integration of Android Pay and Apple Pay into homescreen apps fills a significant gap. Given that mobile is a significant driver of traffic to e-commerce websites, anything that makes it simpler to complete a purchase in the moment will be rapidly rolled out. And with last week’s Google announcement closing the usability gap between native and homescreen apps, app stores will be less important when it comes to rolling out better mobile experiences to our customers.
Everyone likes a prediction, so here is mine: The next six months are going to see major brands shifting their attention to developing and releasing mobile web apps and canceling planned updates to their native apps. By the end of 2018, the mainstream consumer mindset will have shifted enough to make the oligopoly of Apple’s App Store and Google Play seem like ancient history.
Jonathan Lister is CTO at online pension manager PensionBee. You can follow him on Twitter at @jayfresh.Islamic State terrorists murdered a young woman on January 6 as retribution for allegedly cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition forces. The blind-folded 35-year-old Lina Qasem was blindfolded and led before a group of men wearing traditional dress and forced to her knees. A bearded, be-turbaned young man shot the woman in the back of the head while the crowd looked on. A photograph, presumably taken by the IS publicity machine, recorded the execution.
#Raqqa #ISIS Executed a woman in public yesterday "Lena AL-Qasem"35 years old they make the Execution in front of the Mail office #Syria #IS — الرقة تذبح بصمت (@Raqqa_SL) January 7, 2016
Qasem had been founded guilty by ISIS of providing information to the U.S. coalition. She had been employed in the post office in Raqqa, Syria, before the jihadis seized the area. U.S. and allied air forces have been bombing the region for months in an effort to stem the growth of ISIS, which now has adherents in Libya, who emerged from the power vacuum that occurred when President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought the downfall of former dictator Muammar Gadaffi in 2012.
According to ARA News, one of Qasem’s family members said that the Islamic |
?' And we were, like, 'No, this is actually for Children's Hospital,' so they kind of gave us a break after that.”
“And seeing and loading everything up — physically seeing everything — makes you feel good,” D'Angelo said. “Makes you feel real good.”
D'Angelo hoped to give some of the toys directly to the patients, but because of federal privacy laws, the best they could do was to deliver them to staff members at Arkansas Children's, who would then take the toys to the patients. But he claimed that would not take away at all from the experience of being able to collect and donate the toys.
“So, I know firsthand, [Monday] morning, after my kids got to open their presents, the looks on their faces,” he said. “I know that these children will get them, and they'll be excited and happy. And hopefully it just brightens their day up, for whatever problems they may be facing today.”
Petz said the members of the group, though spread out across central Arkansas, are close, so it did not take long to sell them on the idea of the raffle for a Smith & Wesson 2.0 9mm and Ruger 22/45 Lite pistols, and a Ruger 10/22 rifle. And knowing how much everyone contributed gave D'Angelo a smile that he could not wait to pass on.
“It really, it warms your heart,” he said. “I mean, it really makes you feel good knowing that there are parents with children that aren't able to wake up this morning and open presents under a tree, that they are in a hospital room, hooked up to IVs, machines, you know? So, being able to provide something to those children and their families? Best feeling in the world.”
D'Angelo said the group will make this an annual tradition at Christmastime, with a possibility that it will organize mid-year charity raffles, as well.With football season around the corner, FOXSports.com provides a thorough analysis of all 32 teams heading into training camp. The offseason may have lacked some hard-hitting action, but franchise-altering moves have been made. Parity is excessive as ever. Every team looks great on paper in July. But it’s the development and seasoning of a team that will matter in January and, yes … even February. Goodbye, offseason!
Today, we continue the series with the Philadelphia Eagles.
2013: 10-6, won the NFC East. Lost in the NFC Wild Card round.
Article continues below...
Head coach: Chip Kelly (second season)
Key departures: WR DeSean Jackson, QB Michael Vick, DE Clifton Geathers, RB Bryce Brown
Key arrivals: RB Darren Sproles, S Malcolm Jenkins, QB Mark Sanchez, S Chris Maragos, rookie LB Marcus Smith, rookie WR Jordan Matthews
THREE QUESTIONS
1. Do the Eagles have a franchise quarterback?
When Chip Kelly first assumed the role of head coach last year, he opened just about every position up to a training camp battle. Seasoned veteran quarterback Michael Vick was staged in a competition with Nick Foles and Matt Barkley. Vick’s leadership and experience earned him the starting role, but injuries plagued him later in the season. This year, there is no such controversy.
Foles, who had 10 starts in 2013, is the unquestioned leader of the offense. Piloting the Eagles to an 8-2 record in his starts, Foles showed accuracy, command of the huddle and precision executing the offense. Now he looks to cement himself as the team’s long-term answer in Year 3.
While former QB coach Bill Lazor has been jettisoned to Miami, the 6-foot-6, 243-pound quarterback has the comfort and knowledge to rely on Kelly and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. At first glance, Foles’ touchdown-to-interception ratio (27:2) is spectacular. A league-leading quarterback rating of 119.2 is impeccable. But is Foles a product of the quarterback-friendly system, which opens wide passing lanes? Or is the prototypical passer’s efficiency and moxie capable of making him one of the league’s premier players?
"Nick Foles has really taken a jump, to really being a star," running back LeSean McCoy said, per CSN Philly. "He showed us a glimpse of him being a great player with his stats, and being in a tough situation he had to take over, but he’s really turned it on, I think it’s more confidence: ‘No matter if I throw 20 interceptions, I’m the starting quarterback.’ And that plays a big role, because you can play confident. You can be real confident and make plays. Not scared to use his talent to make an extra play."
The Eagles, who led the league in chunk pass plays in 2013, aren’t just beneficiaries of receivers gaining yards after the catch. Aside from public perception, Foles wasn’t afraid to challenge a defense vertically. According to Pro Football focus, Foles led the league with 17.4 percent of his passes traveling 20 yards or more. The Eagles passer must accept the thought of being a franchise quarterback. If he proves to do so in 2014, he may earn himself a contract extension comparable to 49ers third-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
2. Will LeSean McCoy win another rushing title?
With an eye-popping season in 2013, McCoy established himself as one of the best running backs in the entire league.
His versatility in the screen game allows him to take short passes for big gains. What’s more, Kelly has found unique ways to get the ball to McCoy in the running game. Philly’s running game isn’t traditional because Kelly employs a "See Coast Offense," which he jokingly coined last season, meaning if the Eagles see something they like, they’ll take it. A majority of last season’s running game was the zone-read, where Foles would either keep it or give it to the running back while he runs across the formation. With athletic linemen in guard Evan Mathis and center Jason Kelce, McCoy is able to follow his blockers and make plays in space. McCoy’s shiftiness allows him to navigate in traffic and find pockets of space to break big gains.
It’s no secret that Philly rode McCoy into the ground last season. With 314 rushes for 1,607 yards and 52 receptions for 539 yards, McCoy led the league in touches last season. He showed an ability to stay fresh, though, as he averaged 5.9 yards a carry in December.
The offseason acquisition of running back Darren Sproles could mean a lighter workload for McCoy. In fact, Sproles’ role in the Eagles offense is one of the more intriguing storylines of training camp.
"Sproles has the quickest feet I’ve ever seen out of any player," McCoy said on The Rich Eisen Podcast. "He’ll help us out tremendously. I think the best thing about him, what he brings to this team is not only leadership and experience, but also just another big playmaker on the team. You talk about losing DeSean (Jackson), but I think Howie (Roseman, general manager) and Chip did a great job of bringing another playmaker to our team."
During Sproles’ time in New Orleans, he was utilized as a pass catcher out of the backfield. When he was in San Diego, he was electric as a change-of-pace running back to LaDainian Tomlinson and fantastic in the return game. His role in Philly’s offense is anybody’s guess. What is clear is that Sproles is a luxury. Kelly has been adamant that he will be used as a running back, not just a receiver lined up alongside the quarterback.
His presence will allow McCoy to stay fresh longer in games, but might prevent him from winning back-to-back rushing titles. That’s not something he’s necessarily concerned with as it will limit the hits he takes and likely expand his longevity in the system.
3. How will the defense perform?
The Eagles should be much more stout in Bill Davis’ second season as defensive coordinator. Davis, who employs a 3-4 system, dealt with some adversity as he had to install and maximize a system last season that wasn’t exactly suited for his scheme. With a year under his belt, the team was selective in free agency, adding a Pro Bowl-caliber safety in Malcolm Jenkins and a versatile playmaker in safety Chris Maragos. Furthermore, the team has high hopes for some young talents to emerge like rookie linebacker Marcus Smith, linebacker Mychal Kendricks and nickel cornerback Brandon Boykin.
BREAKOUT PLAYER
Linebacker Mychal Kendricks
The third-year linebacker has already said that he expects Davis’ unit to be "100 times better" this season. Kendricks, 23, will likely have a lot to do with that.
After registering an impressive 106 tackles, four sacks and three interceptions, Kendricks saved his best game for when it mattered most: a "win and you’re in" Week 17 matchup against the Cowboys. Racking up 12 tackles, forcing a fumble and intercepting a pass, Kendricks announced himself as one of the most up-and-coming young talents in the division.
Playing alongside veteran linebacker DeMeco Ryans, Kendricks has taken a bigger responsibility during the team’s OTAs and minicamps this offseason. Some even believe he is essentially being groomed to replace Ryans as the check-with-me linebacker.
"If for some reason DeMeco is not here, gets an injury, rolls an ankle, he’s sick, Mychal can step in," head coach Chip Kelly said last month. "That’s just part of everybody getting outside of their comfort zone and expanding their role. Instead of waiting for someone to tell him what we are going to call he’s going to make the call himself.
"… I think sometimes Mychal leaned on DeMeco and didn’t make the decisions himself."
REASON FOR OPTIMISM
Aren’t you looking forward to Chip Kelly’s second season?
Kelly has been tabbed as the "Mad Scientist" when it comes to offensive innovations. He led Nike coaching clinics during his time in Eugene, Oregon, and has been at the cutting edge of the zone-read offense. He keeps it simple in the offensive running game with inside zone, outside zone, counter and draw plays. Players are able to just play and not think about confusing assignments. But what Kelly does better than just about any other coach is recognizing unique talent and being able to maximize it in a system. He values special players who are good in the classroom, have integrity away from the facility and most important know the fundamentals of the game.
Looking at this year’s draft, it’s easy to see how Kelly has reinvented football in Philly. By adding players with strong character and a relentless work ethic, coaching becomes easy.
"I want to be the first guy up, the first guy in the building, the last to leave," rookie wide receiver Jordan Matthews said. "I like to compete in everything I do. I’m going to try to eat healthier than you. I’m going to try to practice harder than you. I’m going to try to stretch longer."
Greatness is often found in the details. And Kelly is hyper-aware of perfecting the details. His player-friendly, college-like atmosphere works. One hundred percent attendance during the Eagles’ offseason program is living proof of that.
"We got a bunch of guys that love playing football," Kelly said in June, referencing that stat.
Expect Kelly’s second season to be even more fruitful. With a year of experience, Kelly has gotten the right types of players in the facility and has been able to crunch the data to find which plays work and which don’t.
REASON FOR PANIC
Is there a home-run hitter on this offense?
There aren’t too many glaring holes on the roster. Right tackle Lane Johnson’s four-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on PEDs is unfortunate, but the Eagles have a capable backup in Allen Barbre.
If there is a reason to worry, it’s the lack of a deep threat. Eagles brass parted ways with DeSean Jackson this offseason for "football reasons," amid a report that he had alleged gang ties. The cupboard isn’t bare, though. Wide receiver Jeremy Maclin is returning from ACL surgery but has always been valued as a possession receiver. The team gave 6-foot-4, 230-pound wide receiver Riley Cooper a five-year extension this offseason. Maybe the team doesn’t have a singular threat who can take the top off a defense, but it has a wealth of talented pass catchers, including tight ends Brent Celek and Zach Ertz.
ALEX MARVEZ’S 2014 PREDICTION
If the surprising offseason release of wide receiver DeSean Jackson doesn’t come back to haunt coach Chip Kelly, Philadelphia is in prime position to become the first team to defend the NFC East title since the 2004 Eagles. Replacing the offensive threat that Jackson provided won’t be easy. But the Eagles have a multitude of other receiving targets, the NFL’s reigning rushing leader in LeSean McCoy and a rock-solid line even with right tackle Lane Johnson suspended the first four games. The defense also has more depth and a better grasp of coordinator Billy Davis’ 3-4 system. Prediction: 11-5.Mixed martial arts (MMA) may not be legal in the state of New York (yet), but that hasn't stopped Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) from booking a year-end pay-per-view (PPV) event for Madison Square Garden, expected to be UFC 194 on Dec. 5, 2015.
Nothing wrong with a little optimism.
"We have a date," UFC President Dana White told Newsday. "You know we're going to have a lot of New Yorkers fighting on the New York card," White said. "We do that in every market we go in. Plus, the first ever at the Garden, I mean, some of these guys' dreams are to fight at the Garden."
What's changed in the last seven years?
Personnel, mostly. Some of the geriatric tightwads who shouted down MMA supporters in the state legislature are no longer in power, paving way for the next generation of lawmakers who recognize not just the popularity, but also the economic impact live events can bring to the "Empire State."
Why should Jersey have all the fun?
The bill to legalize MMA heads to the Assembly in June and if it makes it through, would then have to be signed into law by Governor Cuomo.
Fingers crossed!Sky watchers, mark your calendars: The 2011 Orionid meteor shower is on its way, and scientists say it's expected to peak just before dawn on Oct. 21 and 22, otherwise known as Friday and Saturday of this week.
The Orionids occur each October as the Earth passes through a trail of dust left by Halley's comet. When one of those dust particles — about the size of a grain of sand — enters Earth's atmosphere, it excites the air molecules through which it passes, causing them to give off light.
The annual shower has been dubbed the Orionids because the meteors appear to be emanating from the constellation Orion.
This hasn't been a great year for meteor shower watchers. The Perseids in August were all but obstructed by a full moon, and the Draconids this month might have been spectacular if we could have seen them. Alas, they peaked during daylight hours in the U.S.
Sky watchers can expect similar disappointing conditions for the Orionids.
Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, explained that a large, waning crescent moon will be in view when the Orionids peak.
And here's some more bad news: The moon will also interfere with the peak of the Leonids meteor shower in November.
"The moon has just decided to wash out the meteor storms this year," Yeomans told The Times. "They are a subtle phenomena and you really need a dark sky. A bright moon nearby really ruins the show."
Still, Yeomans said, if you happen to be awake at 5 a.m. on Friday or Saturday, and especially if you live away from the city lights, it can't hurt to look skyward.
"It's not going to knock your socks off this year, but if you are out in the desert or up in the mountains, it is certainly worth a look," he said.
RELATED:
The 2011 Perseid meteor shower
The 2011 Draconid meteor shower
The 2011 Draconid meteor shower recap
-- Deborah Netburn
Photo: A meteor shower in 2001 at Joshua Tree. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times“We’re here to disciple the nations, here in Hawaii and everywhere else.” — 2014 Republican gubernatorial nominee James “Duke” Aiona – whose campaign, suggests a new Hawaii ABC/KITV survey, may be gathering momentum heading towards the November 2014 mid-term elections – speaking (link to video) at a 2009 Hawaii conference of the globally active New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement.
In a trenchant October 10, 2014 Washington Post op-ed, journalist Paul Waldman charged that U.S. mainstream media “has helped normalize GOP crazy”. Wrote Waldman, “ideological extremism and insane conspiracy theories from the right have been normalized. Which means that when another Republican candidate says something deranged, as long as it doesn’t offend a key swing constituency, reporters don’t think it’s disqualifying. And so it isn’t.”
[image, right: Duke Aiona, left, Ed Silvoso, right, at International Transformation Network 2009 conference in Hawaii]
But what Hawaii and stateside mainstream media is choosing to ignore, in the lead up to the November 4, 2014 mid-term election, goes even further. A slate of candidates tied to a dominionist religio-political movement helping wage the ongoing anti-LGBT crusade in Uganda and whose leaders celebrate the dedication of Lenin’s revolutionary Bolsheviks and urge their followers to burn scripture, art, and religious objects associated with competing faiths may take the executive branch of an entire U.S. state; and, this is not considered “news”.
During a rally at the 2009 ITN Hawaii conference, NAR leader Pat Francis declared (link to video), “And we your church stand on guard, and we put our foot on Hawaii! And you [God] said every place we put our foot we will rule!” At the event NAR leaders including evangelist Ed Silvoso and Hawaii architect Francis Oda blessed and anointed then-Lt. Governor Duke Aiona, in a ceremony similar to the 2005 blessing and anointing of Sarah Palin, by Kenyan NAR leader Thomas Muthee. Introducing a short speech by Duke Aiona, architect Oda told event attendees (link to video) that “God is transforming Hawaii… we are the tip of his spear.”
In early October 2014 I informed one Hawaii mainstream media venue partnered with Hawaii’s ABC affiliate KITV – a venue which in late October 2010 picked up on my articles and began to cover Aiona’s extensive ties to Ed Silvoso’s International Transformation Network (the Associated Press also covered my reporting on Aiona) – that Duke Aiona’s 2014 election running mate, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor Elwin Ahu, a pastor of a growing Hawaii megachurch, also has ties to the New Apostolic Reformation movement and, along with Aiona, spoke at Ed Silvoso’s 2009 International Transformation Network Hawaii conference.
While Aiona has since 2010 distanced himself from Silvoso and the ITN, the fact that gubernatorial candidate Aiona’s running mate Elwin Ahu was also a speaker at ITN Hawaii 2009 brought, to my mind, renewed relevance to Aiona’s past ITN ties.
The response? I was informed by the media venue that it would not cover the story because the Aiona/Ahu slate was not favored to win (one recent poll puts Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate David Ige ahead of Aiona by six points, another poll shows Ige ahead of Aiona by only three points.)
One Hawaii media venue that has covered this story in the 2014 electoral cycle has been the Hawaii 1080 AM radio Carroll Cox Show (on which I made an October 26th, 2014 appearance. In 2010, prior to the 2010 elections, I was the show three times [1, 2, 3] to discuss Aiona’s extensive participation in Silvoso’s movement.)
What is happening in Hawaii this electoral cycle is not an anomaly; it is symptomatic of a broad trend within American political conservatism; even as liberals have written off the politicized religious right, the movement continues to cannibalize the once secular Republican Party to the extent that candidates unquestionably linked to a blatantly pro-theocracy (or “dominionist”) strain of charismatic Christianity (which helped launch the political career of 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin) have in the 2014 election won the GOP’s imprimatur to head the executive branch of the 50th state to join the American union.
Consider the 2009 “International Transformation Network” conference at the Hawai’i Convention Center : One top speaker (video link) was 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee Duke Aiona, now running again in 2014 for the Hawaii governor’s seat. Another speaker (video link) was Aiona’s 2014 gubernatorial running mate Elwin Ahu. 2010 GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Cam Cavasso, running again in 2014, was there too. Another speaker was New Apostolic Reformation apostle Pat Francis, who in a triumphalist roar cracking with intensity belted out (link to video) before the ITN 2009 crowd,
“We break generational curses!
We break generational curses!
We break generational curses! And we plead the blood of Jesus over ever altar of demon! Over every altar of ancestral spirit! Over every altar of false religion! And in Jesus name we declare that You are the King of Hawaii! You are the Lord of Hawaii! We dispossess the gods of Hawaii, and we lift up the one and true God, Jesus Christ. And we your church stand on guard, and we put our foot on Hawaii! And you [God] said every place we put our foot we will rule!“ – NAR apostle Pat Francis, speaking (link to video) at 2009 Hawaii International Transformation Network conference that also boasted then-Hawaii Lt. Governor Duke Aiona (now running for the Hawaii governor’s seat) and Hawaii megachurch pastor Elwin Ahu (the 2014 election GOP nominee for Lt. Governor) as featured speakers.
[image, below right: then-Hawaii Lt. Governor Duke Aiona, at 2009 International Transformation Network conference, speaks (link to video) of the need to “disciple” Hawaii and all the nations on Earth]
This is the new American political psychosis: mainstream media, or what passes for it these days, refuses to cover a Republican gubernatorial slate whose candidates (both) are linked to a pro-theocracy (or “dominionist“) political movement because the latest polls suggest the GOP gubernatorial slate probably won’t win, as if it’s perfectly normal for Republican candidates to be linked to a religious leader who heads a global effort to “transform” cities, regions, and even entire nations, and (as described below) celebrates the leadership lessons of Lenin’s revolutionary Bolsheviks and Mao’s Red Guard (willing to lop off the heads of their parents for the good of the state.)
On the condition of the “4th estate”, media nominally responsible for informing American voters, this speaks volumes.
The GOP may not prevail in Hawaii, but on the national level it has a proven ability to shut down the federal government and tie Congress in knots; and New Apostolic Reformation influence is not restricted to Hawaii. The movement gave us 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Texas governor Rick Perry’s abortive 2011 presidential bid.
Over the course of 2010, leading up to the 2010 mid-term election – during which Tea Party movement-backed Republicans swept in to take Congress – I covered in numerous articles (see here for an anthology of that work), published by various venues including the Huffington Post and Alternet, the numerous, close ties between GOP 2010 gubernatorial nominee James “Duke” Aiona and the global dominionist movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation – a religio-political phenomenon stylistically very different from the Tea Party but which shares much of its agenda.
Aiona’s ties to the NAR, were so profound that in 2006 he flew over many thousands of miles from Hawaii – on a trip financed by the Hawaii affiliate of Silvoso’s ITN – to Argentina to attend evangelist and NAR godfather Ed Silvoso’s yearly “Nation Transformation” (ITN) conference. Promotional video from the conference distributed by Silvoso’s ministry showed Aiona praying together with and holding the hand of Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni. Referring to Silvoso’s efforts to “transform” First Lady Museveni’s nation of Uganda, Aiona enthuses, in the video, “It’s taken me 9,000 miles, approximately, away from home to understand what is happening in Uganda”.
As noted in a December 2010 story in the Honolulu Civil Beat, Duke Aiona had even contributed a chapter to the book “Catch The Wave of Transformation” an anthology put out by the Hawaii affiliate of Ed Silvoso’s International Transformation Network, which has ongoing operations across the globe, from Hong Kong to Jacksonvill, FL, to Uganda – where Silvoso operatives are close to the heart of that nation’s ongoing crusade against Ugandan LGBT citizens.
One of the members of the team of Silvoso assembled in 2005 to “transform” the Sub-Saharan nation of Uganda was Bishop Julius Oyet, an influential Ugandan evangelist and New Apostolic Reformation member with ties to Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni.
In 2006, both Duke Aiona, Janet Museveni, and one of Oyet’s movement colleagues Ugandan evangelist Alex Mitala (who has also helped wage Uganda’s anti-LGBT rights crusade), attended Ed Silvoso’s 2006 ITN conference in Argentina. Footage from the 2006 event, distributed by Silvoso’s ministry, shows Aiona holding hands, in prayer, with First Lady Museveni – who is widely rumored in Uganda to be a major power behind Uganda’s ongoing antigay crusade.
One year after Aiona’s attendance at the 2009 Hawaii ITN conference, a member of Silvoso’s Uganda “transformation” team (per accounts in books published by members of Silvoso’s ITN), apostle Julius Oyet, told French journalist Dominic Mesmin (link to video) that he, Oyet, had played a central role in Uganda’s now-notorious Anti Homosexuality Act (signed into law by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in February 2014, then struck down in August 2014 down by Uganda’s highest court, on a procedural technicality.) In an extended 1-hour interview with Mesmin, Oyet claimed that he had served on a committee which conceived the Anti Homosexuality Bill and even picked the Ugandan politician, MP David Bahati, who introduced the bill in Uganda’s parliament.
At Ed Silvoso’s 2009 Hawaii conference (which that year had been relocated from its traditional location in Argentina to Hawaii) Duke Aiona declared, jabbing his finger in air for emphasis, “We’re here to disciple the nations, here in Hawaii and everywhere else.” Aiona was then blessed and anointed, with the laying on of hands, in a ceremony similar to one carried by New Apostolic Reformation leader Thomas Muthee, in 2005 at a Wasilla, Alaska church, to bless and anoint, as a political candidate, Sarah Palin.
What does “discipling” mean within the context of Silvoso’s movement? In his book Transformation: Change the Marketplace and You Change the World (2007, Regal Books) Ed Silvoso explains that “discipling” was something done to their respective subject nations by 1) the Roman Empire, 2) Lenin’s Revolutionary Bolsheviks, 3) Mao’s Red Guard during the bloody Cultural Revolution, and 4) the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, in Iran.
It’s worth noting that three out of four of those exemplars of “discipling” used mass political violence and mass killing, even occasionally rising to a genocidal level in the case of the Roman Empire. Let’s examine the exact quote, from Silvoso’s book:
“The discipling of nations is our primary task on Earth… To disciple someone means to turn that person into a follower of the teachings you espouse… The Romans “discipled” nations by conquering and imposing on them Pax Romana. Lenin and his followers “discipled” Russia and the Soviet Union by molding in a regimented and all-encompassing way the lives of millions with Communist philosophy. Mao did the same in China, the largest nation on earth. Militant Muslims actively take over nations and disciple them a la Ayatollah Khomeini; and even though they do not use the term “disciple”, they are making entire populations into followers -disciples- of Mohammad.” — page 42, Transformation – Change The Marketplace And You Change The World by Ed Silvoso (2007, Gospel Light books)
Ed Silvoso is credited with having convened a 1999 gathering, in Singapore, that led to the founding of what may be the New Apostolic Reformation’s biggest apostolic network, the International Coalition of Apostles, which has fast-growing affiliate apostolic networks from Africa to Europe.
In 2010 leadership of the ICA, which does not make public its global membership of ICA apostles, passed from church growth specialist C. Peter Wagner (interviewed, concerning the NAR, by NPR/Fresh Air radio show host Terry Gross in October 2011) to apostle John P. Kelly, whose 1999 book End Time Warriors urged members of his burgeoning NAR to “embrace” the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God movements, the latter of which forecast that in the end-times there would arise a race of supernaturally endowed believers who would cleanse the Earth of evil, as well as humans believed to be in league with the forces of evil.A mystery priest who suddenly appeared at a Mo. accident scene is being called an angel.
Story Highlights Victim's vital signs were beginning to fail when priest showed up
Mystery man does not appear in any of the photos from the scene
Emergency workers would like to thank the mystery priest who prayed over them
Emergency workers and community members in eastern Missouri are not sure what to make of a mystery priest who showed up at a critical accident scene Sunday morning and whose prayer seemed to change life-threatening events for the positive.
Even odder, the black-garbed priest does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photos of the scene of the accident in which a 19-year-old girl almost died. No one knows the priest and he vanished without a word, said Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, Mo.
"I think it's a miracle," Reed said. "I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it."
Carla Churchill Lentz, mother of the teen who was critically injured, said emergency workers have told her there is no way her daughter should have lived inside such a mangled car. Of the priest, she said, "I do believe he certainly could have been an angel dressed in priest's attire because the Bible tells us there are angels among us."
The scene unfolded Sunday morning. Katie Lentz, a sophomore at Tulane University, was driving from her parents' home in Quincy, Ill., to Jefferson City, Mo., where she has a summer internship and planned to attend church with friends. The Mercedes she was driving collided with another vehicle on a highway near Center, Mo. The accident crushed Lentz's vehicle into a ball of sheet metal that lay on the driver's side, Reed said.
Reed's team and emergency workers from several other jurisdictions tried for at least 45 minutes to remove the twisted metal from around Lentz. Various pieces of equipment broke and the team was running out of choices. A helicopter waited to carry Lentz to the nearest trauma center. Though Lentz appeared calm, talking about her church and her studies toward a dentistry degree, her vital signs were beginning to fail, Reed said.
"I was pulled off to the side by one of the members of the" helicopter evacuation team, Reed said. "He expressed to me that we were out of time. Her condition looked grim for her coming out of that vehicle alive. She was facing major problems."
At that point, Reed's team agreed to take the life-threatening chance of sitting the vehicle upright so that Lentz could be removed from it. This is dangerous because a sudden change in pressure to the body can be critical, he said.
That's when Lentz asked if someone would pray with her and a voice said, "I will."
The silver-haired priest in his 50s or 60s in black pants, black shirt and black collar with visible white insert stepped forward from nowhere. It struck Reed as odd because the street was blocked off 2 miles from the scene and no one from the nearby communities recognized him.
"We're all local people from four different towns," Reed said. "We've only got one Catholic church out of three towns and it wasn't their priest."
Reed and the other emergency workers were on their knees. The priest of about medium build, maybe 6-feet-tall, stood above them.
"This priest approached Katie and began to pray openly with her," Reed said. "He had a bottle of anointing oil with him and he used that."
Another firefighter who had been watching said it appeared as if the priest also sprinkled Reed and two other emergency workers nearby with oil.
Everything happened quickly after that. Twenty emergency workers pulled together and sat the car upright, Churchill Lentz said. Katie Lentz's vital signs improved and a rescue team from a neighboring community suddenly appeared with fresh equipment and tools. Lentz was removed and rushed to the hospital.
With Lentz gone, the rescue team prepared to clean up, Reed said.
"We all go back to thank this priest and he's gone," he said.
Initially, they assumed he had to get to his home church to lead Sunday services. But then they looked at their photos of the scene.
"I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after that accident happened — bystanders, the extrication, our final cleanup — and he's not in them," Reed said. "All we want to do is thank him."
Meantime, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reports a 26-year-old male was arrested Sunday on charges of DWI, failure to drive on the right half of the roadway and second-degree felony assault. He was treated and released from a local hospital, according to the report.
The Facebook page of Lentz's mother, Carla Churchill Lentz, indicates Lentz is on the mend despite suffering two broken femurs, a broken tibia and fibia, broken left wrist, nine broken ribs, a lacerated liver, ruptured spleen and bruised lung.
Churchill Lentz said her daughter has undergone two surgeries at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, Ill., and will undergo two more, but has been upgraded from critical to serious and is doing well.
"She sustained a lot of injuries, however, her face is beautiful, her teeth are perfect, she is sunshine, and everyone who's contacted us — those emergency personnel, the Missouri State Patrol, the deputies, the firemen — they are all saying the same thing, she never cried, she never screamed, she would just say, 'pray for me and pray out loud.' "
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1cLfWwnYou will have a hard time resisting the urge to dive into this hummus skillet pizza fresh out from the oven. I love freshly made pizza. This skillet pizza is the perfect size for two big eaters. The thick and chewy homemade, gluten-free pizza crust is topped with healthy veggies and hummus. You won’t have any leftovers, just smiles on the faces of everyone who had a slice.
Making gluten-free pizza crust is challenging. After much research and experimentation, I finally achieved the best thick and chewy gluten-free and vegan pizza crust ever. I literally shouted out a “Yes” with a fist pump. I found a tip from Laura @ Petite Allergy Treats. She preheated the pizza pan prior to setting the gluten-free pizza dough on it to create a crispy bottom. So you can imagine that using a hot cast iron skillet to bake the gluten-free pizza crust would be perfect. It makes the best deep-dish type of pizza with thick and chewy crust.
To make the dough, I used my homemade all-purpose gluten-free flour mix along with a pinch of my magical gluten-free baking ingredient, psyllium husk powder. This powder works better than xanthum gum and guar gum when baking gluten-free breads, pancakes, pizza crusts, and muffins. You can even roll and knead your gluten-free dough just like you do with wheat dough. Please follow the instruction closely so your gluten-free pizza crust adventure will be a celebratory fist pumpin experience.
Do you remember the eggplant hummus pizza I created last year? Using hummus as a healthy protein rich topping for vegan pizza became my new favorite. I used to top my vegan pizza with GoVeggie dairy-free cheese. However, it’s no longer available at any stores near me. I’ve not been able to find a good vegan cheese that truly melts and stretches. Have you found one that works for you? If so, I’d like to hear about it.
But no worries! Pizza without cheese can still be a winner on your pizza night. Building on my past success with the eggplant hummus pizza, I topped this hummus skillet pizza with all seasonal veggies and my garden thriving herb, basil. Using fresh zucchini squash, yellow squash, multi-color cherry and grape tomatoes, and basil made this skillet pizza the healthiest gluten-free and vegan pizza I ever had.
Not only is this hummus skillet pizza gluten-free and vegan, it’s also soy and nut free. However, it does contain Tahini (made from sesame seeds) in the hummus. Compared to any store-bought pre-made gluten-free pizza crust, this pizza crust has no preservatives and is a lot cheaper. You won’t regret biting into this almost allergy-free hummus skillet pizza.At SIGGRAPH this week, both AMD and Nvidia are announcing various hardware and software technologies. SIGGRAPH is an annual show that focuses on computer graphics and advances in rendering techniques. At the show this year, Nvidia showcased the ways |
, we need to first understand how testing works. Then we will take a look at these shattered proteins and what’s known about them. Finally, we’ll look at how testing is considered reliable (or unreliable) in the United States and United Kingdom.
The TL;DR version of the story: there are a few ways to test for gluten in food that work pretty consistently. However, when you test fermented or hydrolyzed foods or drinks, they don’t work so well. This is because the gluten has been processed, changed and broken into fragments – the tests can’t pick up the fragments. There’s no universally accepted means of testing for gluten in fermented drinks like beer. No one is really sure if the fragments are safe for celiacs or not, and no one is really sure how much gluten or gluten derivatives are really floating around in a gluten-removed beer.
Now, if you’re curious about the science in all of this, read on! If not, just skip down to the conclusion and talk to me in the comments!
Gluten tests
There are three basic ways gluten can be detected in foods. The most common type of gluten test uses enzymes to detect gluten proteins. Specifically, these tests for gluten in food products are known as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). This is commonly accepted as the best way to detect gluten in food. Mass spectrometry is a less common method of detecting gluten. It works by measuring atoms and molecules, using this information to identify the ‘species’. Finally, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method has been used to detect gluten from wheat, but doesn’t seem to work with barley, rye or other gluten-containing grains.
ELISA R5 Sandwich
This enzyme gluten test is reliable for detecting gluten in food items. It uses two antibodies to “sandwich” a molecule for measurement. However, it is “notoriously unreliable for detecting hydrolyzed gluten.” The fermentation process hydrolyzes gluten in beer, so this test cannot accurately measure gluten content in beer.
ELISA R5 Competitive
This gluten test only uses one antibody, and “has greater precision, accuracy, and reproducibility.” However, it has “lower overall sensitivity” than the Sandwich test. The competitive R5 ELISA is the standard test used to detect hydrolyzed gluten, or fragmented gluten proteins in beer. “Many published studies have found the competitive R5 ELISA to be a reliable indicator of hydrolyzed gluten,” according to Celiac.com. As an example, this study from Spain supports that assertion. The American Association of Cereal Chemists International (AACCI) did a collaborative study in 2013, following which they declared the R5 Competitive testing method to be “valid for testing fermented foods and beverages.”
Mass spectrometry
There have been a few studies in Australia which have claimed that mass spectrometry is more accurate than the ELISA R5 sandwich test. This study tested 60 beers with both methods and found mass spectrometry to be more reliable for detecting gluten. Another study subsequently found that the ELISA method gave false negatives when dealing with certain fragmented gluten proteins. However, mass spectrometry is not commercially available (as of this writing), so it’s not commonly used as a gluten test. Neither the ELISA R5 nor mass spectrometry have been officially or widely accepted as valid methods for detecting gluten in fermented or hydrolyzed foods and drinks.
What is hydrolyzed gluten and is it safe?
We know that fermentation hydrolyzes gluten in beer, but what does that mean, exactly? Hydrolysis is “a chemical process of decomposition” which changes the chemistry of the affected molecules. Nima Sensor has a good explanation of how this works in beer, but I’m going to give it a shot.
In really basic terms, think of a gluten protein as a shoelace. Fermentation turns the shoelace into yarn. Then, when the beer is treated with enzymes to break down the gluten, the yarn is hacked into lots of small pieces. Enzyme tests like ELISA (which is what the NIMA Sensor uses) require enough space on the shoelace to grab on – when they are presented with tiny bits of yarn, the enzymes can’t find enough space to latch on. They will show that they didn’t detect any gluten, when really, there’s little bits of chemically modified gluten floating about!
But is it safe? A very small Italian study found that fully hydrolyzed wheat was well-tolerated by celiacs. This wheat contained gluten at 8 parts per million. That’s really the only place I found any research-based evidence for or against hydrolyzed wheat.
Gluten Free Dietician magazine said in 2013 the ELISA test will detect one particular amino acid which points to the presence of gluten in beer. But, author Tricia Thompson says, “this does not mean the beer is free of other toxic peptides” even when the test fails to detect that amino acid. Oregon Live reported in 2013 that “scientists say the test doesn’t detect all potentially harmful gluten fragments. Recent tests by Canada’s public health agency found gluten fragments in beers from Spain and Belgium that use a gluten-removal process” similar to the one used by Omission Beer, a well-known gluten-removed barley beer in the United States. In that story, they interview Stephen Taylor, co-director of the University of Nebraska’s food allergy research and resource program. Dr. Taylor notes his concern that there might be “big pieces of gluten protein left in this beer that are still potentially hazardous.” He goes on to ask, “does it make the beer safe for people with celiac disease? The answer to that is nobody knows.”
You’ll find hydrolyzed wheat on many “Do Not Eat” lists on gluten free websites across the internet, including Gluten Free Living and Celiac Syndrome. Popular opinion certainly seems to indicate an unwillingness to trust hydrolyzed wheat and barley. Erica from Celiac and the Beast rolled back her initial recommendation of Omission after learning more about the unreliable test methods used to determine the beer was “gluten free.”
What the law says – United States and United Kingdom
The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed an update to the Gluten Free Labeling Final Rule (2013) that would specifically govern hydrolyzed, fermented and distilled foods:
Hydrolyzed, fermented, or distilled foods voluntarily bearing the “gluten-free” claim will also still have to meet the requirements of the gluten-free food labeling final rule, including the definition of “gluten-free,” which means that they are either inherently gluten-free or they do not include any of the following: Ingredients that are gluten-containing grain
Ingredients derived from a gluten-containing grain that have not been processed to remove gluten
Ingredients derived from a gluten-containing grain that have been processed to remove gluten if use of that ingredient results in the presence of 20 parts per million (ppm) or more gluten in the food Source: Food and Drug Administration
They also acknowledge the lack of reliable testing methods for fermented and hydrolyzed foods, noting “as of November 18, 2015, we are not aware of any methods for which there is an appropriate reference standard to gauge the response for detection and quantification, with precision, of the gluten content in terms of intact gluten in fermented and hydrolyzed foods.” This was a full two years after the AACCI’s 2013 study which declared ELISA R5 Competitive to be valid for fermented foods and beverages. It would appear the FDA disagrees.
Essentially, what the FDA is proposing means that gluten removed beer still won’t qualify for gluten free labeling, because the gluten is being removed during fermentation and the testing methods are too unreliable to trust. However, beer brewed from gluten-removed grain, like Kebari barley, seems to fit the proposed rules and would potentially be labeled gluten free in the United States, assuming the proposed rule becomes final.
Ingredient information in the United States versus United Kingdom
Compare that to the policy in the UK, where there is no requirement for gluten testing, and their best practices state:
Food businesses producing pre-packed and non pre-packed foods need to ensure that any “gluten-free‟ or “very low gluten‟ claims that they make are justified, and this requires some analytical testing. Source: Food Standards Agency
Further, instead of recommending a test, they state:
The Commission Regulation does not specify a particular test method to determine the level of gluten in the final food. This is to allow for the possibility of technical advances in analytical methodology. The Commission Regulation refers to the Codex Standard for Foods for Special Dietary Use for Persons Intolerant to Gluten, which was agreed in July 2008. Within this Standard it states that the level of gluten should be determined using the Enzyme-linked Immunoassay (ELISA) R5 Mendez Method. Source: Food Standards Agency
In case that wasn’t clear, the UK is recommending ELISA R5 sandwich testing. These regulations appear to be specific to food and no mention of beer was found. They do say in several places that specific regulations are up to the local authority. (A local authority is kind of like a cross between a state and a county in the United States – they are local governments who have representation in the national government, but still have some governing authority in their region. Most local authorities are geographically similar to a county – for example, Glasgow City is one of Scotland’s local authorities.)
As these regulations don’t really seem specific to beer, I checked around with some international brewers who sell beer labeled “gluten free” in the United Kingdom to see which test they are actually using. Bellfield Brewery is using ELISA R5 competitive. Celia and Ocho Reales are both using ELISA tests, though it’s not clear which one. Daura Damm and ^Green’s both say they are testing as gluten free but haven’t published their test methodology or results.
I’ve reached out to a couple of labs that do gluten testing to find out exactly what methods they are using. However, it seems that this is pretty loosely regulated in the UK, and as such, I am now actively avoiding gluten-removed beers here. At best, they are relying on the ELISA R5 competitive method for testing, which we now know is problematic.
^UPDATE May 12, 2016: After publishing this article, I received an email from David Ware, owner and director of Green’s Beers. He noted that they have published their gluten test results on their website (click through to Our Beers, then “See Our Beers” at the bottom, then select the beer you’re interested in.) He also noted they are using ELISA R5 competitive testing.
He said something else I found very interesting, and has given me permission to quote him.
Most of our business is conducted in the USA and Canada, despite being a UK company… We produced the first ever gluten free beers in Europe back in 2003… from gluten free grains [like] sorghum, millet, buckwheat and brown rice. We still sell these beers, and export them extensively to every US state. In Europe they are less popular against the burgeoning choice of cheaper deglutenised beers. We joined in with our range of deglutenised beers in 2009, and they have taken up the bulk of our European sales to date. -David Ware, Owner and Director, Green’s Beers
So if you’re buying Green’s in the US and it is labeled gluten free, you’re good. If you’re buying it in the UK, you need to read the labels to find out which beer you’ve picked up, as it could be gluten-removed. You can also buy directly from their website.^
Conclusion
While the brewers of gluten-removed beers continue to claim that their beers are safe for celiacs, I have yet to find clear and convincing evidence to support this. Gluten removed beer relies on ELISA testing, which has not been widely accepted as valid, nor has it proven to be entirely accurate. Mass spectrometry looks promising, but isn’t widely available.
Until it can be conclusively shown that either the gluten is being reduced beyond dangerous levels in beer, or that gluten protein fragments aren’t harmful, I will be passing on gluten removed beers. I appreciate Margaret’s tweet, which led me to do further research on this topic!
Given the current status of gluten testing in beer, how do you feel about drinking gluten removed beers? What do you think about the differences in regulations between the United States and United Kingdom? Tell me in the comments! (I think I’ll be sticking to wine, thanks.)
If you enjoyed this information, please hit one of the share buttons on the left (or at the bottom if you’re on mobile) and spread the word!Dempsey Racing is set for a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, following the confirmation of its entry for the GTE-Am category.
The Georgia-based squad will again team up with German Porsche specialists Proton Competition in fielding the No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR for Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and a to-be announced third co-driver.
While the final budget for the team’s return is still being put into place, both co team principals are upbeat about finding additional partners to secure their Le Mans effort.
“We are working diligently to finish putting the partners in place to return to Le Mans in June and contend for the GTE-Am victory,” Foster said. “We have often said that it takes more than a full year to adequately prepare for Le Mans for any given year, but we don’t have that luxury this time around.
“Fortunately, having the familiarity and support with Porsche and Proton is a huge benefit and we have to approach this year’s race from a new level of experience and attention to detail, both from a marketing and competition perspective.”
Dempsey, Foster and Porsche factory driver Patrick Long teamed for a fourth-place finish in class last year, just narrowly missing the GTE-Am podium in the team’s debut.
This time around, the Dempsey-Proton effort will utilize one of Porsche’s new 991-based 911 RSRs, which will run in 2013-spec. The team is currently in the first of a two-year brand and promotional partnership with the German manufacturer.
“It is an honor but also a somewhat humbling and certainly daunting task to now have to actually put all of the pieces in place to be able to race at Le Mans just four months from now, but we are up to the challenge,” Dempsey added.
The final driver is expected to be announced in the next few weeks.
While Long appears to be the team’s preferred choice, it’s unclear where the American Porsche factory driver will be placed for the race, particularly with two potentially open seats in the Porsche Team Manthey factory squad in GTE-Pro.Expecting outrage, when you click you instead find a succinct payoff on the joke, plus two news links, about advertisers dropping from the Limbaugh Show and the band Rush sending a cease and desist letter to the radio host. But mainly, it's the joke. Since the site's launch on the 7th at about 1:00 in the afternoon, people have shared it on Facebook some 16,000 times and retweeted it 1,400 times. It was on Reddit. As these things go, it's a viral hit. "Even at 3 a.m. last night it was getting a new visitor every 1 and a half seconds," says Lurig. "I never expected this. I thought, it was funny to me, and now when other people share it and laugh at it it makes my day better."
Lurig has the domain for a year, and though he's being urged to put ads on it (maybe he could pick up some of Rush's orphans?), says, "It's just a one-off joke! I would love to know if the people at Politico [their article is one of Lurig's links] are like, we're still getting traffic from this?"
If Limbaugh does something else outrageous, Lurig says, he might change the site again. But he says DefendRush.org should also exist as a reminder. In this day in which news stories grab our attention and work us into a frenzy in a 24- or 48-hour period before we blithely move on to the next, "This is still crappy. He's still on the air, and people are giving him money to do what he does. It just feels wrong."
The biggest boon of course would be for Rush himself to comment and bring this all full-circle. "I'd love for him to come and say this is slanderous or something, and I'd say, 'How is this any different than what you do? Just because I don't have people paying me to say it?'" Lurig pauses. "I feel like I have the Internet behind me."
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.The use of 3D printers has the potential to revolutionize the way food is manufactured within the next 10 to 20 years, impacting everything from how military personnel get food on the battlefield to how long it takes to get a meal from the computer to your table, according to a July 12th symposium at IFT15: Where Science Feeds Innovation hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago.
The price of 3D printers has been steadily declining, from more than $500,000 in the 1980s to less than $1,000 today for a personal-sized device, making them increasingly available to consumers and manufacturers Although they are not widely used in food manufacturing yet, that availability is fueling research into how they can be used to customize foods or speed delivery of food to consumers.
"No matter what field you are in, this technology will worm its way in," said Hod Lipson, Ph.D., a professor of engineering at Columbia University and a co-author of the book Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing. "The technology is getting faster, cheaper and better by the minute. Food printing could be the killer app for 3D printing."
Lipson, addressing the conference by video, said 3D printing is a good fit for the food industry because it allows manufacturers to bring complexity and variety to consumers at a low cost. Traditional manufacturing is built on mass production of the same item, but with a 3D printer, it takes as much time and money to produce a complex, customized product that appeals to one person as it does to make a simple, routine product that would be appealing to a large group.
For example, Lipson said, users could choose from a large online database of recipes, put a cartridge with the ingredients into their 3D printer at home, and it would create the dish just for that person. The user could customize it to include extra nutrients or replace one ingredient with another.
The U.S. military is just beginning to research similar uses for 3D food printing, but it would be used on the battlefield instead of in the kitchen, said Mary Scerra, food technologist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) in Natick, Massachusetts. She said that by 2025 or 2030, the military envisions using 3D printing to customize meals for soldiers that taste good, are nutrient-dense, and could be tailored to a soldier's particular needs.
"Imagine warfighters in remote areas -- one has muscle fatigue, one has been awake for a long period without rest, one lacks calories, one needs electrolytes, and one just wants a pizza," Scerra said. "Wouldn't it be interesting if they could just print and eat?"
She noted that there are still several hurdles to overcome, such as the cost of bringing the technology to remote areas, the logistics of making it work in those locations and, perhaps most importantly, making sure the food tastes good.
"If the meals aren't palatable, they won't be consumed," Scerra said. "It doesn't matter how nutritious they are."
Anshul Dubey, research and development senior manager at PepsiCo, said 3D printing already is having an impact within the company, even though it is not yet being used to make food. For example, consumer focus groups were shown 3D-printed plastic prototypes of different shaped and colored potato chips. He said using a prototype such as that, instead of just a picture, elicits a more accurate response from the focus group participants.
"Even though the future of food 3D printing looks far off, that doesn't mean it's not impacting the industry," he said.<< Back to main
By Tangotiger 10:43 AM
It just seems so arbitrary no? I mean, why 7-4-3-2-1? Why not 5-4-3-2-1? Why not 10-7-4-2-1? Why not anything else? Well, we can figure it out, and it’s going to be ridiculously easy to do so. For this, I will use WAR at Baseball Reference, but someone out there can replicate this using Fangraphs WAR, or any other system you would like.
What you need is the top 6 pitchers in whatever system you are looking at. I chose 1998-2016, AL, NL. That gives me 38 sets of 6 pitchers. We figure out the average WAR (or whatever point system you are using) for each ranked player.
The #1 player has an average of 8.01 WAR. The #2 player has 6.94 WAR. All the way down to the #6 WAR player at 5.14 WAR. It looks like this:
8.01 6.94 6.36 5.92 5.49 5.14
We know that with only 5 spots on the ballot, the 6th (and lower) placed player can only be worth 0 points. The 6th place player is essentially a “replacement” level player, the baseline to which everyone is compared to. So, from each of them, we remove 5.14 wins (or whatever point system you are using). We have this:
2.88 1.81 1.22 0.79 0.36 0.00
We can simply stop here, but we’d like to have integers, and we’d like the 5th place guy to be worth 1 point. So, we just divide all the numbers by 0.36. It keeps the proportion the same. We get:
8.0 5.0 3.4 2.2 1.0 0.0
So, this approach would suggest a point system of 8-5-3-2-1, rather than 7-4-3-2-1. However, you will note that 3.4 and 2.2 in there. If we were to take the above scale and multiply it by 84%, we get:
6.8 4.2 2.9 1.8 0.8 0.0
As you can see, everything now rounds off by 0.1 or 0.2 in one direction or the other, rather than two of the spots doing all the rounding. And rounded to the nearest integer, we get…. 7… 4… 3… 2… 1.
So, yeah, 7-4-3-2-1 may SEEM arbitrary, but it’s really a choice between that and 8-5-3-2-1. In either case, Porcello would take it over Verlander.BOISE -- A total of three people have died after a Meridian home invasion ended with a house engulfed in flames Wednesday night.
Ada County Sheriff Stephen Bartlett said an elderly woman who lived in the house and one other person - likely the gunman who forced his way inside - perished in the burning home. Two other residents were able to get out, but one of them died from his injuries Thursday afternoon.
The tragic night began at about 10:30 p.m. when deputies were called out to 1570 West Amity Road after a woman inside the house called 911, telling dispatchers someone was pounding on the door and trying to get in.
As deputies were en route, they got an update.
"We found out the person that was banging on the door was not only banging, but that person had a gun in their possession and the family was extremely fearful for their safety," Bartlett said.
Shooting and house fire in Meridian Investigators are on the scene of a large house fire that erupted after officers exchanged gunfire with a suspected prowler late Wednesday night. (Photo: Ada County Sheriff's Office) Investigators are on the scene of a large house fire that erupted after officers exchanged gunfire with a suspected prowler late Wednesday night. (Photo: Ada County Sheriff's Office) Firefighters and police are on the scene of a house fire south of Meridian late Wednesday night. A Boise police car blocks Linder Road at Victory Road late Wednesday night as police work an active shooter situation and fire crews work a house fire in the area. A Boise police car blocks Linder Road at Victory Road late Wednesday night as police work an active shooter situation and fire crews work a house fire in the area. Firefighters and police are on the scene of a house fire south of Meridian late Wednesday night.
The suspected prowler got into the house just as law enforcement was arriving, the sheriff said. The deputies saw the man, carrying a rifle or a shotgun, step out of the home. The deputies yelled at him to drop the gun, but he refused, the sheriff's office says.
"At that time, there were multiple gunshots, rounds, that were fired," Bartlett said.
Two deputies shot at the suspect, Bartlett said. It's unclear whether the suspect fired his weapon.
Sheriff's officials aren't sure whether the bullets hit the gunman, but he disappeared back inside the house.
"Very quickly afterwards, the home engulfed in fire, in flames," Bartlett said. "It was a matter of just minutes [before] the entire home was burning."
The deputies broke windows and tried to direct the occupants out of the house. Two of the three residents escaped, but an elderly woman became trapped inside the burning home, and died in the fire.
The suspect also did not make it out of the burning house.
"We were able to find the remains of another person inside the home at the location where we engaged in a gun battle with this individual," Bartlett said.
The sheriff cautioned that the ACSO had not been able to "100 percent confirm" that the second body in the house belonged to the gunman, but said there is not longer an active search for that person.
Bartlett said they do not know who the prowler is, or what he was doing at the house.
"We do not believe there is a connection between our suspect and the homeowners here in this location," he said.
The Ada County Coroner's Office will make the final identifications, the sheriff said. None of the victim's names have been released.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office late Thursday said Kuna police Officer Sage Hickam and Ada County Sheriff’s deputy Chris Matkin were not injured.
Officer Hickam has been with the ACSO for 10 years. Deputy Matkin has been with the agency for four years.
The home was completely destroyed in the fire. A sheriff's spokesman said the charred structure ultimately collapsed, filling in what had been the basement of the home.
MORE: Neighbors react after deadly Meridian home invasion, house fire
Investigators are working now to pump water from the firefighting efforts out of basement, so they can begin to put together the evidence left behind.
A sheriff's spokesman called the collection efforts a "complex scene," noting that much of the evidence was submerged in water or covered by mud, ash, and debris.
Bartlett promised a careful, thorough investigation to gather all the evidence, including any clues to how the fire started.
"We do know that we located a significant amount of gasoline here on the scene, but as to the igniter, the source of the fire and what caused that - we'll leave that to the state fire marshal and their investigation cause-and-origin team to determine that," he said.
Bryce Walker, a neighbor, said his son alerted him to the fire Wednesday night. When he looked outside, the flames were leaping sky-high, he said.
"The house is surrounded by trees, they're about 100 feet tall," he said. "You could see the flames were over the top of the trees."
He said the home invasion and fire were unsettling, particularly in light of his own strange experience in the neighborhood Tuesday night.
"The night before that, I got woken up by my dogs at about 2 a.m. - they were going crazy," he said. "I ended grabbing my pistol and having to go out and walk my barn. We thought someone was out behind my house."
Walker did not encounter anyone, but said he is left wondering if the prowler had been casing the neighborhood before breaking in next door.
"I travel a lot for work, and my family is at home by themselves," he said "Make sure we keep enough weapons in the house to protect ourselves."
Bartlett has asked anyone with information, or who saw someone or something out of the ordinary on their property, to call the Ada County Sheriff's Office at 208-377-6790 or Crime Stoppers at 208-343-COPS.
The Critical Incident Task Force, led by the Boise Police Department, has been called in to investigate the shooting.
Copyright 2017 KTVBThursday marks the long-awaited vote by the citizens of the United Kingdom on whether to exit the European Union. President Obama has already made clear that he opposes so-called Brexit – he lectured the British that they would have trouble negotiating a trade deal with the United States if they left the EU: “that’s not going to happen anytime soon because our focus is negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done.”
So, what’s the truth about Brexit? Is it a good idea? Here are four myths about Brexit, and three reasons it’s a good idea for the UK to separate from the EU.
Brexit Must Result In Trade Wars. Opponents of Brexit seem deeply confident that the exit of the UK from the EU presages the rise of economic protectionism. Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal writes, “It may be that a “leave” vote will not have such dire consequences as the ‘remain’ campaign predict, and that the U.K. will join the happy ranks of Switzerland and Norway as a rich, European, non-EU state…. But this is not a normal era. If the U.K. leaves the EU, why shouldn’t Scotland secede from the former to rejoin the latter?” Greg Ip similarly writes, “Brexit would be the starkest repudiation yet of the postwar consensus favoring ever-deeper global integration.”
But why should that be so? Why shouldn’t the UK embrace new trade agreements while ditching its overblown obligations to a democracy-free EU? The United States has great trade relationships with Europe; so too do the Nordic nations Stephens mentions. Trade agreements are not difficult to negotiate so long as both sides are willing – and that willingness need not be linked with a loss of sovereignty.
Brexit Destroys European Security. People are worried that the UK leaving the EU would cripple the EU diplomatically – the group is only as powerful as the sum of its parts – and that the UK would not be able to bargain using other countries for backup. But this is nonsense. NATO still exists. The UK could easily sign defense pacts with other European nations. Pretending that a commonality of interest always exists in terms of foreign policy, however, is sheer nonsense – not when Germany is shipping in Syrian refugees at an astonishing rate.
Brexit Will Destroy The Economy. There are widespread fears that insecurity over the direction of Britain’s economic policy would “hit the country by lowering gains from trade, driving away foreign investment and threatening London’s position as a financial centre,” as Isabel Schnabel writes for the Financial Times. But why should this be so? The EU’s financial policies are largely socialistic – there’s a reason Germany has been paying Greece’s debt – and one of the only reasons the UK’s economy remains upright at this point has been their unwillingness to join the Euro, preferring to preserve the pound. Sovereignty does not dictate big government protectionism.
Brexit Will End Travel. Again, it’s true that British citizens can work and travel and live anywhere in the EU. But there’s no reason that the UK can’t sign a treaty that would establish a similar relationship. If EU member countries decide to punish the UK, that’s the EU’s fault – the UK isn’t rejecting European immigration wholesale simply by voting for Brexit.
In essence, then, most of the worries about Brexit amount to plausible but uncertain concerns about economics and security. But Brexit would be an answer to some guaranteed concerns.
Sovereignty Matters. Jonah Goldberg hits the nail on the head when he writes about the bureaucratic, unrepresentative nightmare Brussels represents to British sovereignty:
The European Union's bureaucracy and paper-parliament were set up to be as insulated as possible from the concerns of actual voters. Representatives to the European Parliament are selected by party elites as a kind of highbrow patronage. They invariably defer to the permanent bureaucracy, which acts like a transnational cartel, one that happens to be composed of governments. As Daniel Hannan, the rare Euroskeptic skunk to infiltrate the garden party that is the EU parliament, put it, "faced with a choice between democracy and supra-nationalism, the EU will always choose supra-nationalism."
The UK did just fine without Europe for centuries. Granting their own citizens more say in their own lives sounds like a fine notion.
Immigration Must Be Curbed. EU immigration policy is a disaster. It’s even more of a disaster because Britain has little say in just who can travel in and out of its borders. Total freedom of travel into a welfare state is a problem. Freedom of travel by unvetted Muslim refugees is even more of a problem. Here’s EU Parliament member from the UK Daniel Hannan: “Outside the EU, we can control our immigration policy. More passports are checked at Britain’s borders than at those of the other 27 EU states put together. The former Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble, describes the Schengen Zone as ‘an international passport-free zone for terrorists to execute attacks on the Continent and make their escape’.”
Bureaucracy Sucks. The EU is just a giant bureaucratic machine. The EU parliament is nearly powerless, and merely rubber stamps the bureaucracy. That worked for as long as it worked. It doesn’t – not when countries like Greece and Spain can simply run up their debt and insist that everyone else foot the bills. As former London Mayor Boris Johnson says, “Sometimes these EU rules sound simply ludicrous, like the rule that you can’t recycle a teabag, or that children under eight cannot blow up balloons, or the limits on the power of vacuum cleaners. Sometimes they can be truly infuriating – like the time I discovered, in 2013, that there was nothing we could do to bring in better-designed cab windows for trucks, to stop cyclists being crushed. It had to be done at a European level, and the French were opposed.”
Overall, conservative governance seems far more likely in a sovereign Britain than in a redistributionist EU defined by a race to the bottom on immigration and economics. Conservatives should worry about trade policy with the EU, but they don’t have to sacrifice sovereignty for prosperity. Brexit seems like a better bet for the British than sticking around waiting to see what insane idea Brussels comes up with next.DFAT knew of Australian's detention in Israel
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Bob Carr orders Prisoner X review (7pm TV News VIC)
Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr has confirmed his department was made aware in 2010 that an Australian man, believed to be Prisoner X, was being held in a super-secret Israeli jail.
The ABC's Foreign Correspondent program revealed on Tuesday the likely identity of Prisoner X as Melbourne man Ben Zygier - aka Ben Alon or Ben Allen - who was found dead in a prison near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
A spokeswoman for Senator Carr says the Minister was initially advised that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) was unaware of Mr Zygier's detention.
"DFAT has now advised that some officers of the department were made aware of Mr Allen's detention at the time in 2010 by another Australian agency," the spokeswoman said in a statement.
"Minister Carr has asked department secretary, Mr Peter Varghese, to review the handling of this consular case."
Mr Zygier's arrest and jailing in Israel remains a mystery, but the ABC understands he had been recruited by spy agency Mossad.
It is understood he "disappeared" in early 2010, spending several months in the Prisoner X cell at Ayalon Prison in the city of Ramla before being found dead.
Censorship lifted
The Prisoner X case is regarded as one of the most sensitive secrets of Israel's intelligence community, with the government going to extraordinary lengths to stifle media coverage and gag attempts by human rights organisations to expose the situation.
But Israeli MPs and commentators are now asking tough questions about the mysterious detention and apparent suicide of Prisoner X, following the ABC's report.
Twenty-four hours after Foreign Correspondent broke the story, the Israeli censor moved to ease the total blackout on coverage of the incident, allowing the local press to publish details from the report.
On Tuesday Israeli media reported that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called an urgent meeting with the country's top editors to ask them to cooperate by "withholding publication of information pertaining to an incident that is very embarrassing to a certain government agency," Haaretz newspaper said, in a clear allusion to Mossad.
But shortly afterwards, three MPs raised questions over the issue in parliament, effectively sidestepping the censor in a move which forced a slight easing of the reporting restrictions.
Although the Israeli press can now quote foreign media on details of the case, the restrictions bar any original reporting on the incident, a spokesman for the censor's office said.
"It is now possible to report what foreign sources are saying about this story," a spokesman told AFP, saying the main blackout was still in place.
"It is based on a court order from 2010 and covers anything which could indicate the reason for his arrest."
Further questions are expected to be raised in Israel's parliament on Wednesday (local time) with outgoing internal security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch likely to be in the spotlight.
But former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman attacked the MPs for using their parliamentary immunity to get around the censor.
"Once again, certain MPs don't hesitate to identify with the enemy and take advantage of their parliamentary immunity to violate censorship," he said in an interview on Israel's army radio.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Foreign Correspondent reports on the Prisoner X case (ABC News)
Seeking explanation
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game, but it's still an awesome game that I'm very proud of."
Besides Happy Action Theater and the impending Broken Age, Schafer spent most of his time saving the company as it nearly went kaput four times. First Psychonauts was cancelled midway through development before Majesco picked it up. Then, the team struggled to get its heavy metal opus Brutal Legend signed. Partway through development Activision decided to drop the project, leaving Double Fine up s*** creek without a paddle. Thankfully EA signed on as publisher and brought Brutal Legend to fruition, but poor sales led to the company backtracking on its plan to finance Brutal Legend 2.
To combat this "feast or famine" approach, Schafer restructured the company by shifting its focus into more, smaller games via a process he calls Amnesia Fortnight. The idea is the studio splits up into teams for two weeks to create a few prototypes for new game ideas. The ones that are successful go into production as full commercial releases. This is how Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade, and Once Upon a Monster got started. "If any one project was cancelled, we weren't all of a sudden sinking the company," Schafer explains. "We can shuffle people around and work on getting a new project signed while money's still coming in."
Schafer's Own During his talk at XOXOfest, Schafer says he was inspired by Paul Newman. Not only is the veteran actor Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy, he also made salad dressing. More importantly, he made salad dressing that continues to make money for charities near and dear to the late actor's heart. "He's dead, but this machine is still making money for the causes he cares about. How badass is that?" says Schafer. He then explains that he wanted to apply this logic to game development by creating a "Perpetual creativity machine." Though I can't help but wonder what a salad dressing by Double Fine would taste like. I'd expect it to be kind of sweet with at least one somewhat unexpected ingredient. Maybe ginger.
Grim Fandango was largely considered a flop at 500K sales. 15 years later fans still demand a rerelease. Are you listening, Disney?
As successful as Amnesia Fortnight has been, I can't help but wonder if Schafer misses having more direct control on a project. Even with the impending Broken Age and Happy Action Theater, there was still a time when he wasn't the project lead on anything. When I ask if this overseer role still left him feeling creatively fulfilled, Schafer replies in the affirmative. "I was kind of the project lead you could say on Amnesia Fortnight. That was a project that I wanted to do. That was where the shift kind of started. Instead of leading one project I was running the project that was the project of projects."
"It's kind of a hard, lonely job to be the head of a project and [it's] a lot of responsibility. I feel best when I have the time to talk to those people about to go through that."
"It's fun to have that level [of control], because you're helping someone going through a process that you've gone through," he says. "It's kind of a hard, lonely job to be the head of a project and [it's] a lot of responsibility. I feel best when I have the time to talk to those people about to go through that. And now that I'm running my own project I don't even have time to do that. I have so much dialogue to write that I barely even have time to talk to the other project leads. They're kind of on their own right now and I would like to have more time for them. But luckily we have a very senior group of people who are running a lot of projects."
The result is that Double Fine has one of the most varied catalogues of gaming genres at any one studio. In the last few years alone it's produced a heavy metal action/adventure/RTS hybrid, a Halloween-themed turn-based RPG, a 3D puzzle game about Russian nesting dolls, a mech-based Tower Defense game with real-time combat, and a handful of experimental, family-friendly Kinect affairs. Is there anything Double Fine can't do?
Schafer says that, personally at least, there are limits - and he can never imagine ever making a first-person shooter or fighting game. Funnily enough, though, the game that got him back into consoles in the early 90s was Street Fighter 2. "I was like 'oh my god! Street Fighter 2 is so awesome! I need to get a SNES!'" he says, looking back on his formative years as a neophyte game developer. "Then I got really into SNES games and that's part of what turned me into a console game player."
"So why not make one?" I ask.
"I'd never make a fighting game because they're so hardcore," he replies. "The people who play them are so hardcore and the people who make them are so hardcore. Every frame matters in a fighting game. It's just way too intimidating. I think there are people who are on that task and really excelling at it. It doesn't really need my help at all. I would just mess it up. I'd add dialogue trees to it. It'd be terrible."
"It'd be an insult-swordfighting fighting game," I joke.
"Oh my god, that's a great idea!" he laughs.
"I'd also be really scared to make a first-person shooter, because people who make first-person shooters have been tuning those for decades," Schafer continues. "This body of knowledge has been growing deeper and deeper for years and I'd be scared to jump into that."
It's a fair point for a developer whose games are more well-known for their content than mechanics. But oh my, what great content it is!
The vegetarian cannibals in Monkey Island were loosely based on Schafer's health conscious family, who avoided red meat.
"I like that kind of humour that is also kind of sad."
One of the distinguishing characteristics I find in Schafer's work is that while his games are funny, they also centre around distinctly melancholy concepts. For example, the goal of Grim Fandango - besides taking down a gangster conspiracy and saving a girl - is to die... again. Or, more accurately, the main objective is to compete the "four year journey of the soul," and move ahead into the after-afterlife. The game's fiction presents this as a positive outcome, but when held up to the real world it feels incredibly sad. Psychonauts, too, dealt with people's subconscious demons - especially in one hidden room where it becomes apparent that a go-go dancing camp counsellor is partying to forget the pain of her children dying.
"I like that kind of humour that is also kind of sad," Schafer says. "Kurt Vonnegut I always cite as an influence because Kurt Vonnegut's work is always very- I wouldn't say sad, but in touch with how life really is; which is that horrible, horrible things happen to people. It's almost unbearable when you really look at it."
"I'm not someone who suffers from depression, but I definitely feel like I've seen a lot of things happen. I've seen a lot of really good and really bad things happen and I think that that's all just part of life. I think that hopefully makes the comedy funnier."
"Do you think you might ever make an entirely serious game?" I ask.
"I think on different levels they [already] are serious, " he tells me. "Like if you describe the plot of Broken Age or Grim Fandango with the journey of the soul and all that stuff... but then when you get on this level of all the actors trying to deal with the players - this crazy improv actor going around doing things they shouldn't be doing - it gets funny to me." (I'm reminded of what his old Monkey Island colleague, Ron Gilbert, said about only being able to write comedy because the nature of the point-and-click adventure is so goofy anyway.)
But that's okay. I'm not sure if I'd want a serious title, fighting game or FPS from Tim Schafer just as I wouldn't want Woody Allen to make an action movie (but can you imagine if he did? Would it be more talky or less than a Tarantino film?). Schafer may be a legend in the industry, but he's fond of reminding people that he's only human and he has his limitations.
"When I was a kid I didn't understand that it was just people like me who made games," he said during his presentation. That's why he decided to allow himself and his studio to be documented. To show that while making games isn't easy, it's something anyone can do. Sure, Tim Schafer is one of the most revered game developers working today, but once upon a time he was just some out-of-the-loop college kid who couldn't afford to buy retail computer games. I think that's something we can all relate to.From: Ryan Kennedy (e-mail him)
Reading Derb's latest column about the New York City Hall art collection, something occurred to me. This deliberate scrubbing of cis-gendered white men from art galleries and history text books reminds me of what some Pharaohs did to their antecedents. They would chisel their names off of tombs and monuments. They did this so all glory would shine on them and their works and provide no ill contrast to their rule whether current or posthumous. Of course the difference here is that it's done on a massive racial level. It's like the Cultural-Marxists want to chisel the whole of white America out of history.
Of course the Cultural-Marxists have a problem. They don't have many Pharaohs of their own with which to replace the old ones. The ones they do have aren't that impressive or have some baggage that gets swept under the rug (e.g. Cesar Chavez’s campaign against wetback labor). So they make do with trying to naming as many things as they can after their limited hagiography.
This is why I expect that upon Obama's departure from power we will see an explosion of naming of as many schools, monuments and bridges after him not seen since after JFK was assassinated.
See previous letters from Ryan Kennedy.
James Fulford writes: There are already schools and streets named after Barack Obama, believe it or not.Early Access Review
It doesn't take much to make a good Diablo-Clone. Just take what made Diablo great and expand on it. Simple right? If you know anything about these games, you know more times than not, it's either Hit or Miss...Hit meaning classics like Titan Quest, Torchlight, and Grim Dawn...or Miss meaning pieces of trash like Blood Knights, Sacred 3, or The Incredibly Impossible Adventures of Van Helsing.
Anyway, Victor Vran takes the ARPG formula and makes it real simple and functional. Firstly, you get to choose your controls - WSAD to move & click to attack, Click to Move/Attack, or gamepad. You read that correctly...all three are options, as well as key mapping for either keyboard option you choose. Why other dungeon crawlers don't attempt to adopt this kind of setup is beyond me.
That said, there's a reason more people enjoy playing Diablo III on a console..using a controller feels so excellent for this type of game, and it's actually very responsive. Your attacks are quick, but weighty, and you actually get experience points for doing more damage to an enemy than needed.
They've added a jump button, which at first seems stupid, but combined with the ability to wall jump, it actually allows you to get to secret areas and get away from enemies. They've also included a dodge button, taking a page out of the Dungeon Siege III book. There's no cooldown or stamina bar for dodge rolls like there is in Risk of Rain or Dark Souls, respectively. You can do it as many times as you want and it really comes in handy.
Sound is great, voice acting is pretty spot on as well. From time to time it DOES sound like the voice actor is reading his lines..because he is...but it's still well done. Looting is par for the course, and you'll be able to upgrade your weapons, transmute, etc. Since there's no skill tree or even any classes so-to-speak, your skills and based on your outfit and the weapons you use. It sounds strange, but it really does work. That goddamn skill tree in PoE turned a lot of people off, myself included, so to have things simplified so I can concentrate on killing stuff is a breath of fresh air.
Each dungeon actually gives you 5 tasks to complete, each one giving you a star for completion. Some of them require you to take no damage, use no potions, or slay a certain number of beasts in a certain amount of time. If things get hectic and you can only accomplish 4 out of the five, no biggie. Just leave, get your mind right, go back later and get that 5th star. It's pretty linear gameplay, but if you're a fan of this genre, then you've come to expect that.
So far the game's a lot of fun, and it's only gonna get better. Grab it now while it's in Early Access or wait til the 26th when it gets a full release. Either way, it's worth owning. Hands down one of the best ARPGs I've ever played.Real Madrid are set to agree terms on a new kit deal with sportswear giant adidas that will see the La Liga giants net a staggering £106m a year, according to reports in Spain.
The deal would be the biggest of its kind, eclipsing the agreement adidas signed with Manchester United in the summer of 2014.
The Old Trafford club, who started wearing adidas shirts at the start of this season after a 13-year association with Nike, agreed a 10-year deal worth £750m with the German brand.
Real Madrid are close to agreeing the biggest kit deal in club football with adidas
The front page of Marca on Friday reads: 'The most expensive shirt in the world'
MOST LUCRATIVE KIT DEALS 1. Real Madrid – adidas: £106m per season over 10 years 2. Man United – adidas: £75m, 11 years 3. Bayern Munich – adidas: £60m, 15 years 4. Chelsea – adidas: £30m, 10 years 5. Arsenal – Puma: £30m, 5 years 6. Liverpool – New Balance: £24m, 6 years 7. Barcelona – Nike: £24m, 10 years 8. Juventus – adidas: £20m, 8 years 9. Milan – adidas: £18m, 10 years 10. PSG – Nike: £18m, 11 years
But, if figures published in Marca on Friday are correct, Real Madrid's new deal will blow United's out of the water and will be the biggest kit agreement in club football.
It is thought Real and adidas are close to agreeing terms on what would be a 10-year deal, smashing the £1billion mark.
Marca's front page features a picture of the Real Madrid shirt with the headline: 'The most expensive shirt in the world.'
The deal would see Real Madrid regain their position at the top of the most lucrative kit agreements after losing it to Manchester United in 2014.
To put it in perspective Real Madrid's new kit deal would be worth more than Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool's combined.
Real Madrid only signed a new deal with adidas in 2012 which was due to run until 2020 but the new agreement would replace that one at the end of the current season.
Real Madrid are close to agreeing a new kit deal with adidas for a staggering £106m a year
Manchester United signed a massive £750m 10-year deal with German sportswear brand adidas in 2014
Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich signed a 15-year deal with adidas last summer which is worth £60m per season.
The contract negotiated by United chief executive came after a season in which United failed even to qualify for Europe but adidas justified their huge outlay by predicting £1.5billion worth of replica shirt sales over the term of the contract, which will begin next year.
United's previous kit manufacturer Nike did not take up their right to match adidas’s offer and continue a partnership with United worth £30m a year for 13 years because they no longer consider it value for money.
Manchester United have struggled this season with the club recently dropping out of the Champions League places and concerns over the playing style under Louis van Gaal lead to criticism earlier this month from adidas chief executive Herbert Hainer.
''Business with Man United is going very well,' he told Suddeutsche Zeitung. 'We sell more jerseys than expected, the foreign share is 60 percent.An American doctor infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia is back in the U.S. Dr. Kent Brantly is being treated at an Atlanta hospital, his wife grateful for his return. (Reuters)
An American doctor infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia is back in the U.S. Dr. Kent Brantly is being treated at an Atlanta hospital, his wife grateful for his return. (Reuters)
An American doctor stricken by Ebola in West Africa arrived home for treatment in Atlanta on Saturday, and U.S. government officials are urging the public to remain confident in the health-care system’s ability to keep the deadly disease isolated.
A charity organization, Samaritan’s Purse, said two Americans in serious condition with the disease were being evacuated: Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth doctor who had been treating Ebola victims in Liberia, and Nancy Writebol, a missionary from Charlotte.
Brantly and Writebol have been hospitalized in serious condition in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Brantly was brought back to the United States first, in a specially equipped “air ambulance” aircraft that landed Saturday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, in the northwest Atlanta suburbs, according to news reports.
He was being taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has one of four facilities in the country designed to handle such cases.
Once at the hospital, one person in white protective clothing from head to toe climbed down from the back of the ambulance and a second person in the same type of hazmat-looking suit appeared to take his gloved hands and guide him toward a building at Emory, the Associated Press reported.
“The patients will be escorted throughout by specially and frequently trained teams that have sufficient resources to transport the patients so that there is no break in their medical care or exposure to others,” said Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby.
The news of the return to U.S. soil of the two Ebola patients prompted a jittery response on social media, highlighting the special terror that the virus has come to carry for Americans familiar with movies such as “Outbreak” and the best-selling Richard Preston book “The Hot Zone.”
For example, there was a much-publicized tweet Friday from Donald Trump: “Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!”
Ebola is not nearly as contagious as many other pathogens, such as influenza, but it’s unusually lethal. This outbreak, easily the largest ever, began in Guinea in March and had killed 729 people as of Sunday, including about 60 percent of people who had come down with the infection, according to the World Health Organization.
There is no cure for the Ebola virus disease. Treatments are limited to such basics as keeping a patient hydrated. The virus can incubate for up to 21 days before symptoms appear. They include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, massive internal and external bleeding, and multiple organ failure.
But officials on Friday stressed that fears of an Ebola outbreak in the United States are unwarranted. A person infected with Ebola is not contagious until becoming sick. The virus spreads only through direct contact with bodily fluids. It is not an airborne contagion. There have been multiple outbreaks in Africa in the past, and they have all been contained through old-fashioned techniques of quarantining patients.
An infected person could potentially travel to the United States carrying the virus. To heighten vigilance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent health-care professionals a new set of recommendations Friday for handling patients who might be suspected of having the disease.
These include isolating patients in a private room, limiting visitors and requiring doctors and nurses to wear protective equipment, including a facemask, goggles or a face shield, double gloves and shoe covers.
“U.S. hospitals can safely manage a patient with Ebola following our recommended infection-control procedures,” said CDC infectious disease specialist David Kuhar.
“It’s important that we do not let fear of the unfamiliar overtake our reasoned approach to any infectious disease control,” said Barbara Reynolds, a CDC spokeswoman.
“There is zero danger to the U.S. public from these [two] cases or the Ebola outbreak in general,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“People who have Ebola are not walking around on the street. They are very, very sick and pretty much confined to a hospital and to a bed,” he added.
This is the first time an Ebola patient has been brought to the United States, the CDC said. But it’s not the first time an ultra-
lethal virus like this has surfaced in the U.S. health system. The CDC said there have been five instances in which people came to the United States carrying the Marburg virus and Lassa fever virus, which, like Ebola, are in the family of viral hemorrhagic fever diseases. The health system correctly identified the disease in every case, and the virus didn’t spread, the CDC said.
“Ebola does not pose a significant risk to the U.S. public,” the agency concluded.
These assurances come just days before Washington will host a summit of African heads of state and their entourages. The leaders of Sierra Leone and Liberia have indicated that they may not attend, according to the White House.
President Obama on Friday addressed the outbreak and its effect on next week’s summit: “Folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk or infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we’re making sure we’re doing screening on that end as they leave the country. We’ll do additional screening when we’re here.”
He added, “Keep in mind that Ebola is not something that is easily transmitted. That’s why, generally, outbreaks dissipate. But the key is identifying, quarantining, isolating those who contract it and making sure that practices are in place that avoid transmission.”
It is self-evident that, in the era of modern aviation, a virus can go anywhere in the world within 24 hours. Nigeria is on alert because an American, Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian Finance Ministry, collapsed in the airport on arriving in Lagos. He became sick during his journey from Liberia, which included stops in Ghana and Togo. Hospitalized on arrival in Nigeria, he died July 25.
His wife, Decontee Sawyer, who lives in Minnesota with their three daughters, said her husband’s death was a turning point for the outbreak in Liberia.
“People had been dying before Patrick, but nothing was being done. It took a government official to die in a foreign country for the Liberian government to wake up,” she said in a telephone interview Friday. “There were steps that could have been taken, the steps they are taking now, and maybe then Patrick would still be alive.”
The battle against the disease is getting new funding. The World Health Organization and the presidents of the West African countries affected by the outbreak launched a $100 million Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Response Plan on Friday. The WHO said it has an urgent need for more doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and social mobilization experts.
“This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it,” Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said during a meeting Friday with the leaders of the three countries wrestling with the Ebola outbreak — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
She said it would be “extremely unwise” to allow the disease to continue its march through local populations.
“Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of viruses and other microbes,” Chan said. “We must not give this virus opportunities to deliver more surprises.”
The biggest problems are people “running away” from the specialists who are trying to monitor them, usually because they are in denial about being exposed, or afraid of the stigma of having the disease, said Peter Clement, adviser on disease prevention and control for the WHO in Monrovia. People are burying their dead on their own, causing additional and needless exposure, he said.
Anyone thought to be exposed is monitored daily by volunteers, but sometimes the residents flee.
“People hide in the rural areas, do the burials,” Clement said in a telephone interview. “The fear and the panic — but now there is stigma, too. And so they hide.”
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Friday that it had more than 550 staff members working to stem the outbreak. But despite adding dozens of new beds to a treatment center in Sierra Leone, the organization has been overwhelmed. In Liberia, the situation is “dire” and there is “almost no capacity on the ground to respond,” the organization said in a statement.
One of the biggest challenges has been rumor control. There has been a surge of mistrust and hostility aimed at the international medical teams.
Leisha Nolen, a 37-year-old “disease detective” for the CDC who spent a month this spring in Liberia, said she plans to head Saturday to Sierra Leone for a month-long mission tracking people who may have come into contact with Ebola victims. These people can be quarantined if they show any symptoms of the disease.
But she said health workers struggle to gain the trust of people who are skeptical and scared.
“A lot of people in West Africa right now don’t know what to believe or who to believe,” she said. A major hurdle, she said, is “getting people to accept this idea of what the infection is, and that it is a true infection and not some sort of way to trick them or take advantage of them by the government or by the foreigners.”
Lenny Bernstein, Ariana Cha and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.MLS Power Ranking Averages - Week 11
"If two teams played tomorrow, given their current injury concerns, form, and other considerations, who is likely to win on a neutral field? This list is designed to tell you who we feel is most likely to win that matchup. All things being equal, who is the best team going forward, based on what we know now?" -Richard Farley, NBC Sports ProSoccerTalk. 3/11/14
Sites Used:
Allvoices (www.allvoices.com/users/zacwassink)
Black & Red United (www.blackandredunited.com)
Dallas News Soccer Blog (www.soccerblog.dallasnews.com)
Deseret News (www.deseretnews.com) - New bi-weekly (No ranking Week 11)
ESPN (espn.go.com/sports/soccer/mls)
Fansided-MLS Multiplex (fansided.com/category/soccer/mls/mls-multiplex)
Major League Soccer (www.mlssoccer.com)
Northbank-RSL (www.northbankrsl.com) - (No ranking Week 11)
Oregon Live (www.oregonlive.com/timbers)
ProSoccerTalk (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com)
Reddit/MLS (www.reddit.com/r/MLS) - (No ranking Week 11)
Seattle Times Blog (blogs.seattletimes.com/soundersfc)
Soccer America (www.socceramerica.com)
Soccer by Ives (www.soccerbyives.net) - (No ranking Week 11)
Sports Illustrated (www.soccer.si.com)
UTN Sports (www.utnsports.com/category/soccer) - (No ranking Week 11)
If you know of a Power Ranking site that I have not included, please send it to me via this site or on reddit.com/r/MLS and I will consider using it.
Some averages from the last 2 weeks have been modified due to sites publishing their lists after I did. Standings have been modified accordingly.
Weekly Power Ranking Averages
Using the "Olympic" method of dropping the highest / lowest scores, and averaging the rest.
Week 11 Week 10 Week 9
Week 8
T eam
W11 Avg W10 Avg W9 Avg
W8 Avg
Low
High
Var
1
1
2
2
Salt Lake 1.38
1.20
2.09 2.15
2
1
1
2
3
4
12
New England 2.00
3.20
5.82
9.85
3
1
2
3
4
1
1
Seattle 2.63
3.60
1.00
1.00
3
2
1
4
5
8
7
Vancouver 4.75
5.00
7.09
8.15
10
4
6
5
2
3
3
Kansas City 4.88
2.20
3.00 4.23
14
4
10
6
6
11
9
D.C. 7.75
7.60
11.27 9.31
12
4
8
7
11
13
13
Houston 8.50
11.80
11.82
14.46
11
4
7
8
12
12
8
Toronto 8.75
12.00
11.73
8.54
12
8
4
9
10 5
4
Dallas 9.88
8.90
6.00
4.54
18
5
13
10
8
7
11
New York 10.25
8.80
6.73
9.46
15
6
11
11
7
10
5
Los Angeles 10.50
8.10
9.09 5.77 19
6
13
12
9
6
10
Colorado 10.63
8.90
6.45
9.38
18
7
11
13
15 18
16
Chicago 13.13
15.50
17.64
16.00
17
5
12
14
14
9
6
Columbus 13.50
12.80
8.91
5.92
17
10
7
15
13
15
14
San Jose 14.38
12.60
15.27 14.54 18
10
8
16
17
19
18
Chivas 15.13
16.30
18.55
17.77
18
7
11
17
18
16
15
Philadelphia 16.75
17.50
15.64
14.62
19
13
6
18
16
14
18
Portland 16.88
15.50
14.45 17.77
19
6
13
19
19
17
17
Montreal 18.50
18.60
16.91
16.54 19
11
8
Biggest Changes
Point Gaps High / Low Variance
Rise
Houston : +4
Toronto : +4
Fall
Los Angeles : -4
Kansas City : -3
Colorado: -3
La rgest
Vancouver - 3.00 - D.C.
Colorado - 2.50 - Chicago
Smallest
Vancouver - 0.13 - Kansas City
Los Angeles - 0.13 - Colorado
Philadelphia - 0.13 - Portland
1 position: Salt Lake, Seattle
2 positions: New England
4 positions: Toronto
6 positions: Vancouver, Philadelphia
7 positions: Houston, Columbus
8 positions: D.C., San Jose, Montreal
10 positions: Kansas City
11 positions: New York, Colorado, Chivas
12 positions: Chicago
13 positions: Dallas, L.A., Portland
Season Average Power Ranking
Pos
T eam
W11 Avg W10 Avg W9 Avg W8 Avg W7 Avg W6 Avg W5 Avg W4 Avg W3 Avg
W2 Avg
1
Salt Lake
1.92
1.97
2.05
2.05 2.03
2.14
2.38
2.51
2.63
1.95 2
Kansas City 4.03
3.94
4.13
4.28 4.28
4.53
4.90
5.14
5.59
5.62
3
Seattle 4.52
4.71
4.84
5.32 5.95 6.39 6.87 6.54 5.74 5.68 4
Dallas 6.07
5.69
5.33
5.25 5.29
5.66
6.11
7.19
8.56
10.20
5
Vancouver 7.50
7.77
8.08
8.20
8.28
8.07
7.72
7.50
8.11
7.34
6
Los Angeles 7.58
7.28
7.20 6.97 6.94 7.17 7.72 7.98 7.70 7.16 7
Toronto 7.63
7.51
7.01
6.43
6.14
5.88
5.81
6.43
6.37
8.25
8
Columbus 7.87
7.30
6.70
6.42 6.54 6.55 6.76 7.17 8.80 10.11 9
Houston 8.59
8.63
8.24
7.80 6.82
5.86
4.79
3.72
2.85
3.24 10
Colorado 8.99
8.84
8.81
9.11 9.00 9.50 10.45 11.10 11.13 12.14 11
New England 11.01
11.92
12.88
13.76
14.30
14.81
15.39
15.31
16.26
16.02
12
New York 11.56
11.64
12.01
12.67
13.16
13.24
12.68
12.40
12.02
11.37
13
Philadelphia 11.91
11.42
10.75
10.14 9.53
9.16
9.00
8.74
8.41 8.05 14
Portland 13.65
13.34
13.09
12.92 12.19 11.39 10.66 9.77 8.09 5.97 15
D.C. 13.83
14.44
15.19 15.68 16.63 17.38 18.05 18.68 18.63 18.59 16
Chivas 14.62
14.58
14.38
13.86 13.36
13.10
12.82
12.54
12.61
12.25
17
San Jose
14.92
14.98
15.24
15.24 15.35
15.03
14.47
13.83
12.98
12.50 18
Chicago 15.51
15.75
15.78
15.55 15.56
15.63
15.69
15.88
15.93 16.37 19
Montreal
17.87
17.81
17.72
17.82
18.01
17.85
17.60
17.45
17.49
17.13
Largest gaps:
2.36 points between Chicago and Montreal
2.11 points between Salt Lake and Kansas City
Smallest gaps:
0.05 points between L.A. and Toronto
0.08 points between Vancouver and L.A.
Team High/Low
Best and worst placement for each teamBy Kimberly Morin
Yesterday ended the week long “National Employee Freedom Week.” It is a week-long effort to inform union employees that they indeed have the option to “opt out” of union membership if they so desire and instead pay an agency fee. Right to Work is also discussed during the week as well as the benefits compared to forced union states. During the week, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) in New Hampshire released a new study that compares states with Right-to-Work laws to New Hampshire, showing that the Granite State would do better if they were to pass worker freedom laws.
In the study, AFP discusses the history and trends in worker freedom as well as the economic benefits of states who put worker freedom ahead of forced unionism. Forced unionism is when a state compels workers to join a union or pay an agency fee as terms of employment. In other words, whether a worker wants to participate in a union or not, they have to pay the price in order to work in a union shop. This affects public sector employees the most, especially in public education.
Even private sector union hero Franklin Delano Roosevelt was against public sector unions. His reasoning was that the people who are paying the salaries and benefits to public sector employees were not the people who were negotiating them with the unions:
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress.
As a result, unions buy politicians their elections and then “negotiate” their contracts with the very same politicians. This is why public sector salaries and benefits are out of control and far out of line with their counterparts in the private sector. This is also why you see legislators who refuse to vote the way their constituents want like Representative Steve Woitkun who admitted that even if 100% of his |
in Manhattan Beach. But they’re literally on every corner here, and they’re delicious. I think they’re healthy. I’m just going to tell myself that they’re extremely healthy. Because I pretty much had one every day in Belo Horizonte.Original article from 2010 [UPDATED 03/02/14 and 11/12/17] Gov Schwarzenegger should have a long talk with the Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs
MEET Texas State Government even though faced with the same economy as everyone else, appears to be in a very good cash position. Their investment fund balances increase each year; and they increased their budget overall. If Forbes Magazine instead of doing the top 100 wealthiest individuals or companies did "The Top 100 Wealthiest Local Governments", Texas would be right up there at the top. Hey, they can do the same for the top 100 wealthiest Cities; Counties; and School Districts also. Ever wonder why Forbes nor other syndicated national publications have never mentioned a word per qualifying these top lists? Oh, I forgot, they only want to talk about government debt at the front door to justify further tax increases and then whisper at the back door to secure their share of the massive wealth involved. "Silence is truly golden" for them! I wonder if a true and "public" audit was conducted of "all" Local CA government funds where for CA, its Cities, and Counties would appear on that list of the most wealthiest local governments based on total "funds held" 1st, 2nd, 3rd??? The following two reports are for just State Government Inc., and not the many other local governments in TX, but as you will see TX State Government Inc. is rather cash rich and growing in spite of a weakened US economy. Again, Gov Schwarzenegger you should have a long talk with the Texas state Comptroller Susan Combs for her suggestions on improving California's situation without tax increases. My hat is off to the TX State Comptroller for giving an easy reference link to view all "State Funds" in the state of Texas. Other states are not so forthcoming and open to their people. 2008 - http://CAFR1.com/STATES/TEXAS/TexasStateCashReport2008.pdf [added 11/12/17] Here is the 2017 State of Texas Cash Report (2016 data): http://CAFR1.com/STATES/TEXAS/CashReports/Archive/TX_cash_report_2017.pdf
** I suggest that you pull up on your.pdf reader say the 2002 and 2017 Cash Report. Then you can compare side by side the changes in any fund by the fund's assigned number towards: what was brought in; expended; transferred; beginning; ending balances. EXAMPLE: Fund 5025 (TX lottery fund) in the 2002 and 2017 find both and then side by side you can compare the changes as of 2002 and then 2017. You can easily do the same and review the differences of what was brought in; expended; transferred; beginning; ending balances for the specific years of 2002 and 2017, then and now, (15-years) for any fund by assigned fund number. _______________________________________________________________________________ CAFR1 Note 03/02/14 TX pulled the links to where the "Detailed" data the Cash Report is compiled from shortly after this CAFR1 Article. People were looking. Thanks to: Archive.org the 2001 to 2005 TX State.pdf version of the Cash Report, a snap shot was taken and the report can be viewed and "SAVED" from the following links ( the ** one) :
TX CASH Report Archives: 2005 Texas Annual Cash Report (PDF 7 MB)
2004 Texas Annual Cash Report (PDF 20 MB)
2003 Texas Annual Cash Report (PDF 13 MB)
2002 Texas Annual Cash Report (PDF 21 MB)
2001 Texas Annual Cash Report ** CAFR1 loves this one - archive of the 2001 "DETAILED data LISTING: https://web.archive.org/web/20051029005544/http://www.window.state.tx.us/fm/pubs/cashrpt/01/ Gives the individual listing of over 7600 fund accounts. When on that page click on the group of numbers link to see each individual fund account in that grouping. If access to the links above are busy, try back again latter. Now known, many will be looking and that will strain Archive.org's bandwidth. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ State of Texas: Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) - 2010 through 2016: https://comptroller.texas.gov/transparency/reports/comprehensive-annual-financial/ People from Texas should copy and share this report with all of their neighbors! Then look up via a Google search your City, School District, University, County, Government Pension System Fund, or any "other" local government operation CAFR report to see what they are sitting on also. People from CA should do the same and show their neighbors how things are done in TX. Sent FYI from, Walter Burien - CAFR1
BACK TO THE CAFR1 FRONT PAGE Texans, would you like to make a gift to CAFR1 via VISA or PayPal? I know you gave most of your money to Texas government but hopefully something is left over for CAFR1 to help it's work continue.
<-- CLICK HERE AND ENTER GIFT AMOUNT AT TOP RIGHT If you wish to send your gift by US Mail, send a check or US Postal money order to:
Walter Burien - CAFR1
P. O. Box 2112
Saint Johns, AZ 85936It never hurts to be ambitious, pretension be damned. Take, for instance, Gene Luen Yang, whose ambitious desire to create a comic that dealt with issues of ethnic stereotyping and identity led him to create American Born Chinese, the 2006 graphic novel that garnered widespread acclaim, helped foster a wider appreciation for comics among the general public – especially schools and libraries – and and became a finalist for the National Book Award.
Now Yang has doubled down with Boxers & Saints, a two-volume interrelated story set during the Boxer Rebellion, the violent anti-foreigner uprising that took place in China at the beginning of the 20th century. The books look at the rebellion from two different perspectives. Boxers chronicles the adventures of Bao, a young villager who (guided by supernatural forces) leads an uprising against the Europeans overrunning China. Saints, on the other hand, focuses on Christian convert Fourgirl and her own interaction with the otherworldly, as she starts receiving visions from none other than Joan of Arc.
Yang is clearly testing himself here: This is a much more challenging and, yes, ambitious book than American Born Chinese. So far it's paid off. Boxers & Saints has generated a good deal of positive attention from the press, and has given Yang a second National Book Award nomination, no small feat.
I had the opportunity to moderate a panel with Yang and Raina Telgemeier at this year's Small Press Expo, and was charmed by his humility and good humor. That panel in turn led to this interview which was done over the phone just a few days after B&S had made the NAB shortlist.
Mautner: Congratulations on the nomination. How does it feel to be nominated twice?
Yang: It feels crazy. The first nomination really changed my life, you know? Before that my comics were just breaking even. In the beginning of my career I was losing money every time I published something. After signing on with First Second I was breaking even, and then the National Book Award nomination let me at least go part-time on my day job, which was nice.
How did you first find out about the Boxer Rebellion?
I first became interested in the Boxer Rebellion in the year 2000, when Pope John Paul II canonized a group of Chinese Catholic saints. I grew up in a Chinese Catholic church and this was the first time the Roman Catholic Church had acknowledged Chinese citizens in this way. My home church was super excited about it. They had a bunch of celebrations and special masses and stuff. And all those festivities inspired me to look into the lives of these saints. What I discovered was a lot of them were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion. I had vague recollections of hearing about it in high school but I didn’t know much. And then when I read a few things I became really interested and intrigued for a whole variety of reasons.
How did that lead to making a comic about it and at what point did you realize you were going to have to make it into two books?
I think just 'cause I’m a cartoonist. I’m always looking for stories to tell through comics. Usually my comics come out of these little mini-obsessions that I go through. And I definitely got obsessed with the Boxer Rebellion for a while. I think pretty early on I had the idea of doing it as two books, because I couldn’t decide who the good guys and the bad guys were.
Did that daunt you at all? Were there any challenges or struggles you didn’t expect in having two interlocking but separate stories?
Yeah, I had to figure out where the points of connections would be between the two stories. I really tried to make both protagonists sympathetic, even though they were on opposite sides of this conflict. And I also realized pretty early on that the two stories didn’t match up perfectly, at least in terms of scope. Historically, the Boxers went on this long and epic journey. I felt in a lot of ways their story lent itself to narrative easier. And on the Chinese Christian side, a lot of their struggles were internal. They stayed in their villages or went to a neighboring village that was better defended and basically waited to die. A lot of their struggle was about doubt and their place in the world and who they were as human beings. It took me awhile to figure out how I would portray that visually. The Boxers have a much more visual story.
In some interviews you’ve compared Boxers as a kind of superhero book. I wondered if that meant that Saints was the indie, autobio book.
That’s exactly what it is. For Boxers I wanted to draw from heroic storytelling traditions like American superhero comics and like Chinese opera. For Saints, I wanted it to feel much more intimate. I wanted it to feel like an American autobio comic.
Can you talk about how you structured each book to reflect those differences?
Color was a big thing. I didn’t color the books. Both are colored by this cartoonist named Lark Pien. She’s amazing. She writes and draws her own comics as well.
And she’s colored all your books, correct?
She colored American Born Chinese. She didn’t color Prime Baby. That was done by Derek Kirk Kim. But she colored American Born Chinese and Boxers & Saints.
She just has a wonderful sense of color. Together we figured out a color scheme for Boxers & Saints. We wanted it to be full color. We wanted it to be really bright, especially once the Chinese gods come in, just to reflect that we’re pulling from these storytelling traditions like American superhero comics. For Saints we chose to go with a more muted palette. That book is done in these greys that Lark found. They’re really muted but I think she got a lot out of them.
How much back and forth was there between the two of you? Do you give her a lot of leeway?
I really trust her judgment. I trust her color sense much more than my own. For instance with the opera, I sent her a whole bunch of visual reference of opera costumes, and then I’d tell her generally what I’m picturing in my head. At the same time I told her we’re trying to go for something more intimate, with a limited palette. She just figured it out from there. On the Saints side especially, the way she colored Joan, it took us awhile to arrive at that. I told her I was thinking of those European illuminated manuscripts. And she was the one that translated that one phrase into what you see on the page, where she uses the textures and the shading to bring her to life.
Tell me about the research you did. How much did you have to do to learn about this time period?
I definitely still feel like I have a lot to learn about research. I’m not very good at it. This is the first time I’ve done historical fiction and I started by just setting aside a few hours every week, I would go to my local university library for a few hours every Tuesday or Wednesday and just read. I would try to read as much as I could get my hands on about the Boxer Rebellion and also about China during that time. There were a few books that were helpful to me. The one that was especially helpful was called Origins of the Boxer Uprising by a man named Joseph Esherick. I relied heavily on that book, especially for the Boxer side. And then I was able to get other books as well. There’s a book put out by the Catholic church in Taiwan with brief biographies of each of the canonized saints. I was able to go to a Jesuit archive in a French city and there they had these letters and photos sent in by missionaries to China. I wasn’t able to use a lot of the letters because they were in French but the visual reference was amazing. I took a whole bunch of photos and brought them home and that served as the basis of my visual references for the book.
Did you find you had to change your initial idea for the book as you researched. Was there a plot point or character that was altered because of what you learned?
My initial idea for it was so vague. As I researched it got more and more refined. I think it was limited before I decided I was going to bring in the magical realist element. I wanted to do something magical. I wanted to introduce some sort of fantastic element but it took me awhile to figure out on both sides how to portray the Chinese gods on the Boxer side and to decide to use Joan of Arc on the same side, because historically there’s no direct connection between Joan of Arc and the Boxer Rebellion.
Yeah, I thought that was interesting. I wanted to ask you in general about your use of magical realism, because that’s something you’ve used in your books before but I found it especially interesting here, because in your previous books these elements act as a positive force and are something to be trusted, but that’s not the case in Boxers & Saints. The supernatural forces aren’t always leading the protagonists to a clear or positive direction.
I think I wanted to use magical realism to visually portray the struggle that the characters were going through. The different temptations that they might be facing.
Do you find yourself drawn to that storytelling element?
Yeah. I just think comics is a medium that lends itself to that because it’s so visual.
I thought it was interesting you chose Joan of Arc as Fourgirl's spiritual guide in Saints, because Joan’s struggle mirrors that of the Boxers, so you’d think she’d appear to them. And unlike, say, American Born Chinese where you’re not sure what’s real, Fourgirl is obviously having these visions because she doesn’t know who Joan of Arc is. There’s a definitiveness about her visions as opposed to Bao’s where you’re not quite sure if the people in the crowds are seeing what he’s seeing.
With American Born Chinese I couldn’t decide whether I wanted it to be a psychological thing the main character was going through or actually that magic was entering into this world. And I tried to write that book in a way that left it up to the reader. But with this book I didn’t think about that as much. I just tried to do whatever felt right in the story, that’s how I wrote it.
I can see what you’re saying about Joan of Arc. I think one of the things in my research I felt like [those] stories missed was the experience of the luminous. In a lot of the research I did on the Chinese Christian side, they talked about the forces that drove Chinese to convert to Christianity: How, for instance, a lot were former criminals and because the Europeans had so much power with the Chinese government, a lot of times Chinese criminals would convert to Christianity to circumvent the Chinese legal system. And how a lot of the Chinese had very practical reasons for converting to this Western faith.
I’m sure that was true for a lot of the Chinese. But what they didn’t talk about was there was a certain percentage of those early Chinese Christians that had some sort of an authentic spiritual experience, some sort of experience of the luminous, of the otherworldly. If the whole reason the Chinese were converting to this new faith was simply for practical reasons, and they lost their power once they were kicked out of the country, the church should have fallen apart. It should have just disintegrated like it did in Japan a couple of centuries before that. But it didn’t. It sort of became indigenous. Even under communism Christianity still flourished underground. I think that’s because there was some sort of an authentic spiritual need that was met for a certain percentage of people in those communities. So that’s what I wanted to address with the dynamics between Joan and Fourgirl. Even though she doesn’t understand it, even though she gets into [the religion] for very practical reasons – just because she likes to eat – that towards the end there is some sort of spiritual experience that she has.
My understanding is she’s partly at least based on someone in your family?
Yeah. She’s based on a relative of mine who converted to Catholicism as an adult. Or inspired by, I should say. I have a relative who was born on a bad luck day according to traditional Chinese calendar. And she had a little sister that was born on a good luck day. Her grandfather really hated her because of the day she was born on. And every time the grandfather had treats, the little sister would get them, but this relative of mine would not. And then later as an adult she converted to Catholicism. She never connects that. When I talk to her she never connects these two things together but to me it seems like the connection is pretty obvious.
I wanted to ask you about your spirituality and faith and how it works in your comics, especially here. Because while there is the type of spiritual experience you talk about, it seemed at times in Boxers & Saints as though faith could be a destructive force and lead people into self-destructive paths. I'm especially thinking of the priest that appears in both books who doesn’t seem to be aware of his self-righteousness and arrogance. Were you conscious of that ambivalence and those issues?
Yeah, I think so. I’m a practicing Catholic now. Among adults who are still practicing their childhood faiths, I think I have a fairly common story. I grew up in the faith tradition, I went through a long period of doubt, but then I eventually came back to it and embraced it as an adult, but it definitely is in a different form than as I experienced it as a child.
I think faith has always been a struggle for me. I really appreciate the value of it. I feel like it’s a deeply important part of our lives, it’s probably central to my life. At the same time, it’s a struggle. I think it’s a struggle to be part of a community with other flawed people. I think it’s also a struggle in the sense that most faith traditions are really old and in a lot of ways faith traditions can bring together the ancient and modern worlds in ways that aren’t necessarily easy.
One of the things I struggle with is that within a lot of monotheistic traditions there’s this idea that people have a calling in their lives and that you find your calling – that’s part of what it means to be a human being. You find your calling and you live it out. This is something I’ve talked with my other friends who are also religious. We talk about callings. We've been doing this since college. For 20 years we’ve been talking about our calling. And I think there are a couple of us that feel pretty solid that we've found our calling. But for me and most of us, I’d say it still feels ambiguous. We’re going through life and there are times when we feel that we're where ought to be and that we found our place in life. And there other times where we have a lot of doubts and we go through a lot of struggles.
A type of spirituality I’ve been attracted to lately is the spirituality of folks like a Dutch priest named Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton – people who emphasize the small picture over the big picture. There’s this idea that even if you’re never totally sure about how you fit in with the greater picture of the world, there are still these small, everyday instances of kindness and compassion that matter. That was driving my thinking behind [these books].
That seems to be the driving theme of the book. Certainly by the end the final sum up seems to be that personal sacrifice and compassion in the long run is a more positive thing or affects better change than the aggression and violence that Bao adopts.
I think that’s the spirituality that I’m currently attracted to: The small kindnesses within your life are important, regardless of whether you feel like you’ve figured out the big picture or not.
Do you worry about proselytizing or evangelizing in your comics?
Absolutely. When I was in college this was something that I really struggled with. College was when I thought through the big picture questions, like most of us. I thought about faith. I thought about whether or not I wanted to stay in the faith tradition that I was raised in. I was also taking these creative writing classes for a minor in creative writing. I remember writing about faith in a class and my teacher called me in and basically told me it was crap [laughs]. He was right. He told me it just read like crap and that it felt preachy.
The semester after I took this class with a professor. I went in to see her during her office hours and I told her I want to write about what’s important to me but I don’t want to come off as preachy. She was a practicing Buddhist. She told me you should never write about faith, you should never write about religion. You should live out your religion, you should live out your faith, and you should just write your life. If your religion is actually a part of you, it will leak out in your writing. That’s the advice I’ve tried to follow since then. For this book especially I was really worried. I have a lot of atheist friends. I basically leaned on them. I’d give them drafts and they’d give me their opinions and I would modify accordingly.
Can you give me a specific example of something you changed?
It was basically the final scenes of Saints where a lot of this happened. I did have a scene that was in the afterlife. It wasn’t heaven per se, but it was between Fourgirl and Kong. They had both been killed and sat around in the afterlife and had a conversation. And I cut that. [laughs] A couple of my friends reacted poorly to that. And they were right. It was just me – I was so sad about the Boxer Rebellion at that point – I had been immersed in this [story] for several years – that I think I was just reaching for some sort of a happy ending.
The actual end is interesting because Bao is saved by faith but at the same time, he doesn’t do it out of any spiritual motive other than to save his skin. A personal sacrifice has been made but at the same time you’re not sure how to feel about it. It’s a very ambivalent ending.
That was a thing that I read too, that after the Boxers were defeated a lot of them started claiming to be Christians just to save their hides. This wasn’t in the book because I wasn’t able to fit it in, but they had these little headquarters in the city and after they were defeated they started putting up these signs saying “Chinese Christian Men’s Society” over these meeting places so that they would be spared.
Bao struck me as something of a Hamlet character. Whereas Fourgirl, even if she didn’t realize it, had a path to follow, Bao can’t really commit one way or the other. He wants to retake China and save his people but at the same time he's reticent to commit the violence asked of him. It makes him a sympathetic character, but I wonder if that’s not his tragic flaw.
Yeah, I think that’s right. I thought of him as somebody who has a very sympathetic motivation, he really wants to save China but maybe his conception of what China is is flawed.
You also have issues of cultures clashing and despite their similarities not getting along and feeling alien and separate from each other.
I certainly feel that way about the world in general and I wonder if that’s just part of digital culture. It seems like people end up seeing each other almost as simplified versions or avatars of each other. I sound like an old man.
That’s okay.
Sometimes I’m disturbed by how people act online. People have these conversations that you would never have in real life. I’ve done interviews where things get reduced to a headline or a tweet, a complicated idea gets reduced down to a headline or a tweet. It’s not a big deal in my life but I think it happens for much more important things as well, within politics or within relationships between cultures. Things get reduced down to some sort of a core idea that doesn’t capture the complexity of the situation.
Boxers is a violent and dark story, and you’re perceived as being a young adult author. Were you concerned about how to depict these battle scenes and have your main characters go through such horrible things?
I don’t think it was because of any of those categories but more because I’m naturally prudish. I did think a lot about how to portray the violence. I knew from my research, especially from the Jesuit archive, I was astonished by the number of photos they had of sheer brutality. On both sides. European soldiers posing with headless bodies they had and Chinese committing atrocities against other Chinese. I was really struck by the brutality of the time period. I knew I needed to capture that, but at the same time I wanted to do it in a way where the violence wasn’t overwhelming, at least for most of the book, and wouldn’t kick the reader out of the story. There were certain times where I wanted the violence to come through, so I added more detail but overall I think I wanted it to be a much more simplified violence so that the emphasis wouldn’t be on the gore itself, it would be on the act. That’s what I was thinking.
In terms of being a young-adult book author, I had the pleasure of serving as a judge for the National Book Awards a few years ago in the young-adult category. For one year I got to read everything that was published in that category. Not everything, but a huge cross-section of what was published in that category. I was really surprised by how flexible the category is. The books I read dealt with all sorts of things. Every horrifying corner of humanity was represented.
Has this book or American Born Chinese ever come under that kind of censorship or criticism?
I’ve gotten some for American Born Chinese. I think these books are a little too new. I’ve gotten some for Chinese because of the stereotypes. I can totally understand that. I’ve gotten a little bit of interest from movie studios about adapting American Born Chinese and I’m always really reluctant about it because I’m scared that there will be this YouTube clip of Cousin Chinky without any context. That’s my deepest fear. I can understand where they’re coming from.
Did working on such a dark story for a long time take a toll on you?
I think so. I had to take a break. What I did was I outlined both books. Then I wrote Boxers and then I drew Boxers and wrote Saints at the same time. After I finished that, after I finished writing Saints and drawing Boxers I took a break from the project and wrote this superhero story that will be out next year that is drawn by Sonny Liew. It’s called the Shadow Hero. And then after that I drew Saints. So I did have to take that break in between the two books.
What the Shadow Hero is about?
It’s a superhero book set in the 1940s in Chinatown. It’s a revival of this public domain superhero. In the 1940s the golden age of American comic books all these tiny comic book publishers popped up and started throwing characters out at the public because they wanted the next big hit they wanted to get rich. One of these publishers had a Chinese-American artist named Chu Hing, who I think is one of the first Asian-Americans in the American comic book scene. They asked him to create a comic book character for them and he creates a guy named the Green Turtle, who, if you see a picture from the 1940s, has one of the goofiest costumes I’ve ever seen.
The interesting thing about him is the rumors. There are all these rumors about his creation. Basically the rumors are that Chu Hing wanted the Green Turtle to be a Chinese-American but his publishers didn’t think that would fly, so he decided to do this really passive-aggressive thing where you can never see [the character's] face. He almost always has his back turned towards you, and when he is turned towards you, his face is obscured by shadows or another character's head or his own arm if he’s throwing a punch. The rumor is that he did that so he could imagine his hero as a Chinese-American. So Sonny Liew and I are giving him an origin story. His adventures were canceled after five issues so in those comics you never found out his secret origin you never found out his secret identity, so we’re giving him a secret identity and we’re also giving him an origin story.
And did working on that help reinvigorate you so you could get back to Saints?
Yeah, that’s a much lighter story. It’s within this genre that’s traditionally been full of hope, that generally has a much higher view of humanity.
You talked a bit earlier how the success of American Born Chinese changed everything for you. Did that success invigorate you? Inhibit you? I’m curious as to how you were able to process not just having a successful book but one that helped break down the doors into libraries and create an audience for kids.
Everything that happened around American Born Chinese was kind of crazy. In a lot of ways I think it was right place, right time. I think books like Maus and Persepolis and Blankets really put this category in people’s heads of comics that are tackling more literary topics. So when American Born Chinese was published, people like the folks on the National Book Awards judging panel had this category in their heads. It wasn’t completely out of the blue for a comic to tackle something serious like ethnic identity. I’m really grateful for that. I’m grateful to the cartoonists who put that in people’s heads.
After that I think I did feel intimidated for a long time. In fact, one of the things that happened was the book was supposed to come out immediately after American Born Chinese was Level Up. it was supposed to be done with a friend of mine named Thien Pham. He also did a book called Sumo. We almost finished that book. We were five pages away from being done. We get this call from our editor and he basically tells us it sucks, and you can’t follow up American Born Chinese with this book. He said it super nicely, but that was the jist. We ended up redoing it that book. It ended up taking us five years because of that. We basically did it twice. What ended up happening was I did a book with Derek Kirk Kim that came out three years after American Born Chinese came out, The Eternal Smile. But originally it was supposed to be American Born Chinese then Level Up. I definitely felt intimidated. [laughs] My editor was totally right. That book sucked.
Boxers & Saints does feel like the big follow-up. I don’t mean that to slight Level Up and Smile. But it does feel like this is your next big statement.
I think that’s true. This is a book that, when I thought about it, I felt really scared about it. I was worried that I couldn’t pull it off. This is a book where I kept telling myself if you’re going to fail, just make sure you fail big. [laughs] That’s the thing.
Overall I’m happy with it. I have a hard time reading the comics I have published cause I always see things I’d have done differently. But overall I’m happy with it. There are things in every book I wish I had done differently.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the United States and New York is the financial hub but Madison, Wisconsin gets the highest marks as the most educated American city.
Benjamin Frelka of Madison, Wisconsin poses for a portrait with his sign as he marches around the Capitol while protesters gather to protest against a proposed bill by Governor Scott Walker in Madison, Wisconsin February 21, 2011. REUTERS/Darren Hauck
The midwestern metropolis, which Men’s Health magazine described as the city “where the average household has more degrees than a thermometer” edged past Plano, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina to score the highest grades in magazine’s ranking of the 100 cities with the best educated population.
Burlington, Vermont and Seattle rounded out the top five, while Las Vegas, Cleveland and Miami were the least erudite.
“It is all about education there,” said David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and editorial director of Women’s Health, about Madison.
He added that the city has a large population of students, unemployment is low compared to the national average of 9.3 percent and it has good businesses, including biotech and medical supply companies.
“Cities with thriving, interesting businesses have people living intellectual lives,” he explained in an interview.
The magazine compiled the list by looking at the high school graduation rates of the cities, as well as U.S. Census figures on school enrollment and the education levels of people over 25 years old. It also researched the number of households with student loans and people taking adult education courses.
Weather seemed to have had no impact on the rankings with balmy San Diego and Honolulu and bitterly cold Fargo, North Dakota and Portland, Maine making the top 10, along with Lincoln, Nebraska.
Despite being the political center of the nation, Washington D.C. scored 34th in the rankings, just behind Little Rock, Arkansas but ahead of Jersey City, New Jersey.
At No. 54 on the list New York was sandwiched between Orlando, Florida and Chicago, while Los Angeles lagged behind at No. 67.
Fresno and Stockton, both in California, and Detroit scored an F grade in the ranking and were in the bottom five.
The magazine also said that a new report by the Department of Education showed that only 20 percent of high school seniors in the United States have a solid grasp of global geography.
The full ranking can be found here (here )As trade has become a more and more integral part of the global economy, accepted economic wisdom has asserted again and again that overall, free trade is a good thing. Because trade brings so much in the way of competitive pricing and opportunities to buy and sell goods on a more massive scale, the drawbacks that come with it—job losses and declining wages for instance—are often thought to be outweighed.
Further, there’s a belief that some of these downsides aren’t even the direct consequences of trade. Proponents of free trade argue that the decline of American manufacturing jobs isn’t the result of increased trade, but of a larger shift in the nation’s economy toward higher-skilled jobs. They also point out that the growth of wage inequality hasn’t corresponded perfectly with the expansion of global trade. At any rate, whatever their cause, the drawbacks of trade are regarded as not so severe that they can’t be overcome; it’s assumed that workers who find themselves in a region whose jobs are vulnerable to foreign competition could simply move and find a job somewhere else.
But a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that workers’ ability to relocate may be overstated, and that the negative impacts of large trade deals may be more significant than previously thought. To illustrate just how persistent the ill effects of trade could be, the authors, M.I.T.’s David H. Autor, UCSD’s Gordon H. Hanson, and the University of Zurich’s David Dorn of the University of Zurich, examine what happened to workers in certain parts of the U.S. after China’s massive trade expansion.NL leaders announced Wednesday by Major League Baseball once again included Yadier Molina of the Cardinals at catcher, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs at first base, Ben Zobrist of the Cubs at second base, Kris Bryant of the Cubs at third base, Addison Russell of the Cubs at shortstop, and an outfield of Chicago's Dexter Fowler, Bryce Harper of the Nationals and Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets. American League leaders were announced on Tuesday.
Close races remain in the National League at catcher, second base, third base and shortstop nearing the final week of voting in the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot, as fans decide starters for the 87th All-Star Game presented by MasterCard on July 12 in San Diego.
Close races remain in the National League at catcher, second base, third base and shortstop nearing the final week of voting in the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot, as fans decide starters for the 87th All-Star Game presented by MasterCard on July 12 in San Diego.
NL leaders announced Wednesday by Major League Baseball once again included Yadier Molina of the Cardinals at catcher, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs at first base, Ben Zobrist of the Cubs at second base, Kris Bryant of the Cubs at third base, Addison Russell of the Cubs at shortstop, and an outfield of Chicago's Dexter Fowler, Bryce Harper of the Nationals and Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets. American League leaders were announced on Tuesday.
• Cast your Esurance All-Star Game Ballot for #ASGWorthy players
Fans can cast their votes for starters until 11:59 p.m. ET on June 30 at MLB.com and all 30 club sites -- on computers, tablets and smartphones -- exclusively online using the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot. You can submit up to five ballots in any 24-hour period. In other words, Friday will be the last day that anyone with all 35 ballots still remaining can ensure they are all used up.
• American League All-Star voting update
Molina's lead over Buster Posey of the Giants tightened only slightly in the past week, with the margin now just 75,413 votes entering the heaviest voting volume of a campaign that started in late April. Molina and Posey have combined to win each of the past four and six of the past seven fan elections as the NL's starting |
decision to issue Rice a mere two-game suspension, Goodell and other NFL officials had repeatedly denied that anyone with the league had seen the violent images until the TMZ report, much less covered it up. They also rebutted claims that they didn’t aggressively pursue the case because it involved a popular three-time Pro Bowl rusher who had helped his Baltimore Ravens win the 2013 Super Bowl.
"We did not see video of what took place inside the elevator until it was publicly released," Goodell said in a memo issued on Sept. 10 to team executives. "None of the law enforcement entities we approached was permitted to provide any video or other investigatory material to us."
Later that day, The Associated Press reported that a law enforcement source had not only sent a copy of the video footage to the NFL five months earlier, but had its receipt confirmed by a 12-second voicemail from an NFL phone number. "You're right. It's terrible,” a woman says on the recording, according to the AP report.
The AP report prompted immediate calls for an investigation and for Goodell to step down, and not just from domestic-violence prevention advocates. Within hours, the crisis had reached Capitol Hill, where lawmakers, including some with oversight of the NFL and the anti-trust exemptions it receives for television deals worth billions of dollars, demanded action.
Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada wrote a lengthy letter to Goodell, saying that “as the father of two daughters,” he believed it was imperative for the commissioner to "address the harm your league has inflicted on survivors of domestic violence going forward."
"I am highly disappointed the NFL's reaction was only heightened once the public witnessed the elevator video,” wrote Heller, the ranking member of the powerful Senate Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over the NFL. “By waiting to act until it was made public you effectively condoned the action of the perpetrator himself. I cannot and will not tolerate that position by anybody let alone the National Football League.”
With such vast resources at its disposal, Heller told Goodell, he was also “extremely concerned … that not one person within your organization knew anything about the existence of the elevator video before it surfaced on September 8th. The security of the NFL is first-rate and your qualified security professionals hold those positions due in part to their ability to obtain facts quickly and accurately through their expansive network.”
Citing Goodell's “burgeoning, insurmountable credibility gap," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and former state attorney general, announced that "if these reports are true, Commissioner Goodell must go.”
Goodell and NFL General Counsel Jeff Pash knew they had to get out in front of the story, and immediately “discussed who would have the credibility to do something independent like this,” said a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Who has the credibility and ability and the reputation in the marketplace to do this?”
Mueller was hired before the clock struck midnight, during a phone call with league officials, the person with direct knowledge said. The NFL announced Mueller’s appointment immediately, as well as the specifics of the investigation. NFL leaders had already determined its broad outlines by the time they called Mueller, but he had a say in what he would be expected to deliver, that person and several other sources told POLITICO, including someone familiar with Mueller’s thinking on the discussion.
The next morning, the two old-guard NFL owners overseeing the investigation, both of them lawyers, said Mueller had assured them his investigation would be “thorough and independent.”
"No timeline was established, and we stressed that he should take as much time as necessary to complete a thorough investigation," the New York Giants' John Mara and Art Rooney II of the Pittsburgh Steelers said in a joint statement.
“Our sole motive here is to get the truth and then share Mr. Mueller's findings with the public,” the owners said. They said they would neither conduct nor direct the investigation and that Mueller had been given no timeline to finish. He would also have the full cooperation of NFL personnel and access to the league’s records on Rice, who by then had been cut by the Ravens.
Also, the owners said, "We agreed that the scope of the investigation should be aimed at getting answers to specific questions, including what efforts were made by league staff to obtain the video of what took place inside the elevator and to determine whether, in fact, the video was ever delivered to someone at the league office, and if so, what happened to the video after it was delivered.”
A barrage of accusations
From the outset, the NFL was sharply criticized, both for the narrow focus of the probe and also for selecting Mueller to lead it.
Mueller enjoyed a stellar reputation, both for his work as a Justice Department prosecutor and for transforming the FBI during his 12 years at the helm to fix the many problems laid bare by the 9/11 attacks, which occurred just a week after he started the job.
But Mueller had joined the influential law firm WilmerHale, which had deep and profitable ties to the NFL, including helping it negotiate an annual fee increase from DirecTV for Sunday games worth several billion dollars alone.
WilmerHale had also done legal work for several owners of NFL teams, including the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, and many of its lawyers had left the firm to take top positions at the NFL or its teams. One was Jay Bauman, the NFL's second-highest ranking in-house lawyer, who left WilmerHale in 1999. Another was Richard Cass, who had spent 30 years at WilmerHale before becoming the Baltimore Ravens' president — and the man who reportedly helped shield Rice from public scrutiny by getting him into a diversion program that was usually off-limits for violent offenders, and one of the team leaders who allegedly pressured the NFL front office to go easy on the star rusher.
“The optics are terrible,” Robert Boland, a former prosecutor, criminal defense lawyer and sports agent who headed New York University’s Tisch Center for Sports Management, told the New York Daily News.
At his first news conference after the TMZ video a week earlier, Goodell was asked why the NFL picked Mueller for an investigation designed to restore public trust, given his ties to WilmerHale.
“Even if he does a flawless investigation, isn't there an element here of you're leaving the door open for doubt?” Goodell was asked.
“Unfortunately we live in a world where there's a lot of litigation. There are a lot of law firms, a lot of people who have had maybe some interaction with us in the past,” Goodell responded. “Robert Mueller has not. Law firms may have. But we were hiring Robert Mueller, and his credentials, his credibility to do an independent investigation, reporting to the owners. And I am confident that that will be the case.”
What Goodell told the public, it turns out, wasn’t exactly true. Mueller had indeed met with Pash and some other top league officials shortly after joining WilmerHale in March 2014, to discuss ways in which he might use his experience to help the firm do more work for the league, according to the person with direct knowledge of the NFL’s interactions with the former FBI director.
“It was a request by Mr. Mueller to get in front of us and discuss what we could do,” said the person familiar with the meeting. “It was not long after he went to WilmerHale, and was just about getting things started.”
Rice’s assault case, which occurred weeks earlier, wasn’t specifically discussed at the meeting, that person said, adding, “But that’s definitely the kind of thing he came to talk about — that as a former prosecutor and director of the FBI, we’re out here and happy to help with investigations and the like.”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed that the meeting took place, but downplayed its significance.
“It was just one meeting after Mueller joined WilmerHale, and nothing came of it until the NFL appointed him to oversee the investigation,” McCarthy said. “It was an introductory meeting,” the kind the league has with many law firms, given all of its varied legal and investigative requirements.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at an NFL press conference announcing new measures for the league's personal conduct policy during an owners meeting in Irving, Texas, on Dec. 10, 2014. | AP Photo
As Mueller went to work, more details came out about potential misconduct by the Ravens, and the NFL, in the Rice case. A 7,000-word expose by ESPN said the Ravens' security director knew exactly what happened in the elevator assault almost immediately, thanks to a police lieutenant who described the video to him frame by frame. That prompted the Ravens to conduct a wide-ranging cover-up that included an effort to prevent the video from ever becoming public, according to ESPN, which also quoted four sources as saying Goodell lied by saying Rice never told him the gruesome details of the attack before his initial suspension, when in fact he’d told the commissioner the truth.
The Ravens issued a lengthy statement aimed at contradicting and clarifying what the team said were inaccuracies in the ESPN report. But Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti also acknowledged that, “we did not do all we should have done, and no amount of explanation can remedy that. But there has been no misdirection or misinformation by the Ravens.”
Reached on his cellphone, Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome Jr. had no comment on the Mueller investigation or the underlying allegations about possible misconduct by the team, including failure to share key information with the league about the incident. “You’ll have to talk to the league about that,” he told POLITICO.
Mueller’s first step was to bring aboard Zebley, a former whiz-kid counterterrorism agent and federal prosecutor who had risen to become Mueller's trusted chief of staff at the FBI before going to WilmerHale. Soon, he had assembled a core team of about eight investigators and lawyers from WilmerHale, forensic experts and other specialists.
For the most part, Mueller operated behind the scenes, meeting with senior NFL officials on occasion but delegating the questioning of witnesses and other investigative work to others, according to the person with first-hand knowledge of the Mueller team’s interviews of NFL employees.
Even during the questioning of Rice himself, Mueller wasn’t there, the person familiar with those interviews said.
“Director Mueller is not generally about opening up too much,” that person said. “He was very matter of fact. He is not known for his effusive personality.”
Two other people who sat in on interviews said two to three of Mueller’s team members would show up armed with reams of preparatory material before spending from one to two hours asking questions and taking copious notes.
“They went to the nth degree on every single point. Which is fine,” said one. “They were very effective in that way. They were not there to prejudge anything, but to gather the facts.”
As Mueller would later note in his report, the team collected, searched and analyzed millions of documents, emails and text messages from the league’s network. They interviewed all 188 female employees, contractors, vendors and interns whose electronic badge recorded them being in the office on April 9, the day the AP said someone from the NFL left a voicemail confirming receipt of the Rice tape, the report said.
And they assembled a database of every call placed to the NFL’s main number, and every call made from the NFL, including break rooms and mailrooms. In all, they tracked 1,583 calls to 1,050 unique phone numbers, and identified and interviewed every single person involved. And the team reviewed all electronic logs for tracked and interoffice mail, and established an anonymous tip line so NFL employees could share information about the investigation.
Jeffrey Miller, then the NFL’s senior vice president and chief security officer, told POLITICO that Mueller’s investigators “were very thorough and prepared, and treated everyone fairly.”
They were so thorough, in fact, that senior NFL executives who might have had knowledge of the league receiving the Rice video in the mail were asked to submit their “personal phones, business phones, laptops, iPads, work computers and home computers” so they could be copied and analyzed for clues, according to a person with direct knowledge of the team’s questioning of NFL officials.
NFL executives who were in the habit of deleting old texts and emails watched as investigators recovered and analyzed them, especially those exchanged with journalists and anyone else who might shed light on the veracity of the AP report.
As the investigation neared completion, Mueller met again with some top NFL officials “and bounced some things off of [them] and made some suggestions about things that, going forward, the league could consider doing.”
The person familiar with the investigation said that despite the meetings, Mueller didn’t share his formal findings with the NFL before completing his report, given his pledge at the outset to remain independent.
Some questions answered, others raised
Mueller issued his report on Jan. 8, 2015, concluding that his team found no evidence that anyone at the league office received or reviewed the videotape before TMZ released it, or that any woman working at the NFL had acknowledged receipt of the video.
An Associated Press spokeswoman told POLITICO this week that AP officials reviewed the Mueller report when it was issued “and stand by our original reporting.” The AP has also noted that the law enforcement officer who said he sent the tape to Miller, the NFL security director, and whose identity the AP did not disclose, had not been interviewed by Mueller’s team because the news agency would not cooperate. “We do not offer up reporters’ notes and sources.”
The Mueller report also criticized the NFL, saying Goodell and his NFL investigators likely could have gotten the tape if they had tried before giving Rice the initial slap on the wrist.
"The NFL should have done more with the information it had and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the Feb. 15 incident," Mueller said in the report. He also proposed a series of recommendations designed to correct weaknesses in the NFL’s system.
Team owners rejoiced at Mueller’s findings and said that while his report showed the need for reform, it also proved that Goodell deserved their support.
Critics, however, were furious. “How Do You Spell Whitewash? N-F-L,” O’Neill, the NOW president, said in a news release at the time.
The narrow focus of Mueller’s “non-report … was designed to protect Goodell from accountability for his failure to lead, and deflect the possibility of real and lasting change at the NFL,” she said.
“If one of Robert Mueller’s FBI agents had turned in a report as incomplete as the Ray Rice investigation, that agent would have been transferred to Peoria,” she said. “It was like the house was on fire, and they wanted to know all the facts about the color of the living room sofa.”
O’Neill, like other domestic violence activists, said the report showed that Goodell continued “to run away from the questions that need to be investigated: When the NFL learns of an intimate-partner violence incident, what immediate steps does it take to ensure the physical safety of the victim? What does the league do to ensure survivors’ longer-term economic security? What concrete steps has the NFL taken to change its business model — the way it treats cheerleaders, the absence of women in positions of authority, the failure to deal transparently with traumatic brain injury, the too-cozy relationship between league security and law enforcement — in order to reduce both the incidence and harm done by intimate-partner violence attacks?”
Two lawyers familiar with the case said Mueller’s investigation and lengthy report also sidestepped key questions about how the Ravens — and the NFL — claimed to be ignorant of the details of the attack, even after the general public had seen another videotape of Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer out of the elevator and dropping her like a sack of potatoes. And they wondered why Mueller didn’t single out more Ravens officials, or Goodell and other league officials, for failures he identified in the report.
Ginsberg, Rice’s lawyer, added that the report also laid bare the NFL’s effort to steer the investigation away from questions about the conduct of its senior officials in the case, including the widespread belief that Goodell and his top associates knew exactly what was on the Rice videotape before giving Rice the two-game suspension, even if they didn’t have it in their possession.
“A full investigation into the entire matter necessarily would have concluded that the NFL never particularly cared about, or made it a priority to address, that kind of behavior until the public outcry became a PR disaster for Goodell,” Ginsberg said. “Goodell hired Mueller in order to use the release of the videotape, and more particularly to focus on the issue of whether the NFL had received the videotape before imposing the first punishment, to change the subject matter and try to placate critics. The NFL failed in that attempt, but Mueller stayed in his lane and fulfilled his limited assignment in a professional, thorough manner.”
Mueller acknowledged some shortcomings in the report, saying that he could have done more to force The Associated Press, the Atlantic City police department and others to answer his questions if he had had the subpoena power he enjoyed at the FBI.
In an appendix to the report, Mueller said nothing had undermined the independence of his investigation, including the oversight by team owners Mara and Rooney. He also dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest, saying he didn’t know Ravens President Richard Cass, who had left WilmerHale 10 years before he got there.
Also, Mueller said, WilmerHale’s renewal negotiations for DirecTV ended in 2009, its similar work for Total Sports Network ended in 2007 and the firm’s only work for the league since 2010 was $5,672 for legal advice on immigration issues.
“Neither I nor any member of my team has ever provided legal services to the NFL,” Mueller added.
Mueller declined to comment on any aspect of this article through a spokesman, referring questions about the investigation’s independence to the report’s appendix. In keeping with his insistence on secrecy and operational security, the report itself contains no details about who was on Mueller’s team, or what they did, with the exception of Boston-based digital forensics firm Elysium Digital, which also had no comment.
A spokeswoman for WilmerHale, Molly Nunes, said there was nothing she could discuss about Mueller’s investigation.
“There just isn’t anything we can say about it at all,” Nunes said. “That’s Director Mueller’s preference.”When my husband and I deserted our cushy life and city jobs five years ago to stitch together a living on our dream homestead in the sticks, we didn’t know there was a term for such outrageous behavior. Ah, but, there is.
Coined in 1996 by fellow ship-jumper and author Michael Fogler, “un-jobbing” is exactly what we are doing here in the Ozarks. Like Fogler, we freed ourselves from a life of merely making a living. Instead of being rattled from sleep by a screaming alarm clock (a totally unnatural way to awaken) to trudge to a corporate establishment, we rise with the sun. No longer exhausted from grueling days consumed indoors, my husband can devote boundless energy to designing and building all we need here, especially his favorite – human-powered devices for the self-reliant.
And I can grow food, sew, draw, write, delight in nature and volunteer at the local food producers’ co-op. Although not impossible, it was less fun to do such things when depleted from work, worry and driving. As crazy as it sounds, I found I had more money by not working. Having a job means buying clothes, gas and food, among other nonsense, away from home. Incidentally, the higher one’s income, the more damage done to the environment.
In his gutsy, concise book (only 106 pages), Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook, Fogler explains how he pulled all the areas of his life into alignment with his personal values, living more simply and consciously. In a light-hearted style, he chronicles his journey in search of the ultimate fantasy job, a high-paying, full-time career “with benefits package and security.” Fogler’s frustrating pursuit led him in an entirely different direction – home, where his heart is, enjoying a non-job-dominated life.
Fogler and his wife left the work-a-day world as we did, a little at a time, until eventually becoming immersed in a fulfilling life without luxuries, but full of riches money cannot buy. Untangling from society’s expectations is not easy at first, as Fogler points out.
When I quit my final “guaranteed paycheck” in 2012, it felt unnatural as I had worked nearly seamlessly since the 1970s. I didn’t know what to call myself when meeting people. I wasn’t retired, laid off, unemployed or between jobs. I was simply no longer part of that accepted routine of what Fogler calls “the 9 to 5 to 65 merry-go-round.” In other words, most people in Western society accept and expect to work their lives away for an employer, and are bewildered when encountering those of us who choose not to. Even home-based entrepreneurs can fall into the trap of overwork, Fogler warns.
For years as a newspaper reporter and editor, I frequently woke in a panic at 3 a.m. dreaming that I had forgotten to turn in an extremely crucial writing assignment or to dress appropriately for an interview with the president. After only a few months of un-jobbing, however, those “pajamas in public” nightmares ended.
Perhaps because I am more aware of this lifestyle now, or maybe the Ozarks attracts us, I have met many others who piecemeal together incomes so they can live simply off the land. Many, like us, raise much of their own food, forsake frivolous amenities, barter with their neighbors and are mastering the art of repurposing. We live without air-conditioning, TV, cell phones and much of everything else modern society deems essential. But, as Fogler stresses, this is not a life of deprivation. Un-jobbing also does not include relying on government aid or charity. Instead, we focus on and build for ourselves what we truly want from life.
At a lavish wedding this summer, it made me smile to know I’d spent less than $4 on my glittery outfit at a non-profit thrift store. After the wedding, I donated the clothing back, where it will be sold again to support the local domestic violence shelter.
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Ironically, a friend who still struggles with how to leave so-called job security passed the book to me on my way to the wedding. I read it on a Greyhound bus headed north. Before reaching Minnesota, I’d finished the book. Although I was already living the life Fogler described, the book affirmed my decision. I put down the book and gazed out the bus window at miles of commuters in stiff business suits, road construction workers hammering away at concrete and truckers entombed in their semis. Then there was the bus driver who never smiled once in 900 miles. I can’t say for certain, but I bet nearly all those folks preferred to be somewhere else, but do not know how to make the change.
Because this feeling is too good not to spread around, Fogler offers tools, ideas and suggestions on how and why to live such a life. MOTHER EARTH NEWS interviewed Fogler in April 2000 in How to Quit your Job, asking him what people should know about the process of extricating themselves from unfulfilling work.
“The biggest stumbling block is fear, no doubt about it,” Fogler said. “People are afraid, and while they might fully admit that they're not totally happy right now, the fear is that if they make a big change, it could be worse. And so they'd rather stick with what they know, even though it leaves a lot to be desired. They are afraid that accepting a different way of life will mean financial catastrophe.”
Fogler said there is no guarantee that quitting a job won’t mean financial ruin. In his experience, however, it doesn’t.
“I don't know if everything's going to be okay,” Fogler said he tells people in his career workshops. “But I know that if you don't make any moves, if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten."
Another great MOTHER EARTH NEWS article on the topic of living simply includes So You Want to Be a Farmer?
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In March 2014, fellow MOTHER EARTH NEWS blogger Kyle Chandler-Isacksen explains in Six and a Half Money-Saving Tips how his family of four lives abundantly on about $6,500 per year on a half-acre in Reno, Nev., without electricity, a car or job.
“With this lifestyle comes time for hobbies and interests, time for being with our children and time with my wife, time for play and rest, great health and great food, time to do lots of service, and deeper connection to nature and to our friends and neighbors,” Chandler-Isacksen says. “It's been a great journey so far.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Linda Holliday lives in the Missouri Ozarks where she and her husband formed Well WaterBoy Products, a company devoted to helping people live more self-sufficiently off grid with human power, and invented the WaterBuck Pump.
Photos by Linda Holliday
All MOTHER EARTH NEWS community bloggers have agreed to follow our Blogging Best Practices, and they are responsible for the accuracy of their posts. To learn more about the author of this post, click on the byline link at the top of the page.Would you like to learn Japanese free of charge? We are giving away 30 hours of high-quality comprehensive Japanese audio lessons, together with a complete transcript.
If you are having a difficult time trying to learn Japanese, it’s understandable. For people who think in English, Japanese is a very difficult language to learn. Aside from the inconvenient fact that written Japanese employs three different alphabets, the main reason that we have so much trouble when we try to learn Japanese is that Japanese grammar is fundamentally different from the grammar used in European languages.
On the positive side, Japanese sounds a lot like Spanish, and it’s relatively easy to pronounce. It contains nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and there are reasonably logical rules that tie these elements together. It’s a fascinating language, and naturally you should try to learn Japanese if you will be visiting Japan.
I’ve been studying this difficult language for over thirty years and have tried a number of courses, textbooks and study methods during that time. Based on my experiences, I’ve identified three keys that can help you to learn Japanese.
KEY #1. Since time is limited, use these Japanese Audio Lessons to learn Japanese free.
It will take quite awhile for your English-thinking brain to start thinking in Japanese. You will need to spend hundreds of hours reviewing phrases and sentences in order to acquire a reasonably firm grasp of basic Japanese vocabulary and grammar. Where will you find the time for this study?
An excellent solution to the problem of insufficient time is to use Japanese audio lessons. Since audio lessons don’t require you to stare at a book or a screen, you can use them while you do other activities that you need to do anyway, like exercising and commuting. As a bonus, if you exercise more often while using them, audio lessons will help to keep you healthy.
KEY #2. Use Mnemonics to help you learn Japanese.
Japanese words can be hard to remember. Kuukou means airport. Kyuukou means express train. Koukou means high school. Koukuu means aviation. How can you help your brain to remember all of these similar terms?
Small stories that are designed to help you remember new words can serve as mnemonics, or memory aides, which will help you to learn Japanese free of charge. Possible mnemonics for the four Japanese words mentioned above include “I shared my Kool-Aid with my co-worker at the airport,” “I wore my cute coat on the express train,” “Koko the gorilla visited my high school,” and “we ship Coke and Kool-Aid by aviation.”
It shouldn’t take very long for you to think of simple mnemonics for most Japanese terms. If you get stuck, try using a dictionary or a search engine. Since mnemonics are just trivial things that you will typically discard after using a new word about ten times, they don’t have to be perfect.
KEY #3. Use Active Recall as a tool while you learn Japanese.
“Active Recall” means “learning by answering questions” or “flashcard learning,” and it’s a highly interactive, enjoyable and effective way to learn Japanese free of charge. Active Recall has been shown to be more effective for building strong memories, compared to “passive” study methods like reading textbooks or merely listening to audio recordings.
Many people use flashcards, especially electronic flashcards, when they are memorizing difficult terms. If you haven’t tried flashcards, you may not realize how much fun they are, or the extent to which they can reinforce your memory.
These Japanese Audio Lessons can be thought of as audio flashcards. Instead of employing written questions and answers, as paper and electronic flashcards do, they consist of audio questions in English followed by audio answers in Japanese.
If you want to learn to Read in Japanese, check out our two books.
While we’re on the subject of Active Recall, I should mention that we have prepared two books, Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume I, and Learn to Read In Japanese, Volume II, which are also based on the Active Recall learning method. In the books, the “questions” are written on the left side of each page as Japanese sentences, and students do their best to translate them into English. The correct answers are shown in a small font on the right side of each page.
You can read more about our books on the How to Read Japanese page on this site. However, let’s return to our discussion of free Japanese audio lessons.
Japanese Audio Lessons will help you to learn Japanese efficiently.
After completing my third round of Japanese audio lessons, I needed to find another course that would allow me to continue to learn Japanese. Not finding anything suitable, I started working on my own interactive Japanese audio lessons with the help of my wife Noriko, who is a native of Kyushu in Japan.
These Japanese audio lessons consist of sentences or phrases spoken in English, followed by answers spoken in Japanese. After listening to a question in English, a student pauses playback and thinks about how to translate the question. When the student is ready, he or she says the translation aloud and then resumes playback to hear the correct answer in Japanese.
The Japanese audio lessons come with a complete transcript, which you can print and carry along as you learn Japanese free of charge. The transcript includes both Japanese text and romaji, and it is completely customizable. If you think of new mnemonics while you are using these lessons, you may add them to the transcript for future use.
Since you will probably use these lessons during exercise periods and while you commute, you will soon begin to understand Japanese grammar and vocabulary at a basic level. If you refer to the transcript as you study, you will find answers to many common questions about the Japanese language.
Next, read A Comparison of Three Japanese Language Courses.
Or look at some of the other pages on this site:
Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume I
Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume II
Japanese Lessons Download Page
The History of these Japanese Lessons
Recommended Japanese Study Methods
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If you would like to leave a public comment, please use the “Leave a Reply” box at the bottom of the Comments page. To contact me privately, please use the Contact Form on the Contact page, or send me an email at administrator@japaneseaudiolessons.com.Here’s some gross new concept art of Scorn
Scorn, that one horror game we announced awhile back through some weird trickery on the developer’s part, has some brand new concept art. Ebb Studio is keeping with their Giger inspired visual style with these new images, with monstrous and suggestive imagery that evokes one’s nightmares of what masochists do to their genitals.
The one piece of art from Ebb’s website features a humanoid figure in the fetal position, being one of the first pieces to suggest we’re looking at an emotional character rather than a … thing.
Unfortunately, there’s still not much new to learn about the game in terms of gameplay or story. The dev team has taken to their social media channels lately to post new images and reassure commentors that the game is still in development. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear something soon, though. Maybe a trailer! If not, hopefully some new screenshots from the in-development game. So far we’ve only see the prototype pre-funding.Halli Labs, a company working to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve “old problems,” has been acquired by Google. The acquisition comes just a couple of months after Halli made its public debut, and Google says the group will be joining its “Next Billion Users” team.
Deal: Get Pixelbook at 25% off: $750!
The announcement came via the Halli Labs Medium blog:
Today, we are thrilled to share the news that the Halli Labs team is joining Google. As we wrote in our introductory blog post, Halli Labs was founded with the goal of applying modern AI and ML techniques to old problems and domains — in order to help technology enable people to do whatever it is that they want to do, easier and better. Well, what better place than Google to help us achieve this goal. We will be joining Google’s Next Billion Users team to help get more technology and information into more people’s hands around the world. We couldn’t be more excited!
Google’s Caesar Sengupta confirmed the acquisition on his Twitter account. “Welcome @Pankaj and the team at @halli_labs to Google,” he said. “Looking forward to building some cool stuff together.”
Details on what exactly Halli will be working on are light at the moment, but it’s certainly assumable that the team will continue working on AI and ML technologies. The company’s debut blog post did mention, however, that Halli means village in Kannada, so perhaps “old problems” mean concerns such as fresh water, sanitation, and other basic needs.
Halli Labs is applying modern ML techniques to old problems and domains to help technology march on in its timeless purpose— that of giving superhuman powers to all of us humans in letting us do whatever we want to do, better.
Google’s Next Billion Users initiatives include products such as YouTube Go, Google Station, Android Go, and more. The initiative, appropriately, is about reaching and bringing on the internet’s next billion users.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news!Rendering of a new countdown clock that the MTA will begin testing in eight Manhattan stations on the N, Q, R line before a rollout to all lettered subway stations. View Full Caption MTA
NEW YORK CITY — The MTA will start testing new subway countdown clocks that it will eventually install on train platforms across the city, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
The new clocks will feature LCD screens, which the MTA says is an improvement on the LED countdown clocks currently used in 176 stations.
“These actions are the latest steps toward rebuilding and transforming the MTA into a unified, state-of-the-art transportation network,” Cuomo said. “With this new and updated technology, we’ll help ensure riders have the information they need to get where they need to go.”
The MTA will install two clocks in each of the eight N, Q, and R stations — 23rd Street; 28th Street; 34th Street; 42nd Street; 49th Street; 57th Street; 5th Avenue/59th Street; and Lexington Avenue/59th Street — for a 90-day test period.
The clocks connect to the first and last cars of each train via wireless Bluetooth technology in order to communicate when the train enters and leaves the station.
Eventually, the LCD displays will be installed in all 269 lettered-line stations throughout the city.
The governor also announced that 131 buses on the M15 SBS, B46 SBS and S79 SBS lines will be retrofitted with digital information screens that will provide audio and visual route information and display next stop information, service advisories and travel information, including transfers.
The service will eventually be expanded to 3,600 buses in an effort to update the fleet citywide.Joy Davies, the Liberal Party candidate in the B.C. riding of South Surrey-White Rock, has resigned after pro-pot comments she made on Facebook came to light during the federal election campaign.
Her resignation, announced by the party on Thursday afternoon, comes after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said Davies's promotion of the merits of marijuana does not reflect official party policy or his personal beliefs.
In 2013, Davies commented on Facebook that marijuana reduces family violence and that growing it in a home poses no harm to children. She also wrote that the Canadian Cancer Society is "another outlet for big pharma."
The Liberal Party said in a statement that Davies's views "in no way reflect" the values or policies of the party, and that a new candidate in South Surrey-White Rock would be nominated in due course.
In a Facebook post Thursday, Davies said she decided to resign because her "personal opinion and past comments should not distract from what is most important right now — ensuring all Canadians receive the real change and new leadership they deserve."
After much consideration, I have decided to resign as the Liberal candidate for South Surrey – White Rock,... <a href="http://t.co/OANyW0DbOr">http://t.co/OANyW0DbOr</a> —@VoteJoyDavies
Davies becomes the latest in a growing list of potential politicians exposed for past indiscretions on social media. Political operatives and average Canadians have dredged up plenty of questionable comments from the past as a tool to discredit current candidates.
Trudeau pot stance 'totally irresponsible': Harper
It also put the spotlight back on Trudeau's call for the legalization of marijuana.
Pressed about Davies at a campaign stop earlier in the day, Trudeau said Liberal policy would be to control and regulate marijuana, because right now it is in the hands of organized criminals, street gangs and gun-runners. It has also become far too accessible for young Canadians, he added.
The Conservative campaign insists the Liberal legalization plan would put the health and safety of children and communities at risk.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, speaking at a campaign event Thursday in Saint John, N.B., said Davies's remarks show how "irresponsible" Trudeau's stance on marijuana is.
"A Liberal candidate saying today that pregnant mothers should smoke marijuana, this is the kind of thing that comes with Justin Trudeau's advocacy for the full legalization of marijuana," Harper told supporters.
"And it is totally irresponsible and we will not stand for that."When the Portland Timbers started their coaching search after letting John Spencer go, Merritt Paulson and Gavin Wilkinson were not expecting a decision to be made until sometime in the offseason. Things have progressed rapidly since then and there is a very real possibility of an announcement coming as early as September.
Merritt Paulson had this to say about the search:
It's been very smooth and very thorough. A ton of interest in the job. |
ciudad: el tacón de pez espada (un tipo de taco asado; 78 pesos mexicanos o unos 3,85 dólares) desbordante, ahumado y jugoso, es el platillo estrella del lugar. Los lugareños y los conocedores del lugar se reúnen para rendirle homenaje, y la mezcla de rancheros mexicanos con sombrero de vaquero, surfistas bronceados, gringos de la tercera edad y viajeros gastronómico constituye una buena imagen de la particular combinación de Puerto Vallarta.
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Paseo al atardecer
El puerto y el Malecón —el paseo a la orilla del océano Pacífico (con vistas dignas de postal gracias al mar y la Sierra Madre al fondo)— han sido un destino para turistas y residentes desde la década de los treinta. Con una remodelación de 2,4 millones de dólares en 2013, dejó de ser andrajoso y se volvió elegante. Después de ver el nuevo muelle y mirador, dirígete a Cuates y Cuetes para beber una margarita bajo sus hojas de maíz secas; la “hora feliz” en realidad parece durar la mayor parte del día, pero es el lugar preferido por expatriados y lugareños para beber un trago o dos al atardecer. Mientras tanto, la nueva Cervecería Unión ofrece una gran selección de cerveza artesanal local de microcervecerías en un espacio grande y con ventiladores en el techo. Prueba la Calavera, una cerveza negra de Tlalnepantla, junto con las deliciosas ostras saladas locales.
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Celebridades de Hollywood
Cuando John Huston filmó La noche de la Iguana en la costa cercana, puso a Puerto Vallarta en el mapa de las celebridades. Uno de los protagonistas de la película, Richard Burton, tuvo una aventura apasionada con Elizabeth Taylor, mientras ambos estaban casados… así que quizá era inevitable que Puerto Vallarta se asociara con uno de los amoríos más famosos del mundo. Uno de los santuarios de su romance es Casa Kimberly, un regalo del actor a Taylor cuando ella cumplió 32 años. El icono fue reinventado hace poco como un hotel boutique de nueve suites, con un restaurante y un bar de tequila, el Iguana. Prueba el cebiche de pulpo, ostión y camarón (236 pesos) y el róbalo asado con jamaica y chipotle, junto con un buen tequila o mezcal, antes de visitar el Puente del Amor, que conectaba el alojamiento de Taylor con el de su amante a través de la carretera.
Sábado
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Todos al mercado
Hace poco, se han abierto mercados de productores y artesanías en pueblos a lo largo de esta costa y las mañanas del sábado docenas de vendedores llegan al Parque Lázaro Cárdenas para su venta semanal. El café orgánico mexicano, las mermeladas locales, el pan recién horneado y los pequeños productores artesanales que venden de todo, desde bolsos tejidos a mano hasta joyería, están entre los atractivos de los puestos al aire libre. Todos los productos se cultivan, se fabrican o se producen en un rango de 75 kilómetros alrededor del mercado municipal.
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Por quién doblan las campanas
Aunque la mayoría de los visitantes del pueblo se concentran frente al mar, Viejo Vallarta es una encantadora mezcla de calles adoquinadas y arquitectura colonial, con cafés, restaurantes y boutiques. Comienza tu día con una visita a la Iglesia de Guadalupe, con su hermosa torre abovedada, que se remplazó después de un terremoto en 1955 con una nueva diseñada por el artista jalisciense Carlos Terrés. A lo largo de la calle, el nuevo café Salati ofrece deliciosos y saludables jugos frescos servidos en tarros, en un lindo espacio.
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Tesoros artesanales
Mientras Puerto Vallarta se concentra en transformar su imagen para alejarse de una reputación más kitsch, hay pequeñas boutiques que han empezado a adoptar una filosofía de “Hecho en México”. Ponciana Boutique, por ejemplo, ofrece todo: desde vasos de tequila fabricados localmente hasta textiles oaxaqueños; mientras que Banderas Soap Blends tiene aceites orgánicos de coco y cáñamo, así como cremas corporales perfumadas. Los regalos perfectos para llevar a casa.
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Sensación contemporánea
Cuando la galería OPC, Oficina de Proyectos Culturales, una organización sin fines de lucro, se inauguró en 2014, se convirtió en una infusión de seriedad al ambiente artístico del lugar, con exhibiciones dignas de museo y un contrapunto cultural para la reputación más turística de la ciudad. Curadas por Pilar Pérez (quien antes fue la curadora de Track 16 en Santa Mónica, California), las exhibiciones previas han incluido una retrospectiva de El Nopal Press (una casa editorial que se concentra en publicaciones de bellas artes sobre problemas sociales que van de Los Ángeles a Ciudad de México) y un espectáculo dedicado a los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos cuyo secuestro masivo en 2014 en la provincia de Guerrero —aún no resuelto— movilizó al país.
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De la granja a la mesa
Una red de restaurantes más pequeños dirigidos por familias está surgiendo en el viejo pueblo como prueba del creciente ambiente culinario. Uno de los nuevos participantes, Tre Piatti, fue inaugurado por una pareja estadounidense de chefs (se conocieron en Quince de San Francisco). El menú cambia cada dos semanas, pero siempre tiene un enfoque italiano y la pasta fresca, como los ravioles de gorgonzola con compota de higo, así como los vegetales locales y los postres, entre ellos la tarta de mora azul, han hecho que la popularidad del lugar crezca; una cena para dos cuesta cerca de 1600 pesos sin vino. Por otro lado,El Campanario es un ejemplo de cómo la comida mexicana simple puede transportarte a otro lugar. No te pierdas el pozole, un caldo espeso de maíz con puerco que puedes aderezar con limón y acompañar con tostadas de maíz. La cena para dos cuesta cerca de 150 pesos.
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Las largas horas de la noche
El Patio de mi Casa es donde los hípsteres se reúnen en una terraza para escuchar música en vivo y beber cocteles artesanales como Ginger Verde, una bebida congelada con mezcal, naranja, jengibre, albahaca y un ligero toque de miel (75 pesos). El Solar es un lugar favorito para bailar cerca de la playa, con varios DJ los viernes por la noche y tocadas en vivo los sábados.
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Domingo
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Desayuno de campeones
Chefs en sus horas de descanso, artistas, familias locales y conocedores de Puerto Vallarta se dirigen a Coco’s Kitchen para almorzar. Úneteles en el jardín interior para comer un plato de huevos rancheros, pan francés relleno de queso y mermelada, y hotcakes de churro, con una taza de café con leche (450 pesos para dos).
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Domingo en la playa
Los domingos, muchas tiendas, restaurantes y galerías están cerradas, por lo que es el día perfecto para visitar una de las playas prístinas, pasear brevemente en bote o hacer una caminata. Ocean Grill, cerca de Boca de Tomatlán, ofrece un servicio gratuito de embarcaciones para invitados que hagan una reservación para el almuerzo —y tiene una playa privada para nadar antes y después—, que podría incluir mahi mahi y la margarita distintiva del restaurante por cerca de 1000 pesos para dos. Casitas Maraika, que está más apartado, sirve cebiche y unos buenos cocteles, como Bloody Mary con un toque mexicano, en frente de un tramo perfecto de arena y agua cristalina. El almuerzo cuesta cerca de 600 pesos para dos.
Dónde quedarse
Propiedad del arquitecto mexicano Óscar Morán, Hotel Villa Mercedes, cerca del Malecón, tiene un patio ventilado, habitaciones lindas con buenos precios y una vibra bohemia (habitación doble desde 89 dólares; no se permiten niños).
El nuevo Casa Kimberly dentro de un punto emblemático de Puerto Vallarta también ofrece un bar de tequila y un restaurante (habitaciones dobles de 290 dólares a 1125 dólares).poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201608/2774/1155968404_5085147209001_5085129761001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Walker: Trump can win if he can 'get the focus' on Clinton
Donald Trump will be elected the next president of the United States if he can keep the attention of the public and the media on Hillary Clinton and not on "sideshow issues," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday, offering praise for the Republican nominee's Monday speech on defeating terrorism.
In Walker's state, where Clinton led Trump by 15 points among likely voters in the latest Marquette University poll, the race has been "a roller coaster," he remarked on "Fox & Friends."
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"I think that's going to go up and down. A lot of it's going to depend on whether or not the focus is on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump or whether or not the national media talks about sideshow issues," Walker continued. "If Donald Trump can keep the focus on her, and give speeches like he gave yesterday where he clearly lays out a very presidential approach as to how he'll address the security of our nation, he can win."
But if Trump "gets off on other issues, it becomes much more difficult," Walker conceded.
"People are ready for a change. Americans want to change. People here in Wisconsin want a change. Hillary Clinton is not a change agent. But if she gets people talking about other issues other than that, she can win," Walker said. "If Donald Trump can get the focus on her and how he's the true change agent, he can win.""An effective speech. I am glad he's finally learning to act presidential. The best moments were honoring our fallen warrior and calling for unity. But he needlessly polarized issues like health care and immigration which still have bipartisan solutions. He also ducked completely how to pay for his plans."
"President Trump campaigned on a promise of making America great again, and tonight he offered a bold, uplifting vision for how to reach that goal - one that every American can share in. His commitment to patient-centered health care solutions, his acknowledgment of the need for pro-growth tax reform, and his reference to the importance of school choice for parents and students were an encouraging reminder of how far we have come from the failed policies of the last eight years," said Congressman Diane Black. "While the President's words tonight were important, I am most impressed with his actions. I sat in this same chamber and listened to President Obama deliver eloquent speeches and lofty promises, but the reality never matched the rhetoric. In contrast, President Trump has already taken meaningful steps to reduce the regulatory burden on families and businesses, strengthen our national security, and restore a culture of life that protects our voiceless unborn. Tonight's speech bolstered my confidence that our unified Republican government can act on this historic opportunity and deliver real change for the American people."
"We should be focusing on creating good-paying jobs, restoring faith in our criminal justice system, fine-tuning the Affordable Care Act, and improving educational opportunities. We should be increasing funding for programs that are vital for the health and well-being of my constituents and so many people across the country such as food stamps, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs, energy assistance and community health care centers. We should be protecting the environment and addressing the undeniable threat of global warming. Unfortunately, based on what we heard from the President tonight, I fear we may see the opposite. The President's plan to increase defense spending to historic levels will likely result in cuts to these important programs and services. I don't feel that this apparent billionaire who lives a lifestyle of the rich and famous understands, much less is trying to serve, the middle class who often live paycheck-to-paycheck and find themselves in need a helping hand."10 Attractive Women Who Could Kick Your Ass At Something Manly May. 12 by TKK
Women have historically been seen as the "fairer sex" and their physical accomplishments are often overshadowed by their male counterparts. But let's get something straight: there are plenty of women out there who are not only attractive but who are pretty damn good at a sport or profession that's normally seen as "manly." So the next time you think of women as the weaker sex, take a look at the following examples and wallow in the disgusting pool of your own wrongness.
10- Natsuko "Gal" Sone- Competitive Eating
Eating mass quantities of food extremely fast seems to be custom tailored for fat dudes. Surprisingly, the real landscape of Major League Eating defies that. There's eaters like Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, who look and act like regular dudes but can somehow also consume almost 70 hotdogs in 12 minutes. Natsuko "Gal" Sone (pictured in the middle) is not like these men. No, Natsuko is a Japanese TV personality and pop singer who weighs in at a teensy 96 lbs. So while her tiny frame and high pitched voice may have you thinking this girl couldn't finish a garden salad, she'd eat more sushi in one sitting than you will in one year. And she'll look much hotter than you while doing it.
Check out Natsuko "Gal" Sone in action on YouTube.
9- Danica McKellar - Math
Remember the Wonder Years? Remember Winnie Cooper and how you totally had a crush on her, and how you wished she'd stop messing around with that loser Kevin Arnold and transfer to your school so you could be her boyfriend and carry her books to class for her? Yeah, us too. Well, guess what? Winnie Cooper, or rather Danica McKellar, the actress who played her, is all grown up and she is freaking hot. But what's most surprising is that she's also a total brainiac, having graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics. That's right: Ms. McKellar excels in a field that, for a long time, was considered too complex for the relatively "simple" brains of women. It makes your math skills seem almost "elementary" by comparison, doesn't it, Einstein?
Check out Danica McKellar in action on YouTube.
8- Jennie Finch - Softball
99% of the male population will never play in the major leagues. Most of us mortals just don't have the hand-eye coordination and the strength necessary to see, much less hit, a major league fastball nor do we have the speed or the dexterity to field a position. However, there is hope in the form of softball. This toned down version of the big league sport is simple enough that most of us can play it at least on a recreational level. And we bet most of you think that if you ever found yourself face to face with a female pitcher, you could point out into the stands and call your shot because this baby is going, going, GONE, right? Well, if you ever went up against Jennie Finch, chances are you'd probably strike out on three straight pitches. We really can't decide what this former All-American and Olympic Gold Medalist's greatest weapon is: Is it her smoking hotness or her smoking fastball, which tops out at 71 mph-in baseball terms, that's the equivalent of a 100 mph heater. No wonder she's struck out a total of 1,028 batters in her career. You want to step in to the batter's box and see if you can avoid being number 1,029? Didn't think so.
Check out Jennie Finch in action on YouTube.
7- Jeanette Lee - Pool
Pool is the Steve McQueen of sports: it's classic, timeless and utterly cool. And it's also pretty freaking manly. Pool invokes images of smoky bars and rough and tumble types with tattoos burning time until they have to call their parole officers. But there are a ton of accomplished female pool players out there who could run the table in the time it'd take most guys to line up a single shot. If we were going to be humiliated at a game of pool, we'd want it to be at the hands of Jeanette "The Black Widow" Lee. Supremely skilled and ridiculously attractive, this top pro is as deadly as her nickname implies. Your best bet for beating her? Break and hope you sink the 8-ball right off the bat, because if you let her near the table, chances are, you won't get another shot.
Check out Jeanette Lee in action on YouTube.
6- Paula Creamer - Golf
Is there any sport that's more "male" than golf? Not manly-football, baseball, hockey, hell any sport with physical contact is manlier than golf. But the sport of golf is so steeped in the "male" culture that it's hard not to see it as sport for men. And talk about a boy's club: there are still golf clubs in America that won't allow women to join! But if those idiots who are in charge of those misogynistic institutions got a look at Paula Creamer, we're sure they'd relax those outdated membership laws. But not just because she's as pretty as a Tiger Woods tee shot right down the center of the fairway-she's also an accomplished golfer who has 8 major wins under her belt as well as the 2005 LPGA's Rookie of the Year award on her mantle. A female golfer who's hot and can help you with your (putting) stroke? What's not to love?
Check out Paula Creamer in action on YouTube.
5- Jinx - Video Games
For a long time, video games have been a male dominated industry. While women are rapidly catching up, men still spend more money and time on video games than women do. But that doesn't necessarily mean men better at them. There are some professional female video gamers who can dominate any online match they find themselves in, no matter who they're playing against, which only further dispels the notion that video games are just for guys. If we could pick, we'd personally love to play a few online matches of Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 with Jinx of the Frag Dolls (pictured on the right); not only is she hot, but she would totally pull her weight when things got heavy. Hell, if anything, we'd probably hold her back with our bumbling fingers.
Check out Jinx in action on YouTube.
4- Allison Stokke - Pole Vaulting
Allison may have just started her collegiate track career, but she's vaulted (sorry) into the national spotlight due to her amazing ability in the gutsiest of track sports--pole vaulting. Here's a woman who will toss her body 12 feet up into the air on multiple occasions every day without an ounce of fear. We predict Olympic success for this high-flying hottie. At least we hope so, so we can ogle her in HD.
Check out Allison Stokke in action on YouTube.
3- Maria Sharapova - Tennis
Before you slap the obvious tag on this one, consider this: Maria Sharapova is freaking hot and you shouldn't complain about getting an opportunity to think about how hot she is. Ever. Besides, unlike a certain other hot female tennis player, Sharapova is actually capable of winning a few matches every now and again. And she sure as hell could beat you in a match. Have you ever seen her forehand smash? It's vicious. On a relate note, what is it with hot female tennis players whose last names end in -va anyway? Sharapova, Hantuchova, Kournikova, Dementieva, Cibulkova, Vaidisova-the list goes on.
Check out Maria Sharapova in action on YouTube.
2- Kyra Gracie - MMA
Mixed martial arts is the new hotness right now and it's easy to see why: it's fast, brutal and bloody. And it takes a special breed of person to step into an octagon and proceed to try and beat the holy hell out of another human being. Sure, men, with their violent reptilian brains, are suited to this but women, who are supposed to soft, gentle and nurturing, aren't, right? Do you ever get sick of being wrong? There are a lot of female MMA fighters out there and they could take you apart like a fat man dismantling a whole roasted chicken. If we ever had to walk down a dark alley, we'd take Kyra Gracie with us. Not only is she hot, but she's a deadly fighter who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and has won several world championships. Oh, she also belongs to the Gracie clan-yes, that Gracie clan-so not only could she beat you up, but her entire family could as well.
Check out Kyra Gracie in action on YouTube.
1- Ashley Force - Racing
Is there any sport that's more "male" than racing? Oh wait, we already used that line. But auto racing is also a quintessential "male" sport. Think about it: guys in the garage, tinkering with their tools then taking their cars out on the track and tearing around, all the while wasting gas and polluting the environment. God, it makes the hair on our chest stand up straight just thinking about it. But have you ever seen professional NASCAR and NHRA drivers? Yikes. Aside from Dale Jr., who we guess is sort of not terribly un-good looking, professional male racecar drivers have us wondering what else is on TV. But not so with female racecar drivers-while their male counterparts leave much to be desired, female racecar drivers are, for some odd reason, ridiculously hot. And while everyone's fixated on NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, we'd rather ride shotgun with the much hotter NHRA driver Ashley Force. She's got the balls to compete professionally in drag races and once beat her own dad--also a pro racer--in a competition. Kinda makes your automobile exploits seem a little lame, doesn't it? Yeah, that triple-lane change that you pulled off during rush hour traffic yesterday is way impressive, dude. Oh yeah, and getting your Honda up to 80 on the highway that one time? Totally rad.
Check out Ashley Force in action on YouTube.State Department spokesman John Kirby is bragging up the US State Department’s sordid achievements of 2015, even things that they demonstrably never did. Key among those was the declaration from Kirby that the US brought “peace and security to Syria.”
The US has been bombing war-torn Syria for months, and ISIS controls around half of the nation’s territory, and the nation is shedding millions of refugees, who are fleeing anywhere and everywhere just to get out of the conflict.
Syria at this point seems to be the least peaceful place imaginable, and despite Kirby’s efforts to couch America’s involvement as a “humanitarian contribution,” it consists pretty much exclusively of arming some militant factions and bombing others,
Kirby went on to brag of the US “stepping up to aid the Syrian people during their time of need,” and taking credit for peace talks nominally set for next month, and which at this point don’t really have a set list of involved parties.
Ironically, the peace talks are the fruit of a Russian effort to get moderate rebels to talk with the Assad government, something the US had long resisted and openly opposed, and its contribution seems chiefly to be that they’ve finally gotten out of the way of it.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzA Chinese man who ran an aerospace firm with offices in British Columbia has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for stealing confidential information on a U.S. military transport aircraft and the F-35 stealth fighter.
Su Bin had pled guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to helping two Chinese military hackers. Among the targets of the hacking efforts was information on the U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters as well as Boeing’s C-17 transport aircraft, which is also used by the Canadian air force.
In a plea agreement, Su admitted to conspiring with the two hackers in China to gain unauthorized access to computer networks in the U.S. between October 2008 and March 2014.
Su travelled to the U.S. on 10 occasions during that period, according to court documents.
He was arrested in Richmond, B.C., in June 2014 and a Canadian court ordered Su’s extradition to the U.S. in September 2015.
The 51-year-old has been sentenced to three years and ten months in jail. He was also fined $10,000.
Su, also known as Stephen Su and Steven Subin, is the owner of the aviation firm Lode Technology. Besides the office in Canada, it also had locations throughout China.
His firm did business with companies in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the U.S. and France.
“Over the course of years, this defendant sought to undermine the national security of the United States by seeking out information that would benefit a foreign government and providing that country with information it had never before seen,” U.S. prosecutor Eileen Decker said in a statement.
Su did not carry out the actual hacking, which was done by his two co-conspirators, both members of the People’s Liberation Army in China.
Instead, Su’s role was to identify technical data that the hackers could target, according to the charges filed by Decker.
Su also admitted translating the stolen information, which was then offered to Chinese aviation firms.
The theft of information on the C-17 aircraft made “important contributions to our national defense scientific research development,” one of the Chinese military officers wrote in an email intercepted by the U.S.
Another email, sent by Su in 2009, outlined the names of U.S. aerospace executives that the hackers could target.
Some in China have hailed Su as a hero. In March, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to China’s government, published an editorial highlighting Su’s role as a special agent. “We are willing to show our gratitude and respect for his service to our country,” the editorial said. “On the secret battlefield without gunpowder, China needs special agents to gather secrets from the U.S..”
The hackers did not confine their activities to U.S. firms. One of Su’s emails noted an attempt to collect data on a missile being developed jointly by Russia and India. The U.S. also alleged he focused on military technology being developed by Taiwan as well as information held by groups promoting democracy in China and independence in Tibet.
Last year the Chinese government vowed it would crack down on cyber espionage aimed at U.S. businesses, after the U.S. government warned it would consider sanctions if China’s economic spying didn’t stop. American intelligence officials have nonetheless expressed doubt that China will ease up on its activities.
The U.S. isn’t the only nation that has faced such Chinese-directed cyber operations. The computer systems of Canada’s National Research Council have been hacked a number of times, although the Chinese denied they were involved.
Email: dpugliese@postmedia.com | Twitter: davidpuglieseImage copyright PA
The Green Party in England and Wales is proposing an average 10% cut in rail and bus fares.
The general election pledge would be paid for by a £1.8bn-a-year increase in public investment in fares.
The move - costed at £9bn over the lifetime of the next parliament - would be funded by scrapping the coalition's £15bn roads programme in England.
Season tickets rose by up to 2.5% on 2 January, while the overall average rise for all fares was 2.2%.
The government said the rises that came into effect in England and Wales were regrettable but necessary. It said fares were crucial to funding rail modernisation.
The Labour Party has said it would enforce a "strict cap on fares".
'Unprecedented fragmentation'
Under the Green Party's plans, national rail fares would be cut by 12% and London Underground fares by 10%. Meanwhile, fares for London and UK bus services would see a 7% reduction.
Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, who attended a protest against railway privatisation at London's King's Cross station on Monday, said the move would give the travelling public "a much-needed financial break".
She said: "This investment of £1.8bn would offer an enormous help to Britons to as they travel between communities, to work, to meet up with friends and relatives, and would help us relieve the national reliance on carbon-intensive forms of transport."
Image copyright Press Association Image caption Ms Bennett has criticised the "endless" rises in rail and bus fares, which she says are the most expensive in Europe
She added: "The £9bn investment would be paid for by scrapping most of this government's indefensible £15bn road-building programme, leaving £6bn for further transport programmes."
The party says this would not affect road repairs or safety improvements to the existing roads infrastructure.
The Greens are also calling for the renationalisation of the railways to secure "a cheaper and better service".
The party's only MP, and former leader, Caroline Lucas has introduced a bill which calls for Britain's rail franchises to be brought back into public ownership as their contracts expire.
It is currently awaiting its second reading - when its general principles will be debated by MPs - in the House of Commons
Ms Lucas has said the privatisation of rail services has led to "unprecedented fragmentation of the railway" which is not delivering the "best deal" for passengers.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
THE RSPCA has condemned a motorist who apparently walked two dogs for miles - by dragging them on leads through the windows of a car.
Witnesses were stunned as the driver and two children inside the vehicle appeared to hold their pets from the open windows to take them for a walk.
One said: "I'm still thinking about it - it was horrible. Worst thing was that the man was driving and asked two teens or children to drag the dogs.
"The driver dragged the dogs for miles and there was a queue of cars behind him.
(Image: SWNS.com)
"I asked my wife to take the pictures after I saw the two dogs getting squashed by a car coming from the opposite side of the road."
The Mitsubishi 4x4 car was spotted in Base Lane, Sandhurst, Gloucester, at around 7pm last Thursday.
The RSPCA said it was "extremely dangerous" for the dogs and showed a complete disregard for their welfare.
A spokesman said: "An accident could so easily happen not only to the dogs, but also could be a danger to other road users.
(Image: SWNS.com)
"We would strongly urge people not to do this with their dogs as it is extremely dangerous and irresponsible.
"Dog owners have a legal responsibility to help protect their pet from hazards however these dogs were put in a potentially very hazardous and dangerous situation."
Witnesses are urged to call the RSPCA on 0300 123 4999.Syber Vapor is an upgradeable, full-featured living room console sized PC gaming system. Enjoy all of your favorite PC games anywhere by simply plugging it into your TV. Packed with the newest high-performance hardware, the Syber Vapor can handle the newest hit gaming titles. Also, with Microsoft Windows 8.1, you get access to all Windows features like Netflix, Hulu, Web Browsing, Skype and much more.
Syber Vapor PC Gaming Console is first and foremost a powerful PC gaming system. It is also a full-featured Microsoft Windows 8.1 computer, allowing you to also watch movies, listen to music, video chat, browse websites and much more.
and much more
Additional payments such as subscription fees may be required to access content on certain applications (for example, Netflix or Hulu). Plus, some channels may not be available to all households in every market where Syber Vapor is sold. The applications name, logo and likeness are the property of their respective brands. These brands have no relationship with Syber and are in no way endorsing or are responsible for the claims made by Syber.Stated in its simplest form, The Wire‘s story about the India Foundation revolves around conflicts of interest along three distinct axes.
The first concerns its founder-director Shaurya Doval, who is partner in a Saudi businessman-backed financial services firm that helps clients close deals in a range of sectors, some of which may overlap with the responsibilities of ministers and officials whom he manages to get involved in the India Foundation’s activities. The second concerns the propriety of ministers working as directors for a foundation whose activities have a direct and and indirect bearing on their work in government, especially given the dependence of the India Foundation on corporate support, both Indian and foreign. The third is political: should a think-tank that is linked to a political party receive tax-payer support in the form of backing from public sector enterprises and, in some cases, ministries and government departments too?
On October 31 and then again on November 1, The Wire sent national security advisor Ajit Doval’s son, Shaurya Doval, an email with a detailed list of questions on the activities of the India Foundation, of which he is a director. Doval had earlier simply replied “Conferences, Advertisement, Journal” to a question the reporter Swati Chaturvedi posed on October 30 about the source of the foundation’s funds. This answer was clearly inadequate given the public interest involved in understanding the financing of an NGO that has cabinet ministers on its board.
Despite reminders via WhatsApp – to which he had responded the first time – Doval chose not to answer any of these questions. Ram Madhav, a co-founder and director of the India Foundation and owner of its internet domain, also chose the route of silence after promising Chaturvedi that an “appropriate person” would reply.
Questions addressed to Shaurya Doval on November 1
With which authority is your trust registered? Who are its trustees? When did the India Foundation get its FCRA registration for the first time? The FCRA site says it was “renewed” in 2017. If the India Foundation got registered with FCRA for the first time in 2017, did you receive FCRA ‘prior permission’ for foreign contributions/donations in the years before that? If so, could you provide details of that? If the India Foundation has been registered with FCRA prior to 2017, could you tell us why the foundation has not filed its mandatory FC returns for each year? If they were filed, these are put up for public scrutiny but nothing is available for your India Foundation. In case you have filed and these have not been uploaded by the FCRA authorities for some reason, please share the same with us. Could we have a list of foreign companies that have given money to the India Foundation in the form of advertisements, sponsorship of events etc. And also Indian private sector companies that have been a source of revenue, direct or indirect. Does the India Foundation execute a service contract in such circumstances when receiving payment from foreign companies? If so, a sample copy of the same. On the revenue side, we can understand getting advertisements and corporate sponsorship for conferences/events/journal but what about the day to day expenses, eg. rent for premises, salary for staffers, etc. Do you or Ram Madhav draw a salary or any other form of remuneration from the India Foundation? Could you share with us what the annual budget of the India Foundation is? And its recent audited financial statements, in the interests of transparency. Does the India Foundation have a 12AA and 80G license? Is the list of directors on the India Foundation site current or have new directors joined or have any of those shown there quit? Please share the donation/contribution if any received from government bodies, PSUs, ministries etc.
On Wednesday, November 1, a questionnaire was sent to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, with copies to her ministry staff. No answer was received.
Questions addressed to Nirmala Sitharaman, defence minister and director, India Foundation
What are the India Foundation’s sources of revenue? We see that foreign companies like Boeing and DBS have sponsored India Foundation events in the past and perhaps still do so. Would you accept that there is a conflict of interest involved in you serving as a Director on a foundation that receives funding, directly or indirectly, from foreign companies, especially those that have dealings with ministries you have handled such as Commerce and Industry, and now Defence? You are a Director of the India Foundation which has received FCRA clearance with registration number 231661683, last renewed on 6/6/2017. It is not clear whether the India Foundation had FCRA registration earlier but the FCRA website which maintains a record of the mandatory FC returns shows no return filed for the last four financial years (i.e. FY 2013-14, 2014-5, 2015-16 and 2016-17) by the India Foundation. Could |
roll out!I didn’t expect to like Star Trek (2009) at all. I originally thought it sounded like a cheap gimmick to cash in on a popular franchise. The filmmakers had clearly run out of ideas for continuing the story, so why not leech off what worked in the past? However, when the film finally came out, I started to hear that it wasn’t some knockoff, but it really was trying to bring Star Trek back from the dead in a creative way. So I gave in and watched the movie while it was still in theaters. And what I found thoroughly shocked me. From the slam-bang beginning to the hopeful conclusion, this movie had me hooked and excited to see more.
I’m going to share what made Star Trek such a pleasant surprise for me by explaining my background with the series, what I expected from the film, and what it delivered. Along the way, I’ll also address some of the criticisms that have been leveled at this film. So let’s boldly go where many fans have gone before!
My Background with Star Trek
I’m what you might call a middle-of-the-road Star Trek fan. My first memory involving Star Trek was when I lost a baby tooth while watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on TV. Soon after that, I remember seeing the series premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation “Encounter at Farpoint” and numerous other episodes of that show when I could stay up late enough to watch them. I especially loved the first half of “The Best of Both Worlds.” I got goose bumps at the cliffhanger when in my child’s mind I tried to picture what the show would be like without Captain Jean-Luc Picard. That was a mind-blowing twist for me to have him become a Borg.
To make a long story short (too late), I got into Star Trek by watching the movies and Star Trek: TNG. I tried to get into Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but they just didn’t capture my attention the way the TNG crew did. And I didn’t even bother trying when Enterprise came along. I’ve seen a couple episodes of the original series, but I’m too far removed from that generation to get much pleasure out of seeing silly camp from the 1960s play out on screen.
So I was probably in the target market for the Star Trek reboot film. I know the catchphrases from the original series, and I’m familiar with who the characters will become in their mature years. I wasn’t terribly interested in seeing Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the crew in their Starfleet Academy days. But if it meant a new, exciting adventure for our heroes, then I might be willing to give it a shot.
What I Expected
When the Star Trek reboot was first announced, I expected it to be some kind of coming-of-age story about a young Kirk facing all sorts of challenges on the way to graduating from Starfleet Academy. It actually sounded pretty boring in my head. Who wants to see how Kirk became a great leader when we’ve already seen him use his honed skills in numerous adventures over the years? His humble beginnings would almost certainly pale in comparison to his later years. Think Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace vs. Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. One stinks and the other rocks. By the way, I’m sorry to mix my Star Trek/Star Wars metaphors.
I heard the story would involve some form of time travel, which was fine by me. Star Trek IV and First Contact were both great films, so I wasn’t too worried about it. As long as time travel is just a means to telling a great story, I’m perfectly fine with it. Honestly, my expectations were kind of high and low at the same time. I had been royally disappointed by the last Star Trek film, Nemesis. I figured anything would be better than that. But I grew up equating Star Trek with high quality, so I couldn’t help really hoping that a lot of thought and effort would go into the newest installment. Thankfully, the film I saw blew away all of my expectations.
What the Film Delivered
Fun. That’s what Star Trek (2009) brought back to the series. It upped the energy level to a fever pitch without overloading the audience with either special effects or technobabble. It kept the story progressing at a good pace the whole way through, taking its time between action set pieces to let the audience breathe and prepare for what’s coming next. I’ll explain a few things that this film specifically delivered well below:
This Is Gonna Be Good
Michael Giacchino created an excellent score for this movie. The music theme that plays while the Paramount and Bad Robot logos appear on screen is particularly great. I could feel my sense of anticipation going through the roof. It sounds both epic and eerie, and I couldn’t wait to see what it portended. Luckily, it didn’t take long for the film to deliver on the promise of its soundtrack. The opening attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin was unlike anything I had ever seen in a Star Trek film or TV show episode. I was used to the slower and more submarine-like space battles of The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. This was something completely new for me. And I loved it.
The Spock-iverse
The thing that surprised and delighted me the most was the fact that the film focused so much on Spock. At least as much time is devoted to Spock as Kirk. To me, Spock has always been the more interesting character. He’s a child of two worlds and he’s also an outcast in both of those worlds. He’s constantly on guard against his human instincts while also trying to purge himself of emotion. Even though his intellect is superior to most of his superiors and he’s perfectly capable of taking command, he still defers to them and chooses to live in the shadow of lesser men. I think it’s because he recognizes his own weaknesses. He hasn’t been able to harmonize logic and emotion the way Kirk has. He sometimes lacks the human touch that is so often needed to make it through crises.
The fact that this film creates an entire Spock-iverse is the best choice its makers could have made. The villain Nero is obsessed with making Spock pay for the destruction of his home planet Romulus. In his quest for revenge, he obliterates the planet Vulcan, kills hundreds of Klingons and Federation officers, and he comes close to destroying Earth, as well. Basically, he sets up an entirely new setting in which Spock is now going to play an even bigger role than he did before. As one of the last Vulcans alive, he’s sure to command more respect in Star Fleet, and his relationship with his crew members will forever be colored by their first adventure together. What a great setup for this reboot.
Constantly Creative
The film never repeats itself. Even when nearly identical situations arise, it finds new ways to present them. A perfect example of this is when Kirk, Sulu and a Red Shirt try to space jump onto a tiny platform hovering over the planet Vulcan. First we see the Red Shirt recklessly wait too long to open his parachute, so he bounces out of control and gets sucked into the beam that’s burning a hole into the planet. This makes us seriously worry about Kirk and Sulu. How will they escape the Red Shirt’s fate? we ask. When Kirk hits the platform, he also struggles to gain control, but he uses his quick wit to close his parachute just in time. A fight ensues between Kirk and two Romulans. Unfortunately, one of the Romulans shoots a few holes into Sulu’s parachute before he can land. So Sulu is out of control and trying to avoid getting burned to death. This scene just keeps raising the stakes and presenting new challenges for the heroes.
After killing the Romulans and damaging the platform, Kirk and Sulu face another problem. Sulu falls off the platform, and he doesn’t have a parachute anymore. Kirk jumps after him and tries to save him with his own parachute. However, Kirk’s parachute was only designed for a one-time use and a certain weight, so it breaks under the stress of both him and Sulu. So this time there’s nothing they can do but call for help. And so Chekov gets his moment in the spotlight. They’re constantly finding new ways to solve problems. This makes for a really entertaining movie.
The Movie’s “Message”
Some people have complained that Star Trek (2009) doesn’t have a main theme or some sort of Star Trek dilemma, and that somehow makes it an inferior product. I don’t understand why people say that Star Trek films need to be about something, as though each one should have a central message to it. I’ve heard that The Wrath of Khan is about death, The Search for Spock is about life, The Voyage Home is about communication, and The Undiscovered Country is about prejudice. But I don’t see those films in that way. They’re each about a lot of things. Cheating is a big theme in all of those films – Kirk’s cheating death, traveling back in time to get around a major problem, and faking out a murderer to get her to reveal her identity. Age and youth are major themes in many of those films. Complicated emotions are explored, challenges are overcome, loyalties are tested, and much more. How can you sum that all up in one word for each film? You can’t. That’s why it’s simplistic to say that Star Trek (2009) isn’t about anything just because you can’t boil it down to something simple.
Star Trek is about sacrificing oneself for others, controlling emotions, overcoming fear, rising to the occasion, thinking outside the box, dealing with family relationships, and much more. Sure, the science involving black holes is a little off, Red Matter isn’t explained very well, Nero’s motivations aren’t delved into deeply enough, and Kirk is a bit of a pompous jerk. But all of those are minor details. The film is a lot of fun to watch. It’s exciting, unpredictable, and full of memorable moments. This movie pleasantly surprised me, and I can’t wait to see what J.J. Abrams and his crew have in store in the sequel. Good work, fellas. Live long and prosper!
This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.
All images from Star Trek (2009) are the copyright of Paramount Pictures.
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“No manufacturer has had any prior experience making a product like Drumi because it is so new and different,” Petal Wang of Yirego told Digital Trends in an email. The project is a great example of why crowdfunded projects take longer than expected to arrive — and sometimes don’t arrive at all.
Here’s our original hands-on with the Indiegogo device from December 2015:
Laundry day shouldn’t take an entire day, should it? That’s what happens when you let clothes pile up for a week, two weeks, or month. This is the cycle Toronto-based startup Yirego is looking to stop with the Drumi, its portable washing machine that uses little water and works off the grid.
Putting your foot to work and pumping water and detergent around a bowl filled with a small batch of clothes, the Drumi mixes old-school hand-washing with a modern-day eco-consciousness. Made to handle clothes on-demand, the idea isn’t to replace bigger machines but to rely on them a lot less. By reducing the amount of water and energy needed, plus the volume of clothes you wash per cycle, the Drumi is also supposed to be a time-saver, churning out batches in 10 minutes.
Small, but not too small
Upon seeing the Drumi in Toronto, our first impression was that it looks like a distant cousin of R2-D2, though without the wheels, funny noises, and lights. That’s because there are no electrical components inside. The unit is largely made up of a few key components that enable this washing contraption to do its thing. Weighing in at 15 pounds, standing 22-inches tall and with a 10-liter capacity, the unit is fairly small, yet sizeable enough to not be forgotten in a corner somewhere.
The run-through we saw was pretty seamless, with no real expertise or know-how required. You add clothes (including delicate fabrics) to the drum until it’s about half or three-quarters full. The glass has a marking, so you know when you’ve filled it up with five liters of water. You then pour the water into the drum, latching the white plastic cover to seal it right after. Add the detergent (and fabric softener or bleach, if necessary) into the opening in the cover, and then put the glass lid on top.
Pump the pedal for two minutes, then unlock the spindle in the back to release the soapy water. Add another five liters of water, pump the pedal another two minutes to rinse, and repeat the unlock process to get rid of the excess water. Pump again for another minute to finish off the cycle and tumble the clothes inside. Once finished, remove the clothes and line dry, or if you have one close by, use the dryer.
Conservation
The manual operation and lack of excess water leads to some impressive cumulative results. According to Yirego, today’s average washing machines use about 14 gallons (50 liters) per cycle, though Energy Star units can chop that down to just under 10 gallons. Older models are considerably higher, going all the way up to 27 gallons (102 liters).
The Drumi lets you do your laundry anywhere, because it requires no electricity and much less water than a full-size appliance.
Using the Drumi can lower a person’s carbon footprint by up to 10 pounds per week. Add in line-drying instead of a dryer and the lack of energy used to wash and dry clothes is pretty staggering. There are plenty of variables involved, however, but in any case, the energy savings are likely to be substantial if the Drumi is put to work regularly. However, its small capacity means you can only wash about six to seven items (about five pounds of clothing) at a time, so you won’t want to do a full load in the Drumi.
Those trying to cut energy bills are a key target market for Yirego, along with apartment dwellers, new families with babies, and even campers. People living in RVs, trailers and older condos without washers and dryers inside may also find the Drumi to be useful to clean stinky gym clothes regularly, instead of letting them hang around until laundry day.
More refinement needed
Despite the impressive operation, there are some kinks that need to be worked out. Chief among these is where the water goes out the back. The initial video introducing the unit showed it escaping into a drain, but that is not a practical option for many households, especially in apartments and condos.
Ted Kristonsis/Digital Trends
The final design will include a flexible hose that runs out the back and can be angled toward a drain in a sink or bathtub. Foot-pumping will help push out almost all of the water, except the excess amount may have a tough time draining against gravity if the hose has to go up and then down again. A mechanical or electrical pump may be necessary to give it the final push and force through the hose, though Yirego’s engineers are still not sure if it will be attached to the pedal or to the hose itself.
The run-through we saw was pretty seamless, with no real expertise or know-how required.
The drum in the unit shown to Digital Trends was also made of a lighter plastic. The final design is likely to use stainless steel or injection-molded plastic, both of which would be rigid and robust enough to withstand boiling water.
The unit has its main modular pieces, but there are no filters or other parts that need to be replaced on a regular basis. Yirego says it will recommend cleaning the unit every 60-90 days, though it will depend on how much it’s been used and what’s been washed inside. Washing clothes covered in pet fur may require more frequent cleaning with all the hair and dander accumulating.
As for how clean the clothes get, the company still needs to test how much bacteria is actually being removed from clothes washed in the Drumi.
Beyond clothes
Because you can better control how fast the Drumi spins, it opens up the possibility of washing other things beyond clothes, like small sports equipment, couch covers, very small rugs, and maybe even shoes.
Yirego hasn’t really tested for these things, focusing more on clothing that might need a wash immediately, like workout attire or sweaty jerseys after a game, plus really dirty baby clothes or something with a bad stain.
Conclusion
The first batch of Drumi pre-orders are set to be delivered in July 2016. The current Indiegogo campaign is offering units for $200 as part of a Black Friday promotion and will be delivered in October 2016. That’s a while to wait, but hopefully by then Yirego will have more information about how well the Drumi cleans and how much energy it saves.
Highs
Neat design
Good for off-grid use or camping
Uses much less water than standard washers
Lowers carbon footprint
Reasonable price with little upkeep
LowsBOSTON (Reuters) - A $1 billion proposal to build the first big U.S. offshore wind-power farm passed a key hurdle on Thursday by winning permit requirements in Massachusetts, where it faces opposition from some influential residents.
Cape Wind Associates LLC, a privately funded Boston-based energy company, has proposed constructing 130 wind turbines over 24 square miles (62 sq km) in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts.
The project, designed to power about 400,000 homes, won unanimous approval by the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board in a 7-0 vote for a “composite certificate” that combines nine state and local permits needed for the project.
Also known as a “super permit,” the certificate concludes all state and local permitting and overturns a Cape Cod Commission procedural denial of the project.
Cape Wind President Jim Gordon said Thursday’s vote caps a seven-year state regulatory process.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said after the vote. “It paves the way for new clean energy jobs, action on climate change and a renewable energy future for Massachusetts and the region.”
The board, created by the state legislature, instructed Cape Wind in March to work with two towns to agree on “reasonable and customary conditions” for permits for burying electric cables. The towns could sue to reverse the decision.
Gordon said the project is waiting for final approval by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
The U.S. Interior Department last month issued long-delayed guidelines for leasing offshore areas for renewable energy production, opening the door to wind power generation off the coasts with projects like Cape Wind.
Salazar said on April 22 his department was ready to move forward with offshore wind development, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean, where wind power can be more easily harnessed and there is access to the electricity grid.
With U.S. President Barack Obama pledging to double renewable energy production in three years, his department has been working to increase clean energy output on public lands.
Cape Wind won a favorable environmental review in January from the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, which found there would be little negative impact from the project, which would produce an average 170 megawatts.
The Obama administration will decide whether to grant final government approval.
“We’re waiting for the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, to issue the record of decision,” said Gordon. “All we are waiting for is the record of decision and lease.”
Opponents — including some politicians and business leaders with homes on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket — say Cape Wind’s turbines would kill migrating birds, threaten the region’s lucrative tourist industry and disrupt commercial fishing.
They include U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy along with some environmental groups and local fishermen.
Its supporters, including Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and some green groups, say the project would save millions of dollars in energy costs and help the nation reduce reliance on foreign oil at a time of volatile crude prices.
Cape Wind says construction of the turbines, which would stand about 440 feet from the surface of the water to the tip of the blade, could begin by early next year with production starting in 2011 or 2012.This event has already occurred, check out our calendar for upcoming events
Town Hall with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 5PM.
his will be the first in a series of public meetings in Washington’s 7th district (which includes most of Seattle and many surrounding areas) and will feature newly elected Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who has been leading the fight to make the democrats an “opposition party”, not a minority party. She will speak about her work in congress and answer audience questions.
Elected in 2016, Jayapal serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. She is also the Vice Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee.
Media interested in attending this event should RSVP to Ansel Herz at ansel.herz@mail.house.gov
Presented by: Pramila JayapalNew York Gov. Elliot Spitzer announces his resignation as his wife Silda stands by his side, March 12, 2008, in his offices in New York City. (Photo: Stephen Chernin, AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who stepped down in 2008 over a prostitution scandal, is planning a return to political life with a run for New York City comptroller.
In an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, Spitzer said he hoped city voters would give him a chance.
"I'm hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it," the Democrat said.
Spitzer said he was planning to start collecting the signatures he needs on Monday. Candidates for citywide offices like comptroller have to have 3,750 signatures from registered voters in their party by Thursday.
Spitzer told the Times the comptroller's office, with its oversight of the city's pension funds and spending, has the capability of real activism, a harkening back to the work he did as the state's attorney general.
"It is ripe for greater and more exciting use of the office's jurisdiction," he said.
Current Comptroller John Liu is expected to run for mayor.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has been the most prominent among the contenders to become New York City's next fiscal chief. He's raised more than $3.5 million and spent about $566,000, city campaign finance records show, while his opponents have yet to report any fund-raising or spending.
They include Republican John Burnett, who has worked on Wall Street in various finance capacities and just recently declared his candidacy; Green Party candidate Juila Willebrand, a former teacher; and former madam Kristin Davis.
Spitzer says he would pay for a campaign out of his own pocket and not take part in the city's financing system.
Spitzer is not the only politician who's looking for a second chance.
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner is running for mayor. The former Democratic congressman left office two years ago amid a scandal over his tweets.‘The Jade Pendant’ Strangles Asian Voices, Confuses Sensationalism for History
By Guest Writer George Qiao
Plan A Editors Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 7, 2017
In one scene of The Jade Pendant, two men are forced to cook a meal despite having little experience, few ingredients, and no recipe. Hastily throwing together sauces and vegetables in a pan, they discover that they have invented chop suey. In times of desperation, the men are able to harness originality and resourcefulness to produce a masterpiece. The same cannot be said of this film.
The Jade Pendant is a movie meant to commemorate the 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre the same way that the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial was meant to commemorate Black Lives Matter. The lynching of 17 Chinese American immigrants, purportedly the central subject, is sandwiched between two phases of a blurrily choreographed martial arts melee. You might imagine, generously, that this transition is meant to highlight the intensity and brutality of the massacre. Instead, it has the effect of strapping cancer patients onto the rails of a kiddie roller coaster. For ten gratuitous seconds the audience is given the chance to watch as three Chinese men gargle against a length of rope, then the scene hard cuts to the villain playing high-speed patty cake with Peony, the owner of the titular pendant.
For having an all-Asian cast, the film does a remarkable job of erasing any sort of dignified representation from the screen. In an age of Black Panther, Moana, and Gook, imagining complex characters of color should no longer be this difficult. Nevertheless, Peony is the human embodiment of an origami crane, while her love interest Tom’s emotional spectrum ranges from quiet, hissing outrage to impassioned, shouting outrage.
The worst offense is Lily, notably the only dark-skinned character, who exists solely to be slapped, whipped, starved, and molested throughout the film. The pornographic exploitation of every scene Lily is in cannot be understated. At one point, a faceless goon drops his pants in order to set her on fire with a torch. If that sequence of actions makes no sense, don’t worry, nothing the characters do is meant to. It’s as if Mr. Yunioshi and Asa Akira produced children in a semi-fictional parallel universe for the sole purpose of populating the storyboard.
Returning to the massacre, do you remember how white Los Angeles residents did their best to prevent their Chinese brethren from being attacked? Neither do I; going in I was convinced that 500 people, about 10% of the population, participated in the killings. However, since a friendly white police captain wags his finger at a couple of racists in a bar, we are reassured that the law did everything possible to prevent the massacre. In fact, Chinese people were in fact to blame for their own massacre, as a conflict between two aspiring Chinese leaders is portrayed as good enough reason for white men to burn down Chinatown. This combination of blatant misrepresentation and poorly conceived contextualization ends up reducing one of America’s most horrifying racial atrocities to an afterthought.
Historical accuracy is certainly the last of the filmmakers’ priorities: after a thirty year time skip, Tom is shown to have started a large family in Chinatown, conveniently ignoring that the Page Act and the Exclusion Act essentially made starting a family impossible for Chinese Americans. The characters speak Mandarin instead of Cantonese or Taishanese, in blatant disregard of the identity of the immigrants in Chinatown. This oversight was blamed on a lack of Cantonese acting talent, as if Hong Kong didn’t have a vibrant and bustling cinematic scene. I am not sure why the all events fictitious disclaimer was necessary given that every scene could have reasonably been hallucinated by the angry revenant of Thomas Nast. In a time when Asian Americans across the country are demanding that textbooks be rewritten to bring attention to our history, The Jade Pendant is a 90 minute long book burning.
The actual origin of this mess is somewhat enlightening. The principal writers for the script were Scott Rosenfelt and David Assael, known for such Asian American classics as Home Alone, Mystic Pizza, and Baywatch Nights. I am sure they are capable storytellers outside of 19th century Los Angeles, but the inclusion of a soft-core sex scene on a rock set to flute music isn’t doing anything for their credibility. If Ghost in the Shell wasn’t enough to convince you that white filmmakers can do everything imaginable to sabotage Asian narratives, give The Jade Pendant a try.
This film should be a reminder to our community that just because there is a relative lack of Asian American media doesn’t mean we should celebrate mediocrity. It is easy, after having been starved of representation for so long in this country, to cling to anything with a face like ours. But doing this ignores the work of truly brilliant creators: take a look at Justin Chon’s Gook, Ursula Liang’s 9-Man, or Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing for accurate, entertaining portrayals of long-standing Asian-American communities. Moreover, we should not trust the allure of familiarity. L. P. Leung, Godfrey Gao, Brian Yang, and the rest of the team are all partially to blame for this cinematic insult to Chinese American history. To praise this film would be to submit to the degradation, marginalization, and obfuscation of that history, and settle for the meager scraps of screen time thrown to us from Hollywood’s table.
I spent the entirety of The Jade Pendant alternating between fits of uncomfortable laughter and stunned, cringing silence. If you’ve been feeling secure in your Asian-Americanness and are looking for a reminder of what it’s like to be mocked, go watch it. Otherwise, stay away.The long wait may be over.
In a recent interview with Jaxx CEO and founder Anthony Di Iorio, Dash: Detailed host Amanda B. Johnson got the scoop that the Jaxx Wallet will be integrating Dash in days. When this occurs, Dash will have its first presence on iOS, and can begin to market itself among the many users of iPhones.
Dash is a privacy-based cryptocurrency with available instantly confirming transactions. It will be the fourth cryptocurrency to be integrated into Jaxx.
Anthony Di Iorio, CEO and Founder of Jaxx Wallet
Users that download the Jaxx Wallet will be treated to a platform that looks and feels similar across a few operating systems. They are on mobile through iOS and Android, on desktop through Linux, Windows and Mac, and they have Firefox and Chrome extensions. Having a wallet with a similar UI and UX on all of these platforms was important to the team at Decentral, based out of Toronto, Canada, which is the company that created Jaxx.
Great news for Dash and Jaxx, a solid partnership is being created. Enjoy this interview where Anthony and Amanda discuss Jaxx and Dash:COPYRIGHT owners claim Federal Court judge Dennis Cowdroy erred when he ruled that ISPs were not liable for breaches by their users.
The federation of 34 entertainment companies yesterday began the first day of its week-long appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court to overturn the ruling and revive its legal bid to halt rampant internet piracy.
The dispute began in November 2008 when the Hollywood group engaged a local anti-piracy lobby, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, to sue Perth internet provider iiNet for infringement of copyright.
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In a trial that lasted for more than a month last year, the federation's lawyers tried to persuade Justice Cowdroy that iiNet authorised its customers to use file-sharing systems to breach the copyright laws.
AFACT argued that iiNet authorised piracy on its network when it chose not to take reasonable steps to act on infringement notifications prepared and sent by anti-piracy investigators.
But Justice Cowdroy found in iiNet's favour in February. He ruled iiNet had not authorised the piracy as it had no obligation to control how its customers used the BitTorrent system under Australian copyright law.
Despite its victory, iiNet has contested the ruling and sought changes that would strengthen its immunity from liability.
AFACT argued yesterday that Justice Cowdroy's ruling was out of step with copyright law. The federation's lead barrister for the appeal, David Catterns SC, told the court judges were compelled to consider parts of the copyright law dealing with authorisation cases in a holistic fashion, but Justice Cowdroy had taken a piecemeal approach.
"The right approach is to look at all the factors first. His honour keeps breaking it with little sub-tests, and that has led to error," Mr Catterns said.
The case relied on legal principles set down in the frequently cited High Court decision in favour of Frank Moorhouse against the University of NSW in 1975. The case provided a precedent for Australian copyright lawyers when Mr Moorhouse successfully convinced the High Court the university authorised a student to use its photocopiers to duplicate his book.
AFACT tried to draw a comparison between the photocopying and iiNet's internet connections, but in his February ruling Justice Cowdroy found that BitTorrent, rather than the internet connection, provided the means of infringement.
He said the internet connection was a precondition to the infringement and that iiNet had no relevant power to control the means of infringement, which was the file-sharing system.
AFACT has engaged in a legal battle to challenge Justice Cowdroy's reasoning, based on the argument he deviated from amendments to the Copyright Act introduced in 2000 compelling judges to take certain steps when considering authorisation cases.
IiNet is expected to argue that AFACT's criticisms of Justice Cowdroy are unwarranted and misconstrue copyright law.
It has asked the full bench to reverse Justice Cowdroy's finding that iiNet was unable to use section 112E of the Copyright Act as a shield against copyright liability.
The company also wants the full court to review Justice Cowdroy's finding that telecommunication laws on consumer privacy prevented it from using its customer database to pass on AFACT's infringement notices.
The appeal resumes today.
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book NowDebbie McConnell stands with her mother Laura Bailey Talbert in front of a wall of family photos at their home in Staunton, VA 2017.
Deborah Lynn McConnell, 38, of Fairfax County, passed away unexpectedly Saturday, August 4, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her body was found at the corner of Willard and Hollins Streets in West Baltimore.
The manner of death is undetermined however the medical examiner reports that Fentanyl was found in Debbie’s system.
Debbie was found on August 4th but her family wasn’t notified of her death for an agonizing 7 days, during which time her mother frantically searched the streets of Baltimore and struggled to get her on the Missing Persons List.
Debbie was born August 12, 1979 in Chester, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Laura Bailey Talbert, William and Christine McConnell.
Although Debbie struggled with drugs throughout most of her teenage and adult life, she was also able to maintain extended periods of clean time. Most recently, from 2013 to 2017, Debbie was living drug free at home with her mother in Staunton, Virginia.
In addition to her parents, family members include daughter Cheyenne McConnell, of Staunton, son, Joshua Biondo of Maine, four sisters, Jamie (Richard) Sullivan of Staunton, Gina McConnell of Pennsylvania, Cara (Evan) Yocano of Pennsylvania and Audria McConnell of Pennsylvania, two brothers, Theodore Manna of Staunton and Tyler Manna of Staunton. Numerous nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was preceded in death by a sister Megan Lynn Manna.
A cremation will be conducted by Simplicity Crematorium and Funeral Home. The memorial service is scheduled to take place on October 20th, 2018 at 1pm at Friendship Church, 1601 W Beverley St. Staunton, Va. 24401.
Laura Bailey Talbert writes, “We would love it, if everyone wore something “GREEN” 💚💚 that was her favorite color or sport your Philadelphia 🦅Eagles pride. That would be great.
She would love that. She missed her birthday by 9 days 😰. So we will be having a 🎉BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION PARTY🎉 after the Church memorial service.
The following letter was written by Debbie’s mother, Laura Bailey Talbert.
Dear mothers and daughters,
Like always, we think we have taught them all we can to protect themselves from this great big world… And then we find ourselves wondering what went wrong?
My daughter was the kindest person in this world. She was my best friend and co-pilot in life. She began early in life, getting into some legal problems, and it quickly became the drug scene. She was so bad into them, I asked her to tattoo my phone number on her so if she was found they wouldn’t have any problems getting ahold of me. And if she was in jail, I knew she was safe. Three meals daily and clean. She had been to several rehabs to no avail. I was always on pins and needles when the phone rang, knowing that it would be bad news about Debbie. She had been on the avenue for quite some time. I would go walk the streets to find her. Begging for her to come home, making sure she had clothes, shoes…..sometimes I have even given her money to buy what she needed to get her in the car and bring her home.
You have to understand our relationship: we were the best of friends but as her mom there was a line in the sand. She knew disrespect was not an option. There came a time she got into some serious trouble and I would not bail her out. I told her that was it‼️ And that was that. She was on her own. I couldn’t just keep living her demons. We had not spoken for three years. Then her sister passed away at 29 and I had to go tell her that face to face 😢 😢 and that started our relationship over again. But Debbie had a different outlook on life & family after that.❤ We visited, talked, and had quality time to figure out what path we were going to take. Things just fell into place 😇 and our relationship got to the point that I trusted her again.
When Debbie was released, (the last time she ever went to jail) 😇 🌹 I think the death of her younger-sister really made her think & she chose her family. I trusted her and let her come home. We have always been close. But the drugs masked the “BEAUTIFUL” (my nickname for her) person she was inside. I’m sure all of you mom’s out there going through this, know exactly what I mean… 🌹 You still see your little girl in her eyes but her appearance was not the girl you knew at all.
To the daughter’s out there who are still on the avenue, or wherever you are, please know, that no matter what, your mom loves you with all she has ❤.
Or a family member, who has been a mom to you🌹.
We’ll never give up looking for |
the crocodile's mouth knows it's doomed, evident from its downturned mouth. The bestiary text about the crocodile included the gem that crocodile dung was used as an ointment by old women and faded trollops to beautify their skin until their sweat washed the ointment away.
Year: 1636
Scientist/artist: Antonio Tempesta
Originally published in: Collection of Quadrupeds
Now appears in: The Reign of the Dinosaurs by Jean-Guy Michard
These creatures look pretty odd today, but these depictions were much more plausible than what was commonly seen at the time. At least they're not fire-breathing dragons! The bottom illustration is of a crocodile.
Year: c. 1791
Scientist/artist: William Bartram
Originally appeared in: Travels
Now appears in: Voyages of Discovery by Tony Rice © The Natural History Museum, London
Eighteenth-century naturalist Bartram wrote of Florida alligators: "They force the water out of their throat which falls from their mouth like a Cataract and a steam or vapour from their Nostrals like smoke." Bartram had a fascination not just for alligators, but also venomous snakes.
Year: 1617
Scientist/artist: Michael Maier
Originally published in: Atlanta Fugiens
Now appears in: The Body of the Artisan by Pamela H. Smith
This picture of a salamander in fire reflected the common belief that the animals were unharmed by fire, or could be reborn within it.
Year: c. 1720
Scientist/artist: Henri Abraham Chatelain
Originally published in: Decorative Images of People and Animals, with a Map of Southern Africa
This picture shows a "Grand Lezard du Cap" from southern Africa. Although fanciful, this frilly, tense creature is not too far-fetched. Other animals pictured in Chatelain's map looked like real animals, including zebras, a rhino, and a chameleon.
Year: 1664-1678
Scientist/artist: Athanasius Kircher
Originally published in: Mundus Subterraneus
Now appears in: Dragons, Unicorns, and Sea Serpents by Charles Gould
Though the prospect of a dragon usually frightened Europeans, that wasn't always the case. Kircher relayed the story of a man from Lucerne who fell into a cavern while he traveled across Mount Pilate. The cavern had no exit and two dragons. Luckily they left the man alone. After six months, during which he apparently lived on nothing but water, he noticed the dragons fixing to fly away, and attached himself to one dragon's tail, hitching a ride home. After surviving six months of cohabitation with dragons, he dropped dead from resuming his regular diet. Dragons weren't the problem; dairy was.
Larger image available
Year: 1664-1678
Scientist/artist: Athanasius Kircher
Originally published in: Mundus Subterraneus
Now appears in: Dragons, Unicorns, and Sea Serpents by Charles Gould
Kircher showed yet another dragon, the Dragon of Drachenfeldt, fighting a knight in an underground cavern. This long-necked, bat-winged, donkey-eared, snake-tailed beast looks poised to do some very nasty damage to the knight's ankles.
Larger image available
Year: 1697
Scientist/artist: Caspar Schott
Originally published in: Physica Curiosa
Now appears in: The Browsing Corner from Ebling Library (http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/historical/browsingcorner/bc-issue003.html)
Caspar (also spelled Gaspar or Kaspar) Schott was a student of the polymath Athanasius Kircher in Würzburg. After Schott was ordained, and after he corresponded with his old teacher, he was appointed Kircher's assistant in Rome. Schott was only in Rome for a couple years before being sent back to Germany, but the two Jesuits continued to collaborate on publications for years. Although Kircher's reputation might have eclipsed that of his former pupil, Schott was said to be admired by Catholics and Protestants of his hometown of Augsburg. He labored for years over his Physica Curiosa. This illustration comes from a later edition, published decades after his death. Schott may have shared his old teacher's credulity about dragons, as he depicted his own scene of a dragon slaying. It appeared on a foldout page at the front of the book. Aside from the flame or vapor emanating from its mouth, this unwieldy dragon doesn't look capable of putting up much of a fight.
Year: 1723
Scientist/artist: Johann Jakob Scheuchzer
Originally published in: Ouresiphoítes Helveticus
Now appears at: Illustration depicting a mythical "Alpine dragon"
Scheuchzer, who mistook the fossil of a giant salamander for a human victim of the biblical flood, also depicted an alpine dragon scaring the daylights out of an alpine human. Dispensing with the customary scales and wings, Scheuchzer gave this dragon a catlike face. What might be fur runs from its head to its rump. Birdlike feet and a snakelike tail complete the chimeric creature. If Scheuchzer took alpine dragon legends seriously, he would be one of the few naturalists after Athanasius Kircher who still believed in dragons.
Year: 1664-1678
Scientist/artist: Athanasius Kircher
Originally published in: Mundus Subterraneus
Image provided by: Biodiversity Heritage Library (some rights reserved)
In his two volumes of Mundus Subterraneus, Kircher discusses gravity, eclipses, weather, the sun and moon, subterranean men, giants, poisons and antidotes, astrology, fireworks, fossils, dragons, demons and more. Included among the lavish illustrations are maps — Eden before Eve bit into the apple, and homier places like the Black Forest. This excerpt of a Black Forest map shows Mummelsee, a lake that remains a popular tourist destination today. The map might be described as realistic were it not for the reptilian monsters frolicking in the water. Legends persist even now about water sprites and a king who likes to drag ladies under the waves.
Year: 1555
Scientist/artist: Olaus Magnus
Originally published in: History of Nordic Peoples
Now appears at: Olaus Magnus - History of the Nordic Peoples - Illustrations with Comments (http://www.avrosys.nu/prints/prints23-b-olausmagnus-intro.htm)
Olaus Magnus's book wasn't an account of far-off exotic people, but the story of his own country, Sweden. His familiarity with the land described, however, didn't prevent the occasional tall tale. This crude woodcut shows the noble King Harald and his loyal servant killing the dragon that was supposed to kill them. While the king drives a razor through the beast's navel, the servant boxes the poor thing about its ears with a femur and skull.
Year: c. 310
Originally appeared in: Piazza Armerina, Sicily
Now appears in: The First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor (Photo by Barbara Mayor)
In the seventh century BC, ancient Greeks made contact with Saka-Scythian nomads who prospected for gold in the Gobi Desert. One of the legends that the Greeks gleaned from this contact was of the griffin — a lion-sized, four-legged, winged animal with a "cruel sharp beak" — that ferociously guarded its hoard of gold. (A more cautious account suggested that griffins didn't guard gold but simply lived near it, and carefully protected their young from all intruders.) This Roman mosaic shows a griffin drawn to a trap whose unfortunate bait is a man. Where did this legend come from? Twentieth-century excavations in the Gobi have unearthed Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus skeletons, both beaked dinosaurs, from the same regions where the nomads prospected. It's quite possible that gold seekers found these fossils eroding out of the desert sands and, making astute observations about their skeletal structures, speculated on the appearance of the live animal. If so, their guesses about griffins protecting their young proved correct — a 21st-century find in Liaoning, China revealed an adult Psittacosaurus apparently guarding 34 juveniles.
Year: c. 490 BC
Now appears in: The Griffin and the Dinosaur by Aronson, Mayor and Muller
Folklorist Adrienne Mayor devoted a decade to finding the origin of the griffin myth. A major clue came from Greece, where her study of ancient manuscripts turned up the first accounts of griffins around 675 BC. Accounts stated that griffins guarded gold in Scythia. Nomads, traders and gold prospectors, the Scythians ranged from the Black Sea to Mongolia; trade between Greece and Scythia later morphed into the Silk Road. Another clue came from the museum in Olympia, which displayed a bronze relief of a griffin mother and pup. Ancient Greeks rarely portrayed purely mythical creatures with babies or parents; the mother-pup pairing suggested something real. Among the Classical texts she studied, Mayor found a comment from a Greek-reading Roman named Aelian. Adept at collecting accounts of nature, Aelian doubted that griffins cared much for gold. Like most animals, he argued, they probably really cared for their offspring. Following up on her hunch that fossils inspired the legend, Mayor eventually wrote to Phil Currie and Dale Russell asking about the possibility of seeing fossils eroding out of the Gobi Desert. Not only could paleontologists find Protoceratops fossils, but also complete nests with eggs and hatchlings. No one would have seen a live "griffin" (the dinosaurs that inspired the tales were long extinct) but sharp-eyed nomads could easily have spotted their skeletons. Modern research and Aelian's insights aside, the gold-guarding griffin legend persisted for centuries, earning the creature a place in coinage. This Greek coin was minted a couple centuries after the Greeks and Scythians made contact, and it shows a griffin and a cicada.
Year: c. 150
Now appears in: Mythic Creatures by Kendall, Norell and Ellis
From around 800 BC to 200 AD, Scythians controlled large stretches of Central Asia and the northern Middle East. If the griffin myth indeed originated with Scythian nomads, that myth mutated as it spread to other cultures, and persisted over centuries. In some cases, the creature embodied majesty; in others, greed. (It was originally said to guard gold, after all.) This faience statuette, found in Egypt and dating from the time of the Roman Empire, shows a griffin turning a wheel of fortune. Throughout much of the Mediterranean in those days, griffins frequently represented the Greek goddess Nemesis — the goddess of retribution. As for the origins of the myth, folklorist Adrienne Mayor has made the case that the griffin myth may have been inspired by Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus fossils in the Gobi Desert, but other dinosaur species might have played their part in the mythology. Laurel Kendall, Mark Norell and Richard Ellis point out that giant claws of Therizinosaurus and/or Deinocheirus found in the Gobi bear a strong resemblance to the sharp claws in many griffin depictions.
Year: 470-450 BC
Photographed in: Metropolitan Museum of Art by Peter Roan (some rights reserved)
Griffins make multiple appearances on ancient currency. The griffin on this ancient silver coin from Thrace, photographed in, looks almost like a parrot. Folklorist Adrienne Mayor argued in the early 1990s that dinosaur fossils may have inspired the mythological creature, which first turned up in ancient Greek accounts around the seventh century BC. It's not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that dinosaur fossils inspired the griffin myth, but fossils, historical records and geography combine to provide a plausible explanation. Ceratopsian and psittacosaurid skulls certainly sport narrow, pointy birdlike beaks.
Year: c. 500 BC
Photographed in: Persepolis, Iran by Sebastià Giralt (some rights reserved)
Discussed in: The First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor, "Griffins and Arimaspeans" by Adrienne Mayor and Michael Heaney in Folklore, 1993 issue, and "Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran" by Marguerite del Guidice in National Geographic, August 2008 issue
Given its location along the route later known as the Silk Road, the Persian Empire was ideally placed to absorb cross-cultural legends such as griffins. Carved some 25 centuries ago, these griffins can still be seen in Persepolis, Iran, an ancient capital of the Persian Empire. According to a nearby interpretative sign, these eagle/griffin capitals (apparently meant to crown a column) were likely intended for use in a local structure, but were later rejected for some reason. After their discovery in the mid-20th century, the griffins were mounted on a short pillar for preservation. Like other griffin depictions, these creatures boast fearsome beaks and characteristic griffin ears, although they lack the customary wings.
Years: 350-300 BC
Now appears at: Helmet of Chalcidian Type Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program
Besides making its way westward along trade routes such as the Silk Road, griffin lore made its way into multiple aspects of daily life in the classical world. Excavated in southern Italy, this helmet is of Greek design. A griffin head with pointy ears and a birdlike beak emerges from the top of the helmet, and wings protrude upward from the sides. Perhaps the helmet was intended to imbue its wearer with a griffin's tenacious defense of all things held dear.
Year: c. 510 BC
Photographed in: Louvre Museum, Paris, by Steven Zucker (some rights reserved)
Discussed at: Louvre: Frieze of Griffins (http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/frieze-griffins)
Situated in modern-day Iran, Susa was an ancient city along the Royal Road of the Achaemenid (First Persian) Empire. In the early 20th century, Jacques de Morgan led a series of excavations at the Palace of Darius, recovering thousands of decorative bricks comprising portraits of mythological creatures. This reconstruction at the Louvre Museum shows a griffin, part of a larger group. This griffin is a composite animal, with front legs looking like a lion's, and back legs looking like an eagle's. It has birdlike wings but, in contrast to many other griffins, the head of a lion instead without any beak. On top of its head are two curved goat horns pointing in opposite directions. This frieze must have presented an impressive image as it was, in the analysis of the Louvre, "charged with a symbolism relating to the Persian empire" whether or not it was intended to be viewed as a literal creature. Today, though, the curving goat horns might have an unintentionally comic effect, as they look a little like a jester's hat. Having to wear a silly hat might explain why the griffin looks so angry.
Year: 1250-1300
Appears at: Panel with a Griffin © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "In the ancient world, the mythical beasts called griffins were symbols of royalty and protectors of the dead. They continued to play these roles for Christians. A legend popular in the Byzantine era told of griffins carrying Alexander the Great through the heavens so he could view his vast realm. Carved griffins such as the one illustrated here are found on later Byzantine tombs, where they may have been placed to identify the dead of royal status and to afford them protection. The design of the relief is similar to patterns on Byzantine and Islamic silks."
In short, Christians inherited from the Classical world a mythical beast that might have been inspired by dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert.
Year: 1675
Scientist/artist: Athanasius Kircher
Originally published in: Arca Noë
Now appears in: Athanasius Kircher and Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World by Joscelyn Godwin
This Baroque depiction of a griffin (or gryphon) appeared in Arca Noë ( Noah's Ark ). The book was dedicated to Charles II of Spain, who was just 12 years old at the time. Among mythical beasts like griffins, mermaids and unicorns, Kircher included more pedestrian animals like elephants, lions and dogs. Kircher actually harbored doubts about the existence of griffins, but he had heard reports of them from China. He remarked that if they did exist, griffins likely belonged in the same category as vultures and eagles, "which have grown to such size either through the nature of the region or the influx of the heavens; wherefore we exclude them from the Ark." By the time Kircher penned Arca Noë, discoveries of so many animals from exotic locations had considerably crowded the biblical vessel.
Century: 14th
Originally appeared in: Statuto e Registro dei Cambiavalute (Rule and Register of Currency Exchange) Perugia
Now appears in: Nature and Its Symbols by Lucia Impelluso and Stephen Sartarelli
Griffins' impressive combination of characteristics (eagle-like strength and lion-like vigilance) made them attractive as mascots, particularly for those who managed money. Feet firmly planted on a treasure chest, this griffin is clearly doing its job.
Year: c. 1425-1450
Appears at: Aquamanile in the Form of a Griffin © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "This magnificent aquamanile in the form of a griffin with (separately cast) outstretched wings can be grouped stylistically with the unicorn [another specimen at the museum] and a few other examples that were probably produced by the same Nuremberg workshop in the second quarter of the 15th century. The aquamanile was filled through a hole between the ears, and water was poured from the spigot in the chest, likely a rare surviving original element."
Aquamaniles often held water needed for hand washing in Catholic masses and in upper-crust meals, and the water vessels often took human or animal form. Like the griffins that preceded it, this one sports a prominent beak and bird-foot forepaws.
Century: c. 6th-4th BC
Appears at: Plaque with Horned Lion-Griffins © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "In the 6th century BC, under the leadership of Cyrus the Great, the Persians established themselves at the head of an empire that would eventually extend from eastern Europe and Egypt to India. The Achaemenid Period is well documented by the descriptions of Greek and Old Testament writers and by abundant archaeological remains. Like the Achaemenid gold vessel decorated with the forepart of a lion also in the Museum's collection, this ornament depicts the winged lion-monster but here two creatures are shown rampant. In place of the lion's ears they have those of a bull. Horns curl back over spiky manes and the lion's neck is covered with a feather pattern. Sharply stylized wings extend over two of the five bosses and serve as decorative balance for the design. Heavy rings attached to the back suggest that the ornament was worn on a leather belt. the similar treatment of the lion motif on different types of objects demonstrates decorative conventions of the period."
Considering griffins reputedly guarded gold, it made sense to cast their likenesses in gold, too. Griffin bling for the brave warrior.
Year: 1898
Scientist: William Harlow Reed
Originally published in: New York Journal and Advertiser
Now appears in: Bone Wars by Tom Rea
The caption for the top image read, "How the Brontosaurus giganteus Would Look If it Were Alive and Should Try to Peep into the Eleventh Story of the New York Life Building." The speck under the bottom dinosaur was intended to be a man, meaning this dinosaur's skull would measure an unlikely 3 feet tall. This "Most Colossal Animal Ever on Earth Just Found Out West" was inspired by William Harlow Reed's find of a single sauropod femur. Expecting to find more of the animal, Reed returned to the site with other collectors, but after luckless prospecting, he had to admit that the femur was all there was. Reed was generally a talented collector, but he often raised false hopes about what he could find. He played cards with the University of Wyoming and the Carnegie Museum to see which institution would offer him higher pay. And while collecting fossils for O.C. Marsh, Reed had no qualms about smashing the bones he couldn't collect just to keep them from Cope's collectors.
Year: 1886
Author: Camille Flammarion
Originally published in: Le Monde avant la création de l'homme
Now appears in: Monsters: A Bestiary of the Bizarre by Christopher Dell
Titled "A prehistoric monster in a modern town," this illustration features another gigantic reptilian voyeur. The horn on the snout suggests Iguanodon leanings but by the time this prehistoric monster leered through a high-rise window, Louis Dollo had already established that Iguanodon's horn was really a thumb spike. Given this beast’s story-high head and front legs bending like human arms, however, realism probably wasn't the goal.
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Year: 1886
Author: Camille Flammarion
Artist: A. Jacob
Originally published in: Le Monde avant la création de l'homme
Now appears in: Dinosaurs: A Journey to the Lost Kingdom by Argot and Vivès
Another version of the peeping dinosaur in Flammarion's book does away with the erroneous snout horn, but adds two rows of menacing spikes running down the animal's back. Argot and Vivès note that there was ample confusion about whether this dinosaur was an Iguanodon or Stegosaurus, and confusion still reigned about how to depict Stegosaurus protuberances. Either way, you wouldn't want this creepy giant staring through your bathroom window.
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Year: 1843
Scientist/artist: E. Newman
Originally published in: "Note on the Pterodactyle Tribe Considered as Marsupial Bats" in The Zoologist
Now appears in: "The Case of the Bat-winged Pterosaur" by Kevin Padian in Dinosaurs Past and Present: Volume II
Pterosaurs were contemporaries of dinosaurs. They were not birds, bats or amphibians, but 19th-century artists depicted them as every one of those things. Although Georges Cuvier accurately identified pterosaurs as flying reptiles in 1812, his observations were largely ignored in favor of more fanciful restorations, such as this rat-eared, furry creature.
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Year: 1853
Scientist: Sir Richard Owen
Artist: Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins
Originally appeared in: Crystal Palace Park, London
Photographed in: Crystal Palace Park by Alex J. White (some rights reserved)
Pterosaurs lurk among the suite of stony ruling reptiles at Crystal Palace Park, and the pterosaurs look like dragons. In fact there is plenty to admire, or at least understand, in this reconstruction. Paleontologists debated pterosaur posture and locomotion on the ground for many years after Owen and Hawkins produced these sculptures, and the scaly necks reflect the understanding that the animals were indeed reptiles. More recent finds indicate that, although pterosaurs had scales, they were confined to the feet and maybe the legs. The dragon-like necks might owe their existence to artistic license.
Year: 1853
Scientist: Sir Richard Owen
Artist: Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (engraving of reconstructions)
Originally appeared in: Crystal Palace Park, London
Now appears in: Scenes from Deep Time: Early Pictorial Representations of the Prehistoric World by Martin J.S. Rudwick
This is a close-up view of the pterodactyles in the previous picture. After the Crystal Palace project ground to a halt, due partly to a lack of funds, Hawkins began selling lithographs of his reconstructions. He also started the lecture circuit. One of his favorite themes was the resemblance he saw between pterosaurs and legendary dragons.
Year: 1800
Scientist: Johann Hermann
Originally appeared in: Letter to Georges Cuvier
Now appears at: Early Paleoart: Of Prehistoric Monsters and Men
The practice of identifying pterosaur fossils as bats precedes Neuman's mid-19th-century restoration by several decades. The naturalist Cosimo Alessandro Collini published a description of a pterosaur fossil in 1784, but because it was unlike any life form previously seen, no one was quite sure how it had lived. Sixteen years later, another naturalist, Johann Hermann, made an educated guess that the elongated fourth finger supported a membrane necessary for flight (accurate), but also envisioned semicircular wings (inaccurate). In fairness, he did illustrate one wing with a more triangular shape closer to what paleontologists envision today. Not so close to current reconstructions, he gave the animal protruding ears and mammalian-like naughty bits. Hermann never published his reconstruction as he died the same year he sent this illustration to Cuvier.
Year: 1911
Author: Edwin Grew
Originally published in: Romance of Modern Geology
Now appears in: "Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle's Contribution to the Popularity of Pterodactyls" by David Martill and Tony Pointon in Geological Society, London, Special Publications
A terrestrial and an avian reptile share space on this book cover, where Grew called pterosaurs "Dragons of the prime." The overall shape of the pterosaur isn't too bad, although its wings appear not quite up to the task keeping the fairly robust body aloft, and the long tail is characteristic of a species that would actually be much smaller. The terrestrial reptile below is presumably a dinosaur, although this one sports a lizard-like form that had largely been overturned by the time this book was published. The hapless animal in the big lizard's mouth looks like a platypus, and that might seem anachronistic in this ruling-reptile scene, but platypus-like fossils do date back to the time of the dinosaurs. The year after this book was published, Arthur Conan Doyle prominently featured pterosaurs in The Lost World, arguably making the flying reptiles far more popular (or infamous) to the general public than they ever had been before.
Year: 1910
Author: W. Percival Westell
Originally published in: The Book of the Animal Kingdom
Image provided by: Biodiversity Heritage Library (some rights reserved)
This color plate shows a scene very similar to the one on the cover of Edwin Grew's book published the following year: a pterosaur hovering over a Teleosaurus chomping on a platypus. This pterosaur isn't a bad rendition although, as on Grew's book cover, it could probably stand bigger wings or a skinnier torso. Placing a pterosaur so close to the action on the ground allows the reader to see multiple animals in one scene, but a smart pterosaur probably would keep its distance. Pterosaurs had to be lightweight in relation to their size, with very thin-walled bones. So a pterosaur couldn't easily fly off with a platypus, and such a curious pterosaur would risk a fracture by getting too close to a predation scene for no good reason.
Year: 1912
Scientist: Henry R. Knipe
Artist: Alice B. Woodward
Originally published in: Evolution in the Past
Image provided by: Biodiversity Heritage Library (some rights reserved)
Scientists have puzzled for decades over pterosaurian details such as locomotion on the ground and posture in flight, and not all these issues are necessarily settled now. This early-20th-century depiction might be off in a few details — the pterosaurs' trunks look a bit stout and their necks a bit short — but the general picture is right. But paired with the prehistoric pteranodons are some very modern-looking birds: a seagull standing by the shore and what might be a cockatoo in flight.
Year: 1829
Artist: George Howman
Originally appeared as: "Flying Dragon found at Lyme Regis, supposed to be noctivagous" (painting)
Now appears in: The Earth on Show by Ralph O'Connor
"Noctivagous" means wandering at night, and the Reverend Howman inscribed on the back of his nighttime painting that it was based on an account of a "flying dragon" fossil by William Buckland. Buckland's paper was about a pterodactyl fossil. Howman portrayed the pterosaur as a dragon, complete with a pointy tail, and put it into a present-day landscape, embellished with castle ruins and a listing ship. As flying reptiles, pterosaurs probably counted among the most puzzling fossils encountered by scientists in the early 19th century. At the same time scientists struggled to understand pterosaur appearance and behavior, artists such as Howman struggled to depict the animals in life. Howman erred on the side of dragons and time travel.
Year: 1863
Artist: Édouard Riou, Louis Figuier
Originally published in: Earth Before the Deluge
Now appears in: "A Short History of Pterosaur Research" by Peter Wellnhofer in Zitteliana
Paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer points out that, at the beginning of the 19th century, few fossil reptiles had been found, so naturalists had to reconstruct ancient animals based on sparse information. Aside from all the other vexing problems about pterosaurs (Were they bats, birds, or reptiles? And how did they get off the ground?) there was the question of how they moved around while still on the ground. In his book about the history of life, Figuier reproduced Riou's reconstruction of pterosaur terrestrial locomotion. Riou believed he had found the evidence of how long-tailed pterosaurs moved — on all fours, tails dragging behind them — in tracks preserved in the Solnhofen limestone. It wasn't a bad approach; paleontologists often find clues to animal movement preserved in tracks, but Riou was wrong about the kind of animal that left those tracks. The tail dragging was really the work of horseshoe crabs. Some horseshoe crabs had the good manners to clarify their identities by simply dying at the ends of their tracks, and such "death march" fossils left little doubt. The identity of the track maker was only settled in about 1940, and just how pterosaurs move on the ground remained a topic of debate throughout the 20th century. Newer evidence indicates that Riou was at least correct about their quadrupedal gait.
Year: 1881
Scientist: Richard Owen
Artist: Alfred Waterhouse
Photographed at: : Natural History Museum, London by Peter O'Connor (some rights reserved)
Discussed in: Alfred Waterhouse and the Natural History Museum by Mark Girouard
Architect Francis Fowke won the competition to design the Natural History Museum, London, but after his unexpected death, Alfred Waterhouse took over as architect. Richard Owen, who championed and oversaw the project, wanted a "cathedral to nature," and the building's German Romanesque style very much resembles a cathedral to religion. This pterosaur sculpture on the front of the museum bears no small resemblance to a gargoyle, hunched on almost human-looking hind legs. In his cathedral to nature, Owen insisted on the segregation of extinct and extant animals, putting still-living species in the west wing, and long-dead species in the east wing. Owen was a progressive creationist who believed that the Earth had seen a series of complete extinctions followed by game-over-new-game resets. But as he insisted that extinct and extant species had no relation to each other, Darwin's theory of natural selection was gaining ground.
Year: 1830
Scientists: Henry De la Beche and Charles Lyell
Originally published in: "Awful Changes" print
Now appears in: Earth's Deep History and Scenes from Deep Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The author of this illustration was De la Beche. The target was Charles Lyell. Lyell argued for uniformitarianism: geologic processes occurring today, such as floods, earthquakes and erosion, are the same as those that occurred millions, even billions of years ago, and can account for landscapes as varied as the Alps and the Grand Canyon. Uniformitarianism is widely accepted among geologists today. Likewise, it's perfectly reasonable to think that, just as some parts of the globe were balmy or frigid millions of years ago, they may well be balmy or frigid millions of years in the future. But Lyell took that thinking an improbable step further, claiming, "huge Iguanodon might reappear in the woods, and the ichthyosaurs in the sea, while pterodactyle might flit again through umbrageous groves of tree ferns." It was this speculation — that the exact same animals that had lived in the distant past would recur in the distant future — that De la Beche lampooned, with an ichthyosaur lecturing students about the ancient human skull. The caption for this cartoon reads, "'You will at once perceive,' continued Professor Ichthyosaurus, 'that the skull before us belonged to some of the lower order of animals, the teeth are very insignificant the power of the jaws trifling, and altogether it seems wonderful how the creature could have procured food.'"
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Year: 1836
Scientist: Edward Hitchcock
Originally published in: "Ornithichnology: Description of the Foot Marks of Birds (Ornithichnites) on New Red Sandstone in Massachusetts" in American Journal of Science and the Fine Arts
Now appears in: The Dinosaur Papers edited by Weishampel and White
Edward Hitchcock was a professor of geology and theology, and the president of Amherst College, as well as an enthusiastic collector of the tracks left behind by giant Biblical birds. At least he thought they were birds. Hitchcock actually produced beautifully engraved but wrongly identified dinosaur tracks.
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Year: 1842
Scientist: George Richardson
Artist: John Martin
Originally published in: Geology for Beginners
Now appears in: Scenes from Deep Time: Early Pictorial Representations of the Prehistoric World by Martin J.S. Rudwick
According to 19th-century artist John Martin, dinosaurs spent much of their lives engaged in belching contests. Martin, an exceptionally talented artist whose paintings on biblical and classical subjects include The Fall of Babylon, Belshazzar's Feast and Deluge, later turned his efforts to scientific subjects, after his celebrity had waned, and familial and financial problems had accumulated. Unfortunately, he never let the facts get in the way of a good picture. Martin's contemporaries certainly lacked his sense of drama. Then again, he lacked their sense of accuracy.
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Year: 1840
Scientist: Thomas Hawkins
Artist: John Martin
Originally published in: The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons
Now available via: The Online Books Page (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp19013)
The collaboration of artist John Martin with paleontologist Thomas Hawkins was a match made not in heaven but perhaps in the antediluvian inferno that Hawkins believed once dominated the globe. Contemporaries of dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs were giant sea-dragons in his opinion, and his collaborator Martin accommodated that vision perfectly. The sea-dragons weren't just big, strong and hungry, Hawkins argued, they were evil. After describing one fossil, Hawkins explained to his readers the work of paleontologists: "By such inductions we revive the habits of Creatures long vanished away, and recolor the ardent Monster fleeting through the expanse of Seas like lightning to his distant prey, with a lust quenchable alone in gore." The sea-dragons aren't alone in this scene; vicious pterosaurs lurk about, one of them pecking at a dead animal's eye. Hawkins's eccentric take on the ancient Earth didn't end with mean monsters. He was also confident that the planet was bathed in darkness. He doubted the sun even existed the days of his sea-dragons, and if it did, its light couldn't penetrate our planet's murky atmosphere. Dark days indeed.
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Year: 1837-1838
Scientist: Gideon Mantell
Artist: John Martin
Originally published in: The Wonders of Geology
Now appears in: The Google Cultural Institute. Also discussed in Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of the Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean
Martin's painting of this scene has not survived, but this watercolor and subsequent engravings have. The engraving of Martin's work served as the frontispiece of Mantell's book — written in a less dramatic tone than Thomas Hawkins's apocalyptic tome on "sea-dragons." Mantell's caption text varied a bit in different editions, but explained the general scene: "The greater reptiles are the Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, Megalosaurus, and the Crocodile. An Iguanodon attacked by a Megalosaurus and Crocodile constitute the principal group; in the middle distance an Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus are preparing for an encounter; a solitary Pterodactyl, or flying reptile, with its wings partly expanded, forms a conspicuous object in the foreground while tortoises are seen crawling on the banks of the river. Ammonites and other shells of the Portland Oolite, which is the foundation rock of the country, are strewn on the shore." Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus weren't Mantell's only fossil discoveries to figure in this scene. At Til |
to, did us a favor. They raised questions which had the effect of engaging historians in new research. They have obliged us to once again collect information, to re-examine documents and to go further into the comprehension of what has taken place.
The international colloquium took place as scheduled at the Sorbonne from June 29 to July 2, 1982, but behind closed doors. Then, an account of its discussions and conclusions was given at a press conference. But, to the surprise of everyone present, only Raymond Aron and François Furet appeared at the press conference, declaring, on the one hand, that "despite the most scholarly research," no one had been able to find any order by Hitler for the extermination of the Jews, and, on the other, that pursuing the revisionists in court was like conducting a witch-hunt. Not one word was said about gas chambers.
Seven months later Hilberg summarized his new thesis before an audience of nearly 2,700 at Avery Fischer Hall in New York City: the entire German policy for the physical destruction of the Jews was to be explained by mind reading! No document attesting to this criminal policy could be found, because no such document existed. For several years, the entire German bureaucratic machinery operated through a kind of telepathy. As Hilberg put it: Note 4
But what began in 1941 was a process of destruction not planned in advance, not organized centrally by any agency. There was no blueprint and there was no budget for destructive measures. They [these measures] were taken step by step, one step at a time. Thus came about not so much a plan being carried out, but an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus -- mind reading by a far-flung bureaucracy.
Let us note again those final words: "an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus -- mind reading by a far-flung bureaucracy." Note 5
Two years later, Hilberg confirmed those words and this explanation during the first "Holocaust trial" of Ernst Zündel in Toronto. He did this under oath during his cross-examination by Zündel's lawyer, Douglas Christie, whom I was assisting. Note 6
That same year (1985) the "revised and definitive" edition of his book appeared. In it, the University of Vermont professor did not use the expression "consensus" or "mind reading." And yet he wrote: Note 7
In the final analysis, the destruction of the Jews was not so much a product of laws and commands as it was a matter of spirit, of shared comprehension, of consonance and synchronization.
He also wrote of "countless decision makers in a far-flung bureaucratic machine" without "a basic plan." He mentioned "written directives not published," "oral directives and authorizations," and "basic understandings of officials resulting in decisions not requiring orders or explanations." There had been "no one agency," he wrote, and "no single organization directed or coordinated the entire process." The destruction of the Jews, he concluded, was "the work of a far-flung administrative machine," and "no special agency was created and no special budget was devised to destroy the Jews of Europe. Each organization was to play a specific role in the process, and each was to find the means to carry out its task." Note 8
For me, this is like explaining what would have been a huge criminal undertaking of industrial proportions based, in particular, on a weapon (a chemical slaughterhouse using an insecticide), operating through the intervention of the Holy Ghost, all of which had been conceived and created through a kind of spontaneous generation.
I refuse to believe that which is not believable. I refuse to believe in the incredible. I refuse to believe in what Hilberg himself calls "an incredible meeting of minds." I refuse to believe in mind reading or telepathy, just as I refuse to believe in the intervention of the Holy Ghost or in spontaneous generation. I take exception to any historical thesis, any system of historical explanation, based on such hare-brained notions.
On November 23, 1978, the French historian René Rémond declared to me: "As for the [Nazi] gas chambers, I am ready to follow you; as for the genocide, I have the deep conviction that Nazism in itself was sufficiently perverse so that this genocide was part of its motivations and its actions, but I recognize that I have no scientific evidence for this genocide."
This is indeed the least one might say when one is concerned about historical truth.
Notes
"'Le problème des chambres à gaz' ou 'la rumeur d'Auschwitz'," Le Monde, Dec. 29, 1978, and, "Une lettre de M. Faurisson," Le Monde, Jan. 16, 1979, Reprinted in: R. Faurisson, Memoire en Defense (Paris: La Vieille Taupe, 1980), pp. 71-75, 83-88, and in: R. Faurisson, Écrits Révisionnistes (1974-1998), published in four volumes in 1999, vol. 1, pp. 122-124, 131-134. "Les Archives de l'horreur," Le Nouvel Observateur, July 3-9, 1982, pp. 70-73, 75-76. The interview was conducted Guy Sitbon, regular correspondent in the United States for Le Nouvel Observateur. Le Nouvel Observateur, July 3-9, 1982, p. 71. Also quoted in the Summer 1985 Journal, p. 170. Quoted in: George De Wan, "The Holocaust in Perspective," Newsday (Long Island, New York), Feb. 23, 1983, p. II/3. Also quoted in the Summer 1985 Journal, pp. 170-171. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, "mind reading" is defined as "The faculty of discerning another's thoughts through extrasensory means of communication; telepathy." Hilberg testimony on Jan. 16, 1985 (Toronto). Trial transcript, pp. 846-848. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985, 3 vols.), p. 55. R. Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (1985), pp. 53-55, 62.
From The Journal of Historical Review, Jan.-Feb. 1999 (Vol. 18, No. 1), page 15.
About the Author
Robert Faurisson is Europe's foremost Holocaust revisionist scholar. Born in 1929, he was educated at the Paris Sorbonne, and served as a professor at the University of Lyon in France from 1974 until 1990. He was a specialist of text and document analysis. His writings on the Holocaust issue have appeared in several books and numerous scholarly articles, many of which have been published in this Journal. This essay is an adaptation of a piece originally written in 1988.0
PORT WASHINGTON, Wisconsin –
Former Saved By The Bell star Dustin Diamond, best known for his awkwardly hilarious character Samuel “Screech” Powers on the timeless popular hit teen television series Saved By The Bell, has been charged with second-degree murder after a man he stabbed during a barroom brawl has died at a Wisconsin hospital.
Diamond, 37, initially told police that he accidentally stabbed the man with what he said was a ‘pen’, although he later referred to the weapon, which was never found, as a knife. According to Diamond, while trying to defend his fiance, 27-year-old Amanda Schutz, at the Grand Avenue Saloon in Port Washington, where Diamond is a resident, he was forced to brandish the weapon.
Diamond was initially charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct, and carrying a concealed weapon and was released on $10,000 bail before the man, only being referred to by the name of ‘Casey’ per request of family, passed away. Originally reported that Casey was completely fine and his wounds mostly superficial, reports say he took a turn for the worse after a wound from the fight became infected. He died on the operating room table.
Port Washington Police Department spokesperson Marvin Maxwell made the public announcement this morning that Diamond is now being sought for charges of second-degree murder.
“As requested by the family, the last name of the deceased is not to be released at this time and will only be referred to as ‘Casey,'” Maxwell said in the statement. “The case is thoroughly being investigated by the best detectives in Port Washington. Due to the fact that Mr. Diamond used a concealed weapon during the altercation, the police department had no choice but to charge him with second-degree homicide. Please keep in mind that Mr. Diamond is innocent until proven guilty by the court of law,” Maxwell added.
Those who witnessed the altercation seemed to have mixed opinions on what happened during the Christmas night brawl. Some say Diamond was behaving negatively and arrogantly and after refusing to shake the hand of a woman, the fight began. Others say two men had Diamonds girlfriend by the hair and had punched her in the face several times before Diamond got involved. One witness, Carl Peters, told police that the stabbing victim had verbally provoked Diamond.
“He told Screech he wanted to give him a wedgie and stuff him in a locker. Screech didn’t like that very much, and that’s when the tussle began” Peters said. “It was just like that episode where Screech got mad at Zack for stealing Lisa away from him, only this time, Screech stabbed the guy. It was awesome. I was half expecting Mr. Belding to come rushing out to break it up and yell ‘hey, hey, hey! What is going on here?!'”
Diamond has been re-arrested following the official announcement of the murder charge. No further court dates have been announced at this time.
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commentsFormer U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison for paying $1.7 million in hush money to cover up his sexual abuse of high school wrestlers he coached decades ago, the New York Times reported. He joins a long line of Illinois politicians who have served time for various crimes and corruption charges.
Hastert, 74, is accused of molesting at least four boys when he worked as a coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois. Although the statute of limitations prevented him from being charged with any sexual crimes, the Republican pleaded guilty to illegally structuring bank transactions to avoid reporting them to regulators, a felony that carried a maximum sentence of five years.
The former speaker’s sentence is fairly short compared with many other politicians’ punishments, but if his time behind bars is like those who have come before him, he could easily be shipped off to another state for his time in prison. In the long history of politicians going to prison in the U.S., they have had a wide range of experiences, with some serving relatively easy terms and getting preferential treatment and others spending years behind bars with common prisoners.
In addition to his prison sentence, Hastert, the longest-ever serving GOP House speaker, will face sex offender treatment, get two years of supervised release and be forced to pay a $250,000 fine that will go toward a crime victims fund, the Associated Press reported. It was not immediately clear whether Hastert will be in protective custody in prison, but prisoners who have been accused of sexual abuse of children are often bullied, attacked and sometimes killed by other inmates.
"It's not meant to be a death sentence" Judge says. Firm date to turn in will be to a medical facility. #Hastert can self-surrender later — Jeff Coen (@JeffCoen) April 27, 2016
Other high-profile Illinois politicians who have done prison time in recent years include former Govs. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich and former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Jackson pleaded guilty to federal charges in February 2013 after he admitted to diverting campaign funds for personal use, and spent about 17 months in federal prison camps in Alabama and North Carolina, the Chicago Tribune reported. After completing a substance abuse program, his term was reduced by about three months and he won an additional reduction due to good conduct in prison.
Toward the end of his term, Jackson was transferred to a halfway house in Baltimore and then to home detention in Washington to serve the final months of his sentence. After he finished his time behind bars, Jackson had to serve three years on supervised release, which many prisoners must do.
For Ryan, one of several former Illinois governors who have served time in prison, his sentence was longer. He spent five years in prison for corruption charges in a case related to a 1994 highway crash that killed six children, NBC News reported.
Ryan was initially sentenced to six and a half years in prison in 2006, and he reported to a minimum-security federal correctional institution in Wisconsin in 2007. He was transferred to a prison in Indiana in 2008 when new rules prohibited his Wisconsin facility from housing inmates older than 70, CNN reported.
The former governor appealed for clemency from President George W. Bush, but Bush left office before granting clemency. Ryan was released to home confinement in January 2013 and was fully released in July of that year. After finishing his time in the prison system, Ryan told the Chicago Sun-Times about struggles such as not being able to freely visit his wife while she was sick with cancer during his time behind bars.
He also said some guards did not like decisions he had made as governor, which made the beginning of his prison stint difficult, but he mostly had a positive outlook. “They made things a little rough, but you deal with it,” he told the Sun-Times.
Like Ryan, Blagojevich was convicted on corruption charges. In 2011, jurors found him guilty of 18 counts related to trying to sell President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat and extorting state funds. He was given a 14-year sentence and has been serving his time in Colorado.
He recently tried to appeal his case, but the Supreme Court said last month it would not reconsider his conviction. Blagojevich’s lawyer tried to argue that he has done well in prison and that his charges were examples of common political favors, not corruption, ABC News reported March 28.
“He's been a model prisoner, he teaches classes, he helps other inmates, you know, I think he's done everything he can to try and rejoin his family,” his attorney Leonard Goodman said, according to ABC News.
These interactions with other prisoners indicate that Blagojevich, like many politicians, has not been separated from other inmates and is largely serving his time much as any convicted felon would.
It is unclear what the circumstances of Hastert’s prison term will be, but he will likely need medical attention while in prison. Like Ryan, Hastert is an older man, and he has suffered from poor health in recent months, including a stroke, a bloodstream infection and a spinal infection. Before his sentence was delivered, a number of Hastert’s supporters, including his wife, his brother and Tom DeLay, a former House majority leader, wrote letters to the judge asking for mercy. DeLay called Hastert “a man of integrity” and said “He doesn’t deserve what he is going through,” according to the New York Times.
But Judge Thomas M. Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester” and did not seem inclined to reduce his sentence due to his health. “Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence,” Durkin said, according to the New York Times.
He added that Hastert’s victims endured damage for years after their abuse, saying: “If there’s a public shaming of the defendant because of the conduct he’s engaged in, so be it.”
The former politician sat in a wheelchair during his hearing and apologized to those he abused after facing one of his accusers, who publicly identified himself for the first time as Scott Cross, a former Yorkville High School wrestler and the brother of Illinois politician Tom Cross. After emotional testimony from Cross, Hastert said he did not specifically remember abusing Cross but he “would accept” his statement.
“I am deeply ashamed to be standing here today,” Hastert said. “I know I am here because I mistreated some of my athletes that I coached.... I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated. I was wrong and I accept that.”
After the hearing, Hastert’s attorney said he accepted the sentence would be focusing on his health and “healing the emotional damage” from these events.A new paper released by a joint study between the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, the Medical College of Virginia Campus and the Virginia Commonwealth University has confirmed that the THC in cannabis is without a doubt stimulating healthy cells within the body to seek out and fuck up cancerous ones.
The title of the research paper is indeed a mouthful: Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol-Induced Apoptosis in Jurkat Leukemia T Cells Is Regulated by Translocation of Bad to Mitochondria. Apparently they get paid to be good scientists at universities, but are terrible at communicating this stuff very well to broad audiences.
Hidden within the nearly incomprehensible language of the finding is this image which helps dumbshits like me laymen grasp the results without having to look up the definition of every third word. U0126 is a selective inhibitor that seems to benefit greatly from being paired with THC to tag team the cancer cells.
The key probably requires a PhD behind your name to fully understand, but the results were reproduced by three independent experiments. I’m not so sure what a Jurkat cell is all about, but killing them is apparently a good idea and THC is very good at it. Good luck understanding this:
Effects of THC on mitochondrial localization of Bad in THC-stimulated cells. A. Jurkat cells were treated with either 15 μmol/L LY294002 (LY) or 2 μmol/L H-89 in medium containing 10% FBS in the absence or presence of 10 μmol/L THC for a total 12 hours, after which the percentage of apoptotic cells were determined as described in Fig. 1A. Columns, mean of three separate experiments done in triplicate; bars, SD. *, P < 0.05, significantly less than values obtained for the treated cells with THC + LY294002. B. Cells were cultured with either 15 μmol/L LY294002 or 25 μmol/L U0126 in medium containing 10% FBS in the absence or presence of 10 μmol/L THC for a total 12 hours, after which Western analysis was used to monitor expression of phospho-Akt (Thr308), phospho-Akt (Ser473), and Akt. Akt served as a loading control. C. Cells were cultured as described in B, after which precleared cell lysates were incubated overnight with mouse monoclonal anti-Bad IgG conjugated to protein A-agarose beads. Immunoprecipitates were subsequently subjected to Western analysis to monitor the phosphorylation status of phospho-Bad (Ser112), phospho-Bad (Ser136), and phospho-Bad (Ser155). All sites were analyzed on a single blot. Cos cells were used as a positive control. Representative experiment. Two additional studies yielded equivalent results. D. Quantitative changes in Bad phosphorylation were determined by densitometric analysis of immunoblots. Columns, mean of three independent experiments done in triplicate; bars, SD. E. Jurkat cells treated as described in B, after which cells were adhered to slides by cytospin and subjected to double staining with anti-Bad antibodies and Cy2-labeled secondary antibodies (green) followed by a mitochondrion-specific dye (MitoTracker Deep Red 633) and then analyzed by confocal microscopy. Similar results were obtained in three independent experiments.
Apoptosis is the programmed death of cancer cells, which was highly increased under twelve-hour THC conditions in the test.
So there you have it “plant-derived cannabinoids, including Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), induce apoptosis in leukemic cells, although the precise mechanism remains unclear.” Scientists have conclusively discovered a truth: Marijuana literally kills cancer cells.
I don’t always recommend twelve-hour smoke sessions, but if you have cancer: shoot the 420 rainbow.WELLESLEY — A sleep-walking man clad solely in his underwear is a bit startling to encounter on the campus of a women’s college. Even if he’s just made of bronze and paint.
Double-takes and debate have abounded this week at Wellesley College, where a lifelike statue of a somnambulant male was installed outdoors as part of a new exhibit at the Davis Museum.
Hundreds of outraged students have signed a petition asking administrators to remove it.
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The artist, however, is thrilled. “I was talking with the curator of the exhibition and my assistant this morning, and we were saying, ‘When was the last time a work of art was talked about so much and got so much attention?’ ” sculptor Tony Matelli said Wednesday, after news of the debate rocketed around the Internet. “I can’t remember when.”
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The statue — titled “Sleepwalker” — is part of Matelli’s solo show “New Gravity,” featuring sculptures that explore how objects can be reversed, upended, or atomized. But shortly after it appeared Monday near the center of campus, a group of students began a petition on Change.org asking college president H. Kim Bottomly to have “Sleepwalker” removed.
Related Links View Gallery Statue of man in underwear at Wellesley College
“[T]his highly lifelike sculpture has, within just a few hours of its outdoor installation, become a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for many members of our campus community,” says the petition.
“While it may appear humorous, or thought-provoking to some, it has already become a source of undue stress for many Wellesley College students.”
At the college Tuesday, drivers could be seen slamming on their brakes as they approached or passed the statue, craning their necks for a second look. Many students made a beeline for the new addition on campus — some smiled and laughed as they got closer; others frowned and seemed apprehensive. All reached for their smartphones to take a photo.
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“I honestly didn’t even want to get too close to him,” said Laura Mayron, a Wellesley College sophomore.
“It honestly makes me a little uncomfortable with how real he looks. It’s odd.”
Bridget Schreiner, a Wellesley freshman who signed the petition, said she felt “freaked out” the first time she saw the statue, thinking for a moment that a real, nearly nude person was lingering near the campus center.
Others said that while the statue came as a surprise, they understood the artist’s intention.
“I find it disturbing, but in a good way,” said Sarah Wall-Randell, an English professor at Wellesley. “I think it’s meant to be off-putting — it’s a schlumpy guy in underpants in an all-women environment.”
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On Wednesday, Bottomly released a joint statement with Davis Museum director Lisa Fischman, noting the installation has served its purpose — to evoke response.
The sculpture “has started an impassioned conversation about art, gender, sexuality, and individual experience, both on campus and on social media,” the statement said. “The very best works of art have the power to stimulate deeply personal emotions and to provoke unexpected new ideas, and this sculpture is no exception.”
Matelli, who will be on campus Thursday night to speak at the exhibit’s official opening, said he thinks criticism of the “Sleepwalker” is unfounded.
“Everyone brings to a work of art their own interpretation, their own history and their own baggage,” he said.
“I think people might be seeing things in that work that just aren’t there.”
Jaclyn Reiss can be reached at jaclyn.reiss@globe.com.It appears the white powder contamination scare that paralyzed parts of the city may be linked to an ongoing criminal harassment case.
It turns on a woman named Alexa Amanda Emerson. She also goes by Amanda May Totchek, who is well-known to courts and police.
"It's a really complicated situation, domestic in nature," said defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle.
"These sorts of things, like all spousal-type relationships, have their own weird dynamic and I think, unfortunately, this is one that has led to some charges for my client."
Pfefferle was in provincial court Wednesday morning for Emerson's first appearance in connection with harassment and mischief charges that date to October.
He believes there's a connection between these October charges and the events that unfolded at five businesses Tuesday. How and why they are connected remains to be seen, he said.
Five suspicious packages were sent to downtown and north end businesses on Tuesday. 0:25
Pfefferle said that Emerson faces at least 15 charges connected to the events yesterday that sent police and emergency workers to the businesses over concerns due to unknown substances.
Video mischief
Police closed off the 400 block of 21st Street yesterday due to the white powder scare. (Dan Zakreski/CBC)
According to court documents filed in relation to the October charges, Emerson is alleged to have emailed two videos to a number of people.
The videos depict her being bound, assaulted and threatened by a local man. According to the court documents, the intent was to cause police to believe the man had caused harm to Emerson.
Pfefferle said Emerson turned herself in to police Tuesday morning and was charged with mischief and criminal harassment in connection with the video.
When she appeared on those charges this morning, she was remanded until Dec. 6 and a bail supervision report ordered.
"I can say she was in custody when the incidents were starting to occur around the city yesterday. I'll certainly be interested to see what the allegations were in terms of her involvement because she was in custody the whole time," Pfefferle said.
Harassment history
Police scrambled to keep the public safe. (Dan Zakreski/CBC)
Prosecutor Frank Impey confirmed Alexa Amanda Emerson is also Amanda May Totchek.
In June 2015, Amanda Totchek pleaded guilty to uttering threats, fraud and harassment. The charges related to a two-year pattern of harassment against an ex-boyfriend.
It was characterized by her sending letters and packages to friends and acquaintances of her former partner.
She was sentenced to time served and placed on probation.Pastor Douglas Wilson is a radically right-wing pastor from Idaho who defends slavery, calls for gays to be exiled and adulterers to be put to death. In 2012, he was invited to speak at Indiana University, which led to protests and confrontation and now, a right-wing documentary about the controversy called “The Free Speech Apocalypse.”
Directed by Darren Doane, perhaps best known for directing Kirk Cameron’s “Saving Christmas,” which is literally one of the worst films ever made, the new movie presents Wilson’s experience of going up against the left-wing “tolerance buzzsaw” and, amazingly, features appearances by Ted Cruz and Ben Carson:
The Free Speech Apocalypse exposes the strategies of the anti-God, anti-traditional, hyper-liberal elite and offers perspective on the cultural decay that has accelerated across the country over the three years since Wilson’s visit to Indiana University. Worst yet, The Free Speech Apocalypse demonstrates clearly the erosion of free speech and religious liberty in America. The right to hold your own opinions if they differ from leftist agendas is vanishing at an alarming rate, and it’s time for ordinary Americans to wake up and speak out. This documentary features (among others) Sweet Cakes owners Aaron and Melissa Klein, as well as presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson outlining the concerns they have that unelected judges are ruling against the common citizen’s Constitutional right to free speech.
A trailer posted on the film’s website prominently features both Cruz and Carson:
Why are GOP presidential candidates appearing in a film promoting someone who holds these sorts of view?
Wilson runs an extreme right religious empire in Moscow, Idaho, that includes a church, Canon Press, and New Saint Andrews College. Popular in neo-Confederate circles as well, he co-wrote a partly plagiarized booklet, Southern Slavery, As It Was, defending Old South slavery; his co-author was Steve Wilkins, a founding member of the neo-secessionist and racist League of the South. Southern Slavery, As It Was is a repulsive apologia for the enslavement of black Americans. Among other things, the booklet contends that, “Slavery as it existed in the South … was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence. … There has never been a multiracial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world.” When a University of Idaho professor revealed in 2004 that Wilson’s booklet contained 22 passages plagiarized from a discredited 1974 academic treatise, Wilson scoffed, deriding the “local Banshees” who criticized him over what he portrayed as a mere citation problem. Canon Press then issued a “corrected” version of the booklet — correct in its citations, but unchanged in its portrayal of happy and well-fed slaves whose relationship with their masters was one of mutual affection. Wilson’s views on other issues are just as extreme. Woman “was created to be dependent and responsive to a man,” he has written. If a woman is raped, the rapist should pay the father a bride price and then, if the father approves, marry his victim. Homosexuals, Wilson says, are “sodomites” and “people with foul sexual habits.” Wilson recently told Christianity Today that he’s in favor of the “exile [of] some homosexuals, depending on the circumstances and the age of the victim.” He added, “There are circumstances where I’d be in favor of execution for adultery.” Cursing one’s parents is likewise “deserving of punishment by death.” Though he admits the scripture does not forbid interracial marriage, Wilson warns that, “wise parents” will carefully weigh any union involving “extremely diverse cultural backgrounds.”
Earlier this year, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and various Republican members of Congress appeared in another right-wing anti-gay documentary alongside a Religious Right activist who openly calls for gays and all those how refuse to submit to Christianity to be put to death.
Are GOP presidential hopefuls utterly incapable of doing any research or vetting before agreeing to appear in these sorts of films?Those with a taste for adventure have likely heard a cautionary tale at some point about a friend—or relative, or idolized celebrity, or whoever—who seems to become increasingly boring as they get older. “That will never be me,” they firmly promise themselves, half-confident, half-fearful.
But in fact, new research says, a person’s willingness to seek adventure and take risks may not decline simply because of age. Risk-taking is really more a personality trait that stays stable throughout adulthood, according to an analysis of the lifestyles of more than 44,000 German adults published this week (Jan. 28) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. As with any personality trait, major life events such as illness or marriage might have an effect, but for the most part, a person’s willingness to take chances holds relatively steady to that of their peers as they age.
So if you’re already a risk-taker, you’re likely to be one forever.
Researchers from the Max Plank Institute for Human Development in Germany, Yale University, and the University of Basel in Switzerland crunched through 10 years of data on 18- to 85-year-olds from the German Socio-Economic Panel, a longitudinal study of the German population that began in 1984. They found that individuals’ willingness to take financial and social risks—such as investing in a new company or trusting a stranger—stayed fairly consistent as they got older, as did their willingness to take chances related to work, health, and driving. Interest in recreational risks (think skydiving and bungee-jumping) did drop off somewhat after the age of 30, but that might have more to do with losing some of your physical agility, as opposed to your willingness to freefall thousands of feet through the air.
The findings go against popular assumptions that risk-taking decreases with age in general. This perception is based on “generalizations and stereotypes about more cautious older individuals,” Yale psychology professor Gregory Samanez-Larkin and a co-author of the study said in a press release.
That most older people aren’t really much more risk-adverse than they were in their youth isn’t just good news for thrill-seeking millennials—it’s also a promising nugget of information that may prove relevant to understanding psychological development, fraud victimization in old age, and the idea of personality itself.Alexander Light, Contributor
Waking Times
The worldwide military expenditures for 2011 summed up to as much as $2,157,172,000,000 (yes, that’s over $2,15 trillion). The human mind cannot really grasp such a large amount of money, that’s why I will try to put it into perspective later on.
USA alone spent the record sum of $741,2 billion in 2011 for waging wars and producing new weapons, while in 2010, the US military expenditures reached $683.7 billion.
The US defense budget for 2012 will exceed $1 trillion and is expected to reach as high as $1,415 trillion!
In January 2012, President Obama promised that USA’s defense budget will grow slowly but steadily in the following 10 years.
Now, the question we need to ask ourselves is: “what kind of future awaits mankind”? If our worldwide governments constantly raise the war budgets, design new weapons and pick new fights, then the future can only bring: more wars, destruction, sufferance and famine.
If there is no such thing as a “global financial conspiracy”, then why are we not allocating larger budgets for clean & renewable energy, new transportation methods, Eco-friendly materials to substitute for plastics and other non-biodegradable materials? Why are we not allocating larger budgets for natural healthcare and natural foods and drinks?
Well, because there IS a global financial conspiracy and the global banking elite has big money invested in the war apparatus – and war, my friends, is the most profitable business on Earth.
Sadly, we do have our part of guilt as well, because we allow the global governments to use our money for such primitive purposes: murder and destruction. There is still time to put an end to this madness and start creating a positive future for the human species. Sooner rather than later, we must get rid of these “royal” blood-sucking parasites and start governing ourselves.
Here are 9 Things That Could Positively Effect the World if we Re-Directed our Resources from the War Machine
1. Evacuated Tube Transportation Technology – aka ET3 or ETT
Transportation should be clean, green, fast, comfortable and affordable for all; It must also be financially sustainable on a global level. ET3 is literally “Space Travel on Earth”. ET3 is silent, low cost, safe, faster than jets, and is electric:
ET3 can provide 50 times more transportation per kWh than electric cars or trains.
Speed in initial ET3 systems is 600km/h (370 mph) for in state trips, and will be developed to 6,500 km/h (4,000 mph) for international travel that will allow passenger or cargo to travel from New York to Beijing in 2 hours. ET3 is networked like freeways, except the capsules are automatically routed from origin to destination.
ET3 capsules weigh only 183 kg (400 lbs), yet like an automobile, can carry up to six people or 367 kg (800 lbs) of cargo. Compared to high speed rail, ET3 needs only 1/20th the material to build because the vehicles are so light. With automated passive switching, a pair of ET3 tubes can exceed the capacity of a 32 lane freeway. ET3 can be built for 1/10th the cost of High Speed Rail, or 1/4th the cost of a freeway.
Rail VS. ETT — The Costs
2. High-tech and high performance electric cars – e.g. Tesla Motors
If your company would go bankrupt because it cannot survive in the current economic scheme, do you think the government would bail you out? Of course not. But the US government bailed out 3 gas-car manufacturers: GM, Ford and Chrysler. They’ve officially received $25 billion ($700 billion unofficially, as documents show) from OUR tax money because we don’t want to buy their cars anymore! How corrupt and absurd is that?
If there is no global financial conspiracy, then why are they bailing out environmentally-polluting obsolete companies, instead of investing the money in Eco-friendly companies, like Tesla Motors for example? Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. He is a 40 years old South African engineer and entrepreneur, and his financial worth is a little more than half a billion dollars. The company’s worth is of only ~ $250 million. That’s such a tiny amount compared to $700 billion, don’t you think? Yet, he was able to achieve so much, with so little.
Tesla Motors is named after electrical engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla (mankind’s greatest inventor). The Tesla vehicles use an AC electric motor descended directly from Tesla’s original 1882 design.
Tesla Model S (starting price $49,000 — deliveries just recently started);
Features: 0-60 mph in 5.6 to 6.5 seconds, depending on the model. Comes with three battery types, 40, 60 and 80 kWh, and an estimated range of 160, 230 and 300 miles/charge.
If you want to see how much a full “tank” costs, choose a battery type and multiply it with the kWh’s price of your area.
Fully electric, 7 seats, 2 trunks, 17″ central touch screen display, 0 tailpipe emissions, no engine noise, full instant torque. The car accelerates from 0-60 mph in 6.5 sec, 5.9 sec, 5.6 sec, or 4.4 sec. for the top model. That’s faster than many of the sport cars.
Tesla Model X (starting price of about $60,000 — deliveries will begin early 2014) – the company’s first SUV;
Features: 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds (faster than a Porsche 911). The most sophisticated 4×4 traction control system in the world, two electric motors, + 50% torque improvements.
You will be able to choose from two battery types, 60 and 85 |
.358.2431 Delgado, Hector N Email hector.n.delgado@nasa.gov 321.867.9295 Delgado, Richard D Email richard.d.delgado@nasa.gov 281.244.7257 Dellagatta, Gail E Email gail.e.dellagatta@nasa.gov 301.286.1126 Dellapenta, Yvonne M Email yvonne.m.dellapenta@nasa.gov 757.864.2760 Deloach, William Russ Email russ.deloach-1@nasa.gov 321.861.4123 Demko, John T Email john.t.demko@nasa.gov 805.605.3001 Demoss, Joshua Andrew Email joshua.a.demoss@nasa.gov 757.864.7365 Dempster, Karen C Email karen.c.dempster@nasa.gov 757.864.5294 Denkins, Todd C Email todd.c.denkins@nasa.gov 757.864.7191 Dervan, Jared A Email jared.a.dervan@nasa.gov 256.544.3424 Deschamp, Rebecca E Email rebecca.e.deschamp@nasa.gov 228.688.3786 Deshpande, Manohar D Email manohar.d.deshpande@nasa.gov 301.286.2435 Devillo, Stephen D Email stephen.d.devillo@nasa.gov 256.544.5882 Devolites, Jennifer Lynn Email jennifer.devolites@nasa.gov 281.483.8300 Deyerle, Kenneth A Email kenneth.a.deyerle@nasa.gov 757.864.8317 Di Pietro, David A Email david.a.dipietro@nasa.gov 301.286.0240 Dianati, Soheila Email soheila.dianati@nasa.gov 650.604.4289 Dickerson, John A Email john.a.dickerson@nasa.gov 757.824.1482 Dickey, Perry D Email perry.d.dickey@nasa.gov 321.867.7288 Dickson, Melanie J Email melanie.j.dickson@nasa.gov 321.861.4114 Didion, Jeffrey R Email jeffrey.r.didion@nasa.gov 301.286.4363 Dilg, Jeffrey A Email jeffrey.a.dilg@nasa.gov 256.544.1646 Dillard, Mark A Email mark.a.dillard@nasa.gov 281.244.8640 Diller, George H Email george.h.diller@nasa.gov 321.861.7643 Dillman, Robert A Email robert.a.dillman@nasa.gov 757.864.7177 Dischinger, Hugh C Email charles.dischinger@nasa.gov 256.544.9526 Dischinger, Portia B Email portia.dischinger@nasa.gov 256.544.8650 Dismond, Harriett R Email harriett.r.dismond@nasa.gov 757.864.4625 Dismukes, Robert Key Email robert.k.dismukes@nasa.gov Dittmer, Annette C Email annette.dittmer-1@nasa.gov 321.861.7451 Dixon, Bert T Email bert.t.dixon@nasa.gov 301.286.2193 Dixon, Genevieve Dellinger Email genevieve.d.dixon@nasa.gov 757.864.7209 Dixon, Kyle L Email kyle.l.dixon@nasa.gov 321.861.6956 Dixon, Robin M Email robin.m.dixon@nasa.gov 301.286.9230 Doggett, William R Email bill.doggett@nasa.gov 757.864.6678 Donald, Bruce A Email bruce.donald@nasa.gov 256.544.5144 Donnell, Felicia S Hooper Email felicia.h.donnell@nasa.gov 301.286.2517 Donohue, John T Email john.t.donohue@nasa.gov 301.286.5700 Doremus, Robert C Email robert.c.doremus@nasa.gov 281.483.0680 Dorsey, John T Email john.t.dorsey@nasa.gov 757.864.3108 Dorsey, Paula M Email paula.dorsey@nasa.gov 202.358.4479 Doughty, Jeffrey C Email jeffrey.c.doughty@nasa.gov 757.864.3247 Douglas, Scott C Email scott.c.douglas@nasa.gov 301.286.9550 Dowdell, William C Email william.c.dowdell@nasa.gov 321.867.6455 Downing, David F Email ddowning@bionetics.com Downs, Darlene Ellen Email darlene.e.downs@nasa.gov 301.286.5803 Doyle, Kathryn Louise Email kathryn.l.doyle@nasa.gov 301.286.8319 Drake, Thomas E Email thomas.e.drake@nasa.gov 321.867.3499 Draughon, Gregory K Email gregory.k.draughon@nasa.gov 757.864.5519 Dress, David A Email david.a.dress@nasa.gov 757.864.5126 Driskill, Timothy C Email tim.driskill@nasa.gov 256.544.1139 Drummond, J Philip Email j.p.drummond@nasa.gov 757.864.8786 Drummond, Printis Lorenza Email printis.l.drummond@nasa.gov 757.824.1554 Duarte, Luis A Email alberto.duarte@nasa.gov 256.544.2944 Dudley, Kenneth L Email kenneth.l.dudley@nasa.gov 757.864.1783 Dukes, Debra A Email debra.a.dukes@nasa.gov 321.861.6609 Duncan, Clinton Email clinton.duncan-1@nasa.gov 757.864.1118 Duncan, Quinton Email quinton.duncan-1@nasa.gov 757.864.3170 Dunn, Jamie L Email jamie.l.dunn@nasa.gov 301.286.6351 Dunton, Charles V Email charles.v.dunton@nasa.gov 757.864.7222 Dupuis, Virginia Millar Email ginger.dupuis@nasa.gov 757.864.3101 Durham, Douglas C Email douglas.c.durham@nasa.gov 321.867.8429 Dyer, Joseph W Email joseph.wendell.dyer@gmail.com 781.345.0200 Earle, Kevin D Email kevin.d.earle@nasa.gov 757.864.1913 Earnest, David L Email david.earnest@nasa.gov 256.544.3715 Easmunt, Catherine Thom Rivera Email catherine.easmunt@nasa.gov 757.824.1525 Eason, Reginald D Email reginald.d.eason@nasa.gov 301.286.4658 Ebron, Enzie M Email enzie.m.ebron@nasa.gov 202.358.4663 Edelen, James C Email j.chris.edelen@nasa.gov 281.483.6541 Edelman, Michelle M Email michelle.m.edelman@nasa.gov 321.867.2801 Edmond, Jerry P Email jerry.edmond-1@nasa.gov 202.358.0247 Edwards, Arthur E Email arthur.e.edwards@nasa.gov 321.861.4130 Edwards, Jason M Email jason.m.edwards@nasa.gov 216.433.3376 Edwards, William C Email william.c.edwards@nasa.gov 757.864.1555 Elliott, Dwight E Email dwight.e.elliott@nasa.gov Elliott, Holly Ann Email holly.a.elliott@nasa.gov 757.864.9973 Elliott, John William Email john.w.elliott@nasa.gov 757.824.1437 Elliott, Kenny B Email kenny.b.elliott@nasa.gov 757.864.4359 Elliott, Maria K Email kim.elliott@nasa.gov 757.864.6150 Ellis, Brenda L Email brenda.l.ellis@nasa.gov 216.433.5214 Ellis, Gregory L Email gregory.l.ellis@nasa.gov 757.824.2527 Ellis, Johnny E Email johnny.e.ellis@nasa.gov 757.864.9042 Ellison, Robert M Email rob.ellison@nasa.gov 321.867.2373 Ely, Jay J Email jay.j.ely@nasa.gov 757.864.1868 Embrey, Bernard C Email bernard.c.embrey@nasa.gov 281.483.0184 Emerson, Curtis Email curtis.m.emerson@nasa.gov 301.286.7670 Emond, Brian P Email brian.p.emond@nasa.gov 321.867.8537 Enciso, Marlon L Email marlon.l.enciso@nasa.gov 301.286.4120 England, James G Email james.g.england@nasa.gov English, Matthew S Email matthew.s.english@nasa.gov 321.861.1678 English, Richard L Email richard.l.english@nasa.gov 321.867.0838 Engrand, Peter A Email peter.engrand-1@nasa.gov 321.867.8145 Ensey, Caren L Email caren.l.ensey@nasa.gov 321.861.7553 Entin, Jared K Email jared.k.entin@nasa.gov 202.358.0275 Erbacher, Daniel J Email daniel.j.erbacher@nasa.gov 216.433.3343 Erdman, Thomas F Email thomas.f.erdman@nasa.gov 321.867.2199 Erkenswick, Tom M Email tom.m.erkenswick@nasa.gov 281.483.8032 Erminger, Mark Douglas Email mark.d.erminger-2@nasa.gov Ernst, Eric W Email eric.w.ernst@nasa.gov 321.867.1566 Esaias, Wayne E Email wayne.e.esaias@nasa.gov 301.614.5709 Esker, Barbara M Email barbara.m.esker@nasa.gov 216.433.8707 Esper, Jaime Email jaime.esper-1@nasa.gov 301.286.1124 Estep, Robert H Email robert.h.estep@nasa.gov 301.286.7798 Etheridge, Juan C Email juan.etheridge-1@nasa.gov 281.483.7620 Etheridge, Lisa J Email lisa.j.etheridge@nasa.gov 757.864.7614 Ethridge, Edwin Clark Email edwin.ethridge@rocketmail.com 256.544.7767 Eure, Kenneth W Email kenneth.w.eure@nasa.gov 757.864.5990 Eure, Laura L Email laura.l.eure@nasa.gov 757.864.6371 Evans, Candice F Email candice.f.evans@nasa.gov 757.864.5116 Evans, Karen W Email crabgranny@cox.net Evans, Laura J Email laura.j.evans@nasa.gov 216.433.9845 Evans, Thomas R Email thomas.r.evans@nasa.gov 301.286.0407 Everett, Janice L Email janice.l.everett@nasa.gov 321.867.8421 Everton, Eric L Email eric.everton@nasa.gov 757.864.5778 Exton, Reginald J Email reginald.j.exton@nasa.gov 757.864.4605 Facca, Anthony A Email tony.facca@nasa.gov 216.433.8318 Facemire, David L Email david.l.facemire@nasa.gov 321.867.7232 Facinelli, Jaclyn R Email jaclyn.r.facinelli@nasa.gov 216.433.2315 Fairbairn, Robert E Email robert.e.fairbairn@nasa.gov 757.864.7207 Fairlie, T Duncan Email t.d.fairlie@nasa.gov 757.864.5818 Falck, Robert D Email rfalck@nasa.gov 216.433.2295 Falcon, Anabel Email anabel.falcon-1@nasa.gov 216.433.8993 Famiglietti, Joseph Email joseph.famiglietti-1@nasa.gov 301.286.1833 Farley, Rodger E Email rodger.e.farley@nasa.gov 301.286.2252 Farner, Bruce R Email bruce.r.farner@nasa.gov 228.688.2967 Fasulo, Rebecca J Email beckyjf@yahoo.com Fawcett, Michael K Email mike.fawcett@nasa.gov 216.433.5148 Fay, Catharine C Email catharine.c.fay@nasa.gov 757.864.4296 Fay, James J Email james.j.fay@nasa.gov 757.864.7813 Faykus, Eric W Email faykus@nasa.gov 216.433.3062 Feagan, Sharon R Email sharon.r.feagan@nasa.gov 321.867.8733 Feagan, Susan P Email susan.p.feagan@nasa.gov 321.861.7612 Fears, Shawn D Email shawn.d.fears@nasa.gov 256.544.5562 Feiveson, Alan H Email alan.h.feiveson@nasa.gov 281.483.6603 Feldhake, Glenn S Email glenn.s.feldhake@nasa.gov 216.433.5668 Fennell, Darlene Email darlene.fennell-1@nasa.gov 301.286.4205 Ferebee, Melvin J Email melvin.j.ferebee@nasa.gov 757.864.4421 Ferebee, Michelle Taylor Email michelle.t.ferebee@nasa.gov 757.864.5617 Ferebee, Robin C Email robin.ferebee@nasa.gov 256.544.1550 Ferenc, Lisa M Email lisa.m.ferenc@nasa.gov 216.433.6592 Ferguson, Roger George Email name@domain.com 222.222.2222 Ferrell, Bob A Email bob.a.ferrell@nasa.gov 321.867.6678 Ferrer, Arturo B Email arturo.b.ferrer@nasa.gov 301.614.7048 Ferrolino, Claribel C Email claribel.c.ferrolino@nasa.gov 240.684.0564 Ferry, Kimberly Fisher Email kimberly.f.ferry@nasa.gov 757.824.1516 Fertig, Tricia Leigh Email tricia.l.fertig@nasa.gov 805.605.2430 Fields, John A Email john.a.fields@nasa.gov 281.483.8023 Figert, John D Email john.d.figert@nasa.gov 281.483.8919 Fike, Ethel Constance Email ethel.c.fike@nasa.gov 301.286.3796 Files, Bradley S Email bradley.s.files@nasa.gov 281.483.5967 Finch, Kimberly Suzanne Email kimberly.s.finch@nasa.gov 650.604.1294 Finckenor, Miria M Email miria.finckenor@nasa.gov 256.544.9244 Fineberg, Laurence H Email laurence.h.fineberg@nasa.gov 321.867.7651 Fink, William E Email william.e.fink@nasa.gov 301.286.7924 Firth, George C Email george.c.firth@nasa.gov 757.864.6942 Fischer, James Ronald Email james.r.fischer@nasa.gov 301.286.3465 Fisher, Bruce D Email bruce.d.fisher@nasa.gov 757.864.3862 Fisher, Daniel W Email daniel.w.fisher@nasa.gov 757.864.2763 Fisher, Marcus S Email marcus.s.fisher@nasa.gov 304.367.8337 Fitzgerald, Henry J Email henry.j.fitzgerald@nasa.gov 757.864.4529 Fitzgerald, Michael P Email michael.p.fitzgerald@nasa.gov 757.864.3681 Flaherty, Christopher J Email christopher.j.flaherty@nasa.gov 202.358.5239 Flatley, Thomas P Email thomas.p.flatley@nasa.gov 301.286.7029 Fleming, Gale E Email gale.l.fleming@nasa.gov 301.286.6582 Fletcher, Allen Email allen.fletcher-1@nasa.gov 321.867.7387 Fletcher, David R Email david.r.fletcher@nasa.gov 281.244.5136 Fletcher, Gregory Email gregory.fletcher-1@nasa.gov 228.688.2223 Fletcher, Mark T Email mark.t.fletcher@nasa.gov 757.864.4591 Flood, Michael A Email michael.a.flood@nasa.gov 757.864.8258 Flournoy, Walter T Email walter.t.flournoy@nasa.gov 301.286.3775 Flowers, Arthur D Email arthur.d.flowers-1@nasa.gov 321.867.6769 Fluegemann, Philip R Email philip.r.fluegemann@nasa.gov 650.604.5302 Fly, Randy R Email randy.r.fly@nasa.gov 757.864.3051 Flynn, Karen E Email karen.flynn-1@nasa.gov 281.483.8493 Fodroci, Michael P Email michael.fodroci-1@nasa.gov 281.483.4206 Foerman, Earnest Paul Email paul.foerman-1@nasa.gov 228.688.1880 Folmar, Debbie L Email debbie.l.folmar@nasa.gov 321.867.1404 Fong, Don Email don.fong@nasa.gov 216.433.5339 Ford, Cheryl L Email cheryl.l.ford@nasa.gov 321.867.2298 Ford, Deborah L Email deborah.l.ford@nasa.gov 757.864.1771 Ford, Donald B Email donald.b.ford@nasa.gov 256.544.2454 Ford, Thomas F Email ford@nasa.gov 321.861.3635 Foretich, Michael V Email michael.v.foretich@nasa.gov 757.864.2276 Forrest, Dana K Email dana.k.forrest@nasa.gov 757.864.5964 Forrest, David J Email david.j.forrest@nasa.gov 281.483.6370 Forsbacka, Elizabeth Email elizabeth.m.forsbacka@nasa.gov 301.286.7884 Forsgren, Roger C Email roger.c.forsgren@nasa.gov 202.358.0859 Forte, Mary L Email mary.l.forte@nasa.gov 301.286.3953 Fortin, Andre Scott Email andre.s.fortin@nasa.gov 301.286.7829 Foss, John W Email john.w.foss@nasa.gov 281.483.4851 Foss, Richard A Email richard.a.foss@nasa.gov 757.864.7049 Foster, John V Email john.v.foster@nasa.gov 757.864.1155 Fowler, Lisa Ann Email lisa.a.fowler@nasa.gov 321.867.1883 Fox, Jack J Email jack.j.fox@nasa.gov 321.867.4413 Frank, Fabiola C Email fabiola.i.frank@nasa.gov 321.867.4552 Franke, John M Email john.m.franke@nasa.gov 757.864.5494 Franklin, Valarie J Email vfranklin@cfl.rr.com Frazier, Diane M Email dfrazier@nasa.gov 202.358.0419 Frazier, Gregory Vincent Email gregory.v.frazier@nasa.gov 301.286.6619 Frazier, Rhea P Email rhea.p.frazier@nasa.gov 301.286.2028 Frazier, Wayne R Email wayne.r.frazier@nasa.gov Freeman, William T Email william.t.freeman@nasa.gov 757.864.2945 Freidt, Karen L Email karen.l.freidt@nasa.gov 757.660.4875 Friedensen, Victoria P Email victoria.p.friedensen@nasa.gov 202.358.1916 Friederich, Laurie A Email laurie.a.friederich@nasa.gov 301.286.6684 Frimmel, Diana W Email diana.w.frimmel@nasa.gov 757.824.1290 Frink, Kenneth A Email kenneth.a.frink@nasa.gov 757.864.2391 Frink, Neal T Email neal.t.frink@nasa.gov 757.864.2864 Frizzell, Alan W Email larc-dl-blackhole@mail.nasa.gov Frizzell, Michael B Email michael.b.frizzell@nasa.gov 321.861.5785 Frye, Mark W Email mark.w.frye@nasa.gov 757.864.4102 Fujikawa, Gene Email gene.fujikawa@nasa.gov 216.433.3495 Fuller, Emitt D Email emitt.d.fuller@nasa.gov 757.864.4568 Fuller, Tracey Lynn Email tracey.l.brown@nasa.gov 757.864.7261 Furnas, Randall B Email randall.b.furnas@nasa.gov 216.433.2321 Gaddy, Darrell E Email darrell.e.gaddy@nasa.gov 256.544.0198 Gaffney, Richard L Email richard.l.gaffney@nasa.gov 757.864.7872 Gage, Jane V Email jane.v.gage@nasa.gov 757.864.2331 Gage, Robert C Email vickiegage@gmail.com Gal-edd, Jonathan S Email jonathan.s.gal-edd@nasa.gov 301.286.2378 Galal, Khaled Email ken.galal@nasa.gov 650.604.0712 Galiana-liang, Isolda I Email isolda.i.galianaliang@nasa.gov 321.861.2235 Galland, Louis D Email louis.d.galland@nasa.gov 757.864.7310 Galluzzi, Michael Christopher Email michael.c.galluzzi@nasa.gov 321.867.4796 Gamble, Gwendolyn L Email gwendolyn.l.gamble@nasa.gov 321.867.2745 Gamwell, Wayne R Email wayne.r.gamwell@nasa.gov 256.544.2592 Garber, Donald P Email donald.p.garber@nasa.gov 757.864.2407 Garcia, Jose R Email lou.garcia-1@nasa.gov 321.867.6196 Garcia, Marisol E Email marisol.e.garcia@nasa.gov 757.864.5355 Garris, John D Email john.garris@nasa.gov 202.358.4950 Garrison, Hope Wescott Email hope.w.garrison@nasa.gov 757.824.1206 Gary, Gilmer A Email allen.gary@nasa.gov 256.961.7609 Gaukler, Garry L Email garry.l.gaukler@nasa.gov 240.684.0706 Gause, Donita E Email d.elaine.gause@nasa.gov 757.864.7318 Gay, Patricia Bavis Email patricia.bavis.gay@nasa.gov 301.286.4908 Gayle, Steven W Email steven.w.gayle@nasa.gov 757.864.4240 Geiger, James K Email james.k.geiger@nasa.gov 757.864.3085 Geiger, James V Email james.v.geiger@nasa.gov 301.286.8754 Geissinger, Stephen K Email stephen.k.geissinger@nasa.gov 757.864.6044 Geithner, Paul H Email paul.h.geithner@nasa.gov 301.286.6845 Generale, Michael S Email michael.s.generale@nasa.gov 321.867.5867 Gentile, Susan E Email susan.e.gentile@nasa.gov 256.544.5902 Geouge, Wayne D Email wayne.d.geouge@nasa.gov 757.864.4207 Gerrish, Harold P Email harold.p.gerrish@nasa.gov 256.544.7084 Getter, Cassandra F Email cassandra.f.getter@nasa.gov 321.867.6951 Ghaffari, Farhad Email f.ghaffari@nasa.gov 757.864.2856 Ghuman, Parminder S Email p.ghuman@nasa.gov 301.286.8001 Gibbs, Sandra M Email sandra.m.gibbs@nasa.gov 757.864.3529 Gibbs, Susan A Email susan.a.gibbs@nasa.gov 757.864.2363 Gibson, Charles N Email larc-dl-blackhole@mail.nasa.gov Gibson, Karen B Email karen.b.gibson@nasa.gov 757.864.7116 Gieseler, Cathy T Email cathy.t.gieseler@nasa.gov 321.867.4436 Giles, John J Email john.j.giles@nasa.gov 321.867.1831 Gill, Tracy R Email tracy.r.gill@nasa.gov 321.867.5824 Gillard, Sheree G Email sheree.g.gillard@nasa.gov 321.867.3894 Gilliam, La Tanya R T Email la.tanya.r.gilliam@nasa.gov 301.286.2960 Gillis, Patricia J-e Email patricia.j.gillis@nasa.gov 321.867.2363 Gilmore, Sabrina Singh Email sabrina.gilmore@nasa.gov 281.483.2773 Giscombe, Marla Hughes Email marla.a.giscombe@nasa.gov 301.286.9012 Glass, Christopher E Email c.e.glass@nasa.gov 757.864.1350 Glass, David E Email david.e.glass@nasa.gov 757.864.5423 Gleason, Grace A Email grace.a.gleason@nasa.gov 757.864.8272 Gleason, Jonathan L Email jonathan.l.gleason@nasa.gov 757.864.4190 Gleaton, Charlene L Email charlene.l.gleaton@nasa.gov 757.864.5620 Glover, William B Email burnet.glover-1@nasa.gov 321.867.4741 Gnan, Roberta P Email roberta.p.gnan@nasa.gov 321.867.1179 Goans, Mark D Email mark.d.goans@nasa.gov 301.286.9763 Godsey, James W Email james.w.godsey@nasa.gov 757.864.9644 Goebel, Thomas N Email thomas.n.goebel@nasa.gov 281.244.5036 Goerner, Laura A Email laura.goerner-1@nasa.gov 281.244.2434 Goldstein, Melvyn L Email melvyn.l.goldstein@nasa.gov 301.286.7828 Goode, Dennis E Email dennis.goode@nasa.gov 256.544.1595 Goodman, Henry M Email michael.goodman@nasa.gov 256.961.7890 Goodrich, John A Email john.a.goodrich@nasa.gov 321.861.3887 Gordon, Mark W Email mark.w.gordon@nasa.gov 321.867.5962 Gordon, Randall D Email randall.d.gordon@nasa.gov 321.867.5852 Gordon, Scott Email scott.a.gordon@nasa.gov 301.286.9940 Govan, Douglas G Email douglas.g.govan@nasa.gov 321.861.3264 Goza, S Michael Email s.m.goza@nasa.gov 281.483.4695 Graf, Brian G Email brian.g.graf@nasa.gov 321.867.6039 Gragg, Jeffrey G Email jeffrey.g.gragg@nasa.gov 757.864.3155 Gramling, Jeffrey Jay Email jeffrey.j.gramling@nasa.gov 301.286.8520 Grant, Helen L Email helen.grant@nasa.gov 202.358.3856 Grant, Kevin J Email kevin.j.grant@nasa.gov 321.861.7289 Grant, Michael S Email michael.s.grant@nasa.gov 757.864.3707 Grau, Raphael A Email raphael.a.grau@nasa.gov 281.244.7660 Gray, Stephanie A Email stephanie.a.gray@nasa.gov 301.286.6486 Gray, Susan E Email susan.e.gray@nasa.gov 757.864.3821 Greene, Thomas P Email tom.greene@nasa.gov 650.604.5520 Greenwood, Michael C Email michael.c.greenwood@nasa.gov 757.864.7166 Greer, Gregory Sd Email gregory.s.greer@nasa.gov 301.704.7851 Greeson, Randall K Email randall.k.greeson@nasa.gov 321.861.5371 Gregor, Catherine V Email catherine.v.gregor@nasa.gov 301.286.5875 Gregory, Peyton B Email peyton.b.gregory@nasa.gov 757.864.7242 Grenoble, Ray W Email ray.w.grenoble@nasa.gov 757.864.7779 Griffin, Camilla Diane Email c.d.griffin@nasa.gov 757.864.3683 Griffin, Michael Email michael.griffin-1@nasa.gov 321.861.0568 Griffin, Vanessa L Email vanessa.l.griffin@noaa.gov Griffith, Mark S Email mark.s.griffith@nasa.gov 757.864.5188 Griffith, William E Email william.e.griffith@nasa.gov 757.864.3266 Grigg, Richard M Email richard.m.grigg@nasa.gov 304.367.8254 Grimsley, Brian William Email brian.grimsley@nasa.gov 757.864.6282 Grob, Eric W Email eric.w.grob@nasa.gov 301.286.6488 Gross, Anita S Email sue.gross@nasa.gov 321.867.3244 Gruendel, Douglas J Email douglas.j.gruendel@nasa.gov 321.867.2462 Gruner, Timothy D Email timothy.d.gruner@nasa.gov 301.286.3891 Guffey, Cynthia J Email cynthia.j.guffey@nasa.gov 256.544.2680 Guidi, Cristina Email cristina.guidi-1@nasa.gov 202.358.1777 Guill, Paul R Email paul.r.guill@nasa.gov 301.286.1400 Guisbert, Miroslava J Email miros.guisbert@nasa.gov 321.867.8268 Gum, Jeffery S Email jeffery.s.gum@nasa.gov 301.286.8695 Gunter, Dyron J Email dyron.j.gunter@nasa.gov 301.286.8549 Gurganus, Joseph E Email joseph.e.gurganus@nasa.gov 301.286.5416 Gurganus, Whitney C Email whitney.c.gurganus@nasa.gov 757.864.8157 Guynn, Mark D Email mark.d.guynn@nasa.gov 757.864.8053 Haag, Thomas W Email thomas.w.haag@nasa.gov 216.977.7423 Haase, Elizabeth Ann Email elizabeth.a.haase@nasa.gov 301.286.3443 Hale, Joseph P Email joe.hale@nasa.gov 256.544.2193 Hale, Penelope A Email pahale48@gmail.com Hales, Brenda C Email brenda.c.hales@nasa.gov 202.358.2117 Hall, Benjamin E Email benjamin.e.hall@nasa.gov 301.286.4991 Hall, Ervin R Email ervin.r.hall@nasa.gov 256.544.1948 Hall, Horace W Email horace.w.hall@nasa.gov 757.824.1357 Hall, Jeanie M Email jeanie.m.hall-1@nasa.gov 202.358.1461 Hall, Kenneth E Email kenneth.e.hall@nasa.gov 757.824.1874 Hall, Lisa Bowden Email lisa.b.hall@nasa.gov 757.824.1420 Hall, Lisa Janine Email l.j.hall@nasa.gov 757.864.1019 Hall, Roger D Email roger.d.hall@nasa.gov 321.861.1252 Hamaker, Enid Frances Email franci.hamaker@nasa.gov 321.867.2381 Hamilton, Andrew Scott Email andrew.s.hamilton@nasa.gov 757.854.4646 Hamilton, Joseph A Email joseph.a.hamilton@nasa.gov 281.483.6118 Hamilton, William D Email david.hamilton@nasa.gov 256.544.2578 Hamrick, Stephanie Pauline Email stephanie.hamrick@nasa.gov 757.864.5424 Hancock, David Wilson Email david.w.hancock@nasa.gov 757.824.1238 Hancock, Patrick A Email patrick.a.hancock@nasa.gov 301.286.5605 Harding, Wanda J Email wanda.harding@noaa.gov 321.867.4968 Hardman, Bruce R Email bruce.r.hardman@nasa.gov 321.867.2421 Hardman, Jennifer Lynn Email jennifer.hardman@nasa.gov 301.286.5199 Hare, David A Email david.a.hare@nasa.gov 757.864.4707 Hare, Sharon V Email sharon.v.hare@nasa.gov 757.864.2409 Harman, Richard Randall Email richard.r.harman@nasa.gov 301.286.9613 Harp, Quincy S Email quincy.s.harp@nasa.gov 281.483.1757 Harper, David B Email david.b.harper@nasa.gov 757.864.2679 Harrell, Cheryl L Email cheryl.l.harrell@nasa.gov 256.544.5622 Harrell, Michael T Email michael.t.harrell@nasa.gov 757.864.6402 Harrington, Denise Michelle Email denise.harrington@nasa.gov 301.286.9626 Harris, Franklin K Email franklin.k.harris@nasa.gov 757.864.3824 Harris, Randolph Email randolph.harris-1@nasa.gov 202.358.0785 Harris, Roger L Email roger.l.harris@nasa.gov 304.367.8349 Harris, Thomas E Email thomas.e.harris@nasa.gov 757.864.3038 Harrison, Stella V Email stella.v.harrison@nasa.gov 757.864.3919 Hart, Henry Carlyle Email henry.c.hart@nasa.gov 757.824.1218 Hartwell, William L Email william.l.hartwell@nasa.gov 281.244.8189 Hasan, Hashima Email hhasan@nasa.gov 202.358.0692 Hash, David Bryan Email david.b.hash@nasa.gov 650.604.1147 Haskin, Henry H Email henry.h.haskin@nasa.gov 757.864.6939 Hattaway, James E Email jimhattaway@yahoo.com Haugh, Regena Watson Email regena.w.haugh@nasa.gov 757.824.1530 Haugh, Teena P Email teena.p.haugh@nasa.gov 757.824.1476 Healy, William J Email william.j.healy@nasa.gov 757.864.6527 Heimerl, N Lynn Email n.l.heimerl@nasa.gov 757.864.2343 Hendershot, Lori L Email lori.l.hendershot@nasa.gov 757.824.1711 Henderson, Alan W Email alan.w.henderson@nasa.gov 757.864.3721 Hendricks, Gary D Email gary.d.hendricks@nasa.gov 321.867.8738 Henegar, Jessica B Email jessica.b.henegar@nasa.gov 757.864.2946 Hertz, Paul L Email paul.hertz@nasa.gov 202.358.0986 Hester, Jack B Email jack.b.hester@nasa.gov 757.864.7626 Hewitt, Janice Rhoney Email janice.r.justice@nasa.gov 321.867.6903 Hickey, Alyson M Email alyson.hickey-1@nasa.gov 281.244.9657 Hickman, George E Email george.e.hickman@nasa.gov 757.864.5629 Hickman, John C Email john.c.hickman@nasa.gov 757.824.2374 Hicks, Michael C Email mhicks@nasa.gov 216.433.6576 Higgs, Connie Sue Email connie.s.higgs@nasa.gov 301.286.2004 High, James W Email james.w.high@nasa.gov 757.864.5416 Hill, Mark A Email mark.a.hill@nasa.gov 202.358.1545 Hilton, George C Email george.c.hilton@nasa.gov 757.864.4219 Hines, Deneace Manley Email deneace.m.hines@nasa.gov 757.864.6063 Hines, Paula W Email paula.hines@nasa.gov 202.358.2280 Hite, Susan T Email susan.t.hite@nasa.gov 757.824.1077 Hoffman, James O Email james.o.hoffman@nasa.gov 321.867.3697 Hoffmann, Lisa Renee Email lisa.r.hoffmann@nasa.gov 301.286.2154 Holley, Denise Email denise.holley@nasa.gov 202.358.2566 Hollingsworth, Wm H Email wm.h.hollingsworth@nasa.gov 757.864.7137 Holloway, C Michael Email c.michael.holloway@nasa.gov 757.864.1701 Holloway, Nancy M H Email nancy.m.holloway@nasa.gov 757.864.7849 Holloway, Sidney E Email chip.holloway@nasa.gov 757.864.7090 Holmes, Sandra Page Email sandra.p.holmes@nasa.gov 757.864.4513 Hopkins, Mary A Email mary.a.hopkins@nasa.gov 301.286.4422 Hoppel, Fred J Email fred.j.hoppel@nasa.gov 202.358.3159 Horn, Robert E Email robert.e.horn@nasa.gov 301.286. |
most educated speakers around me said it, and that is the pronunciation that feels right and cultivated to me. In my vocabulary, route will always be ROOT and rout ROWT, but many speakers nowadays prefer to pronounce both words ROWT. Since it cannot be stated unequivocally that one pronunciation of rout is right and the other wrong, I present the following historical evidence, which you can use to make up your mind, bolster your case, or live and let live, as you prefer.
In his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of 1791, the English elocutionist John Walker prefers ROOT but notes that the word “is often pronounced so as to rhyme with doubt by respectable speakers.” In a later edition, Walker changed his course. “Upon a more accurate observation of the best usage,” he wrote, “I must give the preference to [ROWT]…notwithstanding its coincidence in sound with another word of a different meaning; the fewer French sounds of this diphthong we have in our language the better.”
Worcester (1860), who prefers ROOT, says, “Most of the orthopeists more recent than Walker give the preference to the pronunciation [ROOT].” Ayres (1894) says hat “there is abundant authority for pronouncing the word rowt; but this pronunciation is now very generally considered inelegant.” Vizetelly (1929) says the “best modern usage pronounces the word as if written root,” and Opdycke (1939) assigns ROWT to “colloquial and provincial usage.”
Funk & Wagnalls Standard (1897) countenances only ROOT, but the Century (1889-1914) sanctions ROWT as an alternative. Webster 2 (1934) says that ROOT “is now the generally accepted pronunciation, but in certain special cases rout (ou in out) prevails, as in military use, among railroad men, and, colloquially, of a delivery route.”
Since then ROWT has gained a good deal of ground, but ROOT still appears to hold the lead among educated speakers, and all four major current American dictionaries list in first.
Morris & Morris (1985) observe that “people like Army engineers, bus and plane dispatchers, and other professionally engaged in planning routes tend to pronounce route so it rhymes with ‘out.’ Pronouncing it as if it were spelled ‘root’ is, however, equally acceptable.
In Watching My Language (1997), William Safire writes, “[President George] Bush frowned on ‘the tax-and-spend route, which he pronounced ‘ROWT.’ That is not incorrect…. Most of us, however, have come to use ‘ROOT’ to mean ‘way, itinerary, journey, map’ spelled route, and pronounced the same as the root of a plant. We use ‘ROWT’ to pronounce the word spelled rout, meaning “resounding defeat; disorderly flight from battle; electoral debacle’” [p. 34]. It is perhaps worth noting that if Safire received any letters objecting to this assessment when it first appeared in his column The New York Times Magazine, he does not reprint them in his book.
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Salmon SAM- u n.
L silent, a as in ham. Anything else is beastly—er, fishy. See salmonella.
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Sandwich SAND-wich.
This word should be pronounced exactly as it is spelled. Do not drop the d and say SAN-wich, even in rapid speech, for this seemingly innocuous mispronunciation is construed by many as a sign of a careless speaker.
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Semi SEM-ee (rhymes with Emmy), not SEM-eye.
Only a nitwit would say sem-eye-colon and sem-eye-circle, so why the big attraction to SEM-eye in so many other semi-words? “Don’t follow those who affectedly make the i long,” counsels Opdycke (1939). Avoid the appearance of semiliterate affectation. For all words beginning with the combining form semi-, say SEM-ee. However, for the word semi, meaning a tractor-trailer, SEM-eye is acceptable. See anti-.
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Senile SEE-nyl. (like see Nile). Do not say SEN-yl.
Senile is accented on the first syllable, which rhymes with glee, and the second syllable should rhyme with file.
Formerly the word was sometimes pronounced with a short i, SEE-nil, second syllable rhyming with pill.
In the 20th century this variant has gradually faded from the dictionaries and since the 1960s a new one has risen in its place: SEN-yl (SEN- as in send, -yl like aisle). The evidence indicates it is a homegrown American variant. It may have been a pedanticism based on the source of the word, the Latin senilis, pronounced se-NEE-lis, which comes in turn from senex, old, pronounced SEN-eks. Of course this “etymological pronunciation” ignores the more pertinent fact that the English word is divided se · nile, which calls for a long e in the stressed first syllable.
At any rate, the eccentric SEN-yl first appeared in Webster 3 (1961) labeled “appreciably less frequent”; today all four major dictionaries list it as an alternative, with two labeling it less common. OED 2 (1989) and Jones (1991), both British authorities, give only the traditional SEE-nyl, which, despite its venerable age—it was the preference of John Walker (1791) and other orthopeists of his day—shows no signs of infirmity or dotage. For a discussion of American vs. British pronunciation of –ile, see textile.
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Sentence SEN-t i nts.
Don’t drop the t and pronounce the word as if it were spelled sennence. See fundamental, gentle, inter-. kindergarten, mental, rental.
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Similar SIM- i -lur.
Be careful not to insert a y sound in the second syllable of similar and say SIM-yuh-lur, as if the word were spelled simular. This is a major-league beastly mispronunciation. See jubilant.
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Spontaneity SPAHN-tuh-NEE- i -tee, not SPAHN-tuh-NAY- i -tee.
Pronounce the third, accented syllable with a long e, as in knee, not with a long a, as in nay. See deity, homogeneity, simultaneity.
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Substantive SUHB-st i n-tiv, not suhb-STAN-tiv.
Substantial is stressed on the second syllable, but substance, substitute, and substantive are stressed on the first syllable. Three of the four major current American dictionaries give only SUHB-st i n-tiv, and the fourth—M-W 10 (1993)—labels suhb-STAN-tiv “appreciably less common.”
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Succeed s u k-SEED (like suck seed or sick seed said quickly).
The slovenly speaker pronounces succeed like secede (suh-SEED). The careful speaker preserves the k-s sound of the cc. See success.
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Syrup: SIR- u p or SUR- u p.
John Walker (1791) and Noah Webster (1828), among other early authorities, preferred the pronunciation SUH- r u p (first syllable as in supper). In the 20th century, this was modified to SUR- u p (first syllable like sir). Though older authorities preferred SIR-up, Webster 2 (1934) noted that syrup “is nearly pronounced [SUR- u p] by makers of maple syrup” and Holt (1937) reluctantly acknowledged that the first syllable was “headed in the same direction” as stir, stirrup, and squirrel. Today SUR- u p (my preference) is perfectly acceptable, and “both pronunciations seem to be heard with equal frequency,” says WNW Guide (1984).
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Taurus TOR- u s (TOR- as in torn).
I have heard certain well-educated folk mispronounce this word TOW-r u s (TOW- as in tower). This is an example of how a little learning can be a misleading thing. TOW-r u s reflects the Latin pronunciation, in which the diphthong au is pronounced OW. In English, however, this au diphthong has the sound of AW, which becomes OR when au precedes r, as in aural and auricle. Seeing as taurus has been an English word since 1400, it is foolish and bullheaded not to pronounce it TOR- u s.
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Technical TEK-n i -kuul.
Take care to pronounce the tech-. Careless speakers say TET-n i -kuul.
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Theater THEE-uh-tur.
Properly, this word has three syllables, but when pronounced quickly in the flow of conversation it often comes out in two, THEER-tur. That is unobjectionable compared with the beastly mispronunciation thee-AY-tur, which Random House II (1987) calls “characteristic chiefly of uneducated speech” and WNW Guide (1984) affirms is “generally disapproved.”
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Thesis (singular) THEE-sis; theses (plural) THEE-seez.
No literate speaker would be caught dead saying my books is or my pets is, but certain speakers who think their “higher education” requires them to speak a “higher” form of English will say my THEE-seez is on…..Be careful to distinguish the singular thesis from the plural theses in pronunciation and spelling. The same distinction applies to the singular hypothesis (hy-PAHTH-uh-sis) and plural hypotheses (hy-PAHTH-uh-seez). See basis, crisis, diagnosis.
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Tomato tuh-MAY-toh. Regionally (chiefly New England) and in Britain, tuh-MAH-toh. Canadian also tuh-MAT-oh.
I have a wonderful cartoon above my desk that captures everything I could say in ten books on pronunciation. It shows two scowling men standing back-to-back at daybreak. Each is holding a basket of tomatoes, one marked tomato, the other marked to-mah-to. In a moment, one presumes, they will engage in a duel to a saucy death.
My mother, having grown up outside of Boston, has always said tuh-MAH-toh, even after fifty-odd years of living in New York City, where just about everyone says tuh-MAY-toh, and after forty-odd years of living with my father, who grew up in Indiana and also says tuh-MAY-toh. Miraculously, they have managed to get along, though duels over language, and language duels (at twenty paces), have been known to break out.
The majority of Americans say tuh-MAY-toh—which, despite my mother’s formidable influence, is my pronunciation, but it is clear that the tuh-MAH-toh sayers are not going to give in (they’ll just die out, I suppose), and there is no reason why they should. Not only is it what they grew up with and are accustomed to saying, it is also a matter of pride for many of them. So if you are a New Englander who says tuh-MAH-toh, or perhaps a Southerner who prefers tuh-MAH-toh, or if you are a Brit trying to fathom the (from your perspective) nasal-twanged U.S. of A., by all means do your thing. Just don’t criticize the rest of us for saying tuh-MAY-toh. If you lay off, we’ll lay off. Besides, there are a lot more of us than there are of you.
A warning for all speakers: do not slur the last syllable into an –uh or –ur sound. In his book On Language (1980), William Safire prints a letter from Liz Smith of The York Daily News:
In regard to “You say potato, I say potahto” there is a joke that when this unusual song was sung in English theater auditions, nobody got it because the singers invariably sang it: “You say potahto and I say potahto, You say tomahto and I say tomahto….” But when I was at the University of Texas, we had our own linguistic joke that went like this: “You say potato and I say pertayter, You say tomato and I say termayter!”
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Tribunal try-BYOO-n u l.
Pronounce tri- like try; and stress the second syllable, never the first.
The noun tribune is properly accented on the first syllable, TRIB-yoon, but when it occurs in the names of newspapers one often hears second-syllable stress.
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Usage YOOS-ij.
Believe it or not, it used to be YOOZ-ij. Webster 2 (1934) says, “Though the preponderance of lexical authority is for [YOOZ-ij], investigation shows that [YOOS-ij] strongly prevails in America.”
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Usual YOO-zhoo- u l.
This word has three syllables. Don’t say YOO-zh u l, which Burchfield (1996) calls “slipshod.”
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Vaccinate VAK-s i -NAYT. Don’t say VAS- i -NAYT.
The cc has the sound of x or k-s. See accept, accessory, flaccid, succinct.
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Vacuum VAK-yoom.
With the advent of the vacuum cleaner in the early 20th century the three-syllable VAK-yoo- u m swiftly became endangered. Apparently it survives in Britain—OED 2 (1989) and Jones (1991) prefer it—but in American speech it is as rare as a spotted owl. Nevertheless, current American dictionaries all list it and will probably continue doing so for several generations after the poor creature is extinct.
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Vase VAYS (rhymes with case and lace) or VAYZ (rhymes with haze).
VAYS has been the prevailing American pronunciation since the days of Noah Webster, though VAYZ is just as venerable and is used by many cultivated speakers today. Both pronunciations were once widely heard in cultivated speech in England. In his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, John Walker (1791) prefers VAYZ but remarks that
Mr. [Thomas] Sheridan [1780] has pronounced this word so has to rhyme with base, case &c. I have uniformly heard it pronounced with the s like z, and sometimes, by people of refinement, with the a like aw; but this, being too refined for the general ear, is now but seldom heard.
OED 2 (1989) notes that Jonathon Swift (1731) rhymed vase with face, and Lord Byron (1822) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1847) rhymed it with grace.
The pronunciations VAHZ and VAWZ, noted by Walker above, are British. The former is the prevailing pronunciation, but the latter “has still some currency in England,” says OED 2. In an American speaker, say Morris & Morris (1985), VAHZ “is a mark of affectation.” I agree.
In You Don’t Say! Alfred H. Holt (1937) offers this amusing bit of verse:
Some greet with lusty “Rah”s A reference to a vase. Another bares his claws At folks who don’t say vase. But many use the phrase, “Please put these in a vase,” While still a stronger case We now can make a vase.
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Vehement VEE-uh-m i nt.
Stress the first syllable, never the second, and don’t pronounce the h. The same goes for the adverb vehemently: first-syllable stress, silent h. Second-syllable stress is, in dictionary lingo, “nonstandard,” which in this book means beastly. See vehicle.
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Visa VEE-zuh, not VEE-suh. The s is properly soft, as in rose.
In recent years, more and more people have been pronouncing this word VEE-suh (with s as in sun), no doubt in part because of the numerous TV commercials for the popular credit card, in which the voice-overs habitually mispronounce it VEE-suh. Webster 3 (1961) was the first to recognize the variant, marking it “appreciably less common.” Today it is unfortunately quite common, although two of the four major current American dictionaries—American Heritage 3 (1992) and RHWC (1997)—do not sanction it, and OED 2 (1989) also lists only VEE-zuh.
Visa came into English from French around 1830. In French, a single s between vowels is soft—pronounced like English z in maze or s in rose (e.g., maison)—and this has been the established way of pronouncing the s in visa since the word entered English. VEE-suh, with a hard s as in vista, is appropriate in Spanish, but not in English. Be sure to put some pizzazz in your visa. Say VEE-zuh. See vis-à-vis.
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Wassail WAHS’l (rhymes with fossil and jostle).
Some speakers put a sail in wassail and say WAH-sayl or wah-SAYL, and these variants can be heard in certain old Christmas songs. Others pronounce the first syllable with a flat a as in wag: WAS’l or WAS-ayl—so say the dictionaries, anyway, though I have never heard these variants. All these pronunciations, along with WAHS’l, are represented in 20th-century dictionaries. However, the preponderance of authority from Walker (1791) to Worcester (1860) to Webster 2 (1934) to the NBC Handbook (1984) favors WAHS’l, and all four major current American dictionaries list this pronunciation first.
Wassailing—as in Here we go a-wassailing—is pronounced WAHS’l-ing, rhyming with the nonce word fossiling, and wassailer is pronounced WAHS’l-ur, rhyming with jostle’er.
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Washington WAHSH-ing-t u n (or WAWSH-).
Don’t let an r creep into the first syllable: Warsh-ington is beastly. Also, don’t drop the g and say WAHSH-in-t u n (careless), or clip a syllable and say WAHSH-t u n (slovenly) See wash.
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Wintry WIN-tree, not WIN-tur-ee.
Wintry, the proper spelling, is pronounced in two syllables, not three. The variant spelling wintery and its three-syllable pronunciation are best avoided.
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With WITH (th as in this and there), not WITH (rhymes with pith and myth).
This is an avowed pet peeve of mine, and by no means do all authorities agree with me on this punctilio, though many do. I believe firmly that in cultivated speech, with and words beginning with it—withal (wi th -AWL), withdraw, wither, withhold, within, without, withstand—should be pronounced with the “voiced” th of bathe, lather, and rather, and not with the “voiceless” th of path and bath. One advantage of following this rule is stronger, clearer speech. The voiced th is resonant; the voiceless th is lispy and weak.
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Xenophobia ZEN-uh-FOH-bee-uh, not ZEE-nuh-FOH-bee-uh.
Xenophobia, fear and hatred of foreigners or of anything strange or foreign, first appeared in print in 1919. Its antonym, xenomania (ZEN-uh-MAY-nee-uh), an inordinate attachment to foreign things, was coined about 1879 but is rarely used today. OED 1 (1928) recorded xenophobia as a nonce word and Webster 2 (1934) deemed it unworthy of its own entry, but both were kind enough to give its proper pronunciation: ZEN-uh-FOH-bee-uh, first syllable rhyming with men.
Until quite recently there was no confusion about this word. People pronounced the first syllable ZEN- and dictionaries continued to record only that pronunciation. Then one day, as the story goes, someone unfamiliar with the conventions of the language—probably a foreign spy—malevolently and methodically began to mispronounce the first syllable ZEE-. Soon all the xenomaniacs—in particular those members of the literati who delight in finding new outlets for their xenophilia (ZEN-uh-FIL-ee-uh), love of foreigners and foreign cultures—began copying this evil example, and the beastly mispronunciation ZEE-nun-FOH-bee-uh slipped into the dictionaries. For those who like to keep a dossier on such events, the point of infiltration was M-W 8 (1975).
No authority I am aware of favors this alien and erroneous ZEE-. All four major current American dictionaries and WNW Guide (1984) give ZEN- priority, and Lass & Lass (1976), the Quintessential Dictionary (1978), the NBC Handbook (1984), Everyday Reader’s (1985), Barnhart (1988), OED 2 (1989), and Jones (1991) prefer it.
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Yarmulke YAHR-m u l-kuh.
I grew up in New York City hearing Jews and gentiles alike pronounce this word YAH-muh-kuh, without an r and without an l, as if it were spelled yamaka. This pure laziness and an affront to the word’s linguistic and sacral tradition. “The caplet perched on the top of the head by observing Jewish males,” says Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yinglish (1989), is “pronounced YAHR-m’l-keh, to rhyme with ‘bar culpa.’” YAHR-m ul -kuh is the preference of Lass & Lass (1976), the NBC Handbook (1984), Everyday Reader’s (1985), and Barnhart (1988), and the first pronunciation in WNW Guide (1984) and three of the four major current American dictionaries. Only M-W 10 (1993) gives priority to the uncultivated YAH-muh-kuh.
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Yolk YOHK (like yoke).
The spelling pronunciation YOHLK, with an audible l, was Noah Webster’s preference in his dictionary of 1828 and the preference of several earlier English authorities. This was undoubtedly due to the variant spelling yelk, pronounced YELK, which Dr. Johnson (1755), Walker (1791), and Smart (1836) favored. Since Worcester (1860), however, the spelling yolk and the pronunciation YOHK have prevailed, while yelk has disappeared and YOHLK has fallen into disfavor. According to M-W 10 (1993), YOHLK survives in the South among some cultivated speakers.
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Zealous ZEL- u s. Do not say ZEE-l u s.
A zealous person is full of zeal (rhymes with real), but there is no zeal in zealous. Careful speakers frown upon the beastly spelling pronunciation ZEE- l u s, and dictionaries do not recognize it. The corresponding noun zealot is pronounced ZEL- i t.
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Zodiacal zoh-DY-uh-kuul.
The accent is on the second syllable, which rhymes with dry. The beastly mispronunciation ZOH-dee-AK- u l is neither in the dictionaries nor in the stars.
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Zydeco ZY-duh-KOH (rhymes with try to go).
Random House II (1987) dates the word from 1955-1960, noting that it comes from the Louisiana French les haricots in “the dance-tune title Les haricots sonts pas sales.” I once heard a radio disk jockey, of all people, mispronounce the word zy-DEK-oh. Was he thinking of an art deco? The stress is on zy-.
Back to Page IndexTwo weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled, “As Judges Kill Off Habeas Corpus for the Guantánamo Prisoners, Will the Supreme Court Act?” in which I covered the latest grim news from the US courts regarding the Guantánamo prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions (see “Guantánamo Habeas Results: The Definitive List” for more).
As I explained in that article, and in a series of articles over the last year and a half, the promise that habeas corpus held for the prisoners in June 2008, when the Supreme Court granted them constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, in Boumediene v. Bush, has, since July 2010, been killed off by judges in the D.C. Circuit Court, led by Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a right-wing ideologue notorious for endorsing every piece of legislation relating to the Guantánamo prisoners that, under George W. Bush, was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court.
The case that first shut down habeas corpus was Adahi v. Obama, involving a Yemeni, Mohammed al-Adahi, whose habeas corpus petition was granted in August 2009, on the correct basis that, although al-Adahi had accompanied his sister to Afghanistan for her marriage to a man with purported connections to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, he himself had no connection to either group, and was just a chaperone.
For Judge Randolph, however, ideology is more important than facts, when it comes to the Guantánamo prisoners, and, as a result, he granted the government’s appeal in Adahi, and, essentially, ordered the lower court judges to give more credence to the government’s claims than they had been doing. As a result, every habeas petition since July 2010 has been denied, and other successful petitions have been either reversed like Adahi (three in total) or vacated, and sent back to the lower court to reconsider (two in total).
The latest monstrous ruling delivered by Circuit Court judges (Judge Janice Rogers Brown and Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who share Judge Randolph’s ideological bent) came in October in the case of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni, with undisputed mental health problems, and a viable explanation for being in Afghanistan for medical reasons, who was the last prisoner to have his habeas petition granted before Judge Randolph’s new rules in Adahi took effect.
The ruling in Latif was not made available until last month, and, disturbingly, the judges took their endorsement of the government’s position one step further, declaring that the habeas judges must now regard the government’s own intelligence reports as reliable. This not only appalled the dissenting judge, David Tatel, but also appalled lawyers for the prisoners, who have long been aware of the unreliability of the intelligence reports relating to the prisoners. Anyone doubting this is directed to my ongoing series, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” in which I analyze the chronic and repeated failures of intelligence revealed in the classified military files released by WikiLeaks last April.
In the hope of keeping this story alive, I’m cross-posting below a response to the dreadful ruling in Latif that was written by Sabin Willett, the attorney for Uighur prisoners in Guantánamo, who eloquently explained why Latif is such a disaster for anyone who believes in justice.
Please note that his reference to Kiyemba is a reference to a case involving the Uighurs (Muslims from China’s oppressed Xinjiang province, who won their habeas petitions in October 2008, but cannot be safely repatriated), and Parhat refers to the first Uighur victory in June 2008. Lawyers (Willett included) fought a long battle to allow these men to be rehoused in the US (as their judge intended) and also to prevent the government from claiming the right to dispose of them as it sees fit (even if the prisoners themselves do not agree), but lost in the Circuit Court, and also in the Supreme Court, where, after Latif, the prisoners’ cases may once more be headed — even though, alarmingly, the court as a whole is now more biased in favor of government overreach than it was under George W. Bush. For Bismullah (the case of an Afghan released in January 2009), see here.
Sabin Willett on Latif
It is not hyperventilation to say, as so many have said, that Latif guts Boumediene, because — trust me — every prisoner has an intelligence report. Now the prisoner hasn’t just lost his judicial remedy to Kiyemba; if those reports control, factfinding is over, too.
But Latif, and before it Adahi, are not just law-of-war cases. They may raise the eyebrow of civil procedure sachems as well.
Because despite the gnashing of teeth over Boumediene’s failure to issue a manual, the Guantanamo habeas cases have mainly been about facts. Wedding guest or soldier? By the time review finally got on its legs in 2008, the President had had years to winnow away the silly and outrageous detentions (and Congress hadn’t yet taken up the blood sport of preventing him from doing so). Logically, we would have expected the government to have good facts in cases that remained, and to win most of them.
Something like that was happening in the district court, but then something else quite illogical began happening. On appeal, the government began to run the table. No habeas win could survive.
The district court was finding facts from old, cold and unreliable records, and so uniform results would have been a little surprising, but still possible, given the trial court’s broad factfinding discretion. You’d expect regular affirmance on appeal of both wins and losses, because in civil practice, the trial court‘s fact-finding is rarely disturbed. So where district court results are non-uniform, it is surprising — one might even say, conditionally improbable — that appellate results should make them so.
What’s going on here? The circuit is making up a new standard of appellate review.
Take Adahi. To a first approximation, Adahi is an “Oh, come on!” case: al-Farouq, bin Laden at Sister’s wedding, shady characters on the bus, the Casio insignia — come on! But Judge Kessler wasn’t asking whether Adahi had thuggy associates. She was after the legally-relevant nut: has the government shown he is an enemy soldier? If General Petraeus attends my sister’s wedding, am I therefore a soldier? Suppose I go to Quantico and after ten days, they throw me out. Am I a Marine? (In doing this work I met a number of Marines. Each — I am quite sure of this — would declare ten days insufficient to make a Marine of me.)
As a matter of appellate procedure, the problem was this: Adahi testified. Judge Kessler found that testimony credible (leaving Farouq, denying he trained troops there). Adahi’s entire testimony is, “I wasn’t a soldier.” So if we have witness testimony the court deems credible, and it refutes enemy status, how does the circuit flip the judgment on appeal?
By not believing him, and crediting other evidence. That used to be for the trial court — remember?
My guess is that Judge Randolph saw the appellate review problem, for in addition to his famous innovation, he noted Judge Kessler’s failure to make an express credibility determination. Well, okay. But she did find facts for which the only record evidence was Adahi’s testimony, so she must have found him credible. If we’re not sure about that, why not remand for clarification?
Latif presents none of these distractions. Even the government agrees that the circumstantial evidence is down to one document, on which everything turns.
I tried Parhat. He had an intelligence report too. We picked it apart, as I’m sure Latif’s lawyers must have done with their report, and as Judge Garland did in the classified Parhat opinion. No one could make a straight-faced argument for a presumption after that was done. You have to — I can’t say this any other way, because Parhat’s documents remain classified — but you have to see an “intelligence report” to appreciate just how surreal the proposition is.
The trial lawyer would think this way: if this tissue of hearsay, speculation, and gossip comes in as evidence at all, the trial court must at least be allowed to weigh it. But when the circuit lays the thumb of presumption on the scale, there’s no more judicial review — not even in the court of appeals. “Review” is in the anonymous DoD analyst who wrote the report.
Review was Judge Kennedy’s job, and he did his job. Whether we agree or disagree with his weighing, the scale had always been his before. This idea, I think, lies at the bottom of Judge Tatel’s thoughtful dissent. Can the jailer’s report trump the judicial officer, in civil cases that are supposed to be a check on the jailer itself? There’s not much evidence that anybody up at SCOTUS cares about the GTMO prisoners any more (whose imprisonments now treble WW2 detentions), but there may still be four of them who worry about trial judges.
Latif should worry the Law Faithful, too. If my client were stuck with this presumption, the first thing I’d bawl for is discovery of every scrivener, interpreter, interrogator — every scrap, jot and tittle behind the document. Last time we did that, in Bismullah, CIA averred the republic would be shaken to its knees.
* * *
Pause a moment. A man sits in government prison for ten years and counting, on the strength of a secret document created by the jailer, in haste, from hearsay, which didn’t persuade an experienced trial judge. Does that sound like the stuff of regimes we are prone to condemn?
Even Odysseus headed for home after ten years.
The other evening I saw an old friend whose client was, in 2001, an enemy belligerent under any definition. He was released from Guantanamo many years ago. He has a job, a family, a peaceful outlook on life; he’s grown up. Why is he out, and Latif in? Because he hails from the west. After ten years, it’s not about security any more. It’s all about politics: the politics of the 2012 elections, the politics of where you’re from.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, million-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.2016-02-24 01:53:47 Regex golf problems by Piotr Kąkol
Courtesy of Erling there is a new problemset - regex - which contains levels from his project Regex Golf. I suggest you check your regexes on that site before submitting it here, so you know how good they are in advance. First 6 problems are worth 5 points and the rest (for now) is worth 10 points. Good luck! 2012-08-21 16:11:08 Rejudge by Piotr Kąkol
All programs in all tasks have been rejudged due to update Python 2.5 into 2.7. 2012-02-08 22:54:22 Language rankings added! by Piotr Kąkol
From now on there are available language rankings which You can check by clicking on language's name on main ranking page. They (and now also the main ranking) are updated every hour. Hope it will increase the rivalry in the less popular languages. 2012-02-01 14:06:19 IRC channel by Piotr Kąkol
If You want to discuss the challenges, You may visit SPOJ's IRC channel. 2010-12-22 02:02:22 Language ranking added! by Piotr Kąkol
Finally language ranking was fixed.
It's sorted by: POINTS->MAX->SOLVED (where POINTS is language's score, MAX is the number of tasks where each language got max points and SOLVED is the number of tasks solved by each language).
Enjoy. :-)
PS Sorry for the delay. 2010-09-12 16:00:00 RSS added by Piotr Kąkol
RSS is now available. You can find a link at the bottom of the page. 2010-08-23 20:30:00 SHORTEN's forum. by Piotr Kąkol
Thanks to Jan Popiołkiewicz we now have subforum on main SPOJ. We will discuss there any problems or suggestions about SHORTEN. Hope, it will be useful. :-) 2010-08-12 17:30:00 Links and rules are now |
would establish that behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted."
The proposed rules, according to the blog post, would require:
1. That all ISPs must transparently disclose to their subscribers and users all relevant information as to the policies that govern their network;
2. That no legal content may be blocked; and
3. That ISPs may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.
It's unclear why the FCC has the right even to enforce this under the current non-rules, but never mind that. More to the point is what the rules would allow: the oligopoly ISPs, by all reports, would have the right to cut special deals with web companies to give them that fast lane.
This is an outright perversion of network neutrality. We pay our ISPs for access to the internet, to get a certain speed – we're promised "up to" that speed, which is almost never delivered, because the industry's sleazy but common sleight-of-hand marketing is permitted by the FCC and other regulators.
Consider: an ISP like, say, Time Warner Cable, tells, say, Google that its YouTube videos won't reach us at the, say, "gold package" speed we've already paid for... unless Google, too, pays a gold-standard fee. That is nothing short of a protection racket, run by a company that has little or no competition. In an actually competitive market, an ISP couldn't conceivably get away with such a thing.
Not everything about the proposed rules, as leaked, is awful. Forcing ISPs to be much more transparent about the level of service they actually provide, for example, is highly useful. Getting them to comply honestly, given their record, is another story.
If you live in America and believe in an open internet, don't waste your time sinking into despair over politicians' betrayals. A little anger wouldn't hurt, but aiming it at the former cable and wireless industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler is pointless. Focus your attention on the people who he works for, and who allegedly work for you. Start with President Obama, whose unequivocal vow as a candidate to support an open internet was as empty as so many of his other promises, if not an outright lie.
Don't stop with Obama, of course. He's made it absolutely clear which side he's on (hint: not ours). We all need to ask our legislators – in your communities, in your states, in Washington – whether they want to discourage innovation and free speech by giving control of this essential public utility to a tiny oligopoly. Then:
At the local level, push for community broadband networks, owned and operated by the public. (Waiting for Google Fiber? You might as well wait to win the lottery. Google is not your daddy, or your savior.) The community broadband success stories are already dramatic...
... so dramatic that the telecom cartel has frantically worked to get state legislatures to prevent them from existing in the first place. Tell your state legislators that this is an unacceptable intrusion on your community's right to govern itself.
Finally, tell your member of the US House of Representatives and your US senators that they have a job to do – to ensure the future of innovation and free speech in a digital world. In particular, tell them that internet access is a public utility and should be treated as such.
There are two ways to prevent abuses by the owners of public utilities. One is to regulate them. Remember that advice from the appeals court? The FCC could re-classify Internet access as a "telecommunications service" (as opposed to the current, largely unregulated "information service") and require neutral treatment by ISPs. For the moment, this may well be the best choice, but we need to be clear that doing this would not be simple nor without unintended consequences.
Another, better fix is to create genuine competition, or at least the conditions for it. The simplest path forward here would be to require the monopoly/oligopoly ISPs – remember, they got this big in the first palce because they were once granted exclusive rights to "serve" their geographic communities – to share their lines, at a fair price, with competing ISPs. This is what many other countries do, and we should give it a try here.
The best solution? Taxpayers should pay for a fiber-everywhere system, then let competing ISPs use it to compete in a genuine free market. But do not hold your breath on that one.
The sky hasn't fallen with today's FCC announcements. Let's not panic. But if we don't start getting serious about this, as a public, we will lose the most important medium in human history. That would be worse than tragic.For those who remember, Yivvits and Mrbubble was a SWG podcast during the twilight years of Star Wars Galaxies. After the game shutdown in 2011, they’ve largely been inactive, with five podcasts total produced from January 2012.
And they released a new SWG podcast a week ago, discussing the new Star Wars movies (The Force Awakens and Rogue One) & SWGEmu.
You can listen here.
http://www.holoreport.net/2017/02/23/yivvits-and-mrbubble-podcast/ https://i2.wp.com/www.holoreport.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/podcast.png?fit=259%2C194 https://i2.wp.com/www.holoreport.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/podcast.png?resize=150%2C150 All General Opinion For those who remember, Yivvits and Mrbubble was a SWG podcast during the twilight years of Star Wars Galaxies. After the game shutdown in 2011, they've largely been inactive, with five podcasts total produced from January 2012. And they released a new SWG podcast a week ago, discussing the new... Lenne [email protected] Administrator The Holo ReportRegular edition LP Record/Vinyl LOW STOCK!
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*** TERRITORY RESTRICTION - ● NO SALES TO JAPAN ● ***
VINYL ONLY - NO DIGITAL.
Artist: Kenji Kawai
Title: Ghost In The Shell (Original Soundtrack)
Label: We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records
Tracklisting:
LP :
A1 謡I - Making Of Cyborg
A2 Ghosthack
A3 Puppetmaster
A4 Virtual Crime
A5 謡II - Ghost City
B1 Access
B2 Nightstalker
B3 Floating Museum
B4 Ghostdive
B5 謡III - Reincarnation
Bonus 7” (limited edition only) :
A1 挿入歌 毎天見一見! (See You Everyday)
We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records is thrilled and honored to announce the first ever official vinyl pressing of the soundtrack for Mamoru Oshii’s critically acclaimed and all around legendary science fiction anime film GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995), adapted from Masamune Shirow’s groundbreaking manga series of the same name.
Cut from the original master reels at Emil Berliner Studios (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon), the album comes in two versions: a limited collector’s edition (LP and bonus 7" housed in sleeve with silver gilt printing, Japanese obi, and 24-page liner notes) and a standard LP.
The haunting score is composed by Kenji Kawai, one of Japan’s most celebrated soundtrack composers alongside Joe Hisaishi and Ryūichi Sakamoto, whose work includes Hideo Nakata’s Ring (1998) and Ring 2 (1999), Death Note (2006), Hong Kong films Seven Swords by Tsui Hark (2005) and Ip Man by Wilson Yip (2008), and countless others. Kawai’s compositions see ancient harmonies and percussions uncannily mesh with synthesized sounds of the modern world to convey a sumptuous balance between folklore tradition and futuristic outlook. For its iconic main theme "Making of Cyborg", Kawai had a choir chant a wedding song in ancient Japanese following Bulgarian folk harmonies, setting the standard for a timeless and unparalleled soundtrack that admirably echoes the film’s musings on the nature of humanity in a technologically advanced world.
Ghost in the Shell is widely considered one of the best anime films of all time and its influence has been felt in the work of numerous movie directors, including James Cameron (Avatar), the Wachowskis (The Matrix), and Steven Spielberg (AI: Artificial Intelligence).
Points of interests:
- For fans of anime, manga, movie soundtracks, science fiction, ambient, folkore, Japan, Akira, artificial intelligence, Midori Takada, official releases pressed to vinyl from the original source.
- The first ever OFFICIAL vinyl release of the soundtrack for Mamoru Oshii’s legendary science fiction anime film GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995).
- 17th release from WRWTFWW Records aka We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records (John Carpenter’s Dark Star Soundtrack, Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass, Piero Umiliani’s Tra Scienza e Fantascienza and Il Mondo Dei Romani...), label founded and curated by Olivier Ducret of Mental Groove (Miss Kittin, Brodinski, Kadebostany, Donato Dozzy...) and Stephan Armleder of Villa Magica Records (Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Christian Marclay, Stephan Eicher & Rainier Lericolais, John Armleder, Sylvie Fleury...)
credits
released June 26, 2017Reno police are investigating after a two-vehicle crash left one person dead in south Reno on Wednesday afternoon.
Police say at around 12:21 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, authorities responded to the area of Double R Blvd. and Sandhill Rd. on the report of a two-vehicle crash.
There, authorities located a driver who died in the crash. The second driver was treated and released on scene.
Police say neither alcohol or drugs appear to be a factor at this time.
Double R Blvd. is closed at South Meadows Pkwy. and just north of Sandhill Road in both directions.
The Reno Police Department's Major Accident Investigation Team is on scene.
Police are asking anyone having information relating to this incident to contact the Reno Police Department at 775-334-2141, Secret Witness at 775-322-4900, www.secretwitness.com, or text the tip to 847411 (TIP 411) keyword-SW.
This is a developing story. Check back with us for details.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently caused a firestorm, including some praise, for pledging to walk back Obama-era policies regarding campus sexual assault.
Speaking at George Mason University Law School on September 7, DeVos offered support for the broader concept behind Title IX—that students cannot be discriminated against based on their sex or deprived of a safe, fair education—but then dedicated nearly half of her speech to the issue of people wrongfully accused of assault.
DeVos praised college campuses for “protecting students from sexual misconduct,” according to Title IX provisions, and lambasted acts of sexual misconduct as “atrocious,” but tapped into a long-running debate—enflamed by Obama-era doubling down of Title IX enforcement—about how to investigate and handle allegations of rape and other forms of abuse.
The Obama policies, contained in a 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter penned by Vice President Joe Biden and sent to colleges and universities, were originally seen as a clarification and reinforcement of federal Title IX law regarding civil rights protection for victims of sexual harassment (including assault). To give teeth to the letter, the Obama administration indicated that it would perhaps “withhold federal funding” from organizations that do not willingly go along with its directives.
DeVos blamed the Obama administration for creating “increasingly elaborate and confusing guidelines” regarding higher education institutions now “forced to become judge and jury.” In this hyper-aware atmosphere, DeVos said, everyone—from victims of sexual assault to accused perpetrators—has been “let down.”
“Emotions around this topic run high for good reason,” DeVos told the audience, and asked those present to listen to her ideas and engage in an “open debate.”
Naturally, this kind of rhetoric, which seems to indicate an official statement of sympathy for the small number of people thought to be falsely accused of rape, garnered headlines. This comes just weeks after another Department of Education official, Candice Jackson, told the New York Times that “90 percent” of campus sexual assault allegations can be chalked up to both parties “being drunk.” In her speech, DeVos said that a more zealous pursuit of those accused of sexually violent crime (on or off campus) has led to “kangaroo courts” in some instances. DeVos offered no specific, top-down policy changes. Those are purportedly to be announced after a public input period.
What has received less attention is the importance of Title IX for K-12 students.
Evie Blad, in Education Week, noted that DeVos’s intention to redo the Obama-era approach to Title IX could negatively affect elementary and secondary schools, which she wrote, have “lagged in their responsibilities to investigate assaults.” Blad quoted Neena Chaudhry of the National Women’s Law Center, who praised the Obama administration’s amplified guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment cases. The guidelines have provided greater “clarity,” Chaudhry said, especially for K-12 schools that have “struggled” to adequately handle not only allegations of assault, but the aftermath. That includes a school’s responsibility to “ensure that survivors...are free from fear and harassment from perpetrators.”
Mark Keierleber in the Atlantic recently described two harrowing incidents of mishandled Title IX violations involving “younger victims of sexual violence” from California and Texas, in both of which district officials downplayed or ignored instances of sexual harassment. Their actions resulted in one victim being punished and then transferred to another school along with her attacker, and the other victim committing suicide after being relentlessly bullied for being gay. (There are echoes of this in the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, which saw a rash of teen suicides by students who were said to have faced extensive bullying over sexual identity.)
Keierleber’s article states that 137 K-12 school districts across the country are currently under investigation by the federal Office of Civil Rights for Title IX “sexual-violence complaints.” In comparison, 246 higher education sites are now being investigated for similar complaints.
Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Adele Kimmel works with victims of sexual assault, including those who were attacked at school. In her experience, college campuses have typically been farther ahead than K-12 districts when it comes to dealing with incidents of sexual misconduct. This is about more than simply pursuing a legal course of action, she says, because colleges and universities have been quicker to follow other aspects of Title IX guidelines such as the “development of...sexual-misconduct policies and procedures,” along with staff training and direct instruction to students so that they know where to go with their complaints. As the Department of Education prepares to revisit these and other Obama-era, Title IX guidelines—in an atmosphere of stepping back from a more robust enforcement plan—Kimmel worries that “K-12 schools are going to fall even further behind in terms of Title IX compliance.”Great orators have the power to inspire the world. They lead with a strong presence and a confident voice that commands attention.
Could you imagine if Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy mumbled with timid voices?
How you speak determines how people respond to you. Not just women you’re interested in, but friends, strangers, employers, and everyone you come in contact with. You can dress well and have the best opening lines but you won’t get far without a strong voice.
Understand Dominant and Submissive Vocal Tonality
There are two main types of vocal tonality: dominant and submissive.
Dominant voices express leadership, assertiveness, and security. They show you’re not trying to impress anyone else. People will trust and respect you more.
Submissive voices express uncertainty, passiveness, and doubt in yourself. They show you’re seeking approval or validation from others. People will distrust and forget about what you have to say.
What makes a dominant voice and how do you achieve one?
You don’t have to sound like a screaming douchebag. But you do have to change the inflection you place on your sentences, especially towards the end.
Dominant voices stay the same or lower in pitch when finishing a sentence or phrase. It sounds like you’re speaking your mind without hesitation. Submissive voices rise in pitch almost as if you’re asking a question (when you’re not) or looking for a response.
Timothy Marc has a helpful video that showcases the difference between the two.
Recognize and catch yourself when you revert to a submissive voice. The two most common instances are with women and higher-ups at work. Your voice naturally weakens when nervous or in a position where you feel inferior. Be proactive and work against it.
Exercise for developing a dominant voice:
Practice by recording various phrases in a dominant and submissive tone. Pay attention to how the subtle changes in inflection make you sound. Feel the difference in emotion you’re conveying. Repeat until this becomes second nature in your daily conversations.
Use Your Chest, Not Your Head Voice
Now that you understand the difference in vocal tone, we need to make sure your voice projects correctly. This will aid in building a dominant, authoritative voice.
There are two mediums of vocal projection: your chest and your head.
The chest voice uses your diaphragm to talk. This produces a more resonant, deep, and attractive tone that carries. It cuts through loud environments without having to yell or strain.
The head voice uses your throat to talk. This produces a thin, light, and grating tone that falls short. It will not go far and is the reason why guys struggle to be heard. Then they compensate by yelling which actually hurts their vocal chords.
Start by learning how to diaphragmatic breathe. Most people breathe too shallow which forces them to use their head voice during conversation. Once you learn how to breathe correctly, your best voice will come through.
See this article on diaphragmatic breathing techniques to get started. There are tons of instructional YouTube videos as well.
Exercise to find your chest voice:
Hum at a comfortable pitch. Move the pitch slightly lower; pay attention to how your chest feels. Hum until you can feel the vibration in your chest. Continue humming and try to increase the vibration. Next, move the pitch slightly higher; pay attention to how your nose and mouth feel.
Open your mouth. Hum until you feel the vibration in your tongue and lips, behind and above your mouth. Continue humming and try to increase the vibration again. Finally, return to your chest once more. Repeat the whole exercise, always ending with your chest in order to develop a full, luscious sound.
Exercise to develop your chest voice:
Sitting straight or lying down, put one hand on your stomach. Breath in, attempting to move your hand out as far as possible. Your stomach should rise while your chest stays relatively still.
Notice how it feels; this is how you want to breathe when you speak in order to use your entire lung capacity and get the fullest, strongest, and richest sound.
Exhale quickly but make no sound as you do. Sound is an indication of tension. Breath in again. Now, when you exhale, say the first letter of the alphabet. Continue until you reach Z.
As you progress through the alphabet, pretend that with each letter you are speaking to a target farther and farther away. By the time you reach the end, you should be very loud and strong.
Take 5 Steps to Build Your Best Voice
Speak slower. Nearly every person talks too damn fast. They believe rushing to say everything will keep the listener’s attention. In fact, talking fast is difficult to understand, distracting, and will get tuned out. Annunciate your words clearly and fully. Take your time to speak with purpose. Speak louder. You might think you’re loud enough – you’re not. If you ever have to lean in or have someone asking “What?” then you’re too quiet. From the above exercises, use your chest voice to aid in this. Another tip that helped me tremendously is to speak through people instead of at them. Imagine someone standing 3-6 feet behind them and project your voice toward that. Don’t rush to respond. Give yourself an extra second or two to process what they just said. A confident man isn’t afraid to collect his thoughts. Rushing to blurt out answers makes you seem anxious and like you’re trying too hard. Use pauses effectively. In the same light of not rushing, pace your words. Pause not only at the end of sentences, but in the middle of them as well. Think where commas fall as points where you can and should wait an extra second. Especially with stories, this builds suspense and engages the listener. Look at how Don Draper captivates a room with patience. Speak with passion. Get excited damnit! Flat, monotone voices put people to sleep. Emphasize words in your sentences to reflect your emotions. Utilize animated facial expressions and expressive hand gestures to further enhance your conversation. If you’re passionate about what you say, your audience will be passionate about it, too.
Growing up, I was always the kid with the soft-spoken, light voice. I would get down on myself that I didn’t have a deep tone like some of my friends. One day I stopped the self-pity and put the effort into changing.
I used the advice above combined with a Roger Love vocal warm-up CD and practiced regularly. I still don’t sound like Barry White, but I do have a richer, deeper and more attractive voice.
It completely changed the way people perceived me. I got taken more seriously. I received promotions in my workplace. Women responded with raw attraction and my dating success skyrocketed. Lastly, I became an accomplished, confident public speaker.
Change your voice for the better and it’ll change your life.
—
Put that voice to good use and start meeting women. I’ll help you get the ball rolling.When Mats Brännström first dreamed of performing uterus transplants, he envisioned helping women who were born without the organ or had to have hysterectomies. He wanted to give them a chance at birthing their own children, especially in countries like his native Sweden where surrogacy is illegal.
He auditioned the procedure in female rodents. Then he moved on to sheep and baboons. Two years ago, in a medical first, he managed to help a human womb–transplant patient deliver her own baby boy. In other patients, four more babies followed.
But his monumental feats have had an unintended effect: igniting hopes among some transwomen (those whose birth certificates read “male” but who identify as female) that they might one day carry their own children.
Cecile Unger, a specialist in female pelvic medicine at Cleveland Clinic, says several of the roughly 40 male-to-female transgender patients she saw in the past year have asked her about uterine transplants. One patient, she says, asked if she should wait to have her sex reassignment surgery until she could have a uterine transplant at the same time. (Unger’s advice was no.) Marci Bowers, a gynecological surgeon in northern California at Mills–Peninsula Medical Center, says that a handful of her male-to-female patients—“fewer than 5 percent”— ask about transplants. Boston Medical Center endocrinologist Joshua Safer says he, too, has fielded such requests among a small number of his transgender patients. With each patient, the subsequent conversations were an exercise in tamping down expectations.
To date there are no hard answers about whether such a fantastical-sounding procedure could enable a transwoman to carry a child. The operation has not been explored in animal trials, let alone in humans. Yet with six planned uterine transplant clinical trials among natal female patients across the U.S. and Europe reproductive researchers are hoping to become more comfortable with the surgery in the coming years. A string of successes could set a precedent that—along with patient interest—may crack open the door for other applications, including helping transwomen. “A lot of this work [in women] is intended to go down that road but no one is talking about that,” says Mark Sauer, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University.
Such a future is hard to imagine, at least in the near term. The surgery is still very experimental, even among natal women. Just over a dozen uterus transplants have been performed so far—with mixed results. One day after the first U.S. attempt, for example, the 26-year-old Cleveland Clinic patient had to have the transplanted organ removed due to complications. And only the Brännström group’s procedures have led to babies. More efforts are expected in the United States: Cleveland Clinic, Baylor University Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center are all registered to perform small pilot trials with female patients who are hoping to carry their own children.
A Risky Prospect
The trouble is that uterine transplants are extremely complex and resource-intensive, requiring dozens of health personnel and careful coordination. First a uterus and its accompanying veins and arteries must be removed from a donor, either a living volunteer or a cadaver. Then the organ must be quickly implanted and must function correctly—ultimately producing menstruation in its recipient. If the patient does not have further complications, a year later a doctor may then implant an embryo created via in vitro fertilization. The resulting baby would have to be born through cesarean section—as a safety precaution to limit stress on the transplanted organ, and because the patient cannot feel labor contractions (nerves are not transplanted with the uterus). Following the transplant and throughout the pregnancy the patient has to take powerful antirejection drugs that come with the risk of problematic side effects.
The dynamic process of pregnancy also requires much more than simply having a womb to host a fetus, so the hurdles would be even greater for a transwoman. To support a fetus through pregnancy a transgender recipient would also need the right hormonal milieu and the vasculature to feed the uterus, along with a vagina. For individuals who are willing to take these extreme steps, reproductive specialists say such a breakthrough could be theoretically possible—just not easy.
Here is how it could work: First, a patient would likely need castration surgery and high doses of exogenous hormones because high levels of male sex hormones, called androgens, could threaten pregnancy. (Although hormone treatments can be powerful, patients would likely need to be castrated because the therapy might not be enough to maintain the pregnancy among patients with testes.) The patient would also need surgery to create a “neovagina” that would be connected to the transplant uterus, to shed menses and give doctors access to the uterus for follow-up care.
A small number of surgeons already have experience creating artificial vaginas and connecting them to uterine transplants. Most of Brännström’s transplant patients have been women with a condition called Rokitansky syndrome, and as a result they lack the upper part of the vagina and had to have a neovagina surgically made—typically by extending the lower vagina. Separately, surgeons that specialize in working with transwomen also often create neovaginas after castration, using skin from the penis and the scrotum.
Biological Connection
Even if the hormonal and anatomical challenges are overcome, for someone who was born producing sperm instead of eggs there would be one more hurdle: Before castration that person’s sperm must be collected and combined with a donor’s or partner’s egg to make an embryo via in vitro fertilization, and that embryo would have to be frozen until the transplant patient is ready. If the embryo is successfully implanted, the transwoman would then naturally produce the placenta required to sustain the pregnancy and begin to lactate in preparation for breast-feeding, Cleveland Clinic’s Unger says.
Experts disagree about what would be the biggest barrier to pulling off these theoretical transplants and pregnancies. Giuliano Testa, a transplant surgeon at Baylor University Medical Center who will soon be directing uterine transplant surgeries among natal women, says the hormones would likely prove the biggest obstacle. “It would really be a feat of unknown proportions,” Testa says. “I would never do this.” But he concedes the transplants are not out of the question. “At the end of the day it is two arteries and two veins that are connected with fine surgical techniques.”
Unger—who is not involved in Cleveland Clinic’s uterine transplant team trial—worries about a consistent and ample blood flow to the fetus. Bowers, who is transgender herself, says she is concerned about dangers to the fetus from a potentially unstable biological environment and unforeseen risks for the mother-to-be. “I respect reproduction and I don’t think we will ever see this in my lifetime in a transgender woman,” she says. “That’s what I tell my patients.”
Costs and ethics also pose significant barriers. Many transgender patients have already been saving for years to pay for male-to-female genital surgery— which can cost around $24,000 without insurance coverage—so a uterine transplant could be out of financial reach, Unger says. And some doctors working on the frontlines with transgender patients have expressed concerns about the ethics involved in the risks. Sauer, the gynecologist from Columbia, says that with options including surrogacy and adoption available in many locations, an experimental surgery to help patients give birth—not save their lives—seems like a huge risk. Safer, medical director for the Center of Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston Medical Center, agrees. “If you are going to die without a transplant, of course you take [antirejection] drugs. But this is not the case here,” he says. “This is not life and death.”
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Ethics Committee is already discussing how uterine transplants could be prioritized, says Sauer, who is a member of that panel. Yet there is no discussion yet about how transgender candidates would be included in the mix. Additionally, it is unclear how demand for a uterus would be weighed by a hospital or an organization like the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Yet interest in uterine transplants is growing: Brännström, the Swedish surgeon who led the prior transplant work among women, says his inbox is now inundated with messages from less-traditional patients. “I get e-mails from all over the world on this, sometimes from gay males with one partner that would like to carry a child,” he says. Brännström does not plan to perform such procedures himself—instead he wants to focus on women who were born without a uterus or lost it due to cancer or another illness. The next natural step for those interested in assisting transgender or male patients, however, would likely be tackling this procedure among women with a rare condition called androgen insensitivity syndrome, he says. A person with AIS appears largely female, but has no uterus and is genetically male.
Amid these complex discussions there is one bright spot, the relative ease of finding the organs. Already one group has proved rich in willing donors: people who are transitioning from female to male and have also decided to have their uteruses removed. Unger says among her female-to-male patients, “one in three” have asked if they could donate the organs. Because there is no protocol set up to deal with these offers (Cleveland Clinic’s trial uses cadaver uteruses), they are currently turned down. Such potential donors may seem ideal because they are not pursuing a hysterectomy due to disease. But a major catch is the medical risk they face: A standard hysterectomy takes between a half-hour and an hour, but preparing a uterus and its associated blood vessels for transplant would keep such patients under the knife for as long as 10 or 11 hours. Clearly, the ethics of such donations would have to be studied extensively, Unger says. Like uterine transplants for transgender patients, this is all uncharted territory.Hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for tough new action toward North Korea on Friday, the nuclear-armed dictatorship thumbed its nose at the Trump administration with the latest in a series of missile tests that Trump officials say could provoke a military conflict.
The test failed quickly and the missile never left North Korean territory. But its timing implied calculated defiance by North Korea’s 33-year-old leader Kim Jong Un. It came a day before President Donald Trump’s 100-day mark and less than 24 hours after Trump warned of the potential for a “major, major conflict” over Kim’s expanding nuclear capability.
Story Continued Below
The message seemed to be that two weeks of saber-rattling — which included military deployments and a visit by Vice President Mike Pence to the North Korean border “so they can see our resolve in my face” — had failed to intimidate Kim.
The test, which was North Korea’s ninth since Trump took office, also underscores for Trump officials how hard it will be to halt and then reverse North Korea's nuclear and missile programs before they can threaten the U.S. mainland. Despite the talk of potential U.S. military action against Pyongyang in recent days, Tillerson finished the week with an emphasis on diplomatic and economic efforts similar in kind to ones pursued by the Obama administration.
Presiding over a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Tillerson called for “a new approach” to the nuclear-armed dictatorship.
“In light of the growing threat, the time has come for all of us to put new pressure on North Korea to abandon its dangerous path,” Tillerson said.
But in broad strokes, much of what Tillerson said was familiar.
U.S. officials have long advanced a policy similar to Tillerson’s call for “increased diplomatic and economic pressure on the North Korean regime” paired with the promise of negotiations. Last February, then-U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power told the same body that forthcoming U.N. sanctions backed by Washington “would constitute a major increase in pressure” on Pyongyang.
Tillerson also asserted a “willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action if necessary,” while adding that “we much prefer a negotiated solution to this problem.”
That echoed remarks from his predecessor, John Kerry, who said in October that sanctions and diplomacy “are entirely preferable, obviously, to the military choice, which … is a last resort and only as a matter of defensive measure to protect our nations.”
Former Obama officials say the main difference in Trump’s approach so far is largely a matter of stagecraft. Trump summoned the entire U.S. Senate to the White House on Thursday, for example, for a briefing on North Korea that many senators called uninformative but which commanded media attention.
Underlying the theatrics, though, Trump’s strategy is mainly based on pressuring China to further constrict North Korea’s economy, something Obama also did — albeit cautiously, for fear of poisoning the U.S.-China relationship. (Beijing fears a sudden collapse of Kim’s neighboring regime and prefers negotiations to extreme pressure.) Soon after the test, Trump sought to increase pressure on Beijing—and deflect attention from himself—by tweeting that North Korea's action had "disrepected" Beijing.
"It appears from their more formal moves that the official strategy on [North Korea] is not all that different from the one pursued late in the Obama administration,” said Laura Rosenberger, a former Obama White House and State Department official who has worked closely on North Korea policy.
A Trump official said Thursday that the biggest shift is a change in priority for the issue: “Is it different from the Obama administration’s policy? I think it is in the sense that it’s the number one security challenge that we’re facing right now, according to the administration and the president,” said Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, at a Thursday Foundation for Defense of Democracies event.
But even a shift in rhetoric is a meaningful change, say Trump’s defenders.
“The effectiveness of some of the hard instruments of American power depend on its credibility — and that’s where the theatrics of the Trump administration in can be very useful in sending a message to Pyongyang,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told POLITICO after interviewing Thornton.
“So much of this is about psychology, not just diplomacy and sanctions and the use of other instruments of American power,” he added.
Skeptics say the rhetoric and actions of Trump officials has been too scattershot to intimidate Kim and may create an impression of strategic confusion in Washington.
“Their apparently uncoordinated blustery rhetoric, not attached to specific actions, raises questions about their ability to executed a coordinated strategy,” Rosenberg said.
It’s hardly a surprise that North Korea has moved up on President Donald Trump’s agenda. Outgoing President Barack Obama warned Trump in November that the country’s growing nuclear program should be his top national security priority.
Obama White House officials also handed off detailed options for Trump to address the North Korean crisis, though they are unsure whether top Trump aides—including Matt Pottinger and Alison Hooker, the national security council’s top aides for Asia and Korea respectively—have relied on them.
Despite Trump’s saber rattling — including his recent declaration that he had sent a naval “armada” towards North Korea (a statement that proved misleading) — the risks of even a precision strike on Pyongyang render it unlikely for now.
“People who are writing headlines about war have it wrong,” said Patrick Cronin, an Asia security expert at the Center for a New American Security. “Kim Jong Un would see any attack on him as a regime-change strategy, and he would respond to an unacceptable degree.”
North Korea has the world’s fourth-largest military and is capable of devastating the South Korean capital of Seoul with a cross-border artillery bombardment. Even an all-out surprise U.S. attack on the North might not be able to prevent a catastrophic counterattack — including, possibly, a nuclear one — that could kill tens of thousands of South Koreans, and many of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.
"If you are going to do a pre-emptive strike, you'd better get it all,” said a former senior Obama Pentagon official.
Despite occasional reports of planning for a so-called “decapitation,” any strike that could take out Kim and his inner circle would have dangerously unpredictable consequences. Kim’s survival would guarantee all-out war, and his death would touch off a wild scramble for power.
“You could easily end up with a civil war on the inside,” Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said in a Thursday talk at at the Center for the National Interest. “We’ll take our side and the Chinese will take their side, and that’s a scenario where the two could start fighting.”
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ramatically stark difference in economic vitality."
Romney praises Polish economy as example for Europe
(Romney delivers speech in Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday.)
"As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality," he said.
He drew parallels between other neighboring countries with such economic disparities, such as Chile and Ecuador and Mexico and the United States, and noted his interest, as a former businessman, in determining the source of those gaps. He also referred to the book "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations," which concludes that culture plays key role in success of nations.
"Culture makes all the difference," Romney told donors on Monday. "And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things."
Romney did not specifically mention Palestinian culture in his remarks, but the comparison between the Israeli and Palestinian economies, and his comments about culture, seem to suggest an implicit judgment.
Romney was swiftly upbraided for the comments by Palestinian leaders, including Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who told the Associated Press the remarks were racist, and failed to note the potential impact that Israel's occupation of the West Bank have had on the nation's economy. Others have also pointed out that Israel has strict trade restrictions on Palestine, which Romney did not mention.
"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," Erekat told the AP. "It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people."
Romney aide loses cool with press
(Audio of the Romney aide's altercation with the press.)
The controversy marks just one in a series of gaffes that have marked the Republican candidate's brief trip abroad. Most recently, Romney's traveling press secretary was forced to apologize after telling reporters to "shove it"and "kiss my a**" during a tense exchange in Poland.
Romney dismissed the notion that his trip to Europe had been characterized by missteps, suggesting the press is focusing on the incidents in an attempt to distract voters from the real issues.
"And I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whichever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy to geopolitics to the threat of war to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today to a nuclearization of Iran," Romney told Cameron. "They'll instead try and find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country."
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, top Romney strategist Stu Stevens characterized the trip as a "great success" and argued American voters aren't concerned about gaffes.
"I think people understand that big elections are about big things. And I think that one thing we've learned about this race is only that which is important matters," he said. "This is not a race that has been affected by small things at all. I think it means absolutely nothing to the people at home because it has no relevance to their life. It doesn't matter."Rob Ford is fond of football analogies. The one that might best describe the final stages of the 2012 budget process has the mayor watching from the sidelines.
With hours to go before city council meets to vote on the 2012 budget Tuesday, councillors appear set to defy a pledge Ford made only last week and try to dip into the city's estimated $154-million surplus in order to reverse some of his more controversial service cuts.
One source says there are about $15 to $16 million in unpopular cuts in the current budget that are not supported by anyone outside the mayor's closest allies, and moderate and left-wing councillors are planning to introduce council motions that would use some of the surplus to offset them.
Ford sees surpluses as unreliable one-time sources of revenue, and wants to end the practice, favoured by preceding administrations, of using surpluses from previous years to fund the coming year's operating budget. At City Hall last Thursday he pledged "we're not going under $154 million."
The entirety of the surplus is currently allocated to fund the TTC's $700-million capital budget shortfall.
But despite Ford's office unleashing a full-court press Monday to lobby councillors not to alter the budget approved by his executive, council sources say it's now certain that some of the surplus will be used to avoid cuts, with TTC service, community grants, priority centres, and swimming pools topping the list of services councillors are hoping to maintain. Councillors are also working to prevent the closure of three homeless shelters.
Councillor Maria Augimeri, a left-leaning councillor, said Monday that it's "definite" that the surplus will be utilized to reverse some of the cuts. She wants to find at least $10 million to maintain TTC service standards, which are set to be lowered on 37 routes during rush hour and 35 routes during off-peak times next month.
Councillor James Pasternak, a moderate on council who votes with the mayor more often than not, also says councillors are working to reach agreements amongst themselves on how best to utilize the surplus. "There's about $154 million there and there's an opportunity to reverse some of the more unpalatable service reductions," he said.
Moderate and left-wing councillors joining together to fashion what Pasternak calls a "made-in-the-middle" budget would be an embarrassing development for the mayor. He has already stood by as his budget and executive committees balked at cuts he had publicly supported, including rescuing $1.9 million in arts grants, the Hardship Fund, and local sidewalk snow clearing, as well as directing that libraries not cut branch hours.
None of those cuts were reversed using 2011 surplus funds however, the money instead being pulled from an $8.8-million increase in the property tax rolls. Council deciding to draw on the surplus this week would be a fresh blow to a mayor who has seen his influence over the budget process erode since promising a relentless search for cuts last summer with the launch the core service review.
Besides the surplus, there are other options councillors could use to avert cuts, including finding offsets in other departments within the existing budget and raising property taxes by more than the 2.5 per cent increase already approved by Ford's executive. Sources say that while there is talk of some councillors introducing a motion to raise taxes by 2.9 per cent, it doesn't have the support of council.
Last week the Toronto Board of Trade recommended a three per cent property tax increase, which would bring in an estimated $26 million in 2012.Last Thursday, Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed into law a “religious freedom” bill, which has been defended by its supporters as a necessary protection for people with strong religious beliefs, but is, in practice, a license for people to legally discriminate against anyone they don’t like.
Despite supporters’ contention that the bill is meant to address (an imagined) hostility toward people of faith, in reality, its entire point is simply to provide a victory lap to homophobic conservatives who still want the legal right to discriminate against same-sex couples after same-sex marriage was forcibly legalized in Indiana last year.
The law is so broad that the implications are enormous. An emergency room doctor, even if zie’s the only one on duty, could refuse to perform a lifesaving abortion. A pharmacist could refuse to dispense birth control. A utility company, even if it has a monopoly in the area, could deny service to same-sex couples, or atheists, or Wiccans. All they have to do is claim that to provide service to queer people, or nonbelievers, or “witches,” is a religious burden.
Under this law, any legal entity – “an individual, an association, a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a church, a religious institution, an estate, a trust, a foundation” – is allowed to withhold any service on the basis that providing such service is contrary to their religious belief. Further, “I don’t like those people because my god said so” is deemed sufficient legal justification of those beliefs… “regardless of whether the religious belief is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief.”
It is a profoundly heinous piece of legislation, and both progressive and many conservative Hoosiers object to its passage. Those of us who live and do activism in red states knew what was coming: The predictable progressive backlash began with an outpouring of blanket generalizations about how people in Indiana are a waste of space (without a trace of irony that such broad statements include queer Hoosiers), admonishments to progressives in red states that we should just move (as if that is an option for everyone), and a #BoycottIndiana hashtag was started on Twitter.
Many of the people calling for the boycott are, realistically, individuals who have never set foot in Indiana, never will, and probably couldn’t pick out Indiana on a map. But there were also corporate leaders who immediately embraced the notion of a boycott. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced his company would be “cancelling all required travel to the state of Indiana,” and called on “other tech CEOs and tech industry leaders to please take a stand.”
Part of his concern is keeping his employees safe in a hostile state, with which I’m deeply sympathetic. After all, the reason I oppose this legislation is because I want queer Hoosiers to be safe. But another part of it, central to the idea of the boycott and reiterated thousands of times on social media, is that withholding investment in Indiana will put pressure on our state government and force their hand—and/or that hitting Hoosier voters in their wallets will force them to vote differently.
Well. Here are a few things you need to understand about Indiana:
We are an incredibly gerrymandered state, where in many districts, candidates run unopposed. Even if you want to vote for someone in a different party, you don’t even have the opportunity to do so.
ALEC is very active in Indiana and has essentially turned Indiana into a conservative legislation lab. There is an enormous amount of external money that gets funneled into the state. A boycott of the state wouldn’t touch that.
Our state leadership often acts in contravention of the majority’s will. A majority of Hoosiers opposed the same-sex marriage ban, but the state legislature passed it anyway. Even when progressives and conservatives come together to reject some proposed piece of legislation, we are ignored—and the reason our legislature feels free to do so is because of gerrymandering and external funding.
Hoosiers are already hurting economically. Earlier this week, a court in Indiana ruled that public schools were allowed to discontinue bus service for schoolchildren, in order to save money. We are a state in which one out of six people depends on food stamps/pantries in order to get enough to eat. Northwest Indiana, the part of the state in which I live, has never recovered from the decimation of the steel industry under Reaganomics. Jobs are scarce. And so are resources to fight to change any of this.
The little blue corner of the state where I live is progressive, but it is also poor as hell. And our state capitol treats us like an ATM, draining what little resources we’ve got. Our roads have been privatized. We pay higher tolls to a private corporation so the state can rake in money on a private lease, and we see none of it. Our roads are littered with potholes. Our utility infrastructure is shit. There are few jobs offering a livable wage, and no public transport to get to them. Our unions are being busted. Our public education system is being destroyed. We are progressives, but our state government steals from us.
The idea that we need more pressure in order to be moved to do something is absurd. People on the precipice don’t have the luxury of principled resistance. We are too busy trying to survive.
What you need to understand about Indiana is that the state government doesn’t give a fuck about the people of the state. If you don’t, either, you’re on their side. Not ours.
The truth is, progressives with resources have been boycotting Indiana for decades. That’s actually why we’re in this situation. If you want to know what a boycott would really look like, what result institutional neglect will really have, this is it. This legislation—it’s the result of Indiana having been de facto boycotted for years, written off as a place unworthy of investment by people who could help.
People with money and jobs and conferences to hold. People who know that progressive Hoosiers’ primary problem is social isolation and a lack of political infrastructure, and that a boycott will only exacerbate both.
What a generalized boycott of Indiana would do is harm working people—among whom are queer business owners, as well as queer employees of inclusive and supportive employers, and also queer employees of discriminatory employers, because that’s the only job they can get in a state with far too few jobs.
And let’s be honest here: It isn’t like the vast majority of people who are cheering “Boycott Indiana!” had any plans to visit Indiana and spend money in this state, anyway. It’s just a slogan to shout at a state they perceive to be full of fat, poor, lazy, conservative, straight, cis, white people.
Which underlines what’s really the worst thing about this idea: It’s reflective of a vicious stereotype that disappears the existence of the very people for whom the sloganeers purport to care.
If Benioff and the other tech/corporate leaders who are advocating a statewide boycott really want to do something meaningful for vulnerable Hoosiers, what they can do is set up shop. Flood the state with money and jobs and resources. Make themselves a permanent presence in the state, to whom our legislators might actually listen. Create the need for better infrastructure, and offer paychecks that allow people to fill their bellies and jobs that come with employment protections and a work-life balance that allows them to go protest at the statehouse.
This is what we need. We need help, not abandonment.As shellackings go, the 2010 election was as comprehensive as it gets. Democrats lost among women, men, high-school graduates, college graduates, Catholics, Protestants, and so on. But there was one demographic group whose repudiation was especially influential: senior citizens. In the 2006 midterm election, seniors split their vote evenly between House Democrats and Republicans. This time, they went for Republicans by a twenty-one-point margin. The impact of that swing was magnified by the fact that seniors, always pretty reliable midterm voters, were particularly fired up: nearly a quarter of the votes cast were from people over sixty-five. The election has been termed the “revolt of the middle class.” But it might more accurately be called the revolt of the retired.
Why were seniors so furious with the Democrats? The weak economy and the huge deficits didn’t help, but retirees have actually been hit less hard by the financial crisis than other Americans. The real sticking point was health-care reform, which the elderly didn’t like from the start. While the Affordable Care Act was being debated, most seniors opposed it, and even after the law was passed Gallup found that sixty per cent of them thought it was bad. You sometimes hear (generally from Republicans) that the health-care bill is wildly unpopular. The truth is that, in every age group but one—seniors—a plurality of voters want to keep the bill intact.
Misinformation about “death panels” and so on had something to do with seniors’ hostility. But the real reason is that it feels to them as if health-care reform will come at their expense, since the new law will slow the growth in Medicare spending over the next decade. It won’t actually cut current spending, as Republicans claimed in campaign ads, but between now and 2019 total Medicare outlays will be half a trillion dollars less than previously projected. Never mind that this number includes cost savings from more efficient care, or that the bill has a host of provisions that benefit seniors—most notably the closing of the infamous drug-benefit “doughnut hole,” which had left people responsible for thousands of dollars in prescription-drug costs. The idea that the government might try to restrain Medicare spending was enough to turn seniors against the bill.
There’s a colossal irony here: the very people who currently enjoy the benefits of a subsidized, government-run insurance system are intent on keeping others from getting the same treatment. In part, this is because seniors think of Medicare as an “entitlement”—something that they have a right to because they paid for it, via Medicare taxes—and decry the new bill as a giveaway. This is a myth: seniors today get far more out of Medicare than they ever put in, which means that their medical care is paid for by current taxpayers. There’s nothing wrong with this: the U.S. is rich enough so that the elderly shouldn’t have to worry about having health insurance; before Medicare, roughly half of them didn’t have it. But the subsidies that seniors get aren’t fundamentally different from the ones that the Affordable Care Act will offer some thirty million Americans who don’t have insurance. Opposing the new law while reaping the benefits of Medicare is essentially saying, “I’ve got mine—good luck getting yours.”
Current sentiment among seniors seems like a classic example of an effect that the economist Benjamin Friedman identified in his magisterial book “The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth”: in hard times voters get more selfish. Historically, Friedman notes, times of stagnation have been times of reaction, with voters bent on protecting their own interests, hostile to outsiders, and less interested in social welfare. In boom times, by contrast, societies typically become more open, more inclusive, and more generous; think, in the U.S., of the myriad reforms of the Progressive Era, or of the nineteen-sixties, when Medicare, Medicaid, civil-rights legislation, and immigration reform were all introduced.
This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule; Social Security, after all, was created during the Great Depression. But Friedman suggests that the Depression’s effects were so deep and widespread that it created a sense of social solidarity. The current crisis, bad as it is, isn’t severe enough to do that; instead, it has tended to drive people apart, with economically anxious voters trying to hold on to what they have. These days, the notion that we can’t afford to expand the safety net sounds plausible, because everyone’s feeling poor. By contrast, when Medicare was first proposed, in the boom times of the nineteen-sixties, Republicans made little headway trying to fend it off, despite using arguments remarkably similar to the ones they’re now advancing in support of health-care repeal. In this environment, it’s understandable that seniors want to pull the ladder up in order to protect their benefits, just as other voters don’t want to pay for any more stimulus spending, even if millions of Americans are unemployed.
To be sure, the Obama Administration didn’t pitch health-care reform as well as it might have: its emphasis on the way the bill would “bend the cost curve” was heard by seniors as “slash Medicare.” But the Democrats’ loss of support among the elderly was more a matter of economic fundamentals than of political framing. If the economy were growing briskly, it’s unlikely that the health-care bill would have become so politically toxic. And, with Republicans now looking to roll back parts of the bill, what happens to health care in the long term may depend a lot on what happens to the economy in the short term. ♦Sudoku Generator
Here is a free Sudoku generator that can generate puzzles of varying difficulty in PDF, Postscript, plaintext, and HTML. It is a nice example of the website fun you can have with 250 lines of Python over a Labor day weekend; it also makes a handy command-line Sudoku solver...
Update: For Google Chrome users, try installing this Chrome Sudoku Web App for hints and more. Preview the Sudoku Helper here.
What is Sudoku?
Have you ever played Sudoku? A few months ago my dad raved about a new game in the newspaper that he liked solving better than the daily crossword, and so I picked up one of the five hundred or so Sudoku books at the bookstore. I was quickly hooked.
The rules of Sudoku are simple: finish filling in the squares of a 9x9 grid so that the digits 1-9 appear exactly once in each of the nine rows, columns, and 3x3 blocks. Puzzles are designed so that there is only one correct way to fill in the 81 squares, and they tend to be just hard enough to be satisfying: not too easy, not impossible.
Ways to Play
Sudoku is a good solo game; if you are having trouble getting into it, you can read about various solution strategies on the web.
But, like crosswords, it can be even more fun to work Sudoku puzzles together with somebody else. Heidi and I sometimes race each other on adjacent puzzles in a Sudoku book - it can be nerve-wracking to try to catch up when you're behind, while the other person is rapidly filling in squares. Either player always has a chance to win a race, because backtracking in Sudoku is hard. You can be dealt a blow at the finish line when you encounter a contradiction and then realize you made a mistake long ago. (The best strategy in Sudoku is not to guess, yet it's still good to play with an erasable pencil.) It can also be fun to cooperate on a Sudoku puzzle - the entertainment there is to be stymied together, and then question the other person's clever move to get out of a logjam.
There are many Sudoku variants, for example versions of the game where the 9-square blocks come in different shapes, or smaller versions of the game that are designed for children.
I realized Sudoku was a major phenomenon when I saw the Dora Sudoku books for preschoolers. Since they are for the preliterate set, you fill in simplified 4x4 puzzles using stickers instead of letters or numbers. The amazing thing is that my pre-K daughter Piper was completely enthralled by the books. We brought a Dora Sudoku book on our trip to Taiwan, and solving Sudokus became the most reliably fun activity for Piper whenever she was waiting around, remarkably beating out her Nintendo DS.
I guess it's no wonder that they recently came out with Sudoku for the Nintendo DS too.
Counting Sudoku Boards
But if you read the advertisements for Sudoku Gridmaster for DS, you will notice that it is said to come with "over 400" Sudoku puzzles. With crosswords, I can understand why your software might have only a few hundred puzzles, since each hint needs to be done by a human editor. But with Sudokus, I wonder why they don't just let the software generate millions of puzzles? Imagine how many millions of puzzles "included" they could claim.
Solved Sudokus are a special kind of Latin square, which were studied by Euler. Euler discovered that there did not seem to be very many Latin squares of a certain type, and in 1782 he proposed that the 36 Officers Problem had no solution for 6x6, 10x10, 14x14 squares, and so on. His conjecture stood until the 20th century. But in 1959, a set of 10x10 "Euler's Spoiler" squares were discovered by Parker, Bose, and Shrikhande (in work popularized by Martin Gardner) disproving Euler's famous conjecture. Mathematicians continue to play with and theorize about Latin squares today.
How many different ways are there to completely fill in the 81 squares of a Sudoku board? In May 2005, Felgenhauer and Jarvis counted the Sudoku boards carefully and concluded that there are exactly 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 solved boards. These thousands of billions of billions are so large that there would really be no hope of using a supercomputer to enumerate all the boards: the only way to count them all is to understand the symmetries of the game.
If you have one solved board, you can get another equivalent one by relabeling digits, swapping rows within a 3-row-band, swapping bands, swapping columns within a 3-column-stack, swapping stacks, or by rotating the whole board. How many "really different" boards are there which cannot be created from each other by just swapping things around this way? Jarvis and Russell concluded that the kernel of really distinct boards is still pretty large, numbering 5,472,730,538. Yet this number is small enough for a computer, and it is possible (although tricky) to write a program to enumerate all these boards quickly.
Counting Sudoku Hints
For puzzlers, a solved board is not as interesting as an unsolved one! And among unsolved puzzles, the interesting ones are the minimal ones: the puzzles which uniquely determine a single solution, and for which you cannot erase any hint without permitting extra solutions. How many minimal Sudoku puzzles are there? Certainly the number must be far more than the number of solved Sudoku boards, but the total count is unknown. In fact, it is not even known for sure how small a minimal puzzle can be!
My simple program for generating minimal puzzles typically generates Sudoku puzzles with 24 or more hints. I have never seen it generate a puzzle with fewer than 22 hints. But there are some puzzles that are much smaller. Gordon Royle mainains a list of (currently) 36628 nontrivially distinct and fully constrained Sudoku puzzles with 17 hints.
Some mathematicians suspect that the smallest number of hints you can give in a Sudoku puzzle that uniquely determines a fully solved board is 17, because concerted searches for a fully constrained puzzle with only 16 hints have come up dry. In fact, it is hard to find 17-hint puzzles too, and Gordon's list of 17-hint puzzles might be nearly complete. If this could be proved, it would also prove that there are no 16-hint puzzles.
So if you find a 17-hint puzzle, you should check to see if Gordon already has it. And remember that there is no proof that fully determined 16-hint puzzles don't exist. If you get a 16-hint puzzle out of the automatic puzzle generator, don't throw it out. It would be publication-worthy.
Sudoku Generation Algorithm
How can you generate Sudoku puzzles? I do not know what the 'best' algorithm is, but here is what I have done in my simple little python program.
First, we need a Sudoku solver. My solver uses three simple strategies to solve a board; they are simple to implement and seem fast enough.
If only one number fits in a square without row, column, and box conflicts, we fill it in. If a number needed by a row, column, or box can only go in one square in that row, column, or box, we fill it in. If we can't fill in anything using rules 1 or 2, then we find a most-constrained place or number where we can guess (for example, two choices is better than three), and we try all the guesses.
The last bit about trying all the guesses will require some backtracking. When we are selecting a place to guess, we choose one randomly among the most-constrained places, and we shuffle the choices to try them in a random order.
The result is if we tell the solver to solve an empty board, we get a nice random fully-solved Sudoku board.
To generate Sudoku puzzles, we start with a solved board, and we choose some minimal hints to reveal as follows.
Going through the squares in shuffled order, reveal each square only if it is not deduced by the other revealed squares (using the solver without guessing). This produces a list of about 30 to 40 hints which together dermine the 81 squares of the board. Going through the chosen hints in shuffled order, attempt dropping each one, and fully solve the board far enough to find two solutions if there are two. Replace the hint unless the solution is still unique with the hint removed.
Notice that generating a minimal puzzle this way requires us to do the work of solving a Sudoku board about twenty times, so it takes a lot more work to generate a minimal Sudoku puzzle than it does to solve one. If there are ways of generating Sudoku puzzles more quickly, I'd love to know.
Rating Puzzles
Any Sudoku fan will tell you that there are hard puzzles and easy puzzles. The newspapers like to save the really diabolical ones for the Friday edition, so you can stew over them all weekend. The hardest puzzles require you to look several moves ahead, or make lots of good guesses to find a solution.
Unfortunately, the algorithm here does not always create hard puzzles - I don't know how to create a more difficult puzzle on purpose. So in the links below, you may get a hard or an easy puzzle, randomly. The best we can do is tell you what kind of puzzle you've got.
The ratings that go along with the puzzles estimate the amount of guessing (or thinking ahead more than one move) that you might need to do to solve a puzzle. This is done by counting the depth of the search stack when the computer finds a solution. Since, depending on order of the guesses, the search might be deeper or shallower, we try a few different paths and average the search depth to get the rating.
A rating of zero means that you can completely solve the puzzle without any looking ahead or guessing. Ratings of three or more tend to be pretty hard.
Here's the Source Luke
Python code for the Sudoku solver and generator is here. The python script works as both a commandline tool and as a cgi script.
Every time you visit the links below, you should get a fresh, new, never-seen-before Sudoku puzzle. We also print the difficulty of each puzzle so you know what you're getting into before you send it to the printer. Enjoy.
Get a generated Sudoku PDF here.
Get a generated Sudoku in HTML here.
Get a generated Sudoku in plaintext here.
Get a generated Sudoku in Postscript here.
Update: for more printable puzzle fun - I've also put together a 3d printable maze generator here.
Update: for help with solving sudokus - I have written a javascript Sudoku Puzzle Helper that gives you hints without giving everything away.
Posted by David at September 4, 2006 03:36 AMA key House panel voted Wednesday to cut off almost $4 billion in aid to the government of Afghanistan pending an investigation into charges that Afghan officials are blocking corruption probes and huge amounts of foreign aid is being stolen.
The bipartisan move by the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee comes after The Washington Post reported that top officials in President Hamid Karzai’s government were blocking corruption probes of political allies and amid widespread assumptions that Afghan powerbrokers are moving millions of dollars out of the country.
The panel’s chairwoman, Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., is instead demanding that the Government Accountability Office conduct an audit of billions of dollar of past U.S. aid.
“We have an obligation to every American to ensure that their hard earned tax dollars are not squandered through corruption and graft,” Lowey said.
Military operations funded through a separate bill would not be affected, nor would humanitarian aid. The House is slated to vote as early as Thursday on legislation funding President Barack Obama’s $33 billion military aid request, which would fund the president’s surge of 30,000 troops.
And the bill in question, a $53 billion measure funding foreign aid for the upcoming budget year, retains the money in placeholder accounts that could still be tapped before the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year.
“I do not intend to appropriate one more dime for assistance to Afghanistan until I have confidence that U.S. taxpayer money is not being abused to line the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials, drug lords and terrorists,” Lowey said.
Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, top Republican on the panel, agreed with the aid cutoff.
“The administration’s policy of providing direct assistance to the government of Afghanistan assumes a great deal of risk and with ongoing corruption inside the Afghan government, it is difficult to justify,” Granger said.
But Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., worried that the move could imperil important projects such as improvements to Kandahar’s electrical system, which he said is an important step to winning over the residents of the area to the U.S. mission.
Source: AP NewsThe state government of South Australia has announced a competition for young Minecraft fans to use the game to design a national park.
The competition is open to students in year four, five, six, and seven. “Minecraft is a game that encourages creativity, letting players build in 3D in an infinite world, then explore their own creations and those of other players,” Sustainability, Environment and Conservation Minister Ian Hunter said.
“The competition is part of a wider project to ask the community what sort of facilities or services would encourage them to visit national parks more frequently.”
The Minister said some of the ideas the government is looking for include bike trails, picnic areas, public toilets, and wheelchair accessibility. But he also said students might come up with entirely new ideas. The students must submit at least fire screenshots of their design in order to be considered.
Students will work together as a class, and may base their designs on existing parks or create entirely new ones. The winners will be decided based on how well their designs are “able to be translated into the real world.” The government is after a park that is creative, practical, and sustainable.
Minecraft has been used throughout the world to visualise real-world projects, as well as in schools for education. Having students use the wildly popular game to create a national park is a Leslie Knope-esque idea that aims to encourage youth to engage with the government and the community. The project is going to be no small feat, with the government having pledged more then $10 million to parks during the last election.
The winning class will be sent on a day-long excursion to Belair National Park.
Comments
commentsWe are just a day away from the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. To get you ready we have gathered some new bits including some more details and photos from the premiere, producers talking canon, Netflix availability times, a few behind the scenes shots, and more. And if you live in New York City, we have an important update on a special promo happening tonight.
Premiere episode details and photos
Details for the two-part premiere have been posted on the official Star Trek site. There are now database pages for Episode 1 (“The Vulcan Hello“) and Episode 2 (“Battle at the Binary Stars“). The first episode now has the following description:
While patrolling Federation space, the U.S.S. Shenzhou encounters an object of unknown origin, putting First Officer Michael Burnham to her greatest test yet.
CBS also released 5 new photos from the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery.
New photos from “The Vulcan Hello”
New photos from “Battle at the Binary Stars”
Showrunners on how they stick to canon
Slate has an interview with Discovery showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg focuing on their process for maintaining canon. It is worth a read, here is snippet talking about how they deal with the boundaries of canon:
There are some areas of Trek canon that Discovery’s showrunners simply will not touch. The Romulans, for example, are a “no-go,” Harberts told me, because their appearance in the Original Series episode “Balance of Terror” is supposed to be the Federation’s first face-to-face encounter with the species. Other areas offer more wiggle room. The trick, Berg said, is figuring out which parts of canon are too sacred to toy with and which leave some undiscovered country ripe for further exploration. “Any kind of canon is like Scripture. There’s some interpretation going on,” she said. “I really find that my favorite creative people can look at those boundaries and say, there’s so much room within to play. Instead of going outside the lines, we can dig deeper within the boundaries that exist.”
…and on F-Bombs
And in an interview with CBR, the pair of showrunners talked about how being on a streaming service allowed more flexibility, including with language:
We have a moment where three of our scientists have just pulled off the most incredible thing ever. They are talking about concepts that are so above everybody else’s head, and one of them says, “This is so fucking cool.” And she’s a cadet, and she’s catches herself, and she looks at her boss, because oh my God, she just dropped an F-bomb. And her boss, played by Anthony Rapp, turns to her and says, “You’re right, cadet — this is fucking cool.” So in a moment like that, where I feel like we’re celebrating smarts and people who are at the top of their game. It’s rare when we’ll do it, but if we do it, we want to make it feel organic.
More BTS from Ted
Here are today’s behind the scenes pictures from co-executive producer Ted Sullivan.
More hot warp core action! @startrekcbs #BTS! Get ready! Tomorrow it all becomes clear! pic.twitter.com/27XvImiJ6B — Ted Sullivan (@karterhol) September 23, 2017
Shooting late at night on tomorrow's ep of @startrekcbs! #BTS All will be revealed pic.twitter.com/9nRx465AmG — Ted Sullivan (@karterhol) September 23, 2017
Meyer defines his role
Star Trek II and VI director Nicholas Meyer is credited as a consulting producer on Star Trek: Discovery. In a new interview with Inverse, Meyer explains his role on the show:
Speaking to Inverse on the phone from Los Angeles, Meyer explains that though his initial role on Discovery was “just another writer in the room,” as the series evolved he became “the consultant.” And then, in an effort to downplay his impact or title, he says, “I would sort of put in my two cents every once and while.”
See moment Martin-Green found out she got the job
Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green has been doing some chat shows, including an appearance on The Talk yesterday. This time the hosts all dressed up for Star Trek and CBS even provided a captain’s chair. The actress talked about the utopian vision and history diversity on Star Trek. She also showed off a video her husband took of the moment she found out she got the role. Spoiler alert: she cries.
Netflix reveals availability time
As noted in our “How to Watch Star Trek: Discovery” article last week, episodes of Star Trek: Discovery would be available within 24 hours after they were put on to CBS All Access. Netflix has not narrowed down the exact time by updating the @startreknetflix page with the following info:
#StarTrekDiscovery streams weekly starting 25th of September at 8am BST / 9am CET on Netflix.
TrekMovie has also confirmed that the first episode of After Trek will also be |
of horned dinosaur specimens during the 1870s, but he was also left puzzled by the horn cores and other incomplete remains from the ceratopsians.) Still, to cover his mistake, Marsh affirmed that the structure of the Denver horns truly was similar to that of a bison. This isn’t so far-fetched. The horn structures of Triceratops and bison are somewhat similar, and paleontologist Tobin Hieronymus and colleagues recently used the horn anatomy of buffalo and musk oxen to reconstruct the facial structures of the horned dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus.
As Carpenter cautions, though, we should not ridicule Marsh for his mistakes. No one in the late 1880s knew what a ceratopsian really looked like, especially since many of the dinosaurs that Marsh had previously studied were Jurassic creatures that lived many millions of years before. With nothing else for comparison, the Triceratops horns did show some features in common with both bison horns and Stegosaurus spikes, which led Marsh to incorrect conclusions until more complete specimens finally solved the mystery. Marsh’s mistakes are a prime example of how new dinosaurs are sometimes identified—parts of unknown creatures are compared to what is already known in an attempt to narrow down a range of possibilities for identification. Triceratops was so different from other dinosaurs Marsh studied that it is little wonder that he erred in his conclusions. Who could have imagined an animal as magnificent as Triceratops on the basis of the horns alone?
References:
Carpenter, K. 2007. “Bison” alticornis and O.C. Marsh’s early views on ceratopsians. In K. Carpenter ed., Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs. pp. 349-364. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hieronymus, T., Witmer, L., Tanke, D., & Currie, P. (2009). The Facial Integument of Centrosaurine Ceratopsids: Morphological and Histological Correlates of Novel Skin Structures The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 292 (9), 1370-1396 DOI: 10.1002/ar.2098520th Century Fox is planning an April start to filming of its Kingsman: The Secret Service sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Before you get too excited, know that there are a few major hurdles that could push the start date back. First, the script isn't complete. Director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, the pair that wrote the first film, are hammering away at the sequel's script as we speak.
The second hurdle? Taron Egerton, the young British actor that portrayed street kid-turned-gentleman spy Eggsy (Taron Egerton), may have a scheduling conflict. A few months ago, Egerton was cast in the title role of Lionsgate's Robin Hood: Origins and that film is scheduled to begin filming in February. Since that shoot will be extensive there would be an overlap with Kingsman 2. However, Fox has an option on Egerton which supersedes Lionsgate's contract with Egerton. That means Fox has the leverage to make Egerton bail on Robin Hood, though, THR is told by their sources that something will get worked out between the two studios.
A super-secret organization recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a dire global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. A phenomenal cast, including Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine, lead this action-packed spy-thriller directed by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class).Unless someone like OHSpurs photoshops a whole awful lot, the articles aren't as funny. They're not.
Do you like losing to West Ham?
I do not like it, Big Sam.
I do not like losing to West Ham.
Would you like it home or away?
I do not like it here or there.
I do not like it anywhere.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
I do not like losing to West Ham.
Would you lose to them in a cup final?
Would you prefer losing with Chas and Dave on vinyl?
I do not like losing in a final.
I do not like losing while listening to viynl.
I do not like losing to them anywhere.
I do not like losing to West Ham
I do not like it, Big Sam.
Would you lose only twice a year?
Even if you had all the beer?
Not three times a year.
Not once a year.
Not even with all the beer.
I do not like to lose to West Ham.
I do not like it anywhere.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
Would you? Could you? On Sky Sports?
Do it! Narrative! It'll entertain all sorts!
I would not, could not, on Sky Sports.
You will do it! You will see!
You will make Neil Ashton very happy!
I will not, cannot lose more than three.
Not for Neil Ashton, let me be.
I do not like it three times a year.
I do not like it with all the beer.
I do not like it home or away.
I do not like it on any day.
I do not like losing to West Ham.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
A firm! A firm!
A firm! A firm!
Could you, would you, lose under threat from a firm?
No I never could!
Not even if I was threatened by Elijah Wood!
I do not like it threatened by thugs.
I do not like it surrounded by mugs.
I do not like it three times a year.
I do not like it with all the beer.
I do not like it home or away.
I do not like it on any day.
I do not losing to West Ham.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
Say! How about on your first fixture?
Would you, could you, in your first fixture?
I will not, cannot, put that in the picture.
Would you, could you, in the rain?
I do not like it threatened in the rain.
I do not like it there's too much pain.
I do not like it three times a year.
I do not like it with all the beer.
I do not like it home or away.
I do not like it on any day.
I do not like losing to West Ham.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
You do not like losing to West Ham?
I do not like it, Big Sam.
Could you, would you,
with Kevin Nolan?
I will not, I can not,
with Kevin Nolan.
Will you, can you,
with Carlton Cole?
I do not, cannot,
believe he can find the goal.
Would you, could you,
in the Olympic Stadium?
I will not, could not,
play in that empty gymnasium.
I will not lose to them here or there.
I will not lose to long balls in the air!
I will not lose surrounded by thugs!
I will not lose chanted at by mugs!
I will not lose to them with all the beer!
I will not lose them another time this year!
I do not like losing to West Ham.
I do not like it, Big Sam.
You do not like it, so you say!
Try it! Try it! And you may!
Try it and you may, I say.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try it. You will see.
Say! I already did it three times last year, man!
Screw it, Lamela is going to put three past Adrian!
So I will beat West Ham without dear ol' Harry.
I will beat them with a late goal by Paul Stalteri.
I will beat them while listening to vinyl.
I will beat them in their cup final.
I will beat West Ham here and there.
I will beat them ANYWHERE.Before the flood of discoveries resulting from NASA’s Kepler mission, the majority of extrasolar planets were found by analyzing precision radial velocity measurements of stars. Periodic variations in a star’s radial velocity could be the result of reflex motion caused by an orbiting exoplanet. One of the longest running surveys of this type is the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey (LCES) which has been collecting data since 1994. On February 12, 2017 the LCES team including famed exoplanet hunters Paul Butler (Carnegie Institution for Science), Steven Vogt (UCO/Lick Observatory) and Gregory Laughlin (Yale University), among others, submitted a paper for publication in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal with the results of their 20-year (and still counting) radial velocity survey. In addition, they have also made their data available to the public.
Since its inception, the LCES has monitored the radial velocities of 1,624 nearby F, G, K and M type stars within about 100 parsecs of the Sun generating a total of 60,949 precision measurements in the process. In the new paper by Butler et al., a total of 357 significant periodic signals of constant period and phase were tabulated which were obviously not associated with stellar activity. Out of these, 225 have already been published by LCES team members and/or others as exoplanetary discoveries while 54 are unpublished but classified as “significant signals that require confirmation by additional data before rising to classification as planet candidates.” Another 60 are previously unpublished exoplanetary candidates awaiting follow up observations to verify their planetary nature.
Out of these five dozen new exoplanet candidates is a “super Earth” size world found orbiting the nearby star commonly known by the name Lalande 21185. After the exoplanet found orbiting Proxima Centauri b in 2016, this new find is the second closest exoplanet currently known (see “Habitable Planet Reality Check: Proxima Centauri b”). But this is not the first claim of a planet found orbiting this nearby star – there have actually been several claims made since the middle of the 20th century, although it appears that this is the best one made to date.
Background on Lalande 21185
Lalande 21185 (also known as Gliese 411, HD 95735 and BD+36° 2147, among others) is a V magnitude 7.52 red dwarf located in the circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. This spectral type M2V star was first found listed in Histoire Céleste Française published in 1801 and prepared by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande (1732-1807) of the Paris Observatory. With its number, “21185”, assigned by English astronomer Francis Baily (1774-1844) in his 1847-edition of this catalog of 47,390 stars, this star is one of only a handful still commonly known by its Lalande designation.
German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander (1799-1875) was the first to note the relatively fast 4.80 arc second per year proper motion of Lalande 21185 in May 1857 earning it the informal name of “Argelander’s Second Star” in some European astronomical circles (“Argelander’s First Star” is another nearby high proper motion star better known as Groombridge 1830). Since high proper motion suggests that a star is nearby, German astronomer Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke (1835-1897) proceeded to take on the task of visually measuring the parallax of Lalande 21185 for the first time. His results, published in 1858, showed the star to be the second closest to the Sun then known. Today’s best parallax measurements shows that Lalande 21185 is 8.29 light years away making it the fourth closest main sequence star system known today after α Centauri, Barnard’s Star and Wolf 359 (see this site’s Alpha Centauri page, “The Search for Planets around Barnard’s Star” and “The Real Wolf 359” for more on these stars).
Because it is the brightest red dwarf visible from the northern hemisphere, Lalande 21185 has been an obvious target of study over the decades by those interested in this intrinsically dim class of stars. Direct measurements of the angular diameter by Lane et al. using the Palomar Testbed Interferometer in 1999 and 2000 combined with the best distance measurements indicates that Lalande 21185 has a radius 0.393 times that of the Sun. Modelling suggests that the star has a mass 0.46 times that of the Sun making Lalande 21185 rather large among red dwarfs. With a surface temperature of 3828 K, Lalande 21185 has a luminosity that is 0.030 times that of the Sun (calculated assuming a solar surface temperature of 5780 K).
Lalande 21185 is also classified as a BY Draconis variable star with the designation of NSV 18593 in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars. Typically dim M and K type stars, the variations in the brightness of BY Draconis stars is caused by starspots and other forms of moderate chromospheric activity modulated by the stars’ rotation. Lalande 21185 appears to be a relatively quiet star although it has been erroneously listed as a flare star in some catalogs (a claim that is not supported by the primary literature supporting these catalogs). The low level of activity, its orbit through the galaxy and other properties suggest that Lalande 21185 is older than the Sun with an age somewhere in the 5 to 10 billion year range. It is difficult to pin down the age any more precisely since stars of this type evolve so slowly over lifetimes that are on the order of hundreds of billions of years.
The Search for Planets
Being a relatively bright nearby star, Lalande 21185 has been the target of many searches for substellar companions (i.e. brown dwarfs and exoplanets) over the last two thirds of a century. The first attempts concentrated on using the technique known as astrometry – the astronomical discipline which measures the positions of objects in the sky and how they change over time. While an orbiting object might not be readily visible in a telescope, the small periodic wobble caused by the reflex motion as it orbits its parent star could still reveal its presence. It was this technique which was used in 1844 by German astronomer Friedrich Bessel (1784-1846) to discover the dim white dwarf companion of Sirius some 18 years before it was observed visually for the first time (see “Sirius: The Search for Companions Continues“). The relative closeness and low mass of Lalande 21185 makes it an ideal target for astrometric searches for small companions just like many other nearby red dwarfs.
The first published claim of a planetary detection for Lalande 21185 came in 1951 in a paper by Dutch-born American astronomer Peter van de Kamp (1901-1995), who was well known for his precision astrometric work at Swathmore College’s Sproul Observatory, and his long-time protégé, Sarah Lee Lippincott. Based on measurements from 679 photographic plates acquired on 188 nights between 1937 and 1950, van de Kamp and Lippincott found a wobble with a semimajor axis of 29 milliarc seconds and a period of 1.14 years suggesting the presence of a substellar companion with a mass on the order of a couple of tens times that of Jupiter (or M J ) in an eccentric orbit.
In 1960, Lippincott published the results of her new analysis of the motion of Lalande 21185 based on an expanded set of data from 955 photographic plates taken over 315 nights between 1913 and 1959 using Sproul’s 61-centimeter refractor. She now found a wobble with a semimajor axis of 33.6 milliarc seconds but a period of 8.0 years. The result suggested the presence of a 10 M J exoplanet or brown dwarf in an orbit around Lalande 21185 with an eccentricity of 0.3. Lippincott continued to stand by her claim in the following years despite doubts expressed by other astronomers. Finally in 1974, George Gatewood of the University of Pittsburg’s Allegheny Observatory published the results of his analysis of 143 exposures of Lalande 21185 on 56 plates acquired between 1934 and 1972 using the 76-centimeter Thaw photographic refractor. Gatewood found no evidence for Lippincott’s planet down to the few milliarc second level. As had been the case with the purported planets of Barnard’s Star, it was concluded that subtle artifacts in the Sproul Observatory data had lead to a spurious detection (see “The Search for Planets around Barnard’s Star”).
While Gatewood’s work was instrumental in disproving the existence of a 10 M J planet orbiting Lalande 21185, his later work would spark another controversial planetary detection claim in 1996 (see “Extrasolar Planet Update“). Using 8.5 years of data from the University of Pittsburg’s Multichannel Astrometric Photometer (MAP), Gatewood claimed to have found a wobble with a 2.2 milliarc second amplitude and a period of 5.8 years indicating the presence of a 0.9 M J planet in a low eccentricity orbit. When combining these new data with the earlier series of photographic plates from the Allegheny Observatory, the presence of an additional planetary body with an orbital period of around 30 years was also suggested. Despite the fact that the exoplanet candidate in the 5.8-year orbit with a semimajor axis of about 2.5 AU is predicted to appear as far as 0.8 arc seconds from Lalande 21185, repeated attempts to image this candidate or otherwise confirm its presence have all failed casting doubt on Gatewood’s two-decade old claim.
New LCES Results
While the claims made over the decades for the presence of planets orbiting Lalande 21185 have been based on astrometric measurements to detect the reflex motion of the star in the plane of the sky, there is another technique currently available to measure the perpendicular component of that motion which has yielded results for other stars over the last two decades: precision radial velocity measurements. Like so many other nearby red dwarfs, Lalande 21185 has been the target of radial velocity surveys over the last two decades. Unfortunately, as the measurement accuracy of the instruments have improved, Lalande 21185 continued to show a remarkably constant radial velocity.
One of the longest running precision radial velocity surveys has been the ongoing Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey (LCES) which has been using the HIRES spectrometer on the ten-meter Keck I telescope located on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. While the limited availability of Keck I results in data sampling which makes it difficult to detect exoplanets with periods less than one day or near one month (as a result of Keck I being available for exoplanet searches during the brightest phases of the Moon which interferes with other work), the LCES team has been able to build up enough data of sufficient accuracy to make a planetary detection with a high degree of certainty.
Butler et al. found a clear periodicity in the precision radial velocity measurements of Lalande 21185 with an amplitude of 1.90±0.31 meters per second and a period of 9.8693±0.0016 days. Combined with the mass estimate of Lalande 21185, the semimajor axis of this new find is 0.070 AU and Butler et al. calculate an M P sini of 3.8 M E (or Earth masses) – far smaller than any previous exoplanetary claim made for this star. Since the inclination, i, of the planet’s orbit with respect to the plane of the sky is not currently known, this represents the minimum mass of this exoplanet with its actual mass likely being higher. Even though the detection of what will be called Lalande 21185b (or GJ 411b, after its designation in the Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars) is fairly robust, it will require additional observations to verify its planetary nature. And while the issue was not specifically addressed by Butler et al., there is no hint of Gatewood’s claimed 0.9 M J exoplanet with a period of 5.8 years (although a dedicated analysis would be required to set any meaningful detection limits).
So given what little we know about this new world (and assuming that it is real), what kind of place is it? Butler et al. calculate that the effective stellar flux (i.e. the amount of energy this exoplanet receives from its sun) is roughly 5.3 times greater than the Earth’s. With an effective stellar flux more than twice as great as that of Venus and higher than even the most optimistic definitions of the habitable zone, this new planetary candidate has no prospects of being habitable. However, given the nature of other planetary systems found associated with red dwarfs, it is likely that Lalande 21185 has several other planets orbiting it which have escaped detection so far (see “Architecture of M-Dwarf Planetary Systems”). This includes the possibility of planets orbiting farther away from Lalande 21185 inside its habitable zone.
An estimation of the bulk composition of this new find will require a determination of the inclination, i, of this planet’s orbit as well as its radius. With a projected separation of less than about 30 milliarc seconds, direct imaging of this new find will require a large space-based telescope specifically designed for the task – something that probably will not be available for a minimum of another decade or more. In the mean time, there might be another way to get the required data. The probability the orbit of Lalande 21185b is by chance oriented to produce transits observable from the Earth is estimated to be 2.6%. Such transits would allow the inclination and radius of this planet to be determined as well as independently verify its existence. Given the brightness of Lalande 21185 and its circumpolar location, it is an excellent candidate for a photometric monitoring campaign to look for transits with a depth of 0.1% or greater.
While we wait for more definitive information on the purported Lalande 21185b, we can look at other exoplanets of similar size to estimate the probability that it is a rocky world or a volatile-rich mini-Neptune. Work by Rogers suggests that overall population of planets transition from being primarily rocky to volatile-rich at a radius of no greater than 1.6 times that of the Earth which corresponds to a mass of 6 M E, assuming an Earth-like composition (see “Habitable Planet Reality Check: Terrestrial Planet Size Limits”). Given an unconstrained orbit orientation, there is only about one chance in four that the actual mass of Lalande 21185b exceeds this threshold. However, more recent work by Chen and Kipping suggests that the gradual transition of the exoplanetary population from rocky planets starts at about 2 M E significantly increasing the chances that this is a mini-Neptune.
So at this time it is a toss up as to whether Lalande 21185b is a super-Venus with a deep hot atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide or a mini-Neptune with an even deeper hotter atmosphere dominated by hydrogen and steam overlaying thick layers of exotic high-pressure/temperature phases of ice. No matter how it turns out, Lalande 21185b and any sister planets waiting discovery will be worthwhile targets for study in the decades to come.
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Related Reading
For a complete collection of articles about our other neighboring star systems, see Drew Ex Machina’s page on Nearby Stars.
General References
R. Paul Butler et al., “The LCES HIRES/Keck Precision Radial Velocity Exoplanet Survey”, arXiv 1702.03571 (accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal), Submitted February 12, 2017 [Preprint]
Jingjing Chen and David Kipping, “Probabilistic Forecasting of the Masses and Radii of Other Worlds”, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 834, No. 1, Article id. 17, January 2017
George Gatewood, “An astrometric study of Lalande 21185”, The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 79, No. 1, pp. 52-53, January 1974
G. Gatewood, “Lalande 21185”, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p. 885, May 1996
B.F. Lane, A.F. Boden and S.R. Kulkarni, “Interferometric Measurement of the Angular Sizes of Dwarf Stars in the Spectral Range K3-M4”, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 551, No. 1, pp. L81-L83, April 10, 2001
Sarah Lee Lippincott, “Astrometric Analysis of Lalande 21185”, The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 65, No. 7, pp. 445-448, September 1960
Leslie A. Rogers, “Most 1.6 Earth-Radius Planets are not Rocky”, The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 801, No. 1, Article id. 41, March 2015
Peter van de Kamp and Sarah Lee Lippincott, “Astrometric Study of Lalande 21185”, The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 56, pp. 49-50, April 1951An example of some of the IPHONE-branded leather products in China.
An example of some of the IPHONE-branded leather products in China. Photo: Beijing Xintong Tiandi Technology Co. via PRNewswire
Are you the proud owner of an IPHONE brand pocketbook? Fear not – a Beijing court has ruled that your bag is safely within the bounds of Chinese copyright law.
In a country where new knockoff products seem to make headlines every day, a battle between Apple Inc. and a little-known local firm over the U.S. tech giant’s iPhone trademark would seem to be nothing new.
Yet a recent ruling by the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court presents a rare glimpse into the murkiness of Chinese trademark law – as well as the pitfalls it presents to some U.S. firms.
In late March, the Beijing court ruled in favor of a Chinese company named Beijing Xintong Tiandi Technology Co. that makes wallets, handbags, smartphone cases and a wide range of other leather goods all bearing the name IPHONE, according to an attorney representing the company.
The ruling, which was reported by the authoritative, state-owned Legal Daily newspaper late last month, was the culmination of several rounds of legal wrangling between Apple and Xintong Tiandi, said Xiong Zhi, an attorney representing the Chinese company.
Calls made to the court’s information office went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.
Apple said it is disappointed in the ruling, considering it had prevailed over Xintong Tiandi in other cases. Apple said it plans to request a retrial with the Supreme People's Court, the highest court in mainland China.
According to the verdict cited by the Legal Daily, Apple failed to prove that the brand “iPhone” was famous in China before Xintong Tiandi applied for its trademark in 2007.
People line up outside an Apple store as the iPhone SE goes on sale in China, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, March 31, 2016. Photo: Reuters
Apple first registered its iPhone trademark for computer-related goods in China in 2002, according to the Legal Daily report. Such registrations apply only to narrow categories of products -- and in the case of iPhone, Apple didn’t specifically register the name for leather goods.
That means that while the court’s decision is something of a blow to Apple, it isn’t likely to affect its sales in the world’s largest smartphone market.
A search on the database of China’s trademark authority shows that Xintong Tiandi registered both “iphone” and “IPHONE” under Class 18, a category for leather goods. Despite the company’s name, none of its major products appear to be technology-related, according to descriptions of the items on its website.
Chinese trademark law allows companies to use variations of their registered trademark -- including different combinations of capitalized and lowercase letters -- as long as the slight differences don’t render the original trademark unrecognizable.
The case is far from the first trademark trouble the California tech giant has encountered in China. Around the time that the iPhone was introduced in China, Apple found itself in a legal battle over the trademark with Chinese electronics company Hanvon; Apple ended up settling the suit with Hanvon for $3.65 million.
Two years later, Apple agreed to pay $60 million to settle an iPad trademark dispute with the mainland China arm of another company, Proview International Holdings Ltd.
Apple and Xintong Tiandi have also previously butted heads. The U.S. firm has won at least five separate iPhone-related trademark disputes against Xintong Tiandi in other categories such as rubber products and advertising services, according to a person familiar with the matter.
On Xintong Tiandi’s side, at least, there don’t appear to be any hard feelings about the lawsuit. Mr. Xiong said his company would be open to any sort of “commercial cooperation” with Apple in the future. In a press release, the Chinese firm also credited Apple with popularizing the iPhone name -- and, in turn, contributing to Xintong Tiandi’s success.
“The successful commercial operation and marketing of Apple has made ‘iPhone’ the symbol of high tech and fashion,” Xintong Tiandi said in the release, which was posted online by PRNewswire and verified by Mr. Xiong.
--Yang Jie, Felicia Sonmez and Daisuke WakabayashiPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. — State police say a 22-year-old upstate New York man picked the wrong parking spot to smoke marijuana.
Troopers say Ryan Law of Gansevoort, New York, was scheduled to attend a victim impact panel Tuesday at the town court in Clifton Park, an Albany suburb. The court is housed in the same building as a state police barracks.
Police say Law parked his car in front of the barracks in a parking spot marked "Police Cars Only." A uniformed trooper unloading his patrol car nearby spotted Law and approached him to discuss his choice of parking spots.
That's when the trooper smelled marijuana coming from Law's vehicle. Troopers say they found about 30 grams of pot in his car.
Law was ticketed for marijuana possession and ordered to appear at the same court next week.The CIA's biggest ally in Congress for its targeted killing program is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. But there'll be hell to pay at Langley if Feinstein learns the CIA is misrepresenting how many civilians its lethal Predator and Reaper drones kill, she indicated to Danger Room on Friday.
"This is something that I think we would get straight figures [on]," Feinstein told Danger Room after White House aide John Brennan's Thursday confirmation hearing to run the CIA. "If we don't get straight figures, it's a whole new situation."
During the hearing, Feinstein forcefully insisted that the CIA's drone strikes kill only "single digits" of civilians annually, and even ran through a list of accusations against Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen and al-Qaida propagandist the U.S. killed in Yemen in 2011, to underscore her belief in the legitimacy of the killing. She suggested that media reports and nongovernmental organization studies claiming larger percentages of civilian deathsfrom the highly classified program are ignorant. Feinstein emphasized that the CIA has hosted committee staff over 30 times to conduct oversight over the drone program.
"It's our belief, based on that, that the intelligence used is very careful and very good," she said. "It's also our belief that the collateral damage spelled out in the papers is wrong. But the only way to correct it is to say what we believe is correct, and we are told we cannot do that."
Yet Feinstein and several other senators during the hearing said the CIA materially misrepresented to Congress key facts about the quality of information it received from its post-9/11 torture and detentions program. That revelation came from the committee's recently completed 6,000-page report into those programs. But since the report is still classified, senators couldn't say outright that the CIA lied to them. Brennan said that the misstatements made by CIA about torture called into question the basis for his public statements years ago that torture extracted valuable information for counterterrorist operations. "I have to determine what the truth is," Brennan said.
But if the CIA misled Congress about torture, how can the committee be confident it's not misleading Congress about civilian deaths from drones?
"That's a good question, actually," Feinstein said when Danger Room asked. "That's a good question." She said she felt the CIA wasn't "defensive" of the drones in the way it was defensive of the torture program, however.
Her colleague on the committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), told Danger Room he "had not been familiar with the number Sen. Feinstein talked about" regarding civilian deaths from drones. "What I'm in the business of is picking up the statement Ronald Reagan made years ago: trust but verify."
Wyden and 10 other senators successfully pressured President Obama this week to release secret legal memoranda authorizing the targeted killing of American citizens. While Wyden said that the bipartisan Senate group still haven't received all the memos they've asked for, he saw "an opportunity for bipartisan, fresh power" to reassert "checks and balances" over the targeted killing program.
"I thought one of the better answers was Mr. Brennan saying that if he sees" the CIA erroneously killing civilians "he would publicly acknowledge it," Wyden told Danger Room. "That was the kind of statement you make when you try to address the checks and balances."
The committee isn't through with Brennan. It's going to grill him on Tuesday in a closed-door session.Momentum Home's All-in-one Non-stick Kitchen Utensils Set Will Bring a Touch of Modern To Your Kitchen!
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Fresh from learning that Australian wage growth slowed to the lowest level since the early 1990s recession, we’ve just learnt that Australian average weekly earnings grew at an even slower pace in the year to November.
According to the ABS, the average weekly earnings for all workers were $1,145.60, representing an increase of 1.5% from 12 months earlier. Earnings of full-time workers grew at a slightly faster pace, increasing by 1.7% to $1,499.30 over the same time period.
In real terms, adjusted for inflation, average earnings fell compared to a year earlier.
The ABS derives the figure by simply dividing the total taxable gross weekly earnings of workers against the number of Australians employed. It uses total earnings paid to employees for a specific pay period, unlike the wage price index, which is not impacted by the number of hours worked.
While subdued, the news for men, at least compared to women, was near depressing.
On average, weekly earnings for men rose to $1,374.10, a paltry increase of 0.3% on a year earlier. Those for full-time workers fared a little better, rising 1.1% to $1,602.80.
While average earnings for men went nowhere, those for women were far stronger in comparison, albeit still well behind male earnings.
Average earnings for females jumped by 2.9% to $915.30. Earnings growth for women working full-time was slightly softer, rising 2.7% to $1,325.10.
The ABS stress that while the survey can be used to compare average earnings between males and females, it does not take into account a range of factors such as occupation or hours worked, which contribute significantly to the differences between male and female earnings.
As the survey uses an average, not a median, it may not be the best indicator to show how much the average Australian worker earns. However, it can be used for benchmarking purposes, particularly by industry and state.
Here’s a chart from the ABS that shows average weekly earnings by industry.
And here’s the same information, but only by state and territory.
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ower. She was displayed in the museum's entrance hall, next to a Peruvian and an Egyptian mummy, and her relatives were allowed free access to visit her as they wished. She was described by a visitor in 1844 as "one of the most remarkable objects in the museum". The "cold dark shadow of her mummy hung over Manchester in the middle of the eighteenth century", according to writer Edith Sitwell.
There are no pictures of Hannah Beswick. One of the few contemporary accounts of her is provided by Philip Wentworth, a local historian:
The body was well preserved but the face was shrivelled and black. The legs and trunks were tightly bound in a strong cloth such as is used for bed ticks [a stiff kind of mattress cover material] and the body, which was that of a little old woman, was in a glass coffin-shaped case.
Shortly after the museum's transfer to Manchester University in 1867 it was decided that as Beswick was "irrevocably and unmistakably dead", the time had come for her to be buried. But since 1837 UK law had required that a medical examiner issue a certificate of death before a burial could take place; as Beswick had died in 1758 an appeal had to be made to the Secretary of State, who issued an order for her burial.[23] With the permission of the Bishop of Manchester, Hannah Beswick was interred in an unmarked grave in Harpurhey Cemetery on 22 July 1868, more than 110 years after her death.
Treasure and alleged apparitions [ edit ]
Bonnie Prince Charlie entered Manchester at the head of his invading army in 1745, causing Beswick some apprehension over the safety of her money, which she therefore decided to bury. Shortly before her death she promised to show her relatives where the treasure was hidden, but she did not survive long enough to do so. Her home, Birchin Bower, was converted into workers' tenements following her death. Several of those living there claimed to have seen a figure dressed in a black silk gown and a white cap, and described it as Hannah Beswick. After gliding across the house's parlour, the apparition would vanish at one particular flagstone. It is claimed that while digging to fit a new loom, a weaver living there discovered Beswick's hoard of gold, hidden underneath that same flagstone. Oliphant's, a Manchester gold dealer, paid the weaver £3 10s for each gold piece, the equivalent of almost £490 in 2019.[7]
Birchin Bower was eventually demolished to make way for a Ferranti factory, but sightings of the apparition were still reported.
When Beswick's family home, Cheetwood Old Hall was demolished in 1890 to make way for a brickyard, contractors discovered a double coffin buried underneath the drawing room, the mystery of the burial was never solved but at the time it was thought to be connected to the Beswick family and Dr White who had resided at the hall after Hannah Beswick removed to Oldham.[27]
References [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Many popular diets emphasize either carbohydrate, protein or fat as the best way to lose weight. However, there have been few studies lasting more than a year that evaluate the effect on weight loss of diets with different compositions of those nutrients.
In a randomized clinical trial led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Pennington Biomedical Research Center of the Louisiana State University System, a comparison of overweight participants assigned to four different diets over a two-year period showed that reducing calories achieved weight loss regardless of which of the three nutrients was emphasized. The study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, appears in the February 26, 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
“This is important information for physicians, dieticians and adults, who should focus weight loss approaches on reducing calorie intake,” said Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at HSPH and lead author of the study.
The NEJM issue includes an accompanying editorial on the study’s findings.
The trial included 811 men and women who were randomly divided into four diet groups with different target nutrient compositions:
* Low-fat, average protein: 20% of calories from fat, 15% of calories from protein, 65% of calories from carbohydrate
* Low-fat, high-protein: 20% fat, 25% protein, 55% carbohydrate
* High-fat, average protein: 40% fat, 15% protein, 45% carbohydrate
* High-fat, high-protein: 40% fat, 25% protein, 35% carbohydrate
The participants were diverse in age, sex (62% women, 38% men), geography and income. The diets followed heart-healthy principles, replacing saturated with unsaturated fat and were high in whole cereal grains, fruits and vegetables. Each participant received a diet prescription that encouraged a 750-calorie reduction per day, however none were less than 1,200 total calories per day. Participants were asked to do 90 minutes of moderate exercise each week. They recorded their daily food and drink intake in a food diary and in a web-based program that provided information on how closely they were meeting their dieting goals. Individual counseling was provided every eight weeks over two years and group sessions were held three out of four weeks during the first six months and two out of four weeks from six months to two years.
The results showed that, regardless of diet, weight loss and reduction in waist circumference were similar. Participants lost an average of 13 pounds at six months and maintained a 9-pound loss at two years. Weight loss primarily took place in the first 6 months; after 12 months, all groups began to slowly regain weight, a finding consistent with other diet studies. However, the extent of weight regain was much less, about 20%, of the average regain in previous studies. Waistlines were reduced by an average of two inches at the end of the two-year period.
Most risk factors for cardiovascular disease improved for dieters at six months and two years. HDL (“good”) cholesterol increased and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and insulin decreased. The metabolic syndrome, a group of coronary heart disease risk factors including high blood pressure, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity, also decreased.
The main finding from the trial was that diets with varying emphases on carbohydrate, fat and protein levels all achieved clinically meaningful weight loss and maintenance of weight loss over a two-year period. “These results show that, as long as people follow a heart-healthy, reduced-calorie diet, there is more than one nutritional approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., Director, NHLBI.
Another important finding was that participants who regularly attended counseling sessions lost more weight than those who didn’t. Dieters who attended two thirds of sessions over two years lost about 22 pounds of weight as compared to the average weight loss of 9 pounds. “These findings suggest that continued contact with participants to help them achieve their goals may be more important than the macronutrient composition of their diets,” said Sacks.
Support for this study was provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health and NIH General Clinical Research Center.
“Randomized Trial Comparing Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrate Composition of Diets for Weight Loss for Two Years,” Frank M. Sacks, George A. Bray, Vincent J. Carey, Steven R. Smith, Donna H. Ryan, Stephen D. Anton, Katherine McManus, Catherine M. Champagne, Louise M. Bishop, Nancy Laranjo, Meryl S. Leboff, Jennifer C. Rood, Lilian de Jonge, Catherine M. Loria, Evan Obarzanek, Donald A. Williamson, NEJM, February 26, 2009, vol. 360, no. 9.BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Justice Department will lead the investigation into the killing of a black man shot to death by Baton Rouge police, Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards announced Wednesday.
Alton Sterling was shot and killed early Tuesday outside a convenience store where he was selling CDs. Authorities say he was confronted by police after an anonymous caller said he saw a man threaten someone with a gun. In a cellphone video taken by a community activist, two officers had Sterling pinned to the ground, and gunfire erupted moments after someone yelled, "He's got a gun! Gun!"
Alton Sterling in Facebook photo WAFB-TV/Facebook
Edwards said the video "is disturbing to say the least."
In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said the FBI's New Orleans Division, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Louisiana have opened a civil rights investigation into the 37-year-old's death. Louisiana State Police will assist, Edwards said.
"I have full confidence that this matter will be investigated thoroughly, impartially and professionally," Edwards said.
Edwards urged calm in the wake of public outrage over the shooting. He said he had expressed condolences to Sterling's family, who is also asking for any public gatherings to remain peaceful.
"It's a horrible thing, it's a horrible thing to happen to him," said Sandra Sterling, an aunt who raised Alton Sterling, at a press conference earlier Wednesday. "He didn't deserve that."
The two officers who responded to the report of a gun threat had some type of altercation with the man and one officer fatally shot the suspect, Cpl. L'Jean McKneely said. Baton Rouge Police say Sterling was armed.
Baton Rouge Police identified the officers as as Blane Salamoni, a four-year veteran, and three-year veteran Howie Lake II. They have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard department policy.
The video that purported to show the shooting further fueled public anger on Tuesday, prompting hundreds to protest. The protest lasted into the night, with people chanting and holding up signs.
Some may find the cellphone video disturbing and graphic.
Sandra Sterling said Wednesday the video "made us realize what really happened. It shed light on everything we didn't know."
"Mr. Sterling was not reaching for a weapon. He looks like a man that was actually fighting for his life," said state Rep. Edmond Jordan, an attorney for Sterling's family.
Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of Sterling's teenage son, trembled as she read a statement outside City Hall, where a few dozen protesters and community leaders had gathered. Her son, Cameron, 15, broke down in tears and was led away as his mother spoke.
She described Sterling as "a man who simply tried to earn a living to take care of his children."
"The individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children who depended upon their daddy on a daily basis," she said.
In the video, which appears to be shot from inside a nearby parked car, one of two police officers outside the store can be seen tackling a man in a red shirt and wrestling him to the ground. Then the other officer helps him hold the man down.
At one point someone can be heard saying, "He's got a gun! Gun!" and then one officer on top of the man can be seen pulling his weapon from his holster. After some shouting, what sounds like a gunshot can be heard and the camera pulls away. Then another four shots can be heard. At one point, a person in the vehicle asks, "They shot him?" as a woman can be heard crying.
CBS News has not been able to authenticate the video. But the appearance of the store in the video matches the front of convenience store where the shooting occurred. The man being subdued by police was wearing a red shirt, matching the description given earlier by police.
Wednesday, advocates demanded justice and called for the officers involved to be arrested and charged with murder. Also at the Wednesday news conference, the head of the NAACP in Baton Rouge called for Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. to be fired.
"What I'm calling for today is that the (mayor) to fire the police chief," Michael McClanahan said. "He must step down. We cannot have anybody who allows this type of action to take place."
U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans called earlier Wednesday for the federal investigation. In a statement he called the video "deeply troubling."
Richmond said he shares the anger over the incident, which he said "has understandably evoked strong emotion and anger in our community."
The Advocate reported the crowd that gathered late Tuesday afternoon at the store where Sterling died grew to more than 200 people. They chanted "black lives matter" and "hands up don't shoot," waving signs late into the night, according to the newspaper.
An autopsy shows Sterling died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. William Clark said.A whole new world of magic animals, brave young princes and evil witches has come to light with the discovery of 500 new fairytales, which were locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany for over 150 years. The tales are part of a collection of myths, legends and fairytales, gathered by the local historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886) in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz at about the same time as the Grimm brothers were collecting the fairytales that have since charmed adults and children around the world.
Last year, the Oberpfalz cultural curator Erika Eichenseer published a selection of fairytales from Von Schönwerth's collection, calling the book Prinz Roßzwifl. This is local dialect for "scarab beetle". The scarab, also known as the "dung beetle", buries its most valuable possession, its eggs, in dung, which it then rolls into a ball using its back legs. Eichenseer sees this as symbolic for fairytales, which she says hold the most valuable treasure known to man: ancient knowledge and wisdom to do with human development, testing our limits and salvation.
Von Schönwerth spent decades asking country folk, labourers and servants about local habits, traditions, customs and history, and putting down on paper what had only been passed on by word of mouth. In 1885, Jacob Grimm said this about him: "Nowhere in the whole of Germany is anyone collecting [folklore] so accurately, thoroughly and with such a sensitive ear." Grimm went so far as to tell King Maximilian II of Bavaria that the only person who could replace him in his and his brother's work was Von Schönwerth.
Von Schönwerth compiled his research into a book called Aus der Oberpfalz – Sitten und Sagen, which came out in three volumes in 1857, 1858 and 1859. The book never gained prominence and faded into obscurity.
While sifting through Von Schönwerth's work, Eichenseer found 500 fairytales, many of which do not appear in other European fairytale collections. For example, there is the tale of a maiden who escapes a witch by transforming herself into a pond. The witch then lies on her stomach and drinks all the water, swallowing the young girl, who uses a knife to cut her way out of the witch. However, the collection also includes local versions of the tales children all over the world have grown up with including Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin, and which appear in many different versions across Europe.
Von Schönwerth was a historian and recorded what he heard faithfully, making no attempt to put a literary gloss on it, which is where he differs from the Grimm brothers. However, says Eichenseer, this factual recording adds to the charm and authenticity of the material. What delights her most about the tales is that they are unpolished. "There is no romanticising or attempt by Schönwerth to interpret or develop his own style," she says.
Eichenseer says the fairytales are not for children alone. "Their main purpose was to help young adults on their path to adulthood, showing them that dangers and challenges can be overcome through virtue, prudence and courage."
In 2008, Eichenseer helped to found the Franz Xaver von Schönwerth Society, an interdisciplinary committee devoted to analysing his work and publicising it. She is keen to see the tales available in English, and a Munich-based English translator, Dan Szabo, has already begun work on stories ranging from a miserly farmer and a money-mill to a turnip princess.
"Schönwerth's legacy counts as the most significant collection in the German-speaking world in the 19th century," says Daniel Drascek, a member of the society and a professor in the faculty of language, literature and cultural sciences at the University of Regensburg.Some disappointing news out of San Diego Comic Con where at an after party a thief or theives made off with a prop “Sankara” stone (replica) like the ones used in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. TV personality and prop collector Adam Savage best known as co-host of the Discovery Channel series MythBusters reported his limited/rare movie prop replica was stolen from an after-party on Friday night 7/10/15. The theft occurred at the club Fluxx where Adam had brought the prop to put on display as apart of an appearance presented by Tested.com “Cinephile” For The Love Of Film.
At this time the movie prop replica is still missing and we at Collectors Hype are asking our readers to be on the look out and anyone with information should contact San Diego law enforcement with information as to its where about’s or any who might have witnessed its theft. Below are some images provided by the rightful owner Adam Savage. Adam is also willing to accept the return of the item no questions asked…..
www. sandiego.gov/ police /
San Diego Police 24-hour non-emergency calls: (619) 531-2000 or (858) 484-3154
“To those asking my rare #IndianaJones Sankara Stone, missing since my #SDCC party, hasn’t been returned. Devastating.” – Adam Savage
“Alternate photo of my Indiana Jones stone, missing from last night’s Tested party at Fluxx Nightclub.” -Adam SavageDemocratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine paid a visit to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night in one of those almost obligatory appearances candidates have to make to get the crowd revved up and enthusiastic to vote. I think the opposite happened with Kaine on Colbert — he may have convinced some viewers that a vote for Hillary Clinton and Kaine is a vote for sleepiness.
Starting with his opening answer to Colbert — that he “never dreamed” he’d be on a talk show — on through a statement of purpose (“I’m a bridge-builder; I love reconciliation and bringing people together”), Kaine was earnest to the point of torpor. Yes, we’re all sick of Donald Trump’s barrage of insults, but there’s got be a middle ground where passion and principle coexist.
Colbert gave him openings, to be sure. Asking Kaine to comment on the “softening” of “[Trump’s] stance on immigration,” Kaine responded by speaking in Spanish. Groan. He’s reduced a facility in language into a parlor trick he’s used at the Democratic Convention and elsewhere. Recognizing this, Colbert said sharply, “What is the Spanish word for ‘pander?’”
Bringing up the opposition’s spurious claims that Clinton is ailing, Colbert asked with mock concern, “How’s her health? Can she sit up under her own power?” Instead of having a snappy answer, Kaine maundered: “She could beat me in the New York marathon … but I don’t think we’ll do that because we have a campaign to run.” I’m guessing people at home switched over to Jimmy Fallon at around the word “because.”
“You’re supposed to be an attack dog for your candidate,” said Colbert. “I’ll let you off the chain right now.” He asked Kaine to respond to Trump calling Clinton a bigot. Instead of attacking with passion, a joke, or a savage dismissal, Kaine went into a pre-programmed robot line about how Hillary worked to “fight school desegregation in Alabama.” Nice to hear, but, hoo boy, if that’s Kaine’s attack-dog mode, we’ve got a bichon frise aiming for the White House.
Kaine’s appearance was so tedious, Colbert had to deploy a taped segment that used a Tim Kaine impersonator. It was almost a funny idea: Colbert’s postproduction supervisor, Mark Spada, looks a bit like Kaine, so the show put him in a suit, and Colbert took Spada/Kaine out on the Manhattan streets to greet people. The result was nearly as enervating as talking to Kaine.
I swear, the most exciting moment of the interview was when Colbert, a legit Sunday school teacher, asked Kaine, a former Jesuit missionary, his favorite New Testament quote, and Kaine rattled one off with rapid-fire ease. (For the record, it was from Philippians 2 and started with the phrase, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility.”) Yet somehow I don’t think that clip will go as viral as Britney Spears doing “Carpool Karaoke.” To be fair, Kaine probably isn’t any duller than Trump’s veep pick, Mike Pence, when he’s being interviewed.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:30 p.m. on CBS.16th-century King of Burma
Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta (Burmese: ဘုရင့်နောင် ကျော်ထင်နော်ရထာ [bəjɪ̰ɴ nàʊɴ tɕɔ̀ tʰɪ̀ɴ nɔ̀jətʰà]; Thai: บุเรงนองกะยอดินนรธา, RTGS: Burengnong Kayodin Noratha; 16 January 1516 – 10 October 1581) was king of the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) from 1550 to 1581. During his 31-year reign, which has been called the "greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma", Bayinnaung assembled what was probably the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia,[1] which included much of modern-day Burma, the Chinese Shan states, Lan Na, Lan Xang, Manipur and Siam.[2]
Although he is best remembered for his empire building, Bayinnaung's greatest legacy was his integration of the Shan states into the Irrawaddy-valley-based kingdoms. After the conquest of the Shan states in 1557–1563, the king put in an administrative system that reduced the power of hereditary Shan saophas, and brought Shan customs in line with low-land norms. It eliminated the threat of Shan raids into Upper Burma, an overhanging concern to Upper Burma since the late 13th century. His Shan policy was followed by Burmese kings right up to the final fall of the kingdom to the British in 1885.[3]
Bayinnaung could not replicate this administrative policy everywhere in his far flung empire, however. His empire was a loose collection of former sovereign kingdoms, whose kings were loyal to him as the Cakkavatti (Universal Ruler), not the Kingdom of Toungoo. Indeed, Ava and Siam revolted just over two years after his death. By 1599, all the vassal states had revolted, and the Toungoo Empire completely collapsed.
Bayinnaung is considered one of the three greatest kings of Burma, along with Anawrahta and Alaungpaya. Some of the most prominent places in modern Myanmar are named after him. He is also well known in Thailand as Phra Chao Chana Sip Thit (พระเจ้าชนะสิบทิศ, "Victor of the Ten Directions").
Early life [ edit ]
Ancestry [ edit ]
The future king was born Ye Htut (ရဲထွတ်, IPA: [jɛ́ tʰʊʔ]) on 16 January 1516 to Mingyi Swe and Shin Myo Myat. His exact ancestry is unclear. No extant contemporary records, including Hanthawaddy Hsinbyushin Ayedawbon, the extensive chronicle of the king's reign written two years before his death, mention his ancestry.[4] It was only in 1724, some 143 years after the king's death that Maha Yazawin, the official chronicle of the Toungoo Dynasty, first proclaimed his genealogy. According to Maha Yazawin, he was born to a gentry family in Toungoo (Taungoo), then a former vassal state of the Ava Kingdom. He was descended from viceroys of Toungoo Tarabya (r. 1440–1446) and Minkhaung I (r. 1446–1451) on his father's side; and from King Thihathu of Pinya (r. 1310–1325) and his chief queen Mi Saw U of the Pagan Dynasty on his mother's side.[5] Furthermore, Ye Htut was distantly related to then presiding ruler of Toungoo Mingyi Nyo and his son Tabinshwehti through their common ancestor, Tarabya of Pakhan.[note 1] Later chronicles simply repeat Maha Yazawin's account.[4] In all, the chronicles (perhaps too) neatly tie his ancestry to all the previous main dynasties that existed in Upper Burma: the Ava, Sagaing, Myinsaing–Pinya and Pagan dynasties.
Despite the official version of royal descent, oral traditions speak of a decidedly less grandiose genealogy: That his parents were commoners from Ngathayauk in Pagan district or Htihlaing village in Toungoo district, and that his father was a toddy palm tree climber, then one of the lowest professions in Burmese society.[4] The commoner origin narrative first gained prominence in the early 20th century during the British colonial period as nationalist writers like Po Kya promoted it as proof that even a son of a toddy tree climber could rise to become the great emperor in Burmese society.[6] To be sure, the chronicle and oral traditions need not be mutually exclusive since being a toddy tree climber does not preclude his having royal ancestors.[note 2]
Childhood and education [ edit ]
Whatever their origin and station in life may have been, both of his parents were chosen to be part of the seven-person staff to take care of the royal baby Tabinshwehti in April 1516. Ye Htut's mother was chosen to be the wet nurse of the prince and heir apparent. The family moved into the Toungoo Palace precincts where the couple had three more sons, the last of whom died young. Ye Htut had an elder sister Khin Hpone Soe, and three younger brothers: Minye Sithu, Thado Dhamma Yaza II, and the youngest who died young. He also had two half-brothers, Minkhaung II and Thado Minsaw who were born to his aunt (his mother's younger sister) and his father.[7]
Ye Htut grew up playing with the prince and the king's other children, including Princess Thakin Gyi, who would later become his chief queen. He was educated in the palace along with the prince and the other children. King Mingyi Nyo required his son to receive an education in military arts. Tabinshwehti along with Ye Htut and other young men at the palace received training in martial arts, horseback riding, elephant riding, and military strategy.[8] Ye Htut became the prince's right-hand man.[9]
Deputy of Tabinshwehti [ edit ]
Rise to power [ edit ]
On 24 November 1530, Mingyi Nyo died and Tabinshwehti ascended the throne.[10] The 14-year-old new king took Ye Htut's elder sister Khin Hpone Soe as one of his two principal queens, and rewarded his childhood staff and friends with royal titles and positions. Ye Htut, already a close confidant of the new king, instantly became a powerful figure in the kingdom which was surrounded by increasingly hostile states.[11] In the north, the Confederation of Shan States had conquered the Ava Kingdom just three and a half years earlier. To the west was the Confederation's ally the Prome Kingdom. To the south lay the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, the wealthiest and most powerful of all post-Pagan kingdoms. The impending threat became more urgent after the Confederation defeated its former ally Prome in 1532–1533. Tabinshwehti and the Toungoo leadership concluded that their kingdom "had to act quickly if it wished to avoid being swallowed up" by the Confederation.[12]
It was during the kingdom's mobilizations that Ye Htut made his mark, and was noticed for "his deeds of valor and strength of character."[13] Ye Htut was by the king's side in 1532 when the king and his 500 most skillful horsemen made an uninvited foray into the Shwemawdaw Pagoda at the outskirts of Pegu, the capital of Hanthawaddy, ostensibly for the king's ear-piercing ceremony. The audacious intrusion went unpunished by Hanthawaddy's weak ruler, King Takayutpi. Ye Htut became the constant companion and adviser to the young king.[13]
However, the close relationship between the two was severely tested in 1534, as they prepared for war against Hanthawaddy. Ye Htut had become romantically involved with Thakin Gyi, the king's younger half-sister, and the affair was discovered around April 1534.[note 3] The commoner's affair with the king's sister under Burmese law constituted an act of treason. Ye Htut spurned suggestions of mutiny and submitted to arrest. Tabinshwehti deliberated at length with his ministers, and finally came to the conclusion that Ye Htut should be given his sister in marriage, and a princely title of Kyawhtin Nawrahta. With this decision, Tabinshwehti won the loyalty of his brother-in-law "without parallel in Burmese history".[14]
Military leadership [ edit ]
Toungoo military campaigns (1534–1547)
Tabinshwehti's decision would pay enormous dividends in the following years. Between 1534 and 1549, Toungoo would bring war to all its neighbors and in the process found the largest polity in Burma since the fall of Pagan in 1287. Ye Htut would win many key battles for his king, and help administer the growing kingdom.[14]
In late 1534, Toungoo attacked Hanthawaddy, the larger, wealthier but disunited kingdom to their south. It was Toungoo's gambit to break out of its narrow landlocked realm before the Confederation's attention turned to the last remaining holdout in Upper Burma. While Toungoo did not yet have any foreign firearms, due to receiving a constant flow of refugees from elsewhere in Upper Burma for the last three decades, Toungoo did have more manpower than it normally could have enlisted.[15]
Tabinshwehti and Ye Htut (now styled as Kyawhtin Nawrahta) were to cut their teeth in failure however. Their maiden annual dry-season campaigns (1534–1537) all failed against Pegu's well armed, heavily fortified defenses. But their performance got better with each successive campaign, penetrating deeper and deeper into Hanthawaddy territory. They finally broke through in their 1538–1539 campaign, and captured Pegu. Kyawhtin Nawrahta made his name in the Battle of Naungyo in which his light forces decisively defeated numerically superior Hanthawaddy forces in the Irrawaddy delta. The battle, one of the most famous in Burmese military history, has been called "the first characteristic touch" of the great Bayinnaung.[16] After the battle, a grateful Tabinshwehti bestowed his brother-in-law the title of Bayinnaung ("King's Elder Brother"), the name by which he would be remembered.[17]
Toungoo went on to conquer all of Hanthawaddy by mid-1541, gaining complete control of Lower Burma's manpower, access to foreign firearms and maritime wealth to pay for them. And Tabinshwehti would use these new assets for further expansions.[16] By incorporating Portuguese mercenaries, firearms and military tactics into the Toungoo armed forces, Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung continued to grow as military leaders. The duo also benefited from having experienced former Hanthawaddy military commanders like Saw Lagun Ein and Smim Payu serve as their top military advisers and generals. With their help, Bayinnaung delivered key decisive victories at the Battle of Padaung Pass (1542) against Prome's ally Arakan[18] and the Battle of Salin (1544) against the Confederation, enabling Toungoo to take over central Burma as far north as Pagan (Bagan).[19] After Bayinnaung crushed the Arakanese forces in April 1542, Tabinshwehti was so pleased with the victory that he made Bayinnaung the heir-apparent of the kingdom.[20]
The duo's later campaigns against Arakan (1545–1547) and Siam (1547–1549) however fell short. In both campaigns, Toungoo forces won all major open battles, and went on to lay siege to the capitals, Mrauk-U and Ayutthaya respectively. But they still had no answer to heavily fortified defenses equipped with Portuguese firearms, and had to retreat both times.[21] Toungoo's own Portuguese supplied cannon had little impact on the walls of both capitals. Nor did they have enough manpower (19,000 and 12,000 troops respectively in the Arakanese and Siamese campaigns)[22] for long-term sieges. Nonetheless, despite the setbacks, Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung had by 1549 built up the largest polity in Burma since the fall of the Pagan Empire in 1287, stretching from Pagan in the north to Tavoy in the south.
Administrative duties [ edit ]
Bayinnaung was also entrusted to administer the kingdom. Tabinshwehti appointed him chief minister in 1539.[23] In the then prevailing administrative model, the role of the prime minister was limited to managing and coordinating semi-independent tributaries, autonomous viceroys, and governors who actually had control over day-to-day administration and manpower.[24] Trusted local rulers like Smim Payu and Saw Lagun Ein were appointed by the king to assist Bayinnaung with central administration.[25]
In 1549, Tabinshwehti, who had developed a liking to wine, gave up all administrative duties to Bayinnaung, and spent much of his time on long hunting trips away from the capital. Concerned by the king's erratic behavior, ministers at the court urged Bayinnaung to take over the throne but he declined, saying he would try to "win back the king to his old sense of duty to his own kingdom".[26] He was unsuccessful. Even when faced with a serious rebellion by Smim Htaw, the king asked Bayinnaung in January 1550 to suppress the rebellion, and went on another months-long hunting trip.[27]
Restoration of the Toungoo Empire [ edit ]
Interregnum [ edit ]
On 30 April 1550, Tabinshwehti was assassinated by his own bodyguards on the order of Smim Sawhtut, one of the king's close advisers.[28] Smim Sawhtut naturally proclaimed himself king. But so did all other major governors and viceroys—including Bayinnaung's own brother Minkhaung II. Although Bayinnaung had been Tabinshwehti's chosen heir apparent since 1542, none of them acknowledged Bayinnaung as the rightful successor.[29] When Bayinnaung received the news of the assassination, he was in Dala (modern Yangon) chasing after Smim Htaw's rebel forces. The Toungoo Empire, which he had helped found and expand for the last 16 years, lay in ruins. He, as a colonial era historian noted, was "a king without a kingdom".[30]
Bayinnaung would have to rebuild the kingdom all anew. At Dala, with "few but faithful" troops, he plotted his next moves.[30] His two eldest younger brothers Minye Sithu and Thado Dhamma Yaza II were with him and remained loyal.[31] Also in his service was an ethnic Mon commander named Binnya Dala[32] who would become his most trusted adviser and "best commander".[33] Because he did not yet have any foreign mercenaries who could handle firearms, he sent for his favorite Portuguese mercenary Diogo Soares de Mello who had greatly impressed him in the Siamese campaign. Soares, who was abroad, returned with his men (all 39 of them), and he was warmly received by Bayinnaung.[29][30]
Two months after the assassination, Bayinnaung was ready to start the restoration project. He faced the following adversaries:[34]
Central Burma (1550–1551) [ edit ]
Toungoo (1550–1551) [ edit ]
After much deliberation, Bayinnaung and his advisers decided that their war of restoration would begin at Toungoo, the original home of the dynasty.[29] It was a calculated gamble since they would have to pass through the heart of Pegu-controlled territory. But they decided to take the gamble because they felt Bayinnaung would find the best support in his native Toungoo rather than deep in the Mon country they found themselves in.[35]
In late June, Bayinnaung and his small but cohesive unit of fighting men left Dala for Toungoo. They marched north to Hinthada |
passed by the Legislature and signed by Walker in 2011.
Copyright 2015: Associated PressPirate Parties Blocked From WIPO After US & Other Countries Complained That They Don't Support WIPO's Mission
from the but-of-course dept
A little over a year ago, the Pirate Parties International (a group representing various different local Pirate Parties) asked for permission to have "observer" status at WIPO, the UN-based World Intellectual Property Organization, an operation somewhat renowned for its generally maximalist agenda. Last year, we noted that, after complaints from Swiss, French and US delegations to WIPO, the PPI request was delayed for an entire year. Well, that year is up... and WIPO has officially rejected the request while it approved all other requests except for the Pirates and Kenya Innovation Council Once again, US officials were among the folks trying to block PPI from becoming an observer, expressing concerns that the Pirate Parties "don't support the objectives" of WIPO. So who did get approved? Well, among others, there was the International Society for the Development of Intellectual Property (ADALPI). So it's not like WIPO rejected organizations that came into things with a clearly biased perspective. It just wanted to reject organizations whose position WIPO officials don't like. Ridiculously, as Jamie Love points out, the US State Department first talked about being able to discuss things "free from undue interference or censorship" and then went out and blocked the Pirate Parties from being able to join WIPO as observers. Hypocritical as always. And, if you're wondering, other political parties have been allowed into other UN organizations in the past, so it's not just because the Pirates are a political party.Once again, we see that WIPO is not actually focused on determining the most effective intellectual property regime, but rather they'll push for protectionism and maximalism because a few countries benefit strongly from such positions. And they'll even go so far as to lock out organizations that have other viewpoints.
Filed Under: intellectual property, ngos, observers, pirate parties international, state department, wipoThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is set to begin tracking animal abuse the way it tracks homicides, a "huge policy shift" that nonetheless exposes the disparities in how crimes against household animals and farm animals are treated, activists said.
Scott Heiser, an attorney with the Animal Defense League, told the Washington Post on Friday the news was a "huge policy shift and significant step forward."
"I think there is truth to the notion they will be a lot more interested when they recognize how much volume there really is," Heiser said.
The FBI will track four categories of crimes, including simple or gross neglect; intentional abuse and torture; organized abuse, such as dog-fighting; and animal sexual abuse. The agency defines cruelty to animals as "Intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just cause, such as torturing, tormenting, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or abandonment."
The move also comes as states around the country enact controversial laws, often referred to as "ag-gag," that prohibit undercover investigations and recordings of animals at factory farms. That includes North Carolina, which on January 1 implemented the so-called "Property Protection Act," a bill that allows businesses to sue employees who secretly document their workplace, after several undercover activists released footage of a Purdue poultry company worker kicking, stomping, and throwing chickens at a Richmond County farm.
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"As practical matter, it’s heartening that the FBI is beginning to understand the seriousness of animal cruelty," Vandhana Bala, an attorney for Mercy for Animals, a group that advocates for human treatment of farm animals, told the Post on Friday.
But Bala noted that the new system reveals "inequity" in how crimes against cats and dogs are punished compared to animals like pigs, cows, and chickens.
Another catch in the program: it's voluntary. The FBI will only collect statistics that are reported by local law enforcement. For one advocate, Mary Lou Randor, who helped organize the charge to reform the agency's former animal abuse tracking system, the next challenge is getting police departments to comply.
"There is overwhelming evidence that [animal abuse] is linked to crimes against people, including violent crimes and domestic violence," she told the Post. "It’s not about protecting people or animals, it’s protecting them both."This guide is ordered in progress of release, it's highly possible that you will have to start at the beginning and work your way through to unlock the rest of the achievements. All the achievements related to this are hidden until you complete the requirements to unlock them.
Table of Contents
Ley-Line Activity
Pursuit of Knowledge
Find the unidentified lodestone and return it to Ela Makkay.
During this series of events you will need to start off by killing enemies related to this set of achievements. Doing so will unlock a new panel in your achievement list called Current Events. To start you will need to obtain an Unidentified Lodestone. This can be obtained from killing Branded, Destroyers and Icebrood enemies. These enemies appear in various maps, but taking part in the “Ley-Line Cartography” event locations will make finding these enemies a little easier. This is a random drop so you will need to kill a few of these enemies types.
Once you have the Unidentied Lodestone you can visit Ela Makkay in Lion’s Arch. She can be found in the bottom left corner of the city. You can also double click the lodestone to reveal Ela’s location.
Ley-Line Cartography
Prevent dragon minions from absorbing the ley-line magic that has accumulated across Tyria.
You will need to complete at least one ley-line energy event on each of the three maps listed below. It doesn’t matter which event you complete, but it does have to be once per map. This is a fairly simple task, locate an event using the waypoints and map below and take part.
The ley line events spawn roughly every 10 minutes in the following locations:
Snowden Drifts
Skradden Waypoint [&BLMAAAA=]
Soderhem Steading Waypoint [&BL4AAAA=]
Snowdrift Haven Waypoint [&BLkAAAA=]
Mount Maelstrom
Avernan Waypoint [&BM8CAAA=]
[&BM8CAAA=] Magmatic Waypoint [&BNYCAAA=]
[&BNYCAAA=] Irwin Isle Waypoint [&BNICAAA=]
Blazeridge Steppes
Refuge Sanctum Waypoint [&BAUCAAA=]
[&BAUCAAA=] Soot Road Waypoint [&BFIDAAA=]
[&BFIDAAA=] Brandview Waypoint [&BAQCAAA=]
Hold the Line
Don’t allow any accumulated ley-line magic to be absorted by the dragon minions.
During the events you will need to make sure none of the accumulated ley-line mobs are attacked. This is a little hit and miss due to how many people are taking part and how active they are in defending each minion.
You will need to complete 5 events for “Magic Dispersed” so it’s highly possible you will earn this on your journey to obtaining that achievement.
Magic Dispersed
Defeat 5 coalescences to disperse their magic back to the ley-lines
At the end of the Ley-Line event on any of the three maps you will finish off with a champion that spawns. You will need to kill 5 coalesences to obtain this achievement.
Bandit Invasion
Before you can start any of these activities, you must first locate and kill bandits to obtain an encoded letter. You can kill any bandits you so wish, there’s plenty throughout the whole of Kryta but Jannaj’s Bandits [&BBoAAAA=] are probably the most accessible with the fastest respawn time.
Once you’ve obtained this encrypted bandit item, you need to take it to the Shining Blade [&BCkDAAA=]. He will then give you a bounty to go and kill. From here this unlocks the achievements tied to this activity.
Tip of the Blade
Complete a bounty order on behalf of the Shining Blade.
Once you’ve obtained and handed in your encrypted order to the Shining Blade, you will be given a set bandit leader to find and kill. Once killed this will unlock. It’s possible this may be random, but the locations of all bandit leaders are listed under “Long Arm of the Light”.
Long Arm of the Light
Defeat bandit leaders marshaling in the shadows.
Vic the Iron
Zirh the Venomous
Ruye the Crimson
Flyrra the Remorseless
Aerl the Silent
You will need to visit three maps to kill all five of these bandit leaders. Queensdale, Kessex Hills and Brisban Wildlands. You can kill these banidts in any order, and they respawn within 10 minutes of their previous events.
Bounty Hunter
Complete 3 daily bounty orders from the Shining Blade.
Obtaining bounty orders can only happen once a day as it’s a random drop from killing bandits. Once you have the orders return to the Shining Blade in Divinity’s Reach to be given your next contract (You can only complete one of these per daily reset). If you’ve just unlocked this collection you will need to wait until the next reset cycle to obtain another bandit order.
The Shining Blade can be found in Divinity’s Reach in the upper city [&BCkDAAA=].
Stop the Inquest
Once you start the game after the patch with a mail from Ela Makkay, she will direct you to Blazeridge Steppes and the Refuge Sanctum Waypoint [&BAUCAAA=]. From here there’s an NPC that will need to escort. There is also another NPC from the Consortium that you will need to escort from The Last Whiskey Bar Waypoint [&BPkBAAA=]. Both these escorts can lead to the same location, or alternative ones depending on the rotation of their quest-line.
Thwart the Inquest
Don’t allow the inquest to collect any accumulated ley-line magic.
Once you’re at your destination, much like before defeat the enemies that spawn and prevent them from collecting any ley-line energy. This will be hit and miss depending on the size of your group attempting the event.
If you find there’s a commander tag at your location, you may find players gravitate towards them. If you have access to a mentor tag, you can freely pull people to the events just by being active in the map chat and trying to bring a little organization.
Out of the Wrong Hands
Successfully stop the inquest from capturing 10 ley-line coalescences.
You will need to complete 10 of these defense events in order to fully complete this. There’s not much else to the event aside from killing inquest.
Ley-Line “Research”
Assist the Consortium in collecting 30 accumulated ley energy.
From The Last Whiskey Bar Waypoint [&BPkBAAA=] follow the npc to their location. Once you’re at the location, you will see them deploy their ley energy collector. From here you need to pick up ley-energy up off the ground and return it to the collector. You will need to repeat this 30 times, so just keep a close eye on the ground as they vanish quickly.
There’s basically two parts to this event, one is a defense, the other is a collection. Golems drops energy when destroyed if they’re carrying it, but they also randomly spawn around the event area.
Note: As of a recent patch, ley-energy is no longer shared with the community, so it should be faster and easier to collect these items.
Ley-Line Research
Assist the Priory in collecting 30 accumulated ley energy.
Much like the “Ley-Line “Research” you need to collect 30 accumulated ley energy and deposit it in the collector. The only difference is you need to follow the Priory NPC to their location from Refuge Sanctum Waypoint [&BAUCAAA=].
Keadin’s Study
In Blazeridge Steppes, successfully stop the inquest from capturing 3 ley-line coalescences after contributing ley energy to the Priory.
Much like the two research achievements you will need to collect ley-energy for either the Priory or the Consortium. Deposit the energy and continue the event denying the Inquest from victory. You will need to make sure that the meter for the Inquest stays empty, it can fill but making sure it’s depleted at the end of the event by collecting more ley-energy.
Flinnz’s Retirement
In Blazeridge Steppes, successfully stop the Inquest from capturing 3 ley-line coalescences after contributing ley energy to the Consortium.
See “Keadin’s Study”.
Garen’s Defense
In Mount Maelstrom, successfully stop the Inquest from capturing 3 ley-line coalescences after contributing ley energy to the Priory.
These events taken place in Mount Maelstorm but follow the same guidelines at the previous events from earlier in this contents release. You will be doing the same sort of things as “Keadin’s Study” and “Flinnz’s Retirement”. You will need to follow the Priory and Consortium NPCs to their locations. Once there you will need to collect one ley-line energy and deposit it in the collector. From here you need to stop the inquest from collecting any energy and finish the event.
See “Keadin’s Study”.
Loonaloo’s Paycheck
In Mount Maelstrom successfully stop the Inquest from capturing 3 ley-line coalescences after contributing ley energy to the Consortium.
See “Garen’s Defense”
Long Arm of the Light
Much like the previous event, you will be sent a mail which will give you a warning about the Shining Blade. From here you will be given a mark. If you haven’t so already, kill bandits to gain your daily bounty, talk to the Shining Blade to be directed to your nearest bounty location. There are five new bounties which you can also take advantage of.
Stay of the Execution
Collect an Executioner’s Coin Purse from a Bandit Executioner.
If you’re up to this point you will have receive the Bandit Death Mark in your mail with a message from The Errant. From here carrying this mark will spawn an Executioner after defeating one of the bandit champions. You can head to any bandit champ and kill them, as long as someone has this item they will spawn after the fight.
During this fight, you will be locked inside a bubble. Anyone outside will be kept at a ranged distance, but you can claim credit for this why attacking through the bubble.
Long Arm of the Light II
Defeat bandit leaders lurking in the darkness.
The latest update introduces a group of new bandit leaders which you need to hunt down and kill.
Harathi Hinterlands
Ulssen the Anvil [&BMMAAAA=]
Ezal the Quick [&BKgAAAA=]
Gendarren Fields
Lenner the Eagle-Eyed [&BIsBAAA=]
Kessex Hills
Temvay the Arrogant [&BBA-AAAA=]
Varre the Underhanded [&BAgAAAA=]
Informed Politics
Investigate posters in Kryta’s towns and villages to stay up to date on public opinion.
While visiting one of the following locations: Divinity’s Reach, Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Gendarren Fields or Harathi Hinterlands you will find new posters in towns and villages. You will need to tear down all the posters which will be listed by location in the achievement description.
The following maps show all the locations:
Divinity’s Reach Locations:
Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Gendarren Fields & Harathi Hinterlands:
Ley-Line Anomaly
This event spawns 20 minutes past the hour every 2 hours.
Ley Line Researched
Collect a Ley-Infused Lodestone from Ela Makkay.
After completing the previous events Ela Makkay will contact you via your mail. She will want to speak with you and give you a Ley-Infused Lodestone. You will then need to click the Lodestone to see a notification of where you need to go.
You can buy more Lodestones from Ela using Putrid Essence, Currupted Lodestones, Crystal Lodestones and Destroyer Lodestones.
Anomaly Sighted
Encounter a Ley-Line Anomaly
After clicking on the Lodestone you’ve obtained, head towards the map indicated. Once you enter the map you may see a boss icon on the map. If so head towards and and start attacking. The Anomaly will run around the map, so be quick as it doesn’t stay in one place for long.
Once you enter a map you may or may not see the boss icon. If you see it the Anomaly is active and there’s probably a group following it. If you don’t see it, you will need to wait until a prompt appears on the screen announcing the Anomaly’s arrival.
Dispersed Anomaly
Disperse as Ley-Line Anomaly before it can be absorb any coalescences.
While chasing an Anomaly around the map you will need to break the defiance bar. Doing so will cause it to stop and spawn Anomaly Fragments around it. Much like all the previous events you will need to stop the Anomaly from consuming any. During this phase one Champion Anomaly Fragment will spawn fairly close. The map will need to use Crowd Control skills to slow it down and stun it. The kill it as fast as possible.
The event will consist of several of these encounters so the map will have to stop them multiple times before the Anomaly dies. If one of these Champion Fragments reaches the Anomaly during any of the phase encounters, you will have to try again on the next map.
This may prove difficult unless a group of players focus the champ as soon as it spawns.
Anomalies of the World
Disperse Ley-Line Anomalies in all of the areas they appear.
Anomalies will appear on the following maps. You can click on your Ley-Infused Lodestone to find out which map is currently active and will have the next Anomaly spawn.
Gendarren Fields
Timberline Falls
Iron Marches
Anomalous Results
Successfully disperse 10 Ley-Line Anomalies before they overload.
Once you encounter the Anomaly you will need to chase it around the map. Once you locate your Anomaly, you will proceed to kill it after doing a series of mini events along the way. This achievement will unlock once you kill 10 Anomalies without them overloading.
Bloodstone Sightings
Bloodstone Sightings
Find and Identify bloodstone-crazed creatures throughout Tyria.
Before you can start this series of events you will need to first obtain “Levvi’s Detector”. You can obtain this item by visiting the Consortium Trader’s locations at the Last Leap Point of Interest in Verdant Brink. You can collect this item from the fallen allies body.
To use the scanner you will need to activate it. You will then be presented with the creatures that are currently roaming the world. Once you’re in a map with one of these creatures, a map wide message will be displayed if a crazed creature is active.
From here you will need to find the crazed creatures listed below.
Bloodstone Crazed Moa
Snowden Drifts
Diessa Plateau
Kessex Hills
Brisban Wildlands
Bloodstone Crazed Devourer
Dry Top
Silverwastes
Blazeridge Steppes
Fields of Ruin
Bloodstone Crazed Arctodus
Snowden Drifts
Lonar’s Pass
Gendarren Fields
Bloodstone Crazed Shark
Frostgorge Sound
Bloodtide Coast
Mount Maelstrom
Bloodstone Crazed Wyvern
Verdant Brink
Tangled Depths
Pending further information.
Note: It’s possible that these events currently spawn every 30 minutes randomly in the listed maps when the device shows them. Currently there’s no known pattern to the spawn times.
The current solution to make sure you end up on the right map when one of these creatures spawns is to use the squad system and multi map.
Bloodstone Harvest
Recover the bloodstone slivers that have affected creatures, and collect the remaining silvers in the world before they can do more harm.
This will remain locked until you pick up the first bloodstone sliver. You can do this at the time of collecting the device for “Bloodstone Sightings”. The following maps details the locations where you can find the bloodstone slivers scattered around Tyria.
Aside from the 10 collectible slivers, you will also need to kill all give crazed creatures to finish this achievement. You can collect these items in any order you see fit, below they’re listed in the order of the achievement panel.
Silverwastes – Drydock Grotto [&BLoHAAA=]
From the waypoint head up the ramp tot he top of the upturned boat. The sliver is out in the open near the little building.
Frostgorge Sound – Ice Flow [&BH4CAAA=]
Use the ramp to access the boat. Once there, follow the path to your right. The bloodstone will be sat in a doorway on the left hand side.
Fields of Ruin – Terra Carorunda [&BAECAAA=]
Head north east to the bandit camp in the cave. Look for the torch lit entrance, and follow the path through a small jumping puzzle. Once there, head across the area to the small stream, the bloodstone will be located within the mouth of the stream.
Queensdale – Shaemoor Graveyard [&BO8AAAA=]
Head across Shaemoor to the graveyard and this next bloodstone will be sat in a tree.
Brisban Widlands – Seraphs Observers [&BGIAAAA=]
Head south of the waypoint and you will see this sliver on tree.
Verdant Brink – Last Leap [&BOkHAAA=]
From the Itzel Village head west to the Wyvern Cliffs. Once here, climb the southern cliff. This is where you find the Levvi Device. Just behind the consortium traders body you will find the sliver.
Harathi Hinterlands – Thunder Rock [&BKwAAAA=]
Head south from Recovery Camp waypoint, head up the path towards the circle caged off area and look on the cliff edge to the south eastern side.
Rata Sum – Meterical Court [&BBMEAAA=]
From this waypoint, look above you on the slope. You will need to climb up the edge of the area and up large tree root behind you.
Timberline Falls – Nonmoa Lake [&BEkCAAA=]
From either of the waypoints here, head to the small island in the middle of the lake. Climb to it’s highest point where you will find a set of diving goggles. Just across from this area you will see the sliver on a lookout perch.
Mount Maelstrom – Magmatic Conjury [&BNYCAAA=]
From this waypoint head north up the face of Mount Maelstrom. You will see a large crack in the earth crust as you make your way up the incline. This sliver is located inside the crust just below. Just be careful as this one’s easy to overshoot if you judge it wrong.
Tremors in the North
Disturbance in the Depths
Speak with Seis Burnheart about magic reactions in the north.
Seis Burnhearts location will change depending on which map he’s currently active in.
Frostgorge Sound, Earthshake Waypoint
Snowden Drifts, Highpass Haven
Lonar’s Pass, Nentor’s Consolidated Mine [&BOwAAAA=]
Bloodtide Coast, Marshwatch Haven
South Sun Cove, Pearl Islet Waypoint
Seis Burnheart can be found near the listed waypoints.
Note: This NPC changes maps every few days. So check back often to make sure you don’t miss any locations.
If you miss a location, don’t fret, an Elemental Sprite will be in place of where the NPC was. So you can continue without the need of her.
Transfer Chaser
Complete each task to track a disturbance in magic’s flow.
After talking to Seis, you will be given a tracker and a boon called sensor tracking. From here you can use your special action key to activate the sensor. You will be shown Red, Blue or Yellow markers. Red is far away, blue is close, and yellow is very close.
You will need to go a find the sensors in the area. The sensors are a small yellow ball of energy on the ground. They’re quite hard to see, but you will know what they are when you see them.
Note: The sensor locations are random for each player. But the general locations are the same for everyone.
Sensor Scouter – Frostgorge Sound
Located all Sensors
This will unlock after finding your first five sensors. Report back to Seis once you’ve found five, to progress “Transfer Chaser”.
Sensor Scouter – Snowden Drifts
Located all Sensors
See “Sensor Scouter – Frostgorge Sound” for more info.
Sensor Scouter – Lonar’s Pass
Located all Sensors
See “Sensor Scouter – Frostgorge Sound” for more info.
Sensor Scouter – Bloodtide Coast
Located all Sensors
See “Sensor Scouter – Frostgorge Sound” for more info.
Sensor Scouter – Southsun Cove
Located all Sensors
See “Sensor Scouter – Frostgorge Sound” for more info.
Unusual activity at Gillscale Pond
There is currently another event at Gillscale Pond that requires you to obtain a rift device. At this time it’s not currently known how this event plays out, the information related to it can be found below.
Burden of Choice
Complete these 10 different tasks.
If you’ve kept up with all the current events up to this point you will be aware of the sad anomalies spawning randomly. You will see them, and then they vanish in a flash. It i now time to interact with them. Once you see one of these anomalies appear, run up to them and this achievement will become visible.
You will need to complete 10 tasks, some of which you may have already completed from previous events. Once you catch the anomaly the list with be accessible from your achievement panel.
Rift Stabilizing Device
To obtain the stabilizing device, enter a rift in the area, you may need to complete the event that spawns. You will be dropped above the pond, at the bottom you will find an item marked with [???]. Once obtained, talk to the NPC Auris Weirdbringer, cycle through his dialog until he says wait a minute. You can find him lurking around the pond. Once this dialog appears, just wait with it open until you’re teleported. You will then be sent through a rift. This will then turn the device on.
If you continue to talk to the NPC, he will mention the number 97. This may relate to answering the puzzle.
Stabilizing Device I
Once you obtain this device, use it to channel one of the rifts. From here you can change the number skill. Once changed, jump into the portal and it will take you to a new location. From here, you need to visit all the locations.
Once all locations have been visited, the device will break. You will then need to talk to NPC Auris Weirdbringer a second time to fix it.
I [Fields of Ruin] II [Hoelbrak] III [Cursed Shore] IV [Malchor’s Leap] V [Diessa Plateau] VI [Lonars Pass] VII [Fireheart Risei] VIII [Black Citadel] IX [Metrica Province] X [Dredehaunt Cliffs] XI [Dry Top] XII [Blazerridge Steppes] XIII [The Grove]
Stabilizing Device II
At this point you will be given a second skill that gives you numbers between 1 – 13 on your skill bar. You will need to change both skills before jumping into the rift. It’s unknown at this point what combinations you should be using to solve this puzzle.
Note: Entering every rift combination does not result in any progress. It’s unknown at this time what you should be doing with the rifts.Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Google is poised to hit a major milestone.
Its mobile operating system (OS), Android, is on the edge of overtaking Microsoft's Windows to become the number one operating system when it comes to using the internet worldwide.
That's according to a new report from analytics company Statcounter, which has crunched the numbers showing how over the last five years, Android's growth has wiped out Windows' once-unassailable lead. (We heard about the report via 9to5Google.)
Today, Windows has 38.6% marketshare for internet usage, while Google hovers just below, at 37.4%. As recently as January 2012, Windows had 82% of global internet usage, versus Android's paltry 2.2%.
"The idea of Android almost matching Windows would have been unthinkable five years ago," said Statcounter CEO Aodhan Cullen.
It's testament to the rapid rise of mobile, and how new platforms have transformed how people access the internet.
You can see a graph starkly illustrating this shift below. iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, is slowly creeping upwards, while macOS (previously known as OS X, Apple's desktop OS), has held roughly steady, declining slightly a little below 10%.)
StatCounter
The data above includes all platforms — desktop computers, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Windows is still responsible for 84% of desktop internet usage, its traditional territory. But the broader market has transformed radically, and Microsoft has failed to capitalise on it — to Google's huge benefit.
"Windows has won the desktop war but the battlefield has moved on," Cullen said.More than a dozen cyclospora cases seen in Austin area Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Video
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A recent outbreak of cyclospora has Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services asking people to thoroughly wash their produce. Cyclospora is an intestinal illness caused by microscopic parasite and is spread by drinking or eating food that was contaminated with feces.
As of Tuesday, the Department has 15 confirmed and probable cases and 11 new cases that are currently under investigation. In the past week alone, 42 cases of cyclospora infection have been reported to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Department officials say they haven't been able to determine whether the outbreak is linked to one source since no particular food source has been identified.
Outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been linked to various types of imported fresh produce, including berries and leafy greens.
Common symptoms of cyclospora:Dan Stevens has landed one of the male leads opposite Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis in the sci-fi pic “Colossal” sources tell Variety.
Tim Blake Nelson and Austin Stowell are also on board with Nacho Vigalondo writing and directing.
The story follows a woman who moves back to her hometown after losing her job and boyfriend in New York, only to discover that she is somehow strangely connected to a giant creature that has materialized over Seoul and is wreaking havoc on the city.
Stevens will play the ex-boyfriend who originally scorns her only to later fight to win her back.
The film is currently in production in Vancouver.
Voltage Pictures is handling international sales while CAA is repping domestic rights. “Colossal” marks the first film to go into production under the recently announced five-picture sales deal between Voltage and Brightlight.
Stevens, who used to star in “Downton Abbey,” is coming off a busy 2014 that included “The Guest,” “A Walk Among the Tombstones” and “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.” He can be seen next in the indie “Criminal Activities,” as well as in the role of the Beast in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast,” also starring Emma Watson.
He is repped by WME, Julian Belfrage Associates and Peikoff Mahan Law Office.The Trump administration on Saturday rebuffed language in a free trade statement at a G20 meeting that would have opposed economic protectionism, The Washington Post reported.
The rejection of language stressing the importance of free and open trade and condemning protectionism signals a growing fissure between the U.S. and some of its key economic allies.
German officials reportedly urged Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to agree to include the free trade language in the G20's joint statement, but the former hedge fund manager refused to do so, marking a break from previous meetings in which such language was adopted.
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Mnuchin suggested adding more general language committing to "strengthen the contribution of trade," the Post reported. A version of that sentence was included in the statement, despite criticisms from others at the meeting that it was pointless.
“I understand what the president’s desire is and his policies and I negotiated them from here, and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome,” Mnuchin told reporters at a news conference, according to the newspaper.
The U.S. has long opposed protectionist policies. But as a presidential candidate, Trump campaigned against the country's free trade position, frequently calling for an "America first" trade policy. He has also blasted the country's trade agreements, and has repeatedly claimed the U.S. is treated unfairly by other countries.
Still, Mnuchin's rejection of the language undermines longstanding principles governing how the U.S. deals with its allies and trade partners and comes amid new tensions with the United Kingdom and Germany.
During a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, Trump pressed his German counterpart to commit to meeting NATO's defense spending target, saying the U.S. was being treated unfairly by the alliance.
He reiterated that call in a Saturday morning tweet, demanding that NATO and the U.S. "must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany."
The U.S. is one of five countries in the 28-member NATO alliance that meet or exceed the group's target that nations spend 2 percent of their country's budget on the alliance. Germany falls 15th on the list, according to NATO defense expenditure data.
The White House also reportedly ignited fury among British government officials when White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday repeated an unfounded claim by a Fox News analyst that a U.K. spy agency had surveilled Trump's election campaign under the direction of former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE.
Trump dismissed the outcry from the allegation on Friday, saying that it was made by a "very talented legal mind" and that he was not responsible for propagating the accusation.
"That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox," he said at his news conference with Merkel. "And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox."This information is from the Boulder Bridge House, Their core work program data is current as of 2015, and is related to homelessness[1], their entire program including their work program focus is for the homeless.
Veterans
Over 13% of residents are veterans who served our country, but who are struggling to stay on their feet. Many are not getting the benefits they are entitled to under law. We help veterans to process the paperwork so that they can receive the medical and financial assistance they deserve. More on the VA programs for the homeless in Denver.
Women
Approximately 30% of the people that walk through our doors are women. The issues homeless women face around safety and security are different from those facing men.
Have mental health problems
There are estimates that nearly 40% of the homeless population suffers from some kind of mental illness. The Ready to Work program leaders see this statistic reflected in our clients, most of whom either don’t know they are ill or are unaware of services that can help them. The program has a mental health program for the homeless. E[2]ach worker who meets with people one-on-one. They also have group counseling through their weekly HOPE Group. We provide funds for psychiatric prescriptions and work with their partners at Clinica and Mental Health Partners to get people the services they need.
Footnotes
[1] http://bridgeurl.com/ready-to-wo...
[2] Homelessness and joblessness for veterans • /r/ready2workboulderThank you for your interest in Rick Steves Tours. To order a free copy of our 2019 Tours Catalog by mail, please complete and submit the required fields below.
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This information is for the sole use of Rick Steves' Europe, Inc. We will never share, rent or sell your information. However, we may occasionally send you additional email regarding Rick's activities and Rick Steves' Europe events and promotions. Please read our Privacy Policy.In a bid to protect people from accidentally installing malware, Google is blocking Windows and Mac users from loading Chrome extensions not hosted on the official Chrome Web Store. The company first introduced this policy for Windows users in May last year, but left it open for people using the developer version of Chrome (a more experimental version of the browser that's updated more frequently) to install extensions from wherever they liked. This, says Google, led to problems, with hackers forcing people to use the developer version of the browser before tricking them into installing malware. "Affected users are left with malicious extensions running on a Chrome channel they did not choose," said extensions manager Jake Leichtling in a blog post.
developers can still install non-web store extensions — but only locally
Instead, the company is now blocking all non-Web Store extensions on all versions of Chrome, with the new rules coming into force for Windows users in May and Mac users in July. The policy mirrors Apple's tight control over the App Store, which will likely lead some users to complain that it makes Chrome less open. Google's reasoning is clear, though: the company says that since it introduced the ban on the installation of non-Web Store extensions last year, there was a 75 percent drop in customers' support requests for unwanted extensions. Google also says that Windows and Mac developers can still install their own non-Web Store extensions locally by enabling developer mode, adding: "If your extensions are currently hosted |
didn’t lead the country in job gains for September (again, the latest month of available data).
In fact, an October 2017 bureau press release indicates Texas wasn't even among the five states that experienced job gains from August to September 2017.
From the release: "The largest increase in employment occurred in California (+52,200), followed by Washington (+13,800) and Indiana (+11,400). The states also were described as enjoying statistically significant month-to-month gains. "In percentage terms," the bureau said, "the largest increase occurred in Nebraska (+0.5 percent), followed by Arizona, Indiana, and Washington (+0.4 percent each)." California had a 0.4 percent gain, the release said.
According to a more detailed bureau chart we checked in mid-November 2017, Texas saw a 0.1 percent decrease in jobs from August to September 2017 by going from 12,328,400 jobs to 12,321,100 jobs. The chart indicates 30 states fared better month to month though that folds in five states showing no percentage gains (or losses).
There’s a more encouraging longer view. The bureau’s release lists Texas among 28 states with over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment from September 2016 to September 2017. The release said: "The largest job gains occurred in California (+280,300), Texas (+256,100), and New York (+93,100)--with the largest percentage gains playing out in Nevada and Utah (+2.5 percent each) followed by Maryland (+2.4 percent)." According to an accompanying chart, Texas and Idaho each saw a 2.1 percent increase in jobs over the year, tying for fourth nationally behind Washington state, which saw a 2.2 percent percentage increase in jobs.
Abbot wrote: "As you can see, the largest monthly increase in jobs in September 2017 occurred in California (+52,200). In percentage terms, Nebraska led among the states with a 0.5-percent gain. California also recorded the largest over-the-year increase during this period (280,300), followed by Texas (256,100)."
Our ruling
Abbott tweeted: "The Texas unemployment rate is now the lowest it’s been in 40 years & Texas led the nation last month in new job creation."
The latest unemployment data posted when Abbott spoke showed Texas with a 4 percent unemployment rate in September 2017 though that didn't set a 40-year record. Rather, it tied the previous 40-year low set in two months of 2000.
Abbott didn’t provide nor did we find data showing jobs created in each state in October 2017. Federal data otherwise indicate that Texas experienced a slight decrease in jobs from August to September 2017 though the state also was home to more jobs than a year earlier.
We rate this claim False.
FALSE – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
UPDATE, Nov. 17, 2017: Two days after Abbott tweeted his claim about the Texas jobless rate, the federal government reported that the state had a 41-year record low 3.9 percent jobless rate in October 2017.Connect with Drink Tanks on: Facebook and Twitter
Stretch Goals:
Stretch Goal #1
Introducing our first Stretch Goal! Once we reach $50,000, any backer will have the option to add $15.00 to their pledge to upgrade their Growler, to one of four powder coated colors. If you have one of our Party Pack Pledges, you will have the option to add $5.00 to your pledge to upgrade the color.
Stretch Goal #2
Introducing our second Stretch goal! Once we reach $100,000, any backer will have the option to add $12.00 to their pledge to add custom engraving. The custom engraving will be up to a 4x4 inch area on the growler.
Stretch Goal #3
The support our backers have given us has been amazing, thank you all! For our third stretch goal we’re doing something different: It isn’t a goal, it’s a reward. If we can reach $250,000 in funding we will include a small ‘thank you’ with each growler and Keg Tap Cap. To help us get there, we’re offering an optional ‘Drink Tanks Founder’ handle that will ONLY be available through this Kickstarter campaign and we’re expanding the color choices for powder coating!
Hi Kickstarters,
Welcome to the future of Beer Growlers! We are really excited to introduce our new Growler and Keg Cap Tap. This is truly disruptive technology for the beer industry. Watch the video above. Like what you see? Help us spread the word. We deeply appreciate all of your support!
A love of barley + hop
Two years of blood, sweat, and energy have been rolled into research and development to create the most amazing Growler known to mankind. The Drink Tank Growler is designed to keep your beer cold for up to 24 hours (Or any other liquid for that matter). This is done with a vacuum insulated seal. No condensation forms on the outside of the Growler. The technology of our Growler coupled with the insulation protects all contents from outside elements. Finally, no metal flavors!
Easily the most exciting accessory in the micro-brew industry is the Keg Cap Tap. This enables you to turn your Growler into a mini Keg. We had two things in mind during design. 1). Create a method to preserve the life of the beer after filling the growler by having the option to inject CO2. 2). A method to dispense the beer without opening the Growler.
How it works
There are two lids which are interchangeable.
The Standard Lid
The Standard Lid is simple to use. To release the lid, user pulls up on both wire bales at the same time, the lid will release from the top of the Growler. One side of the lid will stay connected to the wire bale. This acts as a hinge/retainer for the lid. To remove the lid completely from the wire bale, rotate the lid so it is hovering over the mouth of the growler. Make sure it is perpendicular to the mouth of the Growler. User will then rotate one end of the lid toward the mouth of the Growler in a downward motion.
The Keg Cap Tap Lid
Connecting and disconnecting the hose is simple. We call it, Push-to-Connect. User inserts the hose onto the top of the nob. To release the hose, press on the o-ring at the base of the nob and the hose will release. For your convenience we have placed a set of instructions inside the growler.
The Keg Cap Tap system includes
To charge the growler with CO2
When observing the Keg Cap Tap lid you will notice three devices. One device is for the tap hose to connect. Another device is a safety valve that releases at 30 psi so you cannot overfill the Growler. Lastly, there is a valve device to inject carbonation into the Growler, this helps to keep beer fresh and creates the necessary pressure to dispense the beer. The CO2 cartridge dispenser uses the universally threaded CO2 cartridges available in most sporting good store.
The Next Generation of Growlers...
Several Brew Masters have expressed concerns about other Growlers being difficult to fill and the inability to see inside The Drink Tank Growler neck height was changed so the fill line will be ¾ inch below the opening of the Growler making it easier on the brewers to fill your Growler. Here are the final dimensions.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Drink Tanks specializes in providing the most cutting edge drinking vessels. We focused on providing the best possible experience for our customers. This means never compromising on quality and our products are manufactured responsibly, our delivery is prompt, and our doors are open to everyone!
We need your Support
This project cannot succeed without YOU! Please help us reach our funding goal by our deadline! Tell EVERYONE! Like/share our project on Facebook, Twitter, google+. Email a link to your family, tell your friends, or even write it in the sand, in your cereal bowls, or scream it out when you go to the next Brewery... Every Dollar helps. We deeply appreciate all of the support! We know you will love our Growler as much as we do! Cheers!
Where your money goes
All of your pledges during this campaign will go toward our first official order of Growlers. A majority of the funds will be used for production, while the rest will help pay for shipping and a successful launch of Drink Tanks very own Growler. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to drop us an email.
We Have some Awesome Rewards for you!
Silicone Pint Glasses....A shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions
For other uses, see Inland Sea
An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, and there are few inland seas, the largest being Hudson Bay. Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf.[1]
Modern inland seas [ edit ]
This 1827 map of Australia depicts a 'Great River' and a 'Supposed Sea' that both proved nonexistent.
Former epicontinental seas in Earth's history [ edit ]
At various times in the geologic past, inland seas have been greater in extent and more common than at present.
See also [ edit ]
Endorheic basin – Closed drainage basin that allows no outflow
Mediterranean sea (oceanography) – A mostly enclosed sea with limited exchange with outer oceans
Marginal sea – A sea partially enclosed by islands, archipelagos, or peninsulas
Notes [ edit ]
^ [9] Also in Australia the promise of an inland sea is often said to have been one of the prime motives of inland exploration during the 1820s and 1830s. Although this theory was championed by the explorer Charles Sturt, it enjoyed little support among the other explorers, most of whom were more inclined to believe in the existence of a Great River which discharged into the ocean in the north-west corner of the continent.Photograph by George Steinmetz for Fortune
Photographs by George Steinmetz We’re standing on a windswept, snow-covered expanse of frozen ground in western North Dakota, imagining a future that is hard to picture here. Gesturing toward a grassy field, hatless in the 10-degree chill, Terry Olin and Ellen Simone Weyrauch, the principals of a real estate development firm called Stropiq, lay out their vision for Williston Crossing. They’ve planned a $500 million, 219-acre complex with 900 residential units, a hotel, a water park, and tons of big-box retail. As soon as Stropiq gets the expected approval from the county, it will break ground later this year and hopes to finish the first phase of construction by 2018. Just 10 years ago the area was an American Empty Quarter, with nothing but a few grain farms and the occasional oil well, conjoined by the lonely two-lane U.S. Route 85, part of the CanAm Highway that connects Mexico to Canada. But then came an oil boom propelled by the advent of fracking, the technology for getting oil out of formerly impenetrable rock by fracturing it. In North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, oil once considered irretrievable flowed freely. Now, as Olin and Weyrauch gaze down at Route 85—soon to be four lanes—from their site, they see all the signs of a roaring economy: tankers loaded with oil, trucks piled high with pipe, and new SUVs. Nearby sit several pump jacks, pulling oil all day and all night from the shale thousands of feet below. Olin, who made his money developing property in Russia, sees the Bakken area as one of the best opportunities in the world. He has moved here from Switzerland to make it happen. “This has become the best emerging-market play anywhere,” he raves. In August 2013, Williston, N.D., erected a sign at the entrance to town. Welcome, it reads, to Boomtown, U.S.A. That’s understating things. There are now about 40,000 people living here, up from 12,000 less than a decade ago. They have come from all over the world to find work, in the time-honored tradition of the gold rush. For years jobs went begging, with some of the highest wages in the country. At the end of 2014, Williston’s unemployment rate was 1.0%, the lowest in the U.S. Given those statistics, it is logical that Olin and Weyrauch would want to invest in a place so starved for commerce that the local Wal-Mart—one of the chain’s highest-volume locations—used to routinely run out of basic supplies. Then came the swoon. After reaching a 12-month high of $108 last summer, U.S. benchmark petroleum prices have dramatically declined, to a price now hovering near $50 per barrel. That has shaken global markets and energy companies alike, causing oil producers to slash their capital expenditure budgets and announce layoffs. The situation will only worsen if the low prices persist. That’s particularly true in North Dakota, where oil is costlier to get at than in many other parts of the world. The causes for the collapse include basic supply and demand—the slowdown in China’s economy combined with the surge in U.S. oil production—abetted by Saudi Arabia’s decision not to restrict supply in hopes that it will retain market share and cause a shakeout among less cost-effective sources of oil. You’d think all that would be enough to create panic in a place like Williston, where most jobs directly or indirectly depend on oil. And yet over the course of several days spent in the area, speaking with everyone from developers like Olin to restaurant servers to energy CEOs to oilfield workers to public administrators, I experienced a strange cognitive dissonance: an insistence that nothing has changed, combined with hardheaded determination and an undercurrent of fear. “This is not your father’s oil boom,” says David Montgomery, a commissioner of Williams County, which includes Williston. He has lived here his whole life and believes that the area has seen so much growth that even a slowdown won’t halt the vast infrastructure needs. Others, such as Scott Busching, the sheriff of Williams County, see what’s happening as merely a “lull,” one not so dissimilar from most winters, when the economy slows because the ground freezes to a depth of six feet, making many tasks impossible. “This boom’s got legs,” he says. Olin, the developer, says he’s undeterred by recent events: “Should we stop and wait until [the price of oil] is $60? Is there some scenario in which it makes no sense? I think not.” He insists that his investors remain confident. But if they get nervous, Williston Crossing will likely never be built. Today Williston conveys the sense of a place willing itself forward. Some think plenty of bonanzas are still to be made. Others rue the boom and wish it had never happened. It feels a bit like Wile E. Coyote in the seconds after he has run off the edge of a cliff and is suspended in air. Will this be the first time he makes it back to the high ground without plunging?
WATCHING THE RIG COUNT E-mail
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Linkedin Share icons The price of oil feels beside the point when you see the prairie from 1,000 feet, flying in a four-seat Cessna. Rigs dot the Williston horizon; natural gas not valuable enough to be captured burns orange in open flames. Trucks speed down the highway. Trailer parks, neatly arrayed in rectangles on white stretches of snow, are plentiful—as are half-finished housing complexes. A depot for freight cars looks like a child’s train set, with so many cars ready for loading that they almost cover the entire circular track. Back on the ground, everyone seems to know the rig count—how many drills are digging for new oil—whether he works in the oil patch or not. It’s hard not to know the number: It’s printed on the front page of the local paper, the Williston Herald, every day. In June 2012 that number peaked at 203; during my five days there it dropped from 145 to 137. A week after I left it was 126. Still, that has done nothing to dampen the scene at the Williston Brewing Co., one of the town’s hottest new restaurants. Developed by a Minnesota businessman, it opened in September 2013 to crowds eager to sample “big city” food like jerk chicken and sweet-chile-glazed salmon at its 65-foot redwood bar. Tonight it’s packed with the beneficiaries of the boom, and no one here thinks the party is ending. One of them is Nyssa Gray, who has cashed in with her Pepto-Bismol-pink drive-through coffee hut, Boomtown Babes Espresso. It’s not just the coffee that gets the truckers to line up and pay $5.50 for a large cappuccino; it’s the scantily clad “babe-a-ristas” inside the shed. Gray, herself a striking ambassador of the brand with her platinum-blond hair and cartoonish figure, came here from Washington State and opened Boomtown Babes in mid-2013. “It blew up bigger than I ever imagined,” she says. As she sips Goldeneye Pinot Noir and nibbles on a shrimp cocktail, Gray says there’s no sign of a slowdown: Sales in January were up 44% from the year before. Now she’s expanding to other oil centers, including nearby Tioga, and says she is partnering with a production company on a reality show about her operation. What about the slumping price of crude? It’s just a blip, Gray declares. “I’m not going to instantly pack up and move,” she says. “This is my baby—everything I worked so hard for. So heck yeah, I’m gonna ride it out.” Few people in the Bakken—or anywhere, for that matter—anticipated a slowdown. Just last September the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources published a report projecting that up to 6,000 additional wells could be drilled in McKenzie County, the county adjoining Williams, by 2025. (There are now about 2,700.) In Watford City, about 45 minutes southeast of Williston, the number of building permits doubled between 2013 and 2014, rising from 262 to 511; approved apartment units soared from 89 to 1,152 in just one year. Housing is so scarce that two-bedroom apartments rent for an average of $2,800 a month. Demand has not abated, says Charlie Rader, chief operating officer at McKenzie Building Center, an 80-year-old building-supply company based in Watford City. “We are fully engaged on our projects.” A few miles away stands the steel skeleton of what will soon become Watford City’s new, $50 million high school. It couldn’t come soon enough for the district, which has seen annual 20% to 25% increases in the number of children. In 2014, between the end of one school year and the start of another, 251 new students registered, raising the total to 1,331. Once mostly local and white, the elementary school now educates natives of 48 states and 20 countries. Some 38% are classified as “homeless,” many because they live in trailers or RVs; rent is simply too high. Watford City has taken a big financial risk on the school. It is issuing $27 million in bonds and has borrowed millions more. District superintendent Steve Holen is now trying to persuade the state legislature to force the oil industry to cover some of that debt. “We want to see portions of industry pay for this,” he says, “because that’s where the impact has come from.” Holen understands that a slowdown will probably mean trouble for state budgets—which support schools, of course—because of a state law that lowers oil companies’ extraction taxes on new wells from 6.5% to 2% if the NYMEX average monthly price per barrel falls to $57.50. As of Feb. 1, that trigger was activated, so oil companies won’t have to pay the full 6.5% until the price rises above $72.50. If it remains below $55.09 for five consecutive months (we’re now in month two), the companies will pay no extraction taxes on any wells drilled after 1987, which is to say the vast majority. How dire would that be for the state? Already the North Dakota legislature has slashed its estimates of oil and gas revenues through 2017, from $8.3 billion to $4.3 billion. Even if oil prices stay low, the Watford City/Williston area may be the last in the region to feel the pain. It is in the “sweet spot” of the Bakken, with the breakeven price for production about $36 a barrel, according to the state. That figure runs as high as $77 in some other parts of North Dakota. Another reason the pain has not yet become apparent is that even as companies slow their rate of drilling, they must still complete the wells they have started—or lose the substantial investment they have already made. Scott Junk, VP for marketing at Target Logistics, which runs three local “man camps” (facilities that provide spartan dormitories and food for the mostly male oilfield workers), says they are running at 90% occupancy. “We haven’t adjusted our business plans at all.”
BURST DREAMS E-mail
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Linkedin Share icons There’s an old saying that the only people who profit from a gold rush are the ones who sell the picks and shovels. People who use them don’t fare as well. You’ll see that darker picture about 10 miles outside Williston. There a 20-foot bust of Abraham Lincoln watches over traffic from the side of Route 85. To the east is the entrance to the Lincoln RV Park, home to Brad Owren, 29, Christine Stief, 28, and their 17-month-old daughter, McKenzie. The cold is piercing; the eight trailers remaining at the RV park, each about 10 yards apart, look as if they would huddle together for warmth if they could. It’s impossible to imagine a child playing outside. But it is here that Owren and Stief sit, fretting about their dwindling supply of canned Spaghetti-Os and chicken noodle soup, hoping that a job will come through before their meager savings run out. An unskilled laborer with a GED, Owren had struggled to make ends meet in Stevenson, Wash. “I searched for work for two years straight,” he says. Then a cousin told him about Williston. “This is a town that’s booming,” he said. “You need to get here right now.” Owren packed up, left Stief, and moved to Williston in 2012. It seemed like the proverbial land of opportunity. He toiled on a rock-crushing crew, living in a man camp, and saved good money. Lonely, he returned to Stief and their new daughter after a year—but once again couldn’t find a job in Washington. So last August the family moved to North Dakota with $800 in savings. They put a down payment on an $11,000 camper and had it towed to the trailer park. Stief intended to stay home with their daughter, because day care was exorbitant—$250 a week. But things went sour quickly when the water pipes froze in the camper. Owren took two days off to fix them—he used a hair dryer to thaw the pipes—and says he was fired as a result. “[My boss] told me I was replaceable,” Owren says, “and I understand that. But my family comes first.” His layoff coincided with the fall in oil prices. He hasn’t found work since. “I have always been a positive person,” says Stief. “But being here is the first time I have ever asked myself if there is an end in sight.” They’ve resolved to stick it out; in mid-February, Stief took a job as a restaurant hostess, although it barely covers day care. Even if they wanted to leave, they couldn’t. They don’t have access to a truck that can pull their trailer. “The first time I was here I could have a different job every day if I wanted to,” Owren says. “Now I can’t find an equipment-operating job. That’s unheard-of in North Dakota. But there’s hope. There’s always hope.”
TWENTY DOLLARS AND TWO CHANGES OF CLOTHES E-mail
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Linkedin Share icons So much feels transient in Williston. There doesn’t seem to be a single local inside a packed Buffalo Wild Wings grill—90% of the patrons are male—on Super Bowl Sunday. My waitress, for example, comes from Zimbabwe. Over a couple of tequila shots, I get to know Jimmy Hand, a ginger-haired 29-year-old from Jacksonville. “I was going to go to Alaska and work on a crab boat,” he says, “but then I heard about this place on a talk radio show.” He came by train about a year ago, he says, with $20 and two changes of clothes. He was lured by a Craigslist posting that promised construction jobs for $27 an hour, a huge sum for someone with only a high school education and no specialized experience. By the time Hand arrived, the offer had dropped to $17. He stayed but soon learned that getting rich wasn’t easy. “I didn’t know the cost of living,” he says. “You’d spend $20 for a meal and not even be full.” Even before crude prices dropped, he says, it became hard to find unskilled work. He’s leaving for Florida that night on a four-day bus ride but insists he’ll be back. “There’s definitely still an opportunity here,” Hand says. “You just have to be smart.” Even many of those who are succeeding seem to have no intention of staying. One example is Danny Hogan, a Brit and the group COO of NDD Group, which owns the Great American Lodge, a man camp. He lives here several weeks, then goes back to someplace else—in his case, England—for a week. He says he’d never move his three sons here. (“Would you?” he asks.) Natives like Ron Sylte are ambivalent. For them the flush times have brought benefits—and harm. A wheat farmer in Tyrone, a few miles outside Williston, Sylte discovered on Jan. 6 that the state’s largest-ever spill of brine water—the salty, contaminated water pumped back out of the well after fracking—had occurred on his property, leaking at least 3 million gallons into the earth so far, as well as into the Black Tail Creek, which eventually flows into the Missouri. A photographer and I arrived at the spill site on Feb. 2. Representatives of Summit Midstream LLC, the company responsible for the spill, instructed us to get off the property, even though the land belongs to Sylte, not Summit. “Call this number,” we were told; it was that of a crisis-communications firm. Summit later provided a statement that it is “committed to North Dakota,” including the “clean-up and remediation of the produced water release … We are making significant progress in these efforts, and remain fully committed to addressing the impacted land and waterways as quickly as possible.” A few days later we returned, thanks to Sylte, a gentle, mustachioed man whose previous brush with the media occurred when Farm Progress reported that his agricultural sprayer is the world’s biggest. We watched as an excavator dug shovelful after shovelful of dirty, icy soil out of the creek. The refuse was dumped into a pile some 15 feet high, while trucks continued to pump liquid out. When we asked if there was oil in the water, a man in a blue hazmat suit pointed downward: “Do you see that iridescent sheen here?” Sylte is worried. He says he won’t really know the impact of the spill until the ground thaws later this spring; a smaller spill in the area is still being cleaned up, nine years after it started. When asked how he feels about what fracking has brought, Sylte is silent for a while. “We’ve benefited from the boom,” he says finally, referring to the mineral rights he holds on his land. “But way of life? I’m not so sure. We were happy the way it was before.” So, too, was Williams County sheriff Scott Busching, who has held the position for 17 years. The last several, he says, have been more like policing in a large city than a small town. “Whatever you have in New York City you have here,” he says. “The same kinds of drugs, the same kinds of gang members.” Heroin turned up last year, he says. “We weren’t prepared.” In 2009 the county opened a new jail, with 132 beds, to replace a previous facility that could house 37. Today there are 156 inmates—so many that closets and rooms once used for GED classes are being used as cells. Prisoners doze on dirty mats on the ground. Many eat sitting on the floor because there aren’t enough tables. Busching says the courts are so backed up that they are now scheduling jury trials for the spring of 2017. At least the heat works. From a law-enforcement perspective, Busching says, it doesn’t matter whether crude prices quickly rebound. “If oil comes back, we get more people and more crime,” he says. “If it doesn’t and people lose their jobs, it’s going to get busier.” Busching says thefts have jumped of late, but he says it’s hard to glean the cause. He can’t even calculate a local crime rate because so many people move here without changing their address that it’s impossible to determine the population.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Feb. 9, 2016, 1:41 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 9, 2016, 1:41 PM GMT By Yijun He
On the same day when North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7, South Korean Navy retrieved parts believed to be its debris from the far southern part of Korean peninsula, NBC News has learnt.
An object that the South Korean Defense Ministry believes to be a part of a North Korean rocket is displayed on a South Korean navy ship on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in undisclosed location, South Korea. South Korean Defense Ministry via AP
North Korean state media said Pyongyang has "totally succeeded in launching the fourth Kwangmyongsong satellite," but the launch was widely seen as a cover for testing ballistic missile technology.
A metal object believed to be a part of North Korean long range rocket launched on February 7, 2016. Handout / Reuters
Meanwhile, South Korean Navy is still analyzing the debris, trying to confirm if the so-called satellite is actually a ballistic missile.Bitcoin News Today: After a recent string of good news, the price of Bitcoin has inched up some – and remains stable.
After hitting a recent low of $177 in January, the Bitcoin price looks to be stabilizing around $240.
More importantly, though, some major players are sniffing around the cryptocurrency – and are beginning to take it more seriously… with cash.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) recently said that it is co-leading a nearly $50 million investment in Bitcoin payments startup Circle Internet Financial as part of its effort to buy stakes in young financial-tech (fintech) companies.
The Boston-based company offers a digital "wallet" where people can store bitcoins and pay for things with them. Prior to this investment, Circle, founded in 2013, had raised at least $26 million in venture funding. It's now valued at around $200 million.
Goldman Sachs and venture capital firms are investing tens of millions in the "blockchain" and other behind-the-scenes aspects of the Bitcoin world.
This Bitcoin news sent a ripple through the world of cryptocurrency. The price of Bitcoin has spiked several times since the April 29 announcement.
Circle wants to use Bitcoin technology to transform the way consumers pay for things, by developing cheap, secure, and easy ways for people to transfer money.
Circle instantly converts your physical dollars into Bitcoin and vice versa.
Since Bitcoin came onto the scene, big banks have seen this digital currency as a potential threat.
But Goldman's recent vote of confidence is something of a tipping point, as appears to be the first time one of those big banks has actually invested in the Bitcoin sector.
Regardless of the motives, Goldman's stamp of approval will grease the wheels of mainstream adoption of the digital currency.
While Goldman's investment in Circle may be the biggest Bitcoin news today, it isn't the only important move I've seen in recent days…Image copyright Press Association Image caption A friend of Alchin's originally shared a picture of 25-year-old Olivia Melville's Tinder profile in August 2015
An Australian man has pleaded guilty to making sexual threats on social media, in what is seen as a landmark victory for opponents of online harassment.
Zach Alchin, 25, sent the comments on Facebook in response to a picture his friend shared of a woman's profile on the Tinder dating app.
He told police he was drunk and was unaware he was committing a crime.
The woman whose picture was at the centre of the story says she is "pretty shocked" he changed his plea to guilty.
Alchin had previously pleaded not guilty but changed his plea on the first day of his trial in Sydney.
He will be sentenced in late July and could face up to three years in jail.
'What law am I breaking?'
In August 2015, a friend of Alchin's - who was not charged - shared a screenshot of the profile of Olivia Melville's Tinder profile.
It included a sexually explicit lyric from singer Nicki Minaj and rapper Drake's song Only.
The post and Alchin's comment, "Stay classy, ladies", quickly spread through social media, with many leaving abusive comments about Ms Melville, 25.
Image copyright AP Image caption Alchin admitted to posting the comments after he was arrested, but told police he was drunk at the time and that he was unaware internet trolling was a crime
When her friends defended her online, Alchin then wrote more than 50 posts, including rape threats, derogatory comments about feminists and saying that women should "never have been given rights".
He was reported by 24-year-old Paloma Brierley Newton, a friend of Ms Melville.
Alchin admitted posting the comments after he was arrested, but told police he had been drunk and that he was unaware it was criminal behaviour.
Court papers said he told police that he had been internet trolling a "group of feminists that were harassing me and my friends".
Alchin had allegedly asked Ms Newton what "law he was breaking" when she threatened to report him to police.
'Sending a message'
Ms Newton, Ms Melville and others set up advocacy group Sexual Violence Won't Be Silenced in wake of the incident, to challenge online sexual harassment.
"We are extremely pleased that Mr Alchin has plead guilty", the group said on Facebook.
"Out victory today sends a message to all women that they don't have to put up with harassment online; that there are steps and channels they can take, and that Australian law is on their side."
"This case will be the first of its kind and will represent a landmark victory for opponents of online harassment," said Ms Newton in a statement. "We will no longer be silenced."
Alchin was charged with "using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence" - but that law was written more than two decades ago, before Facebook or Tinder existed.
Until this case, the courts had only used that law to try people over telephone and text message communications. It had not been clear whether threats made on social media could be punished under pre-existing Australian law.
In response to Alchin's guilty plea, Ms Melville told an Australian news service: "After so long of him saying he would plead not guilty, of course I'm happy."
Nearly half of 1,000 Australian women indicated that they had experienced some form of abuse or harassment online, in a survey by computer security firm Norton.Mr Micheletti became interim leader following the army-led coup on 28 June The interim leader of Honduras says he is ready to sign a pact to end its crisis which could include the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Roberto Micheletti said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and require both sides to recognise the result of November's presidential poll. Mr Zelaya said the deal, which requires the approval of the Supreme Court and Congress, would be signed on Friday. The president was forced out of the country on 28 June. His critics said he was seeking to amend the constitution to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president, and pave the way for his re-election. ANALYSIS Stephen Gibbs, BBC News The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described this agreement as "historic", that suggests we are extremely close to a deal. It is also significant that both sides say that the Congress of Honduras has to approve this. That could mean a slight delay, but it might actually also have been the key to the solution. Neither side could agree and so ultimately, perhaps to save face, they had to leave it to others finally, and symbolically, to make an agreement. It appears the US government put the pressure on the Micheletti government to say leave this to the Honduran Congress. And although the Congress initially voted to remove President Zelaya from power, now it wants him back, as everyone understands that it is the only way out of this. Q&A: Crisis in Honduras Mr Zelaya returned covertly to Tegucigalpa on 21 September and has since been holed up in the Brazilian embassy. He says he has returned "for the restoration of democracy". His term of office is due to finish at the end of January. Negotiators for Mr Zelaya and Mr Micheletti resumed talks in the capital on Thursday in an attempt to resolve the political crisis which has gripped Honduras since the army-backed coup four months ago. The opponents had earlier been told by US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon |
of the funding for the game, they’ve renamed the game from Project: Session to simply, Session, and they’ve been doing some motion capture for the game. However this has all happened within the last couple of months. So what exactly has been going on since we last spoke?
“A lot of things have happened actually in the past year,” Houde told us. “The last time we spoke we were still part time on the project and it was becoming difficult to find the right funding and all that stuff. So this was mostly the reason why we decided to tone down on the social media just to reduce the impact that people had. We had people asking about updates and stuff like that and we were unable to give any news about the project. But earlier this year we secured the first part of funding for the project so we’re finally hired a small team with a few freelancers and started to work full time on Session, so since then a lot of things are moving.
“We’ve now moved engine. Last time we spoke we were using Unity for the prototype and I think it did an okay job, but visually it was really hard to maintain the art direction I was targeting and the framerate. So we decided to move to Unreal Engine to help us achieve this.
“Because of this we had to restart the whole thing, for sure there was stuff we managed to recover from the transition of the game engine but yeah, a big chunk got lost and it’s kind of good thing. We’ve re-written the whole physics engine. We were unable to get anything displaying so my partner decided to redo the whole physic thing, and it’s really impressive. He decided to say “fuck off” to the physics of Unreal and started to code his own, so it’s pretty cool. It gives us exactly what we want and what we need,” Houde revealed.
“We’ve also went and mo cap as you probably saw so yeah many things have changed, it moves like crazy right now. I’m actually not sleeping that much.”
Over the past year and a half a lot has happened in the video gaming world, especially when it comes to skateboarding video games. Earlier this year True Skate launched a Kickstarter, which may have taken some of the wind out of the team’s sales. What’s more, there were several rumours that EA Games was working on another Skate title.
This of course put pressure on the team, but Houde looked at this competition as a good thing.
“Competition is good, it makes you like, wake up when you tend to work in cruise control mode, it’s always good to know that there’s someone somewhere who’s going to try to do something like you, so it keeps you alert and keeps you want to do even better and work harder, but Skate 4, I don’t know, we’re tackling the skateboarding game a different way than Skate was,” Houde said.
On the topic of the Skate series, many are looking at Session as a spiritual successor to EA’s franchise, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the team at creā-ture studios want their community to understand that these are big shoes to fill.
“People want everything, and we’re going to try to bring everything, but just one feature at a time.”
“The project is a really ambitious one, it’s always a bit scary when you do something like this because we’re trying to fill a void with really high expectations. People are hoping for a new Skate game but in reality what they kind of expect is Skate 4. And when I say that, I mean people are expecting we come up with the same bag of features that Skate 3 has which has a legacy of five years of development and iteration. So this is a really big challenge for us.
“The way we want to do it is that we’re going to put out the first version, it’s going to be quite lean but at least the mechanics and the experiences are going to be strong, and from there we’re going to do this community thing where people can vote on what they would like first and stuff like this so this is a strategy we’re trying to do in order to end up with the project that people want because if we were to do Skate 4 today, I think the team would probably collapse because it’s too big. People want everything, and we’re going to try to bring everything, but just one feature at a time.”
As for the game itself, Houde explained that they’re trying to make more of a skateboarding culture game as opposed to solely a skateboarding game. They want to capture how skaters interact, support each other, and share their experiences, lines, and tricks online all while channelling the vibe that various parts of the Skate series offered.
“I like to think that what we try to do with Session is more than a skateboarding game it’s more of a skateboarding culture game so we’re trying to bring every aspect of the sport and the lifestyle. It’s not only the tricks, but also the way that people share those tricks on the Internet, how they play with their friends, how they skate, and all these things, and I think we’re still like, de-rooting from how Skate 3 was kind of going. Skate 1 has a really authentic vibe of skateboarding culture, and the second one it felt more complete, the art direction was more defined, and Skate 3 was a sort of surprise, a lot more arcade-y than the first, except they added the Hardcore Mode. But to me, I felt like the Hardcore Mode was like they’d turned off some switches here and there and toned down the physics to have something more realistic, but I think it should have been more,” he explained.
“So this is pretty much what we’re trying to do with Session. We’re kind of branching around Skate 2 and try to do something more hardcore and simulation driven.”
As for the game itself, Houde shared some really interesting ideas as to how they’ll be handling the game world, introducing new spots and locations a bit at a time. At first the game may only contain a handful of unique spots, but as it grows, so will the city all of which will be based on feedback from the players as well as in-game stats as to what spots work, and what doesn’t.
“We really like the idea of creating this core city concept. Like, right now we’re working on a section of New York, and the way we’d like to bring it is kind of a different way. We’re giving a small portion of the city and, I would say every month, every two months, people will get an extension of that city. We’re not just shipping a map, we’re expanding it and we’ll tweak it with some features, with some mechanics we have, and other ways to see where people really like to skate in a map, where they don’t, what kind of tricks they’re doing. So with all these metrics it would help us kind of adjust the map and fix where it’s not fun, and repeat the same kind of recipe throughout the whole map.
“I always like to look at real life, like where you show up in a place and then there’s tons of construction sites, panels, and blockers, so it’s probably something we’re going to do in the game. Sometimes you’ll get an update and you’ll go to the end of the street and you’ll see construction panels and signs, just to say that we’re working on that section and to come back later and in the next update those signs might be out and you’ll have a new section or something like this.”
One of the biggest questions we had to ask Houde was what’s happening with the game in terms of crowdfunding the project? Last time we spoke the team had plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign however as fans will probably know by now that this never happened. On the reddit FAQ page, there it still talk of a campaign, so we decided to try and clear things up a little.
“Early Access makes sense and logical for us to go in that direction”
“Kickstarter is going to be a really good option for the people to tell us what they really want and this is how we see it. With the budget we have right now, we can do a first version, that’s for sure. But it’s not going to be a fully-fledged version with every feature we’d love to ship, so yeah we’re definitely considering Early Access or Kickstarter, because I think that it’s a game that would work really well with the concept of Early Access. It’s not like we’re going to spoil the story or anything that’s going to ruin the experience when the game is released, I think it’s a good concept to go there, gather information, share with the community, and update and fix stuff.
“Early Access makes sense and logical for us to go in that direction, but we don’t want to screw things because we also know a crappy Early Access product can kill the project, especially if the game is not fun. If it’s too buggy, to empty, or anything, we have to consider that there’s a portion of people that, even if they jump into Early Access experience, they’re expecting a close-to-finished product. So if we’re not coming up with something that kind of looks like this, it might go totally the opposite way and kill the project.”
“These are all avenues that we’re considering, I think with a Kickstarter, we don’t want to fund the whole thing, I think it’s more a way of just making a better version, or securing some key features that are still in danger right now with the budget we have. So Kickstarter would be a really good way for people to suggest ideas, it could become a stretch goal, and if we achieve this at least everyone would know that it would become a feature.”
“At the end, you’re going to have the game without the Kickstarter, that’s for sure, but it might not be what it could have been with the crowdfunding support. Right now we’re waiting to make sure that we can offer a demo. I don’t want to come up with a campaign just with video, I really want the people to give it a shot and feel the game, see its potential before pledging, I think it’s super important. We just want to make a really honest Kickstarter campaign, no bullshit, nothing.”
So is there going to be a Kickstarter campaign? We’re still unsure, Houde was obviously hesitant to say whether there would be or not, which is understandable given the criticism they’ve previously received around making and breaking plans.
On the topic of community, Session has an incredibly active one. All of the responses on Facebook and Instagram, as well as the various posts on Reddit can attest to that. However Houde has learned a lot about dealing with the community over the past year and a half, though it’s still pretty tough. One thing that Houde finds humbling, yet difficult to handle are fans willing to offer their services for free.
“[Working with the community] is difficult, I would probably say that this is the most difficult part of having a project out in the public this early. There’s a lot of ideas, a lot of really good ideas and sometimes there’s people sending us ideas, tons of emails, messages on Facebook. I’m trying to reply to them all but it’s really difficult, but I’m still trying. But there are some really cool guys out there they send us their demo; ‘hey, I’m doing 3D models I can do it for free and stuff like this, I can help out’, and we have been refusing all those offers, not because it’s not good, but because it’s not respectful.
“When people are offering their help for free, it’s not respectful to accept it easily like this, and take profit of that support, because no. I went to school, I learned 3D models, I worked hard to learn what I have today, and this knowledge is worth something, so when I’m working somewhere and people are like ‘you shouldn’t think about money, because you should do it for passion’, I think it’s not fair for the artist to always put this on passion and pay the cheap card. So that’s why I’m refusing. If I cannot give you money to help, I’d rather refuse because you should be paid to do that.
“So yeah, it’s difficult. You have to respect and gather all those ideas by sticking to the vision you have as a whole. Yeah, it’s our game, but we’re not only doing it for ourselves we’re doing it for the people who like skateboarding and like to play skateboarding games, so we have to consider all of those ideas.”
“Luckily so far people are pretty much in-line with the concept we have”
That being said, the community have been a rock for the development team as their support and ideas have been pretty much in-line with the game that they’re working to create.
“Luckily so far people are pretty much in-line with the concept we have. Sometimes we have some big debates about the scoring system, some people want it, others do not. I just think that there will be some sort of rewards system, they just won’t be points. People will have ways to tell the others the trick was cool, and this is how it’ll work. Like tapping your skateboard on the ground, this is really what we want to leverage, this method of sharing a scoring system. If you put a video on YouTube, your scoring system is the views, thumbs up, this is the reward you’ll get.”
Another huge thing that’s been taking place is of course the motion capture. Here, the development team met up with a local skater Julien Gagnon who, despite some slight hiccups, managed to provide some incredible motion capture work, something that the team are, even today, getting into the game.
“Motion capture went really well. We have a really cool skatepark and board shop here, it’s called The Spin. So we reached out to them because we were looking for a really skilled skater, and they introduced us to Julien Gagnon who I’d never heard of before, and it was a risk to get him on board. Funny story, we met the guy and turns out he was a hardcore gamer, played Skate 3 a lot, and he was telling me what he was doing in the game and I was impressed. He was really excited to be on board, so we plan to meet up at the skatepark for rehearsal and he had the perfect skateboarder attitude we were looking for.
“We had this appointment at 10am on the Saturday morning, and we get there, 10:30, 11:00, and Julien isn’t there, we’re like ‘what the fuck?’. His phone is shut down, no where to reach him and we’re pissed and surprised at the same time. He looked so excited, we were unsure what was wrong. Turns out he’d gone to this bar in Montreal which has a mini-ramp in it and got totally wasted and woke up somewhere, but he was still keen to do this. During rehearsals he was totally hungover and he showed up at the skatepark and started doing some crazy tricks like a 360 flip feeble and stuff like this, and he was smelling like booze like crazy, it was insane.
“[During mo-cap] The kid was super skilled, super consistent. And we have this kind of good old ‘fuck all’ thing in the game, we’re not official, we’re not super professional, it’s a skate game it should feel like this. So we had this guy, we went to one of the biggest facilities in Quebec for Mo Cap, super hi-tech, we’ve done some 3D prototyping, and then we did a full-week of motion capture, and this guy was insane. He was there with this flat bar and we asked him whether he could every variation of a Smith grind or Crooked grind, and he just did it, back to back, no bailing, nothing. I think he landed, like 2000 tricks in two days. It was insane.”
Right now it’s fantastic to see that the team are moving forward with the game and are showing real progress. Aside from motion capture, the developer is currently holding some private play tests where a handful of players can get some time with a small portion of the game to not only give their thoughts, but also see how the game plays and whether things need improving. Though as any developer can probably agree to, Houde is suffering with the term “you’re your own worst critic.”
“We’re really stressed right now, we’re doing a lot. I don’t really sleep that much, I’m doing a lot of extra hours to make sure that everything is all right. My partner is always telling me to chill out, reminding me that it’s just a play test, we’re not giving them a demo or the final game, there are bugs, it’s to be expected, but I’m always wanting to fix this, or change that, it’s always like a big struggle for me whenever we show off this game.
“There’s a list of stuff I feel I need to warn people, this is not the game, this is not working, and this is probably the reason why we’re not showing that much… it’s my fault.”
Now the game is nearing some level of completion, at least in the demo sense of the word, we wanted to discuss how much progress the team had made on two pretty big aspects, especially when it comes to skateboarding games: working with brands and what sort of soundtrack we can expect for the game. Houde told us that while they want to work with brands, getting the game at a level where they can really show off what they have is priority one.
“Lots of people were offering their music for free, but I think it’s not fair to take their music for free”
“[Bringing brands on board] is a lot of work, especially for brands. We haven’t met a lot of brands yet, but my expectation is that we need to get a very close-to-final product to start making deals with brand because they’re not game developers, they’re not used to stuff like this so, asking people who are not in the gaming industry or not used to stuff like this and ask them to to ‘imagine’ how it’ll look, is kind of difficult. So you really need to come up with something that’s nearly finished and looks really good, because you don’t have much time. I’m sure it’s going to go well, but we just want to wait until we have something really solid to show them, to show them how their brand is going to look in the game, how it’ll appear, what options we want to bring to promote their brand.
“As for music, there’s a lot of ideas out there, I think since Session is kind of an independent project, and a passion project as well, I think it would be a shame not to support independent music. A couple of months ago we were working on a form where people can submit their song, and from there we’d have a deal with them, we want to do things right, like how I was saying with the 3D models, we want to do the same thing. Lots of people were offering their music for free, but I think it’s not fair to take their music for free, so we want to make sure to do it properly,” Houde explained.
“Ultimately we’d like to have this hybrid of independent music as well as some much bigger tracks and artists that we like, as wide as we like. I’m a big fan of reggae music and hip-hop, and I was playing in a punk bank when I was young so I listen to a wide range of music so I would really like to have this wide range of styles in the game as well.”
Finally, we touched on one of the biggest questions: When can we expect to see this game become a reality, when can we get it in our hands?
“[When the game will launch is] a tricky question, I don’t know if I would answer. I would like to but I would also like to keep a reserve on this. In the past, we’ve pulled the date, we had a lot of exchange with the community and found out that what we’re bringing was not enough, so that’s kind of the reason that the release date exploded, because again it was not supposed to be open world at the beginning it was supposed to be just a few spots here and there, where players would play on those spots and updates would add more. So the whole concept did a big 180.
“Two things I really hate about the game’s industry right now is this fake crunch thing, where people are doing crazy hours, this is something I would like to avoid, just for sanity-wise, and another thing is just to throw dates in the air and keep pushing and pushing and pushing again.
“We started playtests this week, we’re going to do even more, and we’ll probably open the playtest public, so we’re starting to have something good, we’re also starting to look at our calendar to do some kind of trade shows and events and start showing Session. So we definitely want to come up with an answer to the release date question sometime this year, I would say that we’re in a good way to have people giving it a shot, or at least a portion, and we definitely want to show some gameplay and that the game is working, at least by the end of this year, for sure. But the more it goes, the more it tends to be like, a n “early 2018” release date. Nothing official, but we’re at least going to have something playable. It’s super vague, I know.
“We’re definitely going to show some gameplay within the coming months, and we’re trying to hit the release, I would say it’s safer to say next year. I know it’s annoying and kinda cheesy, but we want to have something really solid, and we’d rather wait. We just want to make sure the game feels good.”
You can keep up with Session over on the creā-ture studios Facebook page and Instagram.Unincorporated place in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Dildo is an unincorporated place on the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located on the southeastern Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay about 60 kilometres west of St. John's. South Dildo is a neighbouring unincorporated community. The town's unusual name has brought it a certain amount of notoriety.[1][2][3]
Name
Trinity Bay with Dildo Island in the middle and Dildo Arm on the right
The place name "Dildo" is attested in this area since at least 1711, though how this came to be is unknown. The origin of the word "dildo" itself is obscure. It was once used to reference a phallus-shaped pin stuck in the edging of a row boat to act as a pivot for the oar (also known as a "thole pin" or "dole pin").[4] It was used as early as the 16th century for a cylindrical object such as a dildo glass (test tube), for a phallus-shaped sex toy, as an insult for a "contemptuous or reviling" male, and as a refrain in ballads.[5]
The name, then written as "Dildoe", was first applied to Dildo Island, located offshore from the present-day town of Dildo. This use was recorded in 1711 and 1775, and the name was thereafter applied to the Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay and other local physical features. Social scientist William Baillie Hamilton notes that Captain James Cook and his assistant Michael Lane, who mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, often displayed a sense of humour in the place names they chose,[citation needed] and were not above selecting names that might offend over-sensitive readers. Regardless of the origin, the name has brought the town of Dildo a measure of notoriety. In the 20th century there were several campaigns to change the name, though all failed.[6]
History
The Dildo area has a long history, going as far back as 2000 BC when Maritime Archaic aboriginal people resided at Anderson's Cove. By 700 AD, people of the Dorset culture inhabited Dildo Island. In 1613, Henry Crout, whilst sailing up Dildo Arm, came in contact with the Beothuks, who were residing on Dildo Island at this time. He traded with them and left gifts. In 1711 the inhabitants of Trinity Bay were ordered by Governor Crow to leave their homes during the winter, to defend themselves against the French, who burned their houses. Dildo Island was one of the places designated for this purpose. The town of Dildo was founded in the late 18th century and settled to exploit the abundance of marine resources such as fish (mostly cod), whales and seals.[7]
Gallery
Community of Dildo, Nfld.
Boats in Dildo harbour
Boathouses and shanties
George House B&B Inn
Dildo harbour
References
Coordinates:More from Lawrence Martin available More fromavailable here
There isn’t much of what you’d call oratory in Canadian politics any more. Our leaders are low-key in their presentation, pedestrian in their choice of words. Lift an audience out of their seats? They don’t even try.
I suppose we can’t expect the theatrics of a Diefenbaker, the inspiration of a Churchill or the eloquence of a Kennedy. But do our politicians have to be so bland?
Case in point: the sluggish speech given by NDP leader Thomas Mulcair to the Canadian Club of Ottawa Tuesday. These days there is so much for opposition leaders to get worked up about; in his speech, Mulcair focused on the recent ethics scandals in Ottawa, as he should have.
But he showed no passion, indignation or outrage. He was casual and wearisome throughout. He just sort of laboured on, reading words quickly from his text. The audience was unmoved, interrupting his speech to applaud only once.
If a Tommy Douglas or a Diefenbaker had been at the podium, with scandal ammunition available, you can bet the crowd would have witnessed a barn-burner. You can bet they would have been on their feet.
The unfortunate thing is that Mulcair has the capacity to deliver a stemwinder. He has a booming set of vocal chords, a strong presence, Irish blood. But he is purposely holding himself in check because NDP strategists are worried that he comes across as too hot, too angry. They want to tone him down.
NDP strategists are worried that Mulcair comes across as too hot, too angry. They want to tone him down. But Tom doesn’t do ‘toned-down’ very well.
But Tom doesn’t do ‘toned-down’ very well. Tone him down too much and he’ll disappear. His speech referenced the Senate scandal, the evidence of vote suppression in the last election, the $3.1 billion missing from the treasury. But the word he kept using to describe Conservative malfeasance was “lapses” … ethical “lapses.”
You can imagine how apoplectic Tories must have been at hearing that: Gee fellas, we’re guilty of lapses.
Mulcair has to let his Irish blood flow. That’s who he is. Obviously he can’t be near boiling point all the time. But these times call for aggression — the big throttle.
In terms of public speaking ability, Mulcair has an advantage over his rivals. Stephen Harper on the podium is decidedly uninspiring. Justin Trudeau has a charismatic presence but so far has shown very little to complement it. When he is on, Mulcair — along with Bob Rae — is the most impressive performer in the Commons.
Mulcair has been outstanding in question period lately, tearing into the prime minister over the Senate scandal like a courtroom prosecutor. Instead of the long, predictable sermons opposition critics usually deliver, his queries have been short, punchy and specific. Harper is no slouch in QP. But Mulcair, a lawyer by trade, has often made the PM look uncomfortable and evasive.
But he has to fire up audiences outside the Commons as well. This is his moment. Ethics is replacing economics as the big issue and this could be gold for opposition parties. Mulcair has to convince voters that it is only the NDP that can clean up Ottawa and reconstruct our democracy.
“Step-by-step,” he said. “the old Reform-turned-Conservative Party has turned its back on its own ideals in the pursuit of power … Instead of changing the culture of entitlement here, they’ve become a part of it.” Whereas both old-line parties have been corrupted, he said, the NDP, which has never held power in Ottawa, offers new hope.
But the speech didn’t lay out an alternative plan of democratic reform to address the abuse of power and the excessive concentration of it in the office of the prime minister. Both the Liberals and NDP have put out some reform ideas — nothing significant enough to change the Ottawa culture. The party that does this, that can convince Canadians it can change the system, likely will have the best chance of beating the Conservatives.
This is no time for Tom Mulcair to be delivering snoozers.
Lawrence Martin is the author of 10 books, including six national bestsellers. His most recent, Harperland, was nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen award. His other works include two volumes on Jean Chrétien, two on Canada-U.S. relations and three books on hockey.
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.Virbank City
After some training in the complex Candy evolved. She seems to have gotten over her pink fleece phase but for some reason her tail bauble is green now. Anyway hunting for audino, as some guy suggested, did the trick and I feel ready for the gym.
I eventually find the gym, it looks like a crappy night club and sounds worse. I barely didn’t get in because some guy at the door wouldn’t accept my “out of date” trainer card and he didn’t believe I’m 43. Well I’m not 43 but I guess it’s kind of awkward to get a new ID every time I travel in time and if it weren’t for this diary I’d have lost track of my age by the time I got to Kanto… the first time.
Anyway it cost me a crisp 1000 pokédollar bill to get into the club. I decide to challenge the gym leader as fast as possible before my ears start to bleed. I quickly discover the gym leader’s name is Roxie and she’s also the lead guitarist for the band that’s playing right now. She also likes to spell out words while “singing”.
I boldly step on stage and approach Roxie.
- Um… excuse me…
Who’s the narc?
- Uh.. yeah. I’m here to challenge you for a gym badge?
Roxie sighs and rolls her eyes at me.
Fine, whatever… narc.
Go Koffing!
- Go Doge!
- Ember!
Smog!
Doge spits tiny flames on koffing while koffing fills the area with a dark smog, choking Doge and poisoning him.
- Ember!
Smog!
Doge sprays little flames over koffing again and then chokes on more of koffing’s smog.
- Ember!
Roxie sprays a super potion on koffing before Doge spits embers into the smog surrounding koffing, triggering a small explosion and dealing critical damage.
- Ember!
Smog!
Doge spits embers in koffing’s face before it drops to the floor like a basketball.
Go Whirlipede!
- Doge return! Go Babs!
Protect!
Whirlipede curls up to defend itself as Babs leaves her pokéball.
- Flame charge!
Venoshock!
Whirlipede sprays some nasty looking purple liquid on Babs as she cloaks herself in flames and slams into whirlipede but accidentally poisoned herself on one of whirlipede’s spines.
- Babs return! Go Candy!
Venoshock!
Candy’s shine is quickly ruined as she’s doused by that nastly looking liquid whirlipede is spitting.
- Thundershock!
Venoshock!
Candy is covered in poisonous goo from whirlipede before shaking it off and jolting whilipede.
- Thundershock!
Venoshock!
Whirlipede sprays more nasty goop over Candy as she electrocutes it in return.
- Candy return! Go Kat!
Venoshock!
Whirlipede douses Kat in purple goo as she leaves her pokéball.
- Fury swipes!
Venoshock!
Kat leaps at whirlipede, furiously scratching it. Even getting poisoned by it’s spines, Kat doesn’t stop until whirlipede topples over.
You battle pretty good for a narc. Just take the damn Toxic Badge.
Hey there! You battled great! You might be perfect for the Pokéstar Studios! Want to take a tour? It’s just north of–
- Nope!
As I step outside the gym I’m confronted by three plasm grunts.
Hey there, hand over your pokémon!
- Um.. no?
Aha! You’re not getting away this time!
Oh, we’ll take yours too!
What’s going on outside my gym?
And we’ll take your pokémon too, little miss.
Hugh, Roxie and I each punch a grunt in the face. Roxie proceeds to kick one of them in the groin and Hugh leaps on one, throttling him while bashing his skull on the pavement. I step over the heap of plasm grunts and make my way to the docks.Ryan Zimmerman hit.218 in 467 at-bats in 2016, making him one of MLB’s worst everyday players, by at least one metric. He’s still in shape and has elite bat speed however, and he’s buying into Daniel Murphy’s thoughts on launch angle. That could mean a late-career reinvention for the 32-year old infielder. (Logan Bowles/USA Today Sports)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — If Mike Rizzo had hair, it would have stood up, or maybe caught fire, when he heard my slander that Ryan Zimmerman might be washed up at age 32 with $48 million still left on the contract the Washington Nationals’ general manager had signed with him.
“I’ll bet you the best dinner in Chicago at Joe’s Stone Crabs and Steaks that Zimmerman will hit at least.275 with 20 homers and 75 RBI,” Rizzo said.
“That won’t cost you much,” I said, “since you own part of that restaurant.”
Told of the Rizzo Proposition on Friday, Zimmerman pounced. “I’ll take that bet,” he said, making clear that he wanted the “over.”
“Zimmerman is my pick to click [this year],” Nats Manager Dusty Baker said.
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When I arrived here this month, I considered Zimmerman the Nats’ biggest problem, worse than the absence of a proven closer. Last year, FanGraphs ranked him the second-worst player in baseball out of the 203 who reached 400 at-bats. Such a huge negative-value anchor at first base, a premium power position, can help sink the whole boat.
[Boswell: Harper likes the pressure of ‘what have you done for me lately?’]
Zimmerman is one of the proudest, most self-confident and, thus, often most stubborn players I’ve met. During dozens of hard times, he’s said, “Ride it out. Trust yourself. The hot streak will come.” In baseball, that’s usually a good quality. But, as you age, it can kill a career. I’ve waited years to hear the following words.
“Everyone says we are creatures of habit, but this is the sport where you are asked to change more than any other sport — sometimes pitch-to-pitch,” said Zimmerman. “And if you don’t, you die.”
This season, you will see a significantly altered Zimmerman, certainly in his mental approach to hitting, but also with changes to a complex swing that he is already tweaking and, he hopes, simplifying. For the organization’s original Face of the Franchise, it is a make-or-break career gamble, the kind that terrifies athletes — especially because Zimmerman is changing on multiple fronts at once. If it works, it’ll be as if the Nats got back a bonus player. If it fails, then what’s next? Don’t ask.
He has discussed and worked with Daniel Murphy and hitting coach Rick Schu on how to radically alter the launch angle of his swing from a horrific, worm-killing 7.9 degrees over the past two years to something like 15 degrees or higher.
“All these [Nats] think I’m crazy, but I want to hit the ball in the air [every time], optimally at about 25 degrees at 98 miles per hour. Those are home runs,” Murphy said Friday. “Ryan’s exit velocity last year was elite [14th in baseball, at 94.1 mph]. He’s just looking to take his already elite skill of putting bat to ball and [achieving high] exit velocity off the barrel and get it at the right angle. Now we’re really starting to do some serious damage.
Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman makes a nifty between-the-legs throw to first while taking infield practice on Saturday. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
“He hit the ball really hard last year. He’s already doing the hardest thing at the high end. I don’t think there needs to be big adjustments.”
[With Angels, Danny Espinosa found a soft landing for a hard fall]
So, what’s the biggest key to elevating launch angle? Probably CalTech-level quantum mechanics, right, Murph?
“You focus on the bottom of the ball,” he said.
That’s it?
“Hit the bottom of the ball.”
To Murphy, a lifelong obsessive student of hitting, the past two years have been “Eureka,” and he wants to spread the word. “I read FanGraphs a lot. I’m kind of a geek,” he said. “It’s cool because with all the data we’ve been given now, we’ve kind of been given some of the answers to the test.”
Imagine: The answer to the test of hitting.
“If you get it at this exit velocity at this launch angle, it’s ‘damage,’ ” Murphy said.
Can Zimmerman do it? He has the hand-eye coordination and the power to produce the exit velocity. Can he double the |
when I've been asked to build a 'yet another Rails app that brings the contents of a database into a browser' then someone who just read a book is probably just as good as I am. However when time comes to fix the database, or the browser, or any other number of tools involved in the process, the theoretical underpinnings of computer science became quite important."
As Danny Sleator, professor of computer science and the coach of our programming teams at Carnegie Mellon, one of the nation's top computer science schools, acknowledges, "there's a lot of stuff [we] teach that you may not end up running in to...but you might."
That may seem a faint promise to justify the $100,000-plus cost of a four-year degree. Not surprisingly, many of those with an affinity for coding are opting for alternatives to a traditional degree, like online courses and boot camps.
The former seem a viable alternative except for one thing: Their woeful completion rate. According to SkilledUp, only 5% of people who sign up for an online course finish it to completion. If you pay for a course, the figure doubles.
Boot camps have a much higher completion rate — 90%. Relatedly, they demand a much bigger commitment. Because they require your physical presence, you sometimes have to move to attend them. The cost also range as high as $36,000 though the average is a lot lower and some programs will even pay you to attend, if you're accepted. An exhaustive list of the dozens of boot camp programs can be found here.
They don't call them boot camps for nothing, though. Lighthouse, for instance, is an eight-week program of 10- to 12-hour days that will cost you $8,000. The placement rate is 100%, but you're only going to make about $500 a week or about $25,000 a year for a three-month coop position. After that, salaries range from $45,000 to $80,000, Burks says. (CodeFellows, another boot camp program guarantees you a job making at least $60,000 after you graduate.)
Such programs are viewed as an entry point for junior positions where you can work your way up. Solomon's 10X coders, who can make up to $300 or so per hour, usually have more than five years of full-time coding experience.
From there, you could, of course, found a startup and become fabulously wealthy or just make a decent living as a programmer. However, you'll be facing off against graduates from top computer science schools who — regardless of their level of coding proficiency — may get job offers that you don't. "The downside of going to school is that it takes more time and it's also expensive," says Sleator. On the other hand, "Our students get a lot of the real plum jobs. I don't think it's easy for someone coming out of a [boot camp] program to get a job at Google."BOSTON (AP) — National Grid is asking state regulators for an electricity rate hike of more 20 percent for most Massachusetts residential customers that would drive up bills this winter, but keep them lower than last winter.
The utility, with nearly 1.3 million customers in Massachusetts, says if approved by the state Department of Public Utilities, the typical residential customer would see their bill jump to about $110 a month this winter, up from the current $90.
Last winter’s typical monthly bill was more than $121.
National Grid said “Due to continued gas pipeline constraints, the electric supply prices remain volatile and relatively high, though not as high as last winter.”
If approved, the new rates would take effect in November and run through April.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Story highlights "The sides are speaking different languages" in the gun debate
President Obama avoided the phrase "gun control" in announcing executive orders
There is no clear definition of "assault rifle"
"In American politics, the person who gets to define the issue wins," gun debate expert says
It's the biggest, fiercest debate taking place across America. But it's poisoned from the get-go by a Tower of Babel predicament.
In disputes over the future of gun laws, people espousing different positions often literally don't understand each other.
"The sides are speaking different languages," says Harry Wilson, author of "Guns, Gun Control, and Elections: The Politics and Policy of Firearms."
Many of the most frequently used words and phrases in this debate mean different things to different people -- or, in some cases, don't have clear meanings to anyone. From terms like "assault weapons" to the battle between "gun control" and "gun rights," the language in the national conversation is making it tougher to find common ground.
"What language does is frame the issue in one way that includes some things and excludes others," says Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University linguistics professor and author of "The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words."
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It's a phenomenon that America sees all the time: "pro-life" vs. "pro-choice" in the abortion debate; "marriage equality" vs. "protecting marriage" in the battle over same-sex marriage. Those who oppose the estate tax have termed it a "death tax."
"The gun control debate is catching up to this now," says Wilson, director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.
As the debate rages in Washington and throughout the country, here's a look at some of the flashpoint lingo muddying the waters:
'Gun control' vs. 'gun rights'
When President Obama recently announced plans to sign 23 executive orders on the issue, he avoided the phrase "gun control." Instead, he emphasized the need "to reduce the broader epidemic of gun violence in this country."
"We've seen this transformation from use of the term 'gun control' to 'gun violence,' " says Wilson, "because no one can be in favor of gun violence. That's universal."
"Gun control," to many Americans, is not a positive term, Tannen adds.
The key is "the set of associations people have with a word" -- and Americans don't like the idea of the government "controlling" many of their decisions.
That's why "gun rights" works well for the National Rifle Association in pushing against new gun laws. "For Americans, the word 'rights' is always a positive thing. That's not necessarily true in other cultures, but it is for Americans," Tannen says.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, spoke to those associations this week during his testimony before Congress.
"We believe in our freedom," he said, speaking for gun owners who are NRA members. "We're the millions of Americans from all walks of life who take responsibility for our own safety and protection as a God-given, fundamental right."
While the current debate has its own tenor, the focus on language has been around for decades. It's embodied in the title of one of the best-known gun control groups.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence grew out of an organization called the National Council to Control Handguns.
'Common sense'
Listen to any leading voice on this issue, and you're likely to hear that term repeatedly.
President Obama used it to describe the steps he's calling for, including universal background checks for gun owners and legislation prohibiting "further manufacture of military-style assault weapons."
The NRA, meanwhile, announced in December that LaPierre would offer "common sense solutions." He then pushed for armed guards in American schools. Many Americans were angry and argued that was the opposite of common sense. The NRA later said it believes each school should decide for itself.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, have begun a political action committee to take on the gun lobby's influence. In an op-ed in USA Today, they said LaPierre's initial remarks showed that "winning even the most common-sense reforms will require a fight."
Wilson says the term seems to be playing well for those pushing for new gun regulations. "It makes people say, 'these are common-sense ideas,' " he says.
'Assault weapons'
But what exactly are those ideas? When it comes to the most controversial one being discussed -- banning "assault weapons" -- it's unclear. That's because the term itself is abstract. There is no clear definition of an "assault weapon."
The 10-year so-called assault weapons ban enacted in 1994 named 19 semiautomatic firearms, as well as semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns with specific features.
"In general, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use," the Justice Department said at the time.
That may be the closest thing to a simple explanation the government ever gave, but if you want to see how incredibly complicated the official definition is in the law itself, check out the language
"I wrote a book on gun control. I don't know what an assault weapon is," Wilson says.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation and other gun enthusiasts complain that what ultimately separated an "assault weapon" from a "non-assault weapon" under the 1994 law was cosmetic
Some Second Amendment groups and gun retailers prefer the terms "tactical rifle" or "modern sporting rifle."
The term "assault rifle" was first used by Germany during World War II, The New York Times notes. Later, U.S. manufacturers adopted the words as they began to sell firearms modeled after new military rifles.
In today's parlance, adding "military-style" doesn't draw a clear line either.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who has submitted legislation for a new "assault weapons ban," says it would include, among other things, "all semiautomatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: pistol grip; forward grip; folding, telescoping, or detachable stock; grenade launcher or rocket launcher; barrel shroud; or threaded barrel."
The previous ban included semiautomatic pistols with at least two features, including a detachable magazine, threaded barrel, a shroud allowing the shooter to "hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned," a weight of 50 ounces or more unloaded, or what was described as "a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm."
'Semiautomatic'
An automatic weapon, as the Justice Department put it, is a machine gun that allows you to fire bullets in succession by holding in the trigger. Fully automatic weapons are severely restricted under existing law, but in some cases they are still legal to own, as the Los Angeles Times notes.
They're commonly used in the military but rarely owned by civilians.
A semiautomatic weapon can load bullets automatically, but it fires only once each time you pull the trigger.
Under a 1994 law, some variants of new AR-15 semi-automatic rifles were banned until 2004.
In the effort to prevent mass killings, those pushing for a new assault weapons ban want to halt the production and sale of certain semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity "feeding devices" -- such as magazines -- that allow for a large number of rounds of ammunition.
Feinstein's bill would ban selling, transferring, importing or manufacturing 120 named firearms, certain semiautomatic rifles, handguns, "shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one military characteristic" and "semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds."
During the previous ban, gun manufacturers were able to make cosmetic changes to evade the law. One chief question now is how a piece of legislation could avoid the same happening again.
Can words help bridge the gap?
"If you get new words, there's a better chance of moving beyond the polarization," says Tannen, who is spending this year at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. But, she warns: "Words don't stay neutral for long -- because they quickly get associated with the people that use them."
When asked for a case in which more neutral language may have helped the government reach a consensus on a controversial topic, Tannen said "nothing comes to mind."
Instead, the race is on to control the semantics, which are "crucial," says Wilson.
"In American politics, the person who gets to define the issue wins."The global blockchain consortium R3 uniting over 40 major banks and financial organisations welcomes its first Chinese member, Ping An Financial Services Group.
Ping An (meaning in Chinese “safe and well”), originally founded as an insurance company, is now an important financial group uniting a variety of insurance, banking and financial subsidiaries. It is represented in over 150 countries. The new partnership with R3 will allow it to experiment with the blockchain technology. To put it in the words of Jessica Tan, COO of the company:
“Ping An Group has always been at the forefront of using technology and innovation in its banking, insurance, investment and internet businesses. We are excited about joining R3 and look forward to developing and using blockchain technology to create a more efficient way of managing financial assets digitally end-to-end.”
New partnership opens the world’s second economy to the consortium. According to David Rutter, CEO of R3,
“The addition of Ping An is another important milestone for R3 as we develop our member network to represent the interests of banks and financial institutions operating in markets around the globe. We look forward to collaborating with them in our lab to develop the next generation in financial services technology.”
The R3 consortium was created in September 2015 when Barclays, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and others – nine of the world’s largest banks in total – formed a partnership to explore blockchain, apply the technology to interbank communications and trading process and develop blockchain-based solutions for the global financial industry.
In March 2016, R3 announced the completion of the trial of five cloud-based blockchain solutions. They were successfully tested by all the banks participating in the consortium. In April, the consortium presented Corda, a new technology for financial institutions different from blockchain, which it had been working on for the previous 6 months.
Over time, new banks have been joining the consortium including such giants as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and Mitsubishi UFJ. In April, Itaú Unibanco beсame the first Latin American member of R3.
Alexey TereshchenkoWow. I think that's the best way to describe November for GMB.
After a couple weeks of development in October we launched GMB into the wild on Friday Nov 3rd with a simple post to /r/UnearthedArcana. As I expected, there wasn't a flood of users that first night.
However, as the days went by it seemed people were starting to take notice. I had a few PMs with mods of various subreddits, some were good, others not so much. As the days went on though, those who were paying attention saw that GMB was getting support, and had a solid roadmap ahead of it.
And wouldn't ya know it, people started making documents!
So now we're a full month in, and I figured why not give an update on a few numbers you might think are interesting.
November Stats
New Users: 264
Documents Created: 472
Documents Shared: 99 (so close!)
Top 5 Documents
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We have a set of some pretty big features lined up for December, and I think this will be the month where you start to see GMB add some super useful new features that you won't find anywhere else.
So yeah, that's a quick update on how things have gone and are going.
I'm positive that December is going to see even better numbers. Primarily because we're already 2/3 of the way there in regards to page views after only 3 days!Does Greg Carvel have the answer? The key? The plan?
Somewhere there is a combination that unlocks the mystery of how to turn UMass into a hockey power. Everyone believes it exists, but nobody has found it yet.
Thursday at press conferences in Amherst and Boston, the former St. Lawrence coach will be introduced as the next candidate to uncover that path.
A fanbase that’s equally restless and hopeful will put their faith in him.
Belief in the program’s potential has been fueling Minuteman fans for over two decades now. Someday that faith, they believe, will be rewarded.
There are UMass basketball fans who believe that a coach isn’t successful unless they produce a return to Calipari Era accomplishments. There are football fans who think it’s just a matter of time before that program is in the Big Ten.
For abundant reasons – recruiting base, conference affiliation etc. – those are pipe dreams.
But that’s not the case for hockey, at least it shouldn’t be. There is no goal too big for UMass hockey. The Minutemen have enough things working in their favor to be a power in the sport. UMass can make a Frozen Four. It can win a national championship, and it can contend regularly in Hockey East.
That sounds silly to say because none of those things have happened. Since joining Hockey East and becoming a Division I program in 1994-95, UMass has been one of the league’s worst programs.
In 22 seasons playing a Division I schedule, UMass has had more seasons winning less than a quarter of its games (seven) and winning seasons (three).
Quinnipiac and Nebraska-Omaha moved up to Division I after UMass did, and both have reached the Frozen Four and multiple NCAA Tournaments, while UMass has made the field one time.
So why hasn’t hockey flourished at UMass? There’s plenty of theories, and fans are willing to blame everyone and everything – coaching, recruiting, the administration, the ice surface and bad luck.
But, whatever the reason, they’ve struggled. In 2015-16, UMass was ranked 48th in the Kratch and 49th in the PairWise, two computer formulas that rank the sport’s 60 teams. The Minutemen were dead last in Hockey East in 2015-16 and have never finished higher than third.
Carvel is being asked to pick UMass up from near the bottom of the canyon and carry it to the top of the mountain. It sounds like a mythical task. But it’s not a pipe dream.
UMass is in a league where being competitive in the league means contending for a national championship.
Since 2011, 10 different Hockey East teams have made the NCAA Tournament. Everyone from Boston College and it’s big athletic department fueled by ACC money down to Merrimack, which is Division II in everything but hockey. It’s a challenge, but everyone but UConn, which is still pretty new, has figured it out.
In the Mullins Center, UMass has a facility and practice rink that are certainly good enough to attract recruits. Amherst is a reasonable drive from the hometowns of plenty of Division I-caliber players.
The school is academically strong but not so restrictive that it drastically limits who can be recruited.
New athletic director Ryan Bamford seems invested in making hockey successful. On top of that, his own reputation is at stake too. Carvel is his first hire, and the coach’s success or failure will reflect on the administration.
Bamford’s biggest success to this point is UMass’ decision is paying cost of attendance benefits to all scholarship athletes, including hockey players. That not only puts the hockey program in a stronger position nationally but could allow it to win recruiting battles against Hockey East teams who aren’t giving players the additional stipend.
Getting elite players is challenge No.1, but developing and keeping that talent is equally important, if not more so.
John Micheletto might still be coaching the Minutemen if Frank Vatrano had stayed another year. It’s safe to assume the AHL’s scoring leader might have netted a few for UMass. The Minutemen’s blue-line corps wouldn’t have been quite as young and quite as thin if AHL All-Star Brandon Montour stayed for one more season.
But every coach faces that. Toot Cahoon lost Greg Mauldin, James Marcou, Casey Wellman and Jonathan Quick sooner than he’d have liked, and Hockey East’s top teams lose players to the NHL every year. The trick is having the next key player ready in the pipeline.
Since UMass reinstated hockey in 1993, many in the hockey community called the program a sleeping giant. There was no reason to think the Minutemen couldn’t become at least competitive, and maybe elite, in the sport. It seems like every time there’s a coaching change the term “sleeping giant” pops up again. But other than the peak of the Cahoon era, the giant keeps pressing the snooze button.
Can Carvel wake it up for good? He’s about to hit the ground running.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverageThe owner and operator of the Fulton Rest Home, an independent living facility for men with disabilities in Berkeley, told residents last month they had 60 days to clear out.
Annie Jacob, who has run the facility at 2555 Fulton St., gave residents notice on April 20. They have to be out by June 20.
More than a dozen men live at the home and many, especially those with limited resources, don’t know where they’ll go. And there isn’t an abundance of housing options for them.
Jacob’s attorney, David Finkelstein, said his client sold the property to another party. He wouldn’t say who.
“The house did sell,” he said. “I am very confident in telling you that is has sold.”
Reached by phone Thursday, Jacob said, “I don’t own the building anymore,” before abruptly hanging up.
A private operator of a residential care facility can close the business and evict the tenants with only a 30-day notice, according to Disability Rights California, an advocacy group that runs a website listing tenant rights for people in care homes.
“This unfortunate situation is reflective of the broader challenges in the Bay Area housing market and the general trend of closures of licensed facilities as longtime operators move out of the business,” Robert Ratner, the housing services director for Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, wrote in an email to parents and guardians of the Fulton Rest Home residents.
“As long as these sites remain privately rather than publicly held, there are few restrictions on these types of closures,” Ratner added.
Meghan Gordon, an East Bay Community Law Center attorney who has met with two parents and several residents, said it is unclear whether there is “legitimate legal basis to evict the tenants.”
“We also believe that based on the notice that (the Fulton Rest Home operator has) given, if they were to proceed with an eviction lawsuit, they might have some difficulty prevailing,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a slam dunk.”
The property has a long, college dorm-like hall with rooms — two beds, two chests of drawers, maybe two lamps — on either side of the hallway. It’s near the UC Berkeley campus.
One woman, who requested her name not be printed, said her son has lived at Fulton Rest Home for 18 years. He’s 47 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adolescent.
Her son walks the five blocks from Fulton Rest Home to her apartment almost every day. It’s part of the routine that allows him to maintain a sense of independence. Sometimes he takes a long nap in his childhood room. Sometimes he washes dishes.
“I just feel so grateful, because that’s an amazing thing,” his mother said.
He stays with her every other weekend. When they go out together, they like to shoot a couple of games of pool. And during almost every visit, her son flips through an old family photo album.
She’s begun the search for her son’s next home, a move she knows will be disruptive for him.
Parents and relatives of the men feel they weren’t given adequate notice. They say Jacob gave the men the notice and didn’t notify their guardians. Two people told me they haven’t gotten an explanation from Jacob.
Calleen Fulcher is the guardian for her brother, Leslie Fulcher, 57, who has lived in the rest home for 27 years. She said she didn’t find out about the closure until a parent of another resident called to ask if she knew anything about it.
Fulcher went to the facility to talk to her brother.
“He said, ‘Yeah, the lady came at bedtime and gave us’” the notice, Calleen Fulcher told me. “Even if you were going to share that kind of information, why share it with them at bedtime?”
Fulcher says she sees herself as more than just an advocate for her brother. She’s thinking about the other residents, like the man who has been at Fulton Rest Home for 30 years but whose parents are dead. Another man only has his mother, who is 94.
“And there’s not much out there,” Fulcher said about adult residential facilities.
After living there for so long, many of the men are attached to their routines. And for them, a routine is essential for their independence and well-being.House Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio) reiterated Thursday that he wants to repeal all of President Obama’s healthcare law if the Supreme Court doesn’t toss out the entire statute.
“We voted to fully repeal the president’s healthcare law as one of our first acts as a new House majority, and our plan remains to repeal the law in its entirety,” Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE said to reporters. “Anything short of that is unacceptable.”
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Republicans are focusing more intently on their healthcare strategy as the high court’s ruling approaches. The court is expected to rule next month on whether the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and, if so, whether the rest of the law should fall along with it.
If the court upholds the entire law or only throws out the mandate, Republicans will have to decide how to handle its politically popular provisions, including the policy that bars insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Conservatives are lobbying their colleagues to avoid the temptation of leaving popular elements in place. Boehner made clear on Thursday that he’s committed to full repeal.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) also urged Republicans to abandon even the most popular elements of the healthcare law as they prepare for the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I'm a little concerned that there might be some people in the House that would repeal what they might call the most egregious aspects of ObamaCare, [but] leave some of those aspects that seem to have some support,” King said on C-SPAN Thursday morning. “My position is very strong — I will fight that. I want all of it pulled out by the roots.”
A measure to repeal the entire healthcare law was the first bill Republicans brought to the floor after taking a majority in the House.
Conservatives have also been pushing the party to steer clear of a comprehensive plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. They believe a single, unified proposal would expose Republicans to charges of hypocrisy, given their consistent attacks on the length and scope of Obama’s healthcare law.
King endorsed the piecemeal approach.
“I agree with what I've heard come from leadership, it's something I've been arguing also for two and a half years, that Republicans shouldn't go into a formerly smoke-filled room and put together a great big healthcare policy to replace ObamaCare when and if that time should come,” he said.Strengthening bilateral cooperation with China is a “strategic choice” for Greece, leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said on the eve of a five-day official visit to Beijing and Shanghai aimed at wooing investors.
In an interview with the state news agency Xinhua, Tsipras said his visit signalled the joint will between the two countries to “take a big step forward.”
The Greek coalition leader said that the sale of Piraeus Port to China Cosco Shipping could become the springboard for a “new, mutually beneficial” agreement between the two countries.
On Thursday, the government tried frantically to put out a fire that started when Cosco raised objections to “unilateral” changes to the agreement for the sale of a majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) that was submitted for ratification to Parliament earlier in the week.
Fearing that the latest fiasco would cast a shadow over the China visit, the government backtracked on the changes it made to the agreement that had angered the Chinese company.Aldon Smith won't be returning to the San Francisco 49ers, but he is staying in the Bay Area.
The Oakland Raiders signed Smith to a one-year contract after a recent face-to-face meeting, the team announced Friday.
Smith's deal can be worth up to $8 million, a source who has seen the contract told NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport. He will receive a $1 million base salary with $5 million in 53-man roster bonuses and $2 million in sack incentives.
Rapoport was told by an NFL spokesman that Smith is expected to play against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. He's expected to play about 20 snaps.
Smith, who practiced with the Raiders on Friday, chose Oakland over the Jaguars, Buccaneers and Rams, per Rapoport.
The 49ers released Smith early last month in the wake of his third DUI arrest. The All-Pro pass rusher has had a long-running series of off-field issues, including a nine-game suspension last season for violating the league's Policy on Personal Conduct and Substances of Abuse.
Smith was charged Friday with three misdemeanors stemming from the incident that occured early last month. He was charged with DUI with a prior conviction and refusal to submit to a chemical test, hit-and-run with property damage and vandalism under $400, according to Public Communications Officer Sean Webby of the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office. His arraignment date is set for Oct. 6 and Webby added that the timing of the announcement is unrelated to Smith's signing with the Raiders.
"We are confident that the Raiders provide an environment where Aldon can thrive through the support, structure and leadership within the building," Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie said, according to the team's official site. "We are excited to have Aldon here in the Raiders family."
Raiders veteran safety Charles Woodson said he was pleased to have Smith on the team, but brushed away the notion he might serve as a mentor to his new teammate.
"Aldon is a grown man. Whatever he has to deal with, I'm sure he'll deal with it, accordingly," Woodson told reporters Friday. "I'm not a babysitter, and I don't think anyone expects anyone on this team to be his babysitter. The only thing we expect is that he comes in and works hard."
Defensive end Justin Tuck also saw Smith's addition to the roster as a positive development for the Raiders.
"The future is bright for that kid," Tuck said. "Aldon is a really self-aware type of dude, so he'll let us know how we can help him.
"He brings another weapon... he can make the opposing quarterback very nervous."
Although Smith has signed, Rapoport added that NFL and local law enforcement officials are still sorting out whether he will be suspended and how long a potential ban would last.
When the Niners released Smith, coach Jim Tomsula emphasized the 25-year-old's need to address his issues "with 100 percent of everything he has." Hopefully, the Raiders have a support system in place that will allow him to toe the line while concentrating on football.
Once he does return to the field, Smith will team with Khalil Mack to form one of the NFL's most-explosive bookend pass-rushing tandems.
"Most dominant teams have two pass rushers," NFL Media's Bucky Brooks explained on a recent edition of the Move The Sticks Podcast. "I see (Mack) as a guy that could be more like an Ahmad Brooks for the 49ers when they had Aldon Smith, meaning Aldon Smith commands attention but (Mack) is wearing you out versus one-on-one. I don't know if Mack's game will translate where he's able to win versus double teams consistently."
If Smith takes advantage of his second chance and turns his life around, the Raiders could boast a duo reminiscent of the Colts' Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis partnership that combined for 186 sacks from 2003 to 2012.FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out any wrongdoing in football. We understand that today’s actions by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice on behalf of the US authorities and the Swiss Office of the Attorney General (initiated by FIFA through the submission of the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process) relate to different matters.
Firstly, the arrest of six individuals this morning in Zurich concerns investigations by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of the State of New York. The Swiss authorities, acting on behalf of their US counterparts, arrested the individuals for activities carried out in relation with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL business.
The second instance follows FIFA’s initiative of presenting the file on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process to the Swiss Office of the Attorney General in November 2014. The authorities are taking the opportunity of the FIFA Congress to interview those FIFA Executive Committee members who are not Swiss residents who voted back in 2010 and are still in office.
Today, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General announced that it has opened criminal proceedings against persons unknown in relation to the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™ bidding process. FIFA is fully cooperating with the investigation and is supporting the collection of evidence in this regard. As noted by the Swiss authorities, this collection of evidence is being carried out on a cooperative basis.
We are pleased to see that the investigation is being energetically pursued for the good of football and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken.The UK Prime Minister is using the annual G7 summit of seven of the world’s major industrialized democracies to push for more to be done about online extremism, including co-ordinating on ways to force social media platforms to be more pro-active about removing and reporting extremist content to authorities.
Theresa May is chairing a counter-terrorism session at the G7 summit today in Sicily, meeting with the leaders of the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and representatives of the European Union.
It’s a drum her own Home Secretary has been banging at home in recent months. And just the latest instance of the political thumbscrews being applied to social media giants.
In Germany in April, for example, the government backed proposals to levy fines of up to €50 million on social media firms that fail to promptly remove illegal hate speech from their platforms.
Before leaving for the summit yesterday the BBC reported May planned to lead a discussion with her fellow world leaders on how to “work together to prevent the plotting of terrorist attacks online and to stop the spread of hateful extremist ideology on social media”.
According to The Guardian, she is expected to tell her G7 counterparts that the fight against ISIS is shifting from the “battlefield to the Internet”, and to urge them to co-operate to enforce stricter rules on social media companies.
Specifically, the newspaper said May will press for social media firms to:
develop tools that could automatically identify and remove harmful material based on what it contains and who posted it
tell the authorities when harmful material is identified so that action can be taken
revise conditions and industry guidelines to make them absolutely clear about what constitutes harmful material
The move follows another terror attack on UK soil after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a pop concert in Manchester on Monday evening, killing and wounding multiple people.
Although there have been no suggestions so far that social media platforms could have thwarted the attack by providing pre-emptive intelligence.
Indeed, the UK government’s own counterterrorism policies are facing the most uncomfortable questions in the wake of the attack, given the bomber had been repeatedly reported to police in the years prior. Yet was not, evidently, stopped from obtaining the know-how or materials to construct a bomb. Nor from successful executing an attack.
Other recent instances of terrorism on UK soil have included an attack in Westminster in March, when a lone attacker used a car and knives to attack pedestrians and police. The Westminster attacker apparently sent a WhatsApp message minutes before commencing the attack saying he was waging jihad in revenge for Western foreign policy.
While a homemade bomb planted on a London Underground Tube train in October last year, which failed to go off, had apparently been put together by the teenage perpetrator following instructions found online.
The problem for UK security services is they are under-resourced to meet the scale of the threat. As Muddassar Ahmed writes today in The Independent, there are around 3,000 people on UK terror watch lists — yet only 4,000 staff in MI5, the domestic intelligence agency. The agency simply does not have the manpower to closely monitor so many potential terrorists.
May has also faced specific criticism in the wake of the Manchester attack for cuts the government made to UK police numbers. She had apparently been warned two years ago that cuts to community policing in Manchester could threaten counter terrorism efforts in the city. The optics at this point look terrible.
Her G7 comments therefore risk looking like an attempt to shift both blame and responsibility — with May leaning out to apply pressure on social media firms in a bid to effectively outsource the responsibility for terrorism monitoring to tech platforms. At a time when her own government’s policy towards domestic policing and counterterrorism resourcing looks to be lacking.
Perhaps the most significant |
origins of RTL-SDR stem from mass produced DVB-T TV tuner dongles that were based on the RTL2832U chipset. With the combined efforts of Antti Palosaari, Eric Fry and Osmocom (in particular Steve Markgraf) it was found that the raw I/Q data on the RTL2832U chipset could be accessed directly, which allowed the DVB-T TV tuner to be converted into a wideband software defined radio via a custom software driver developed by Steve Markgraf. If you've ever enjoyed the RTL-SDR project please consider donating to Osmocom via Open Collective.
Over the years since its discovery RTL-SDR has become extremely popular and has democratized access to the radio spectrum. Now anyone including hobbyists on a budget can access the radio spectrum. It's worth noting that this sort of scanner capability would have cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars just a few years ago. The RTL-SDR is also sometimes referred to as RTL2832U, DVB-T SDR, DVB-T dongle, RTL dongle, or the "cheap software defined radio".
There are now many other software defined radios better than the RTL-SDR, but they all come at a higher price. Currently we think that the Airspy ($169) and SDRPlay ($99) SDR's are the best low cost RX only SDR's. There is also the HackRF ($300USD) which can both transmit and receive.
What is Software Defined Radio?
Radio components such as modulators, demodulators and tuners are traditionally implemented in hardware components. The advent of modern computing and analogue to digital converters allows most of these traditionally hardware based components to be implemented into software instead. Hence, the term software defined radio. This enables easy signal processing and thus cheap wide band scanner radios to be produced.
What are some RTL-SDR Radio Scanner Applications?
The RTL-SDR can be used as a wide band radio scanner. Applications include:
Furthermore, with an upconverter or V3 RTL-SDR dongle to receive HF signals the applications are expanded to:
Listening to amateur radio hams on SSB with LSB/USB modulation.
Decoding digital amateur radio ham communications such as CW/PSK/RTTY/SSTV.
Receiving HF weatherfax.
Receiving digital radio mondiale shortwave radio (DRM).
Listening to international shortwave radio.
Looking for RADAR signals like over the horizon (OTH) radar, and HAARP signals.
Note that not all the applications listed may be legal in your country. Please be responsible.
What is the RTL-SDR frequency range?
This is dependent on the particular tuner variant used in the dongle, and the particular implementation. Some dongles, like our RTL-SDR Blog V3 also utilize the direct sampling mode which can enable reception below 28 MHz.
Tuner Frequency range Elonics E4000 52 – 2200 MHz with a gap from 1100 MHz to 1250 MHz (varies) Rafael Micro R820T/2 24 – 1766 MHz (Can be improved to ~13 - 1864 MHz with experimental drivers) Fitipower FC0013 22 – 1100 MHz Fitipower FC0012 22 – 948.6 MHz FCI FC2580 146 – 308 MHz and 438 – 924 MHz (gap in between)
Table Source: Osmocom
As you can see from the table, the Elonics E4000 and Rafael Micro R820T dongles have the greatest frequency range.
What is the RTL-SDRs sample rate?
The maximum sample rate is 3.2 MS/s (mega samples per second). However, the RTL-SDR is unstable at this rate and may drop samples. The maximum sample rate that does not drop samples is 2.4 MS/s, however some people have had luck with 2.8MS/s and 3.2 MS/s working well on some USB 3.0 ports.
What is the RTL-SDR's ADC resolution?
The native resolution is 8 bits, but the Effective Number of Bits (ENOB) is estimated at ~7. Decimation in software may raise this value.
What is the RTL-SDR input impedance?
Since these dongles are intended for TV, most dongles will have an input impedance of approximately 75 Ohms, although it is unlikely to be exactly 75 Ohms over the entire frequency range.
Remember that the mismatch loss when using 50 Ohm cabling on a 75 Ohm input will be very minimal at less than 0.177 dB.
The 75 Ohm impedance for the R820T can be checked on the datasheet which can be downloaded here.
However, newer dongles that come with SMA connectors will be 50 Ohms.
What are the minimum PC requirements?
Generally, at least a dual core processor of some sort will be required for most general GUI based software defined radio software. Command line tools and ADS-B decoders may work with less powerful hardware. Single board PCs like the Raspberry Pi 3, and Android mobile devices can also run several applications.
What dongle should I buy?
The cheapest, most common and generally best performing dongle at the moment is the Rafael Micro R820T2. It can be bought for about $20 USD.
The Elonics E4000 used to be the most common, but Elonics has closed and ceased chip production, making the E4000 rarer and much more expensive these days. Note that there seems to be a misconception that the E4000 is better than the R820T2 because it costs more - this is not the case, the increased cost is only due to its rarity.
The R820T2 is generally regarded as having better performance and sensitivity for most interesting frequencies compared to the E4000. For ADS-B, the R820T2 is much more sensitive at 1090 MHz. There are now also the R820T2 dongles, which offer increased sensitivity over the R820T. For these reasons, the R820T2 is currently the recommended dongle, unless you need the higher frequencies that the E4000 provides and are willing to pay a premium price.
Be careful when buying a dongle as certain sellers tend to misrepresent their devices (knowingly or unknowingly) as having compatible tuners, when in fact they may send out a device with an incompatible tuner. Also be wary when buying E4000 dongles from auction sites as there are many dodgy sellers incorrectly advertising R820T2 dongles as the rare E4000.
See our RTL-SDR store page for more information about where to obtain dongles from reputable sources. We now sell our own "RTL-SDR Blog V3" dongles which come with several key improvements for the SDR crowd and we recommend these for users who want to mainly use their dongle for SDR.
I already have a USB TV Tuner, is it Compatible?
If your TV tuner contains an RTL2832U chip it is probably compatible. If it does not contain this chip, it is not compatible. A list (somewhat out of date) on compatible and incompatible tuners can be found on this reddit wiki page.
Who owns RTL-SDR?
No person or company owns RTL-SDR and all it's supported software and hardware in it's entirety. However, it was the combined efforts of Antti Palosaari, Eric Fry and Osmocom (in particular Steve Markgraf) who first discovered that certain TV dongles could be used for SDR. Osmocom in particular developed the first RTL-SDR driver which was released as open source.
Since then RTL-SDR has become a community based phenomenon. Certain companies such as us at RTL-SDR Blog have taken it upon ourselves to produce our own flavor of RTL-SDR dongles that perform better than the standard TV dongle. But none of it is possible without the wider community development behind all the free software.
People Behind RTL-SDR:
Original pioneering discoverers: Antti Palosaari, Eric Fry and Osmocom. In particular Steve Markgraf from Osmocom who developed the first driver.
Hardware Sellers: Chinese factories producing and selling generic TV dongles. Sellers of RTL-SDRs improved for SDR use like RTL-SDR Blog.
Community Software/Hardware Devs: Anyone who has created software for the RTL-SDR, or has discovered and documented a hardware hack for the RTL-SDR.
Community Bloggers: RTL-SDR Blog, and other bloggers/content creators who write and popularize RTL-SDR applications.
Wider Community: Anyone using RTL-SDRs.
What is RTL-SDR Blog?
RTL-SDR.com (RTL-SDR Blog) started as a place for us to upload our RTL-SDR tutorials and to curate all other RTL-SDR related content onto a single blog. Since its inception we have continued to expand and have written many tutorials, written a guide book and started the signal identification wiki.
A few years ago we decided to create our own RTL-SDR dongle hardware that has significant improvements that benefit SDR users. Since then we've continued to improve our RTL-SDR hardware and are now at the V3 dongle.
Comparisons with other common Wideband Commercial Software Defined Radios
SDR Tune Low (MHz) Tune Max (MHz) RX Bandwidth (MHz) ADC Resolution (Bits) Transmit?(Yes/No) Price ($USD) RTL-SDR (R820T) 24 1766 3.2 8 No ~20 Funcube Pro+ 0.15
410 260
2050 0.192 16 No ~200 Airspy 24 1800 10 12 No 199 SDRPlay 0.1 2000 8 12 No 149 HackRF 30 6000 20 8 Yes 299 BladeRF 300 3800 40 12 Yes 400 & 650 USRP 1 DC 6000 64 12 Yes 700
For those who just want to receive a wide range of signals, we recommend the Airspy or SDRPlay as an upgrade to the RTL-SDR. If you are mainly interested in narrowband signals the Funcube Dongle Pro+ may be worth considering.
For a big list of more software defined radios see our roundup here https://www.rtl-sdr.com/roundup-software-defined-radios/.
RTL-SDR Schematics
No official schematic is available, but GGToshi has created his own reverse engineered schematic which is available at http://ggtoshi.at.webry.info/201406/article_6.html. Some application example schematics are also available in the R820T data sheet (see below).
Datasheets
There is no datasheet available for the RTL2832U as it is only available to manufacturers under NDA. The R820T tuner datasheet is available and can be downloaded here.
The Register Description datasheet can be downloaded here.
Useful Links
http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr - Official RTL-SDR Osmocom website
http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR - Reddit RTL-SDR forum
www.rtlsdr.org - RTL-SDR community Wiki (not updated in a while)
http://www.dxzone.com/ - A good ham related database useful for research
http://www.dangerousprototypes.com - A blog about open source hardware projects that often has SDR related posts.
http://www.hackaday.com - A blog about DIY hardware that also often has SDR related posts.
http://radioforeveryone.com/ - Formerly known as "SDR4Mariners". Another blog about RTL-SDR and radio projects.
http://labyrinth13.com/ - Strange Beacons. Radio user who records and makes videos about several interesting signals he finds. Often uses an RTL-SDR.
https://www.elecrow.com/ - Full Raspberry Pi Kit. Probably useful for an RTL-SDR carry kit.Twitch, the Amazon-owned video game streaming site, stumbled into an incredible source of new traffic when it kicked off the launch of its “Twitch Creative,” section at the end of last month with the debut of an all-episodes marathon of Bob Ross‘ “The Joy of Painting.” Yes, the “happy little trees” guy. The channel was an immediate success, and today Twitch reports that it attracted 5.6 million unique viewers who watched Ross paint his iconic landscape scenes. In addition, Twitch has decided to capitalize on this interest further, and has decided to keep Ross around by streaming a season of “The Joy of Painting” every Monday, starting today.
Twitch gained the rights to live-stream Bob Ross from BobRoss Inc. and Janson Media, whose participation helped introduce him to a younger generation of viewers who don’t remember watching his calming tutorials on painting on TV as kids.
From 3 PM PST to 9:30 PM PST, Twitch will run one season of “The Joy of Painting.” Because there are 31 seasons, there won’t be repeats until seven months pass by. Twitch will also celebrate Bob Ross’ birthday by running an all-episodes marathon yearly on October 29th.
In addition, Twitch has now expanded its agreement with BobRoss Inc. and Janson Media to enable other Twitch broadcasters to re-stream these mini-marathons, the company says. That means that community members will be able to paint along with Bob, add their own commentary, and then broadcast the results to their own channel. This interactivity adds a new level to the show – it’s no longer just about watching and learning (or just relaxing, as Ross soothingly explains how to paint clouds), but also showing off your own painting skills in return.
Though it seems a bit odd that the creative arts would find a home on a video game streaming site, Twitch said that this type of content was some of the fastest-growing non-gaming video on its site, growing at 40% month-over-month, and reaching 2 million viewers monthly. It seems that gamers have other interests as well, as it turns out.
According to Twitch’s data, the 5.6 million viewers watched 545,880,000 minutes during the Ross marathon, and sent 7.6 million chat messages, using 3.8 million “KappaRoss emotes.” The Bob Ross channel, which was seeing 45,000 concurrent viewers just two days after launching, eventually reached over 183,000 concurrent viewers at the top.
Twitch also says it will split the proceeds from the channel’s $4.99 subscription option between the rights holders; Root division, its local arts organization supporting artists and teaching children the arts; cancer research organization St Jude; and with Twitch Creative community support – meaning it’s keeping some of the money for itself to re-invest in the Creative category.
The company doesn’t have any announced plans to try to duplicate the success of Ross by acquiring the rights to other “creative” shows or videos, but it seems likely that Twitch will look into ways to grow this category further. No only does it deliver an increase in viewers, as reported previously, it attracts a different demographic mix as well. Twitch told us while its current user base is predominantly male, the male/female mix is more balanced among creative content viewers.This is the second post in a series considering the contentious but increasingly relevant issue of recording police interactions. In this series, we offer up some case-study examples where surveillance cameras have been used as a force for good.
We've often commented on the double-edged nature of persistent surveillance. On the one hand, constant surveillance can lead to various privacy and civil liberties abuses. But as the following stories show, widespread adoption of surveillance cameras by both law enforcement actors and civilians can also help hold both parties accountable.
While cops have had mixed reactions to recording their interactions with civilians, many police departments have begun to adopt in-car and wearable video camera technologies. For example, The London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recently announced a one-year pilot project that equips cops with body-worn video cameras to be used during their interactions with the public. Likewise, across the pond, the Boston and Los Angeles Police Departments have installed self-monitoring systems on police cruisers. Dozens of other US police departments, including those in Fort Worth, Las Vegas, and New Orleans, have deployed wearable police cameras.
"Video captures events in a way that can't be represented on paper in the same detail, and it has been shown the mere presence of this type of video can often defuse potentially violent situations without the need for force to be used," MPS Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe explained in a press statement upon rolling out the new police camera initiative.
According to a study conducted by the Rialto, California Police Department, after wearable video cameras were introduced to the town's police force in February 2012, public complaints against officers plunged 88 percent compared with the previous twelve months, and officers' use of force fell by 59 percent. This despite officers' increased interactions with the public compared to the previous year, according to the study.
The following examples are a few situations where video (or audio) footage surfaced showing police officers' actions to have been justified in light of the circumstances.
Pissed off
Background: A 19-year-old, "really heavily intoxicated" man was arrested last year outside the Beats Night Club in Queensland, Australia, after Queensland Police Union (QPU) officers responded to a call that he was urinating at the establishment's front door. A video recording of a portion of the arrest was taken by a civilian at the time and was later posted to the Internet, according to the Brisbane Times.
What the complainant argued: While the man was in the process of launching a formal complaint against the officers, the QPU received a significant amount of hate mail stemming from what appeared to be their improper use of force, based on the images reproduced in an edited video portion of the arrest released on the Web. The letters criticized the officers for kicking the man and striking him with unnecessary force, some of which referred to the officers as "thugs." The incident also precipitated an Ethical Standards Command committee review, explains the Brisbane Times.
What the cops said: The cops involved argued that the edited mobile phone footage posted to the Web did not provide a full enough picture of the circumstances, and that the officer who appeared to kick the man was, in fact, simply trying to spread the man's feet apart in order to properly cuff and restrain him. What's more, the officers argued that their use of modest force was justified and appropriate in light of signs that the drunk man appeared belligerent and as if he was about to either strike and/or spit on the them.
What the unedited video showed: QPU President Ian Leavers explained that independent CCTV footage of the arrest showed that the officers acted appropriately in defending themselves against the teen. "[He] clenched his fist, pumped his chest out, started to lick his lips and come towards police," Leavers described of the events as seen on the surveillance camera footage. "Police with an open hand have pushed him in the center of the chest, not with a fist...pushed him back and restrained him... Police have now been vindicated, [the CCTV footage] shows their actions were appropriate, lawful and they acted in a professional manner at all time," Leavers continued, reports the Brisbane Times.
Split second decision
Background: While Pittsburgh officers were patrolling a crime-ridden area of town late one night in April 2014, they spotted a gun in plain view inside a parked Chevy Malibu car. Once a man named Adrian Williams returned to the vehicle in question from the Serenity night club at 3am, officers turned on their sirens to pull him over, after which a high speed car chase ensued. Williams then proceeded to crash the car and flee on foot with gun in hand. While two officers chased Williams on foot, another pulled up in his cruiser and captured video of an officer shooting and killing Williams, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
What the video showed: Video footage taken from the police cruiser showed Williams fall onto the ground as he was fleeing by foot, roll over, and point his gun at Officer Christopher Kertis. While the Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. would not show the ensuing video footage of officer Kertis shooting Williams, Zappala described the events to Pittsburg Post-Gazette, which summarized them as follows: "Williams tripped over some debris, rolled and continued to move, pointing the gun at Officer Kertis and the police car. In the next 1.8 seconds, Officer Kertis told Williams twice to drop his gun... In the 2.4 seconds after that Officer Kertis fired six shots, all of which hit Williams."
Outcome: Zappala explained that, in light of the video and audio recordings and other available evidence presented, the district attorney's office concluded that Kertis acted appropriately and was justified in shooting Williams under state law. As a result, Zappala indicated that the state would not press charges against the officers for their actions. Zappala noted, however, that he had passed the case file along to the US attorney's office for an independent federal review. A spokeswoman for the US attorney's office declined to comment on the case, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Trampled
Background: A man saw a New York City police officer writing up a parking ticket for his Ferrari 458 Spider sports car as he was returning to his vehicle. The man nevertheless proceeded to enter the vehicle and insert his key in the ignition, after which the officer positioned his body in the path of the car.
What the video showed: Video footage of the event, shot by a citizen, shows the man activate his car's engine and begin to drive forward against the officer's direct command to remain still, rolling over the officer's foot in the process. The officer then relocated to the driver's side window and ordered the man to step out of the vehicle. After the man refused to cooperate and resisted arrest, only then did the officer use force to remove him from the car and arrest him.
Commentary: While the arrestee did not file a claim against the officer, should he have done so, the videographic evidence would have bolstered the officer's likely argument that his use of force was justified in light of the circumstances. Given that a federal appeals court has recently ruled that the public has the right to film cops in public, we're likely to see more citizen-journalists filming police interactions in the future
Good cop, bad cop
Background: After arriving at the location of a minor traffic accident involving a relative in April 2012, off-duty Los Angeles police officer Sergio Arreola begin to quarrel with, and found himself being handcuffed and booked by, a Pomona police officer named Eric Hamilton. Arreola was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting Hamilton. Arreola was then swiftly fired from his position as an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department as a result of this incident, according to The Los Angeles Times.
What Arreola argued: Arreola insisted that had not acted improperly in his interaction with the Pomona police officers and did not resist arrest. Rather, he claimed that Hamilton was the one who was hostile from the outset.
What Hamilton said: Hamilton, who was the first responder to the scene, indicated in his arrest report that Arreola refused to obey his commands, became aggressive and belligerent, and physically assaulted him. Hamilton had an audio recording device running throughout the interaction.
What the audio recording revealed: "The officer is heard telling Arreola repeatedly to'stop resisting' and Arreola saying that he is not resisting. Arreola is also heard pleading with onlookers to record the scene. Once on the ground, Arreola said, the officers punched him repeatedly. Hamilton, he said, bent his left arm back violently and [another police officer] Tucker attempted to subdue him by using a choke hold," describes the The Times, which obtained a copy of Hamilton's recording. What's more, later in the recording, Hamilton is heard telling Arreola's wife "I'm going to make sure your husband is never a police officer in the state of California again. I'll talk to Chief Beck myself personally," referring to the LAPD chief. The recording also captured Arreola telling Hamilton, "you know I didn't do anything," to which Hamilton responded by calling Arreola "a fool," reports The Times.
Outcome: After all of the evidence, including the audio recording, was presented at trial, a jury found Arreola not guilty of the three misdemeanors to which he had been charged. The jury also awarded him $260,000 after concluding that the Pomona officers used excessive force when they unlawfully arrested him. Arreola has since been invited back to the LAPD. "It feels good," Arreola explained of returning to the police force. "I want to show the LAPD that the people who supported me and believed me were right all along," reports The Times.Reblogging myself because clearly some Men’s Rights Activists are having fits of despair over this post which pretty much proves it was right. MRA’s are despicable, horribly, and ubiquitous monsters. They are monsters precisely because they are so ordinary. Their seething hatred for women is the status quo as is their neverending capacity to see themselves as trod upon.
Fat MRA’s are doubly assholes, because they are often not just aggressively trying to enforce male privilege, but thin privilege as well. They want fat liberation for fat men and fat men alone. Fat men did virtually NONE of the work of fat activism. The work was done by women. Queer women. Women of color. Poor women. They did the fucking work. Fat men sat on the sidelines or actively worked against fat liberation with strikingly few exceptions. Fat MRA’s just complained that they didn’t get to derail fat women. They insisted they were entitled to the attention and work of fat women. More than a few insisted they were entitled to the sexual favors of fat women. Its disgusting and has everything to do with enforcing misogyny and not a bit to do with fat liberation.
I’m fed up with fat men who insist that fat women are oppressing them. They are petty, useless liars. But as MRA’s, that’s fairly redundant. That’s all Men’s Rights Activism is. I’m not surprised that fat MRA’s are no different from thin MRA’s. They all should shut the fuck up. Men’s rights are only “imperiled” in the sense that ending patriarchal oppression will reduce our stolen power. Framing it as a civil rights struggle just exposes the narcism men feel entitled to. Not only do men wish to cling to oppression, we feel entitled to steal the work of those who oppose our oppressive systems and pervert them into enforcing disenfranchisement. Fuck that. Fuck all of that. Fuck whatever petty lie you think validates it. Fuck whatever misgendering you’ll direct at me to pout over my lack of support of your hate. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.Image copyright Getty Images
Children as young as four are suffering from mental health problems such as panic attacks, anxiety and depression, says a teachers' union.
Almost all of the 2,000 who responded to an NASUWT survey said they had come into contact with mentally ill pupils.
Members of the teachers' union suggest schools are struggling to access enough support to deal with the issue.
The Department for Education said it was investing £1.4bn to ensure all children get the help they need.
The NASUWT teachers' union is highlighting the problem at its annual conference in Manchester this weekend and it will also warn of problems with school funding.
The survey found:
98% of teachers said they had come into contact with pupils who were experiencing mental health issues.
They were most likely to be teenagers, with more than half of teachers saying they had seen issues in 14 to 16-year-olds.
But nearly a fifth (18%) of those surveyed by the union said they had been in contact with four to seven-year-olds showing mental health issues while more than a third (35%) had seen problems in youngsters aged seven to 11.
Nine in 10 said they had experienced a pupil of any age suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, while 79% were aware of a pupil suffering from depression and 64% knew of a youngster who was self-harming.
Around half (49%) were aware of children with eating disorders, and a similar proportion (47%) knew about a youngster with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Pressure of exams and testing, family problems such as ill health or a break-up and social media were all seen as having an impact on mental health.
And when asked about how it affected pupil behaviour, most teachers agreed that it led to an inability to concentrate in class and led to a pupil being isolated from other students or have problems making friends.
Teachers' experiences
"An increasing number of students are having anxiety issues and panic attacks and they don't know themselves what is causing them," one NASUWT survey respondent said.
"Students generally don't know how to deal with any stresses in their lives so it tends to present itself through anger and lashing out or crying."
Another teacher said "stress, depression and insomnia due to exam revision at GCSE and A-level" were common, while another said "irrational behaviour, hurting others, trashing the classroom" were a problem.
Another said: "In the time I have been teaching (since 2007) there has definitely been a massive rise in mental health issues in the students I have taught, both secondary school and sixth form."
"It's very sad to see children so confused and mixed up at school," one teacher concluded.
'Expert gap'
Chris Keates, NASUWT general secretary, warned there was concern among teachers about a gap in the availability of experts and counselling to help children with mental health needs.
"It is clear that teachers and school leaders are seeing many more children and young people who are exhibiting the signs of serious mental distress.
"Teachers and school leaders take very seriously their duty of care to their students and it is clear there is a great deal of concern in the profession about the gulf in the availability of expert physiological support and counselling for pupils with mental health needs."
A Department for Education spokesperson said no child should suffer from mental health issues and that it was investing a record £1.4bn to ensure all children get the help and support they need.
"We are strengthening the links between schools and NHS mental health staff and later this year will publish proposals for further improving services and preventative work.
"Schools can teach about mental health in a number of ways and we have funded the PSHE Association to provide guidance for teachers on how to do this.
"We have already announced plans for every secondary school in the country to be offered mental health first aid training. We trust teachers to deliver assessment in a sensible manner that will not create stress among children."
'Asking for money'
The National Union of Teachers is also meeting in Cardiff for its annual conference this weekend.
Speaking beforehand, the union's general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "Funding is going to be a theme that dominates the conference.
"In schools around the country, class sizes are going up. We are seeing arts, dance drama and music being cut. Vocational education is being cut.
"We are seeing schools around the country sending letters to parents asking for money on a regular basis to make up for the the gap that the government is leaving in school budgets."
The Department for Education insists that schools in England are funded at record levels and that its investment will rise as pupil numbers rise.We were not even 2 miles from base. The platoon and I were doing a regular foot patrol of the area. It was something we’ve probably done a dozen times… just a simple search of the area. I was walking around and all of a sudden, this terrible smell fills my nostrils. It smelled more rotten than anything I can remember. I looked around and I start to make out these shapes. I looked closely and I realized they were bodies. I scanned the whole area. There were probably 50 to 54 bodies surrounding me. Men. Women. Children. They were civilians. Families. I just kept thinking, ‘How the hell am I ever going to forget this smell?’
Three days before coming home from Iraq, Specialist Joshua Cook and his platoon stumbled upon a mass grave of Iraqi civilians. They stumbled upon the victims of local insurgents, punished for their support of American troops.
I’m just another human being. I’ll never get it out of my head. Every time I see road kill, get into large crowds, that smell comes back. I can smell it.
Specialist Cook spent 3 years in Iraq as an infantry gunner. He operated heavy machinery and carried out missions in Humvee brigades. According to him, life in Iraq was one giant routine.
We’d go on a mission daily or every couple days. We’d get an order, get briefed, load-up the gear, and then head out. Sometimes you’d get hit, sometimes you didn’t. You come back and then you sleep. Every day there are mortar attacks. Every night sirens go-off. Bombs explode. Let me tell you, it doesn’t matter how much bullet-proof glass there is. If you’re getting shot at, you’re getting shot at. Doesn’t matter what is between you.
According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, between 11% and 20% of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nearly 400,000 cases of them go untreated and undiagnosed.
For Specialist Cook, there are just certain things that reveal his inner demons.
When I first came back, I had difficulties in restaurants. I needed a corner table or else I couldn’t eat. I needed to see everyone, what they were holding. If someone slammed the door, my instincts and alertness would immediately kick-in. I was at a party once and my sister accidentally threw a fire cracker in front of me. I was immediately transported to the desert with EIDs. I jumped into the crowd in a fetal position. I couldn’t talk to anyone. It’s hard to explain what happens in my mind.
According to psychologist Terry Stout, an expert in grief recovery, our current system of assisting those with PTSD, especially soldiers, is flawed:
“Our healthcare system, justice system… they all assume medications and time solve everything. It’s what you do with time that counts. Even at work, you’re allowed to grieve only for a death in the immediate family, and then maybe only for a week. Trauma can come from anything though. PTSD can exist on many different levels, in your subconscious or in your cells. In my therapy, I encourage everyone to share their stories. Only then can they recognize their trauma, hold it in their hands, and define their relationship with it. This is not an easy process and may take a long time.
One of the main reasons veterans coming back from war do not seek help is because of the stigma and misconceptions. You can be high-functioning and still have PTSD. But no one is going to admit it on a VA questionnaire that they’re having these thoughts because they just want to go home.”
The military has come a long way since 10 years ago. They try to keep these cases in-house, but in my opinion, there can never be enough help for a soldier with PTSD. The more the merrier. I know guys from my platoon, they come back and just rack up DUIs. There’s even a guy who committed suicide. He was admitted into a mental hospital and then cleared. I don’t know why, but a week later, he’s dead.
This Memorial Day, we want to honor our veterans and #EndTheStigma. There is no reason 18.3% of suicides in this country should be soldiers when there is support out there. We encourage veterans, whether diagnosed with PTSD or not, to share their stories and help others understand. We encourage families and friends to listen and give the love they are capable of, because…
I got lucky because I have support. I have friends and family who understand and support me 100% every day. I’m thankful every day for the people around me.
You just might save a life.
We thank Specialist Joshua Cook for his story and pictures, psychologist Terry Stout for his expertise.
Ava Love,
Joseph
Like this: Like Loading...While such a registry will take time to create and put in place, the move reflects the level of concern and the understanding among German security leaders that an individual country’s efforts will be ineffective without the assistance of its European partners, given the open borders across much of the Continent.
Image Eric Harroun, a former Army soldier, faces charges related to allegations that he fought with the Nusra Front.
The German authorities have so far focused domestic efforts on preventing people suspected of being radicals from leaving the country. In the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, the security authorities this month identified 12 people thought to be radicals, who they said had given “concrete indications” that they were planning to leave for Syria.
Because the legal procedure for taking away a passport can be lengthy, the authorities will often simply pay a personal visit to the suspected radicals, warning them that the authorities are aware of their plans to travel to Syria and suggesting that they refrain from so doing.
Authorities believe, however, that in many cases the suspected radicals sidestep such measures by traveling to a neighboring European Union country first, and then from there to Turkey, where German citizens can enter with only a personal identity card. They can then fairly easily slip over the border into Syria.
Public prosecutors in the Netherlands have said that while the authorities cannot stop would-be jihadists from leaving the country, they can combat recruitment, which is against the law and carries a sentence of up to four years in jail or a fine of more than $100,000.
A precise breakdown of the Western fighters in Syria is difficult to offer, counterterrorism and intelligence officials said, but their estimates include about 140 French citizens, 100 Britons, 75 Spaniards, 60 Germans, and as many as a few dozen Canadians and Australians. There are also fighters from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, according to a study in April by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, a partnership of academic institutions based in London, which estimated that 140 to 600 Europeans had gone to Syria.
Only about a dozen Americans have so far gone to fight in Syria, according to American intelligence officials. Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, of Flint, Mich., a convert to Islam, was killed in May while in the company of Syrian rebels in Idlib Province.CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - When reading text or listening to someone speak, we construct rich mental models that allow us to draw conclusions about other people, objects, actions, events, mental states and contexts. This ability to understand written or spoken language, called "discourse comprehension," is a hallmark of the human mind and central to everyday social life. In a new study, researchers uncovered the brain mechanisms that underlie discourse comprehension.
Researchers compared the discourse comprehension abilities of patients with damage to specific brain regions relative |
in Egypt and Libya, but the populations and lawmakers have yet to grasp that democracy is not only about free elections but creating free societies.
When sexual harassment of women increases on the streets of Egypt, when centuries-old shrines of Muslim saints are destroyed with explosives in Libya, when screenings of films such as "Persepolis" trigger riots in Tunisia and Christian minorities across the Middle East feel under siege, then we must stop pretending that all is well with the Arab Spring. But all is not lost either.
Arab societies are on a journey. They can easily take the wrong turn. The attacks on the American embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen are examples of the ongoing presence of intolerant, tyrannical actors in Arab societies.
These are people who were born and raised in dictatorships. They are accustomed to thinking that a government controls its citizens -- that a film or documentary cannot be produced without government approval. For decades, this has been the reality of their lives, and they strongly believe that the Western world and its citizens have a similarly controlling relationship between individuals and government.
Ed Husain
In light of this assumption, they hold the U.S. government responsible for the tacky and distasteful film produced by a right-wing Muslimphobe.
Little wonder, then, that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy has called for the prosecution by the U.S government of the filmmakers, and Egypt's top cleric, Mufti Ali Goma, has called on the United Nations to forbid denigration of faiths. Morsy studied in the United States and Ali Goma regularly visits the West on the interfaith circuit, yet both men don't yet grasp that religious freedom and the freedom of expression are inextricably linked in America.
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It is hard for younger Arabs not born into freedom to understand how individual liberty works in real life.
The freedom to proselytize also guarantees the right to apostatize. Heresy and blasphemy are essential parts of free and democratic societies. Arab activists cannot seek to emulate the West's political and social achievements by looking at the United States and Europe today, but must observe and learn from the religious battles of 17th-century Europe, the smashing of the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church, the ending of burning witches and the forbidding of hanging heretics.
It is this history of unbolting the doors of dissent that led to the conditions in which John Locke and John Stuart Mill could write and think freely and then influence Thomas Jefferson and the other U.S. Founding Fathers. There are no shortcuts to freedom, except to learn from the mistakes of the West in the past.
The Arab uprisings are not over yet. They are still unfolding and shaping the future. This culture of shouting and killing those with whom Muslims disagree must end. When the Prophet Mohammed's companions shouted "Allahu Akbar," (meaning "God is Greatest," a popular slogan for those yelling outside embassies today) the prophet reprimanded them saying "Our Lord is not deaf."
When a Bedouin Arab entered the most sacred mosque of the prophet in Medina and violated its sanctity by urinating in this place of divinity, the prophet cleansed the mosque himself and forbade anybody from even reprimanding the Bedouin, let alone attacking the man. This is the way of the Prophet Mohammed. Where is this spirit of mildness, forgiveness and compassion amid Islamist activists today?
The millions of protestors last year in Arab capitals that chanted "hurriyah, karamah, adala ijtima'iyya" or "freedom, dignity and social justice" cannot allow for the emotions of bigots to derail their revolution.
Freedom is not only about majority rule, but ensuring that women, religious minorities and intellectual dissenters are able to flourish without fear.Lolita, My Love was an unsuccessful musical by John Barry and Alan Jay Lerner, based on Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. It closed in Boston in 1971 while on a tour prior to Broadway.
Production history [ edit ]
Lolita, My Love was initiated by Lerner, the well-known lyricist of My Fair Lady and other major hits, who recruited Barry to write the score. Nabokov, who had several times refused to allow adaptations of his novel, stated that "Mr. Lerner is a most talented and excellent classicist. If you have to make a musical version of Lolita, he is the one to do it."[1] Like most musicals of the time, the production was scheduled for a multi-city "tryout" tour, during which rewrites could be done as needed, before opening on Broadway. The original director was opera impresario Tito Capobianco, and choreography was provided by Jack Cole, although Cole was fired during rehearsals and replaced by Danny Daniels.
Upon opening in Philadelphia on February 16, 1971, the show got savage reviews and immediately closed for more work. Capobianco was fired and replaced by Noel Willman, and Daniels was replaced as choreographer by Dan Siretta. Even Annette Ferra, the actress playing Lolita, was let go.
The show reopened in Boston but did lukewarm business and received mixed reviews, although critics acknowledged good performances by John Neville as Humbert and Dorothy Loudon as Lolita's vulgar mother, Charlotte, and found the music and lyrics strong. Lolita was played by actress Denise Nickerson, and Oscar Nominee Leonard Frey was Clare Quilty. The production closed before its scheduled opening at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, the site of many previous Lerner triumphs; it lost $900,000.[1]
Synopsis [ edit ]
Act I [ edit ]
Clare Quilty, a famous playwright, is having a party, celebrating a life of debauchery and sexual freedom (“Going, Going, Gone”). Humbert Humbert storm in, demanding to know where Lolita is. He accuses Quilty of stealing her “2 years, 10 months, and 4 days ago”, when she disappeared from his life. At first, Quilty protests ignorance, but cannot contain himself from laughing at Humbert. Humbert demands information from him, even threatening to shoot him, but Quilty will not budge, despite protests from his other partygoers. Finally, Humbert shoots and kills Quilty. In a monologue to the audience, he reflects that he has been a teacher for the past 18 years of his life, and seeks to answer how it is possible that he could commit murder. Upon reflection, he confesses that he has a “delirious, yet monstrous” aspect of his personality. After teaching at a girls’ school from Switzerland, and having a nervous breakdown, he decides to start a new life in America giving lectures to the Adult Education Group.
He arrives to stay at the Haze household in the fictional town of Ramsdale, Vermont. There, Charlotte Haze and her daughter Dolores, aka Lolita, have a strained relationship (“The Same Old Song”). Humbert is initially disgusted by Charlotte’s faux-European taste, looking for the first opportunity to leave, until he sees Lolita. He agrees to stay without even hearing the price. He offers to help tutor Lolita, who is struggling in school; she, however, is not interested in doing any work on the weekend (“Saturday”). She finds Humbert writing in his diary and tells her that Charlotte is in love with him. He shows her a picture of a young girl that looks oddly like her. Humbert explains that she is Anabell, a young girl that he was in love with years ago (“In the Broken-Promise Land of Fifteen”). Charlotte insists that Lolita not bother Humbert, which sets off another fight, and increases Humbert’s distaste for Charlotte (“The Same Old Song (Reprise)”).
Charlotte tries to spend time with Humbert and flatter him by talking about how much she and the Adult Education Group are looking forward to his lecture on poets. He explains that he will be lecturing on Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Edgar Allan Poe, all of whom had fixations on prepubescent girls. Charlotte invites the group over for a picnic the following weekend, where he explains to them the poets’ inspiration: nymphets (“Dante, Petrarch, and Poe”). At the picnic, Quilty arrives and is praised for his most recent television play. He asks about Lolita (whom he has never met), and finds Humbert strange. Later, Charlotte reflects on her love for France, how she has attempted to make her own version of it here in Ramsdale, and her dream for a better life (“Sur Les Quais”). While dancing with Humbert, Lolita returns home unexpectedly, and Humbert dotes on her. Charlotte decides to send Lolita away to summer camp: Camp Climax.
Humbert is devastated when Charlotte takes Lolita to camp. However, he is even more disturbed by a letter that Charlotte leaves him, confessing her love for him and asking him to either marry her or leave (“Charlotte’s Letter”). Initially, he is disgusted, but then he thinks about the prospect of being Lolita’s step-father. They are married shortly thereafter. Charlotte chastises Humbert for sending Lolita candy while she is away. He imagines not only standing up to Charlotte, but also killing her because he cannot bear the thought of being stuck with her; however, he realizes that he does not have the stomach to kill her, and that his dream of being rid of her will not be (“Farewell, Little Dream”). Charlotte admits that Lolita will not be coming home, and going right to boarding school. Humbert stands up to her, and she gives in. Charlotte finds Humbert’s journal, in which he has written about how much he loves Lolita, and hates Charlotte. He attempts to play it off as a draft of a novel, but she doesn’t believe him, and runs out of the house. A neighbor arrives to inform Humbert that Charlotte has been hit and killed by a car. He relishes in his newfound fortune, phoning the camp to say he will collect Lolita. Then, he calls and makes a reservation at a hotel for that night. Humbert is elated as he leaves to get Lolita (“Hello, Little Dream”).
Act II [ edit ]
Humbert and Lolita arrive at the seedy Bed-D-By Motel, where Quilty and his entourage are also staying (“At the Bed-D-By Motel”). Lolita teases Humbert about them having to share a bed. Quilty calls their room and torments Humbert. Humbert tells Lolita that she can do anything she wants and that he will give her anything she wants (“Tell Me, Tell Me”). In the middle of the night, after they have had sex, Humbert recounts that Lolita had had sex with a boy at camp, which lessened his guilt. She calls him disgusting, and threatens to call her mother and tell her what they’ve done. Finally, he tells her that Charlotte is dead, and she accuses him of lying to Charlotte to get to her. Ultimately, she makes him promise that he will never leave him.
The two of them relocate to Beardsley School for Girls, where Humbert gets a teaching job and Lolita attends the 8th grade (Buckin’ for Beardsley/Beardsley School for Girls”). Lolita is angry with Humbert for not allowing her to star in the school play. The Headmistress meets with Humbert to express her concerns about Lolita: that she has not been properly educated about sex, and needs more social interaction with her peers. She presents Humbert with an ultimatum: either he and Lolita attend group therapy, or he allows Lolita to participate in the school play written by Quilty. Humbert agrees to the latter. During rehearsal, Quilty meets Lolita and becomes fascinated with her; he admits that his uncle, a dentist and friend of Charlotte’s, told him she was at school. Quilty decides to break off his relationship with his partner after meeting Lolita (“March Out of My Life”). Meanwhile, Humbert has become increasingly paranoid about Lolita’s absence from home, and confronts her (“The Same Old Song (Reprise)”). Lolita protests innocence, and her friend Phyllis corroborates her story, but Humbert doesn’t believe her. Lolita accuses Humbert of keeping her locked up under the guise of loving her (“All You Can Do Is Tell Me You Love Me”).
Humbert realizes that the two of them have to get away. Lolita does not want them to fight anymore, and asks for them to leave that night and take a road trip, as long as she can choose the stops along the way (“How Far Is It to the Next Town?”). During this sequence, the two of them travel across the country, but are ruthlessly pursued by a mysterious red Mercedes. At each stop, Humbert grows increasingly suspicious of Lolita’s disappearance and the persistence of the red car. Finally, Lolita disappears completely, leaving Humbert distraught. He searches for her for over 2 years, but finds no trace of her; he wants nothing more than to have her back (“Lolita”). Finally, he runs into Phyllis, who tells him that Lolita ran off with Quilty. He is outraged and arrives at Quilty’s house (as at the begging of Act I) and shoots him. Then, he arrives at Lolita’s house to find her married and pregnant. He begs her to come with him and she refuses. He gives her $15,000 for her and her husband to relocate to Alaska. The police arrive and arrest Humbert for killing Quilty. He reflects that, above all else, he wants her to be happy, and wonders if, only now, he loves her for the first time.
The show [ edit ]
Like the novel, Lolita, My Love focused on a European-born professor, Humbert Humbert, who lives in the U.S.; he foolishly falls in love with his landlady's teenaged daughter. While the plot is unpleasant, Humbert eventually emerges as a near-tragic figure, and there is much witty explication of the American culture that both encourages and condemns such behavior.
While the show was not officially recorded, a bootleg recording from the theater sound board has surfaced and is sold openly. A track listing on the recording gives the following list of songs:[2]
Overture Going, Going, Gone – Quilty and Guests The Same Old Song – Lolita & Charlotte Saturday – Lolita In the Broken Promise Land of 15 – Humbert The Same Old Song (Reprise) – Humbert, Lolita, Charlotte Dante, Petrarch and Poe – Humbert, Charlotte, Ensemble Sur Les Quais – Charlotte Charlotte's Letter – Humbert & Charlotte Farewell, Little Dream – Humbert At the Bed-D-By Motel – Ensemble Tell Me, Tell Me – Humbert Buckin' for Beardsley/Beardsley School for Girls – Ensemble March Out of My Life - Quilty The Same Old Song (Reprise); Lolita All You Can Do Is Tell Me You Love Me – Lolita How Far Is It to the Next Town – Lolita & Humbert How Far is It to the Next Town (Reprise) – Quilty & Humbert Lolita – Humbert Finale
"Going, Going, Gone" was recorded by Shirley Bassey, and "In the Broken-Promise Land of Fifteen" has been recorded several times, notably by Robert Goulet.
Reactions [ edit ]
In refusing many previous offers to adapt the novel, Nabokov insisted that the distasteful plot was acceptable because it existed only in his head; to make a real twelve-year-old girl play the part, on stage night after night, "would be sinful and immoral."[1] The skeletal plot alone, without Nabokov's authorial voice, is indeed quite salacious, and critics and audiences reacted negatively to it.
Subsequent writers (notably Ken Mandelbaum and Frank Rich[3]) have found elements of the show worthy of praise, with Mandelbaum contending that it is unlikely anyone could produce a better musical version of what is probably fundamentally impossible material. In 1982, a non-musical adaptation of Lolita by Edward Albee opened to memorably negative reviews, and many critics specifically pointed out ways in which this version was lacking when compared to the earlier musical; Rich contended that Albee's version had a hideous set, pointing out that even the "flop musical version...got the scenery right."[3]
See also [ edit ]An Uber email announced the service’s Fayetteville launch in late August.
Two Uber drivers were ticketed in Fayetteville over the weekend for operating without a taxi permit.
The ride-sharing company, which launched in Fayetteville last month, uses smartphones to connect drivers to people who need rides as an alternative to calling a traditional taxi service.
The service has been the subject of controversy in some cities where operating a taxi service without proper permits is a violation of local ordinances.
In Fayetteville, taxi companies must first obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity before going into business. That process requires: an annual taxicab permit; state-authorized liability insurance; a radio dispatch system; vehicle inspections; and eventually, a public hearing and final approval from the City Council. Drivers themselves must obtain an individual permit, submit to a police background check, and install a sign with the word “taxicab” or “taxi” on the roof of their vehicle.
Uber has not met any of those requirements, nor have any of its drivers.
City Attorney Kit Williams said he sent letters to Uber and its main competitor, Lyft, earlier this year warning the companies about Fayetteville’s taxicab laws, but neither company responded.
Williams said unless the City Council changes the rules, any Uber driver working in Fayetteville would be operating illegally.
Fayetteville police used the Uber app on Saturday night to arrange for a ride from Aaron Welch, 31, of Rogers, near the corner of West Avenue and Lafayette Street. When Welch arrived driving a 2013 Hyundai Sonata, they issued him citations for operating without a taxi permit, operating without a taxi inspection decal, and operating without a certificate of public convenience and necessity. He faces $185 in fines.
Fayetteville Police Sgt. Craig Stout said another Uber driver was cited after an officer spotted his vehicle holding up traffic on West Avenue at around 1 a.m. Sunday. The officer reportedly overheard the driver talking with a potential Uber customer. Juan Mendez-Grijalva, 25, of Springdale, was cited for impeding traffic, operating without a taxi permit, operating without a taxi inspection decal, and operating without a certificate of public convenience and necessity. Mendez-Grijalva was driving a 2013 Kia Optima. He faces $330 in fines.LUCKNOW: Due to high ticket pricing in premium trains Indian Railways has decided to rationalize the dynamic fare system by starting a slab system. It will allow people to book premium train tickets from reservation counters and providing a window of 30 days for advance booking instead of 10 day at present.Premium trains come with dynamic pricing where price of the ticket is linked with demand.Premium trains were introduced to accommodate plans of last minute travellers. The trains were launched during the fag end of UPA regime by the then railway minister Malikarjun Kharge.But it has been observed that prices sky rocketed with increase in demand and at times fare of 3AC was more than 2AC. Ministry, therefore, has decided to do away with the demand based pricing and have a slab system, whereby, fare will remain same for a particular number of seats despite increase in demand. The facility will be available from July 1.Besides, premium trains will now be called Suvidha express.Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton
Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton makes a point as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, reatcs during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
(Morry Gash)
FLINT, MI -- How to get tickets for the Sunday, March 6, Democratic presidential debate at The Whiting Auditorium has been one of the most frequently asked questions around Flint for the last few weeks.
The state Democratic Party said tickets have been handed out to local residents and politicians, but there were no more available to the general public to the 8 p.m. CNN debate in partnership with MLive and The Flint Journal.
TJ Helmstetter, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said CNN has made several hundred tickets available to the Flint residents, with the DNC also handing out tickets to a wide variety of people on a local, state, and national level.
"As with all of our debates, tickets have been made available through a variety of stakeholders, including the two presidential campaigns, the state Democratic party, the University of Michigan-Flint, and CNN, and that process always includes the people who live in and represent the cities and states that host us," he said.
The debate itself came after Flint was thrust onto a national spotlight due to its ongoing water crisis, with recent visits by Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in the city, as well as Republican challenger John Kasich in Grand Blanc Township ahead of Thursday's debate in Detroit.All this is rock-headed --, it’s as stupid as a stone. The last paragraph is especially dishonest. Thiessen belongs to the Bush neocons whose members include Bill Kristol, Elliott Abrams, James Woolsey, Fred Hiatt, Max Boot, et al. Said Steve Walt, “No, the real problem is that the neoconservative worldview — one that still informs the thinking of many of the groups and individuals who are most vocal in opposing the Iran deal — is fundamentally flawed. Getting Iraq wrong wasn’t just an unfortunate miscalculation, it happened because their theories of world politics were dubious and their understanding of how the world works was goofy…Once again we see put on display the neocons’ stubborn and morally dubious refusal to admit they were wrong and take responsibility for the lives and money they squandered.”
Recently, he exhibited his underscored his offensive blend of tone-deafness and historical ignorance when he.wrote: President George W. Bush “inherited a world where terrorists had been permitted safe haven in terrorist states and were engaged in a virtually unimpeded offensive.” (My italics and a blatant lie.) “Under his predecessor, they had launched a string of attacks against the United States: the first effort to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993; the murder of 19 American airmen at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia three years later; the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, which caused the deaths of 17 American sailors. In none of these cases was there a forceful U.S. response.” (Another blatant lie.) “As a result, al-Qaeda was convinced that the United States was soft and that if they hit us hard enough, we could be forced to retreat and withdraw as we had in Beirut and Somalia.” 195
Marc Thiessen, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a columnist at The Washington Post, can always be depended on not to tell the truth when a simple lie will do.
President Clinton’s Impotence
President Clinton was a tough, remorseless leader when it came to foreign policy. It was Clinton who spearheaded the fight against Slobodan Milosevic, bombed Saddam Hussein, outing a coup against him; and Clinton tried to kill Osama bin Laden, and prevented al-Qaeda from establishing a stronghold in the incendiary Balkans region. Ultimately, Clinton emerged as a tough-as-nails commander in chief in the same vein as Ronald Reagan.
The Emergence of Mass Casualty Terrorism
Up until 1996, the U.S. government mainspring worked only spasmodically when it came to the subject of terrorism. Part of this was due to President Clinton’s management style that seemed to thrive on disarray. When Clinton came to power, Osama bin Laden was a dim figure for many Americans. A certain fuzziness came to cloud people’s minds when they first heard his name. I first heard about him from Israeli intelligence. In 1999, I began to study him, and even in early 2000, when I wrote a story for UPI saying that the NSA was reading his communications, few seemed concerned. Instead, when I spoke to some U.S. intelligence officials about the threat he posed, some dismissed the danger as trifling. One former senior State Department official said that the Israelis were using bin Laden as the next threat to world security, and that such a threat was bogus. This official had formerly headed a group of 20 antiterrorist agencies.
At the beginning of Clinton’s second term, a new figure began to loom and gain traction in the White House. Richard A. Clarke. He was a man of ruthless drive that liked to work outside of the chain of command and relied on back channels to obtain his aims. He was expert at getting money from the federal budget that was used to finance causes that he championed. Among his major talents was his ability to sense when a topic was about to be transformed into a major issue. From the first, he took bin Laden seriously.
Clinton soon initiated the Counterterrorism Security Group which included members of the CIA, FBI, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the State Department, among others, led by the unbridled Clarke. He quickly became a “Principal,” a cabinet position with unprecedented authority.
The U.S. war against bin Laden had begun with a grave mistake. In 1995, the U.S. strategy against al-Queda had allowed bin Laden to move from Khartoum to Afghanistan to obtain a secure base of operations. Two years later, the government of Pakistan alerted the White House that bin Laden had ordered the assassination of a U.S. Senator, Mark Brown. In 1998, U.S. government apathy had ended and U.S. intelligence on bin Laden was at flood tide, with reports of all kinds pouring in. by 1996, an enduring anxiety about terrorism had sunk deep roots in the U.S. intelligence communistyh and the White House. A total of $5.7 billion was allocated to fgtht terrorism and that total would soon arch up like a rocket. The CIA had a program of “rendition” under whose terms terrorists wre arrested and sent to Egypt for interrogation. By Christmas of 1997, the “Small Group” of White House counterterrists said that clear effective measures to counter bin Laden had to be put in place. Conscious of American vulnerability began to increase. Iran was still the number one threat to the U.S. but bin Laden was going notice.
The Fateful Fatwa.
In February of 1998, terrorist Osama bin Laden had declared war on the United States. He published his proclamation, “Jihad against Jews and Crusaders,” a document that basically declared war on America. The CIA saw this as a clear escalation and issued “a memo of alert,” but when it came to the subject of terrorism, the State Department was consumed by apathy. Bin Laden’s fatwa never penetrated the narrow, hard horizon of the State Department which was focused on such things as the nuclear competition between India and Pakistan and the poverty of Bangladesh. When it came to terrorism the department snoozed away like so many fetuses.
But by early 1998, President Clinton approved a plan to use tribal proxies to capture the Arab by going to his house and yanking him from his bed. The plan was pursued until June of 1998 when tensions erupted between the CIA and Richard Clarke. The CIA hedged, claiming that innocent civilians might be killed, and some called the plan “reckless.” The scheme fell apart like wet blotting paper.
On August 7, 1998, everything changed.
Two teams of bin Laden operatives blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; 213 people were killed, only 12 of them Americans. Some staffers were found dead sitting at their desks. Clinton’s advisors became aware of the event when all their beepers went off at once. Immediately, in the Situation Room, members of the military and intelligence communities who route cables, monitor communications and intelligence reports to the White House, met to deal with countermeasures, rescue coordination and intelligence review. The CIA had seized faxes and satellite phone calls between Africa and Afghanistan, and its specialists, mainly women, began assessing the evidence. It took only one week before CIA Director George Tenet delivered the verdict to Clinton that bin Laden was responsible for the embassy atrocities.
The meaning of the attacks was chilling and unhittable except to the blind. Steve Simon, a member of Clarke’s staff said, “No previous terrorist operation had shown the kind of skill that was evident in the destruction, within minutes of two embassy buildings separated by hundreds of miles.”
The FBI also felt a momentous new phase in the war on terror had begun. (875)Within eight hours, FBI investigators arrived at the scene. Acting on a tip, they went to a hotel where they encountered a wounded, slender Arab whose name was Rasheed. His pants were spotless, but his face leaked blood from cuts. The FBI agents had flown for many hours, and their clothes were wrinkled, but the Arab was immaculate. This bothered one agent who was alert for the illogical. The agent pointed down to his own shoes which were scuffed and worn. The Arab’s shoes were clean, new and his pants had no blood stains.
The Arab jeered, “Arab men are cleaner than American men.”
“I'll give you that,” the agent said, adding “Maybe you have a magic soap that gets blood out of your clothes.” The agent then stood up and put his hand on his belt which was old and worn. The agent told the Arab that there were two things that a man never washed, his belt and his shoes. He ordered the Arab to take off his belt and shoes. Both were pristine.
Another agent came in and ordered the Arab to write down the first telephone number he called after the bombing.
The Arab, stunned by surprise, gave the number which proved to be a priceless intelligence. It was the number of a huge villa from which a call had been made a half hour before the bombings took place.
Under more questions, the slender Arab lost his cool. Rasheed began screaming that he was not Rasheed but Mohammed al Owhali. He was a Saudi and if he had any regrets it was that the attacks had not taken place in the United States. Then he warned, “The big attack is coming. There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
After the East Africa attacks, hesitation was swept away, and Clinton began to direct a campaign of increasing scope and lethality that only ended when he left office. Under the provisions of the 1974 Hughes-Ryan Act, Clinton authorized the intelligence agencies to fund covert activities against bin Laden. In addition, he also signed three highly classified Memoranda of Notification designated as compartmented intelligence, Top Secret/Codeword.
The first MON authorized bin Laden’s arrest, capture and rendition for trial, using whatever force was required. The last MON authorized the shooting down of any aircraft carrying bin Laden. Capture was the first priority but the U.S. government would kill the Arab if it had do. And a new plan was approved,
At a Principal’s meeting on Aug. 19, Clinton asked if the group should decide to attack bin Laden the next day. The NSA had been listening in on bin Laden’s phone calls. Clinton decided to attack bin Laden by launching ship-based tomahawk missiles in an operation called “Infinite Reach.” Sixty-six missiles costing $750 million each were launched but a leak from Pakistani intelligence warned bin Laden off, so instead of going to Khost, he headed for Kabul. Soon, the missiles exploded, killing six jihadis at a cost of a half a billion dollars while bin Laden exulted, “By the grace of God, I am alive.” Operation Infinite reach was a flat fizzle, and its failure distressed many of Clinton’s anti-terrorist officials. Clinton said publicly that bin Laden had launched a terrorist war against the United States, but his critics said the strike was his biggest foreign policy blunder.
In spite of Thiessen’s misleading propaganda, the Clinton distraction inflicted a huge defeat in Bosnia. Thiessen ignores this. Bin Laden saw Bosnia the perfect location for various terrorist groups to congregate and grow, and his followers were training inside the U.S. The Dayton Accords destroyed the effort, but that is another story.
Bush Downgrades the Threat
Clarke said in his memoir: “Within a week of the inauguration, I wrote to Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s National Security Advisor, and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, asking ‘urgently’ for a Principals, or Cabinet-level, meeting to review the imminent al-Qaeda threat. Rice told me that the Principals Committee, which had been the first venue for terrorism policy discussions in the Clinton administration, would not address the issue until it had been ‘framed’ by her Deputies.”
Of particular significance, the memo also suggested strategies for combating al-Queda that might be adopted by the new Bush administration.
In his memoir, “Against All Enemies,” Clarke wrote that Rice made a decision that the position of National Coordinator for Counterterrorism should be downgraded. By demoting the office, the Bush Administration sent a signal through the national security bureaucracy about the urgent and looming threat of terrorism. No longer would Clarke's memos go directly to the President; instead they had to pass through a chain of command of Rice and Hadley who “bounced every one of them back.”
At the first Deputies Committee meeting on Terrorism held in April 2001, Clarke strongly suggested that the U.S. put pressure on both the Taliban and al-Qaeda by arming the Northern Alliance and other Afghani groups to keep bin Laden from roaming free. Simultaneously, he suggested that they target bin Laden and his leadership by reinitiating flights of the MQ-1 Predators.
The response from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who would in a few years become a visiting follow at Thiessen’s outfit, the American Enterprise Institute, was astounding. “Well, I just don't understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man bin Laden.” Clarke replied that he was talking about bin Laden and his network because it posed “an immediate and serious threat to the United States.” According to Clarke, Wolfowitz turned to him and said, “You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things like the 1993 attack on New York, not without a state sponsor. Just because the FBI and CIA have failed to find the linkages does not mean they don't exist.” No matter, and never mind.
From that ignorant misconception, sprang another: the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein must have strong ties with bin Laden and possessed weapons of mass destruction. 704
Clarke wrote in “Against All Enemies” that in the summer of 2001, the intelligence community was convinced of an imminent attack by al-Qaeda, but could not get the attention of the highest levels of the Bush administration; most famously writing that Director of the CIA Tenet was running around with his “hair on fire.” At a July 5, 2001, White House gathering of the FAA, the Coast Guard, the FBI, Secret Service and INS, Clarke stated that “something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon.”
On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified briefing pertaining to the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. That morning’s “presidential daily brief,” the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies, featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”
On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief, and only that daily brief, in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of al-Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. Historians considered that claim absurd. Further, an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.
Enter Wolfie
Wolfowitz was the first senior Bush official to bring up Iraq after the 9/11 attacks during a meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David, when U.S. military assets were already being diverted from Afghanistan to the coming invasion of Iraq. Clarke charged that before and during the 9/11 crisis, many in the Administration were distracted from efforts against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization by a pre-occupation with toppling Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq. Clarke had written that on September 12, 2001, President Bush pulled him and a couple of aides aside and "testily" asked him to try to find evidence that Saddam was connected to the terrorist attacks. In response he wrote a report stating there was no evidence of Iraqi involvement and got it signed by all relevant agencies, including the FBI and the CIA. The paper was quickly returned by a deputy with a note saying "Please update and resubmit."
After initially denying that such a meeting between the President and Clarke took place, the White House later reversed its denial when others present backed Clarke's version of the events
In the end, Wolfie would be employed by the World Bank and would resign in scandal over a woman he had employed.
Richard SaleThere is so much fog and uncertainty — much of it intentionally injected into the debate — about the different moving parts of the Stimulus Bill. But some of the broad outlines are arresting and straightforward.
We’re hearing all this talk about the staggering size of the bill. And it is a staggering amount of money. But according to Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the amount of demand that the financial crisis is pulling out the economy is likely to be between |
although considering his age and steep decline, I'm not sure he's worth keeping around even at a significantly reduced rate.
No matter what the Eagles decide on their current personnel at CB, the Eagles need to bring in some fresh new talent.
S: Nate Allen's "benefit of the doubt" quota is just about used up by now. This is probably his last chance to prove to the Eagles that he can be a legitimate starting safety in the NFL. Beyond Nate, there's basically nothing. Colt Anderson and Kurt Coleman are both "#4 kind of safeties" that will play hard and bust their butts on special teams. Of the two, I'll take Colt in a heartbeat, but there's no room for two of "those" players on your roster. The other guy is David Sims, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea if he can play or not, but it's not a good sign when you can't get on the field over Kurt Coleman or Colt Anderson. Huge need.
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Current Comments
Ryans was awful in the 3-4. That's why he was jettisoned in the first place. Not safe to assume either ILB makes the switch easily.
When the Texans switched to a 3-4, Ryans had his worst season. I'll give you that. Was he "awful?" No. That's a major stretch.
That was also the same season he was returning from a torn Achilles. I don't see much of a reason, skill-set wise, that he can't play in a 3-4.
Awful might be hyperbole, but he wasn't good, either. Is it possible the injury slowed him? Possibly. But it's also entirely possible that he just doesn't play as well fighting through the garbage without the extra DL in front of him occupying blockers.
What about Curry?
Duh... Probably should have mentioned Curry, huh? I mean... He was only a 2nd round pick and all.
If he fits in to a 3-4, and a lot of people thought he would when he was drafted, he would be an OLB. I'm not sure I see it. He's got a nice first step off the line in rushing the passer, but I worry about him playing in space.
But certainly, he'll be in the mix.
Have we considered that we might be switching to a one-gap version of the 3-4? If that's the case, then the personnel needs would not be the same and the Eagles would be closer to having what they need. If they hire Grantham, he uses a D that almost looks like a 4-3. See https://secure.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=1014&script=content.asp&cid=1070289&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=
Better yet, check out this article about how Stanford defends vs. Oregon
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/43197/stanford-shows-oregon-its-own-brand-of-old-school-football
Someone pointed out the other day that Ryans was is a contact spot in Houston. They wanted Cushing on the field in the nickel and didn't think there was any value in Ryans contract as a two down player. His reputation as a 3-4 ILB took a big hit as a result of this and the injury. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. With all the other holes they have and the decent season Ryans just had, I just can't see they wasting resources there right now.
I think folks are writing Cole off as a 3-4 DE too fast. He was very good against the run and still can provide a pass rush from that spot.
I can see why franchise tagging DRC would make sense. I just wish we could unload he and Nnamdi immediately.
I think we need:
1 OT
2 CB
2 S
1 NT
1 QB developmental
Depth at OLB, NT, OG, TE.
Ugg. They've got their work cut out, but it seems like a deep draft and there are some decent functional FA's who should be available.
In the 3-4 the Mike ILB is often better protected than the MLB in the Wide-9. The NT is there to occupy the C and one G. Which generally leaves one ILB free. In the Wide-9 the C almost always had a free release on Demeco and he seemed to do just fine with that last year.
Demeco was only expendable in HOU because Cushing became a beast and the Texans felt that $5+mill per year was too much for a 2-down ILB. He was a 3-down backer for us last year and could very well be again this year since many 3-4 teams go with a 2-4-5 or 4-2-5 look in Nickel sets. That means Ryans and Kendricks could still be in on 3rd downs together as we currently don't have any better cover LBs.
Even if we play a 3-3-5 scheme in Nickel sets similar to the Texans I still don't think we have the luxury of having a guy like Cushing who could make Ryans expendable. Kendricks is good and could be better next year but the cap savings and mid-round pick we'd get for trading Ryans isn't enough to bank on it.
The Texans also thought Jacoby Jones was expendable but I know plenty of Ravens fans that wouldn't think so. Bottom line is just because a guy is deemed expendable by one team who happens to play the same defense/offense doesn't mean he is automatically expendable for the next team.
*Record for the most times expendable was used in one comment.
All excellent points brza, and congrats on your expendable record.
What mean expendable?
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The comments to this entry have been closed.Senate advances controversial coal mining bill
Marie Cusick Bio Recent Stories As the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania, Marie Cusick covers energy and environmental issues for public radio stations statewide. She’s also part of NPR’s energy and environment team, which coordinates coverage between the network and select member station reporters around the country. Her work frequently airs on NPR shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Since 2012, Marie has closely followed the political, social, environmental, and economic effects of Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom. Her work has been recognized at the regional and national levels– honors include a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Previously, Marie was a multimedia reporter for WMHT in Albany, New York and covered technology for the station’s statewide public affairs TV show, New York NOW. In 2018, she became StateImpact’s first FAA-licensed drone pilot.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
The state senate has advanced a bill that could upend an ongoing legal challenge by two environmental groups seeking to restrict coal mining beneath a western Pennsylvania state park.
With the backing of senate GOP leadership, SB 624 was approved by a committee Monday in an 8-4 party line vote. The measure takes aim at a pending court case, which was first brought three years ago by the Center for Coalfield Justice and Pennsylvania Sierra Club. The two environmental groups are challenging Consol Energy’s 3,000-acre Bailey Mine extension. They argue it would damage 14 streams in and around Greene County’s Ryerson Station State Park.
Senate President Pro Tempore, Joe Scarnati (R- Jefferson) is the prime sponsor.
“I understand the environmental groups and their opposition to mining, their opposition to gas and oil extraction,” he says. “But Pennsylvania’s jobs and economy are built on this.”
SB 624 says that if the state Department of Environmental Protection approves an underground mining plan, it shall not be considered “presumptive evidence” the mine could cause pollution. In other words, any plan approved by state regulators would automatically be presumed to not cause permanent damage to streams.
Scarnati says the bill reaffirms what DEP has been doing for many years.
“To follow current law is not blazing a new trail here,” he says.
The measure also applies retroactively to “all permits issued under the act that were the subject of an appeal heard by the Environmental Hearing Board after June 30, 2016”– a direct reference to the pending Consol case.
Joanne Kilgour, director of the Sierra Club PA Chapter, says the bill could be construed as an unconstitutional “special law,” written for the longwall mining industry. A decision in the case is expected from the state Environmental Hearing Board soon.
Kilgour says the bill undermines the court’s authority, in an attempt to score a win for Consol.
“When you have an actor, who may or may not have violated the law,” she says. “If they could just change the law underfoot, before the court makes a decision, our society would be in chaos.”
She also points to a $5,000 campaign contribution Scarnati received from Consol two weeks before he introduced the bill.
“It’s not to say campaign contributions aren’t a regular course of business in Harrisburg,” says Kilgour. “But the timing is concerning. It appears to be almost a quid pro quo.”
Scarnati dismisses the allegation.
“I’ve been receiving campaign contributions from Consol for 17 years,” he says.
Governor Tom Wolf’s spokesman says he opposes the measure. A spokesman for Consol did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Editor's PicksThe next day, after the story was posted on Facebook and started getting traction, HRC put out a press release that, in my opinion and experience, is very misleading. Here's the release in full:
In any case, we assured him that, if the staffer returned and tried to run him off again, we would be there and back him up. No further incidents occurred while I was there.
I have no doubt this young man was offended and that something had been said that he took to mean differently than it may have been intended. This happens all the time and can spiral out of control quickly in an environment like the one at the rally on the steps of the Supreme Court.
He told us that the staffer had been harassing him about his flag and that he wasn't going to move. He told us the staffer had stopped on three occasions to ask him to move or stop displaying the flag. He also mentioned that the staffer had denigrated trans issues in some manner, but I know this staffer and I cannot imagine they have any sort of anti-trans animus, so I chalked that up to a misunderstanding.
Through the bustle and the crowd, I could discern that the HRC staffer was discussing the transgender equality flag the young man was waving. It was clear the staffer wanted him to move or to stop displaying the flag. It was also clear that the young trans man holding the flag was at the edge of his training (and his wits) in dealing with the situation as was the staffer. The HRC staffer moved on just as we got within speaking distance, so we asked the man with the flag what had happened.
Wednesday morning, fellow Bilerico blogger, John Becker, and I arrived on the scene together around 9:30am and made our way through the crowd toward the podium. As we crossed through the ring of volunteers into the speakers' area we stopped to talk with a few folks and then made our way to the area just to the right behind the podium. As we got close, we noticed two people having a less-than-friendly discussion. I recognized one of the people as an HRC staffer, but I was not acquainted with the other person.
On Wednesday, I attended the United for Marriage rally at the US Supreme Court building. It was a great rally that went off, mostly, without a hitch. But after reports of an incident between HRC and a person waiving a transgender equality flag came to light yesterday - and HRC denied the reports in a statement - I feel the need to set the record straight.
"Tuesday and Wednesday were historic days for our community, as thousands of LGBT people gathered in front of the Supreme Court and in every state across the country to demonstrate their support for marriage equality. HRC was proud to play a role in these events as a member of the United for Marriage coalition, the group which organized the gathering at the Supreme Court. Marriage equality is an issue that fundamentally impacts hundreds of thousands of LGBT people and families across our nation and is greater than any one organization.
"It was agreed that featuring American flags at our program was the best way to illustrate this unifying issue which is why when managing the area behind the podium, several people were asked to move who were carrying organizational banners, pride flags or any other flag that was not an American flag. Several people refused and they were allowed to stay. The coalition welcomed the variety of signs and flags that were throughout the plaza that demonstrated the wonderful diversity of our community.
"It is a not true to suggest that any person or organization was told their flag was less important than another - this did not occur and no HRC staff member would ever tolerate such behavior. To be clear, it is the position of the Human Rights Campaign that marriage is an issue that affects everyone in the LGBT community.
"The events at the Court featured lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender speakers as well as LGBT families, religious leaders, Republicans, military spouses and civil rights activists. This has been a historic week and truly demonstrated how all of us - lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight, transgender and cisgender - can unite as one voice to advocate for our constitutional rights."
HRC's explanation here is dubious, at best. I cannot say for certain if an American flag theme was agreed upon by all of the event organizers, but even their statement suggests there was selective enforcement of this guideline. No one in the immediate vicinity of the man with the trans flag - including myself - was waving an American flag. None of us were ever asked to not wave our flags or display our signs. (In fairness, I did witness one staffer ask someone not to display one side of their homemade sign because the message wasn't great, but it was a very cordial exchange and the person explained clearly their intent. An American flag alternative wasn't offered in this case or any other than I'm aware of.)
It is true that there were real attempts to hijack the media attention of the rally and that organizers tried to intervene, but they did not do so by marshaling a chorus of American flags - instead they asked folks with a variety of signs, including a rainbow pride flag, to block the shot.
More to the point, I was standing beside two of the rally organizers for the entire rally with whom I am well-acquainted. They never mentioned anything to me or anyone else about this American flag theme. At one point, rally organizers did pass around some small American flags for folks to wave, but the notion that there was any coordinated effort to ensure only American flags were on display doesn't comport with reality.
So, it's very disappointing to me that HRC has handled this situation so poorly. I've taken a lot of heat lately for defending HRC and trying to convince people they were changing. The selection of Chad Griffin as their new president and a number of positive interactions I and others have had with HRC recently convinced me that the organization has really learned some lessons.
The handling of this situation, on the other hand, was classic old-school HRC - circle the wagons and deny, deny, deny. While I have no way of verifying the young man's story of everything the HRC staffer said to him, it was beyond clear they had not had a pleasant interaction.
As rally staff, it was incumbent upon the staffer to be the adult and to act professionally. If the first interaction doesn't produce the desired result, you don't return and repeat the same mistake again (or again). The first rule of crowd control at any such function is to never deal with a problem alone if you can help it. The staffer should have brought someone else along - or sent someone else - to speak with this young man about his flag, if they believed it was a problem.
That didn't happen. Instead, the young man felt singled-out, picked on, and denigrated. Even if that wasn't the intent of the staffer, that was the outcome and it was preventable. To then compound the situation by issuing the above statement downplaying the whole thing and insinuating that witnesses are lying is just adding insult to injury.
I must note here that an HRC staff person privately sent me a very heartfelt apology in an email today. It was kind, thoughtful, and exactly the right tone. In response, I explained that I felt the need to still set the record straight because HRC has publicly impugned my integrity and that I want to be sure the whole story was on the record.
So here it is. I can see how a lot of this is a big misunderstanding. I don't doubt the integrity of the staffer at the rally, the good folks who worked on the statement, or the person who sent me the private note. I know them to be good-hearted, kind, upstanding individuals - and trans allies. It's unfortunate that instead of continuing HRC's recent path of honest communication and taking responsibility for mistakes, a knee-jerk defensive reaction has spawned a minor controversy over a simple mistake made without animus in a high stress situation.
Mistakes were made, but it's most important to me that we clear the air so there's space to move on and get back to the important work of winning our equality.
United for Marriage statement:
Statement from the United For Marriage Coalition on events March 27th, 2013 On March 26-27, the United for Marriage coalition -- which consists of 180 partner organizations led by the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Family Equality Council, GetEQUAL, Marriage Equality USA and the New Organizing Institute -- held historic rallies outside the Supreme Court of the United States for marriage equality. Thousands attended to celebrate love and commitment, and to demonstrate that the nation is ready for marriage equality. Over the course of two days, we were joined by over 50 speakers from the LGBT community and from allies in the labor, women's, civil rights, faith, and immigration movements. As a coalition we have achieved historic accomplishments and have become stronger together. We came together as a coalition to speak to America about the values of love and commitment, to mobilize people across the country to build a groundswell of support for the freedom to marry, and to prepare people for the work ahead. We have achieved so much this week as a movement and as a nation. Since the conclusion of the rallies on Wednesday, the coalition has learned about the mistreatment of a few individuals who were attending and speaking at the rallies. In one case, a queer undocumented activist was asked to edit his speech to hide part of who he is. In another case, several activists were asked to lower the trans* pride flag in order to keep out of the scope of TV cameras. We apologize for having caused harm to the individuals involved. Apologies are being made individually and collectively and we are working to make direct amends. We know that apologies alone are not enough. We are committing to the following steps: Individuals involved with the process of talking with rally speakers about the content of their speeches are reaching out to apologize for harm caused.
We will build on our conversations to also seek ways that we can come together for joint action on issues of shared concerns such as immigration reform and other issues that advance equality and justice.
Individuals involved with the request to lower the trans* pride flag are reaching out to apologize for harm caused.
Opportunities for broader education on both trans* and queer undocumented issues within the greater LGBT community will be taken. Moving forward as a coalition we will work to achieve a society where everyone can be their full selves in an accepting and diverse community. We know that the incredible power of our community stems from our experiences and stories, and that only when all are respected and included will we achieve our goals. From the rallies in DC to the events that happened in all 50 states across the country, this past week has been extraordinary and we look forward to continued work together to ensure that all LGBT people are equal under the law. We are committed to working as a coalition in the future to make an even larger impact. We are stronger together. * We are using "trans*" as an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or expression is different from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth and/or who identify outside of the boundaries of gender binaries.Here’s an interesting fact about 2016. This year, Election Day will fall on the latest possible date, November 8th. Why’s that? Because Election Day occurs on the Tuesday immediately after the first Monday in November. Sound confusing? Well it isn’t. The earliest possible date for Election Day is November 2nd (where November 1st falls on a Monday) and of course the latest is November 8th. We are surely living in historic times.
Speaking of history, let’s just reminisce on president’s past. We’ve made it easy though, or should we say Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum made it easy with a huge granite face sculpture in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota. Introducing Mt. Swagmore Collector’s Bills! Spot for all 4 presidential Collector’s Bills and you’ll earn a 20 SB Bonus! They might look stone-faced but the rewards are anything but!
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BEIJING — As China watches the spread of a new type of deadly bird flu with unease, there’s a chicken farmer in Henan Province who’s feeling lonely.
Well, maybe.
“It started about a month ago,” Zhao Chunlu tells the, er, China Daily Show.
“All of a sudden, the weekly telegrams stopped coming. My pager stopped beeping,” and “even the hermit has stopped making the two-hour journey by horseback to shoot the breeze,” Mr. Zhao says in an article on its Web site, called: “Poultry farmer has the distinct impression people avoiding him these days.”
“Alone in his yard, Zhao gazes thoughtfully at a pristine biohazard warning, hanging from a nearby tree. ‘You know, I really get the impression that people are now avoiding me for some reason,’ Mr. Zhao says. ‘Maybe it’s something I did?’ he continues. ‘I mean, I got drunk at a dinner a few weeks back and said a few things. But I assumed everyone else was blind drunk too, and wouldn’t remember.’”
There’s the China Daily, the government’s straitlaced, censored, flagship English-language daily, now sold widely overseas too.
There’s The Daily Show, America’s popular satirical TV show that is proving increasingly popular here too, its host, Jon Stewart, has discovered, to his delight, as the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos wrote recently.
Then there’s the China Daily Show, a “fake news” Web site in a country that is crying out for satire, where reality is so skewed by propaganda and inadvertent humor that it can be hard to tell the difference, says its creator, an Englishman and Beijing resident who asked to be identified as “Mr. R.” In his early 30s, he asked for the anonymity for reasons of cultural and political sensitivity towards his host, the Chinese state. (Warning: some of the language and comical images on the site may be considered by some to be offensive, so click at your own risk.)
A slogan underneath the newspaper’s red masthead makes its stance clear: “The only news source visible from outer space,” it says, spoofing the claim that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from there; as does its Chinese-language translation, “Madman’s Daily”.
Traditionally, authoritarian states resent satire – laughter is powerfully subversive – and China is no exception, carefully controlling critical chuckles in the media with a wide range of technological tools including tens of thousands of online censors who can, and do, wipe satirical Chinese-language jokes, comments or videos within minutes.
That leaves a true gap in the market for “fake news” in English, which the government may care about less since far fewer people can read it. And about two years ago Mr. R. stepped up.
In two interviews, Mr. R., who works in the media, last lived in London and says he is an admirer of the British satirical publication Private Eye, said he was inspired to do it by “affection for China, as much as anything else,” adding: “People unfamiliar with the country can realize that, however strange it might sometimes seem, China is a place like any other. It, too, can be explained and seen for what it is. You can’t really have satire without understanding.”
In story after story, the China Daily Show pummels the political fixation or social scandal of the day, whether that’s the “China Dream” of Xi Jinping, the new president; thousands of pigs found mysteriously dead in a Shanghai river; or the chronic secrecy of a state that recently told a lawyer who asked for information on the condition of the country’s soil that even that was a “state secret.” “Answer phone at Chinese Ministry denies Everything,” ran a recent story.
“A new answering service from the Chinese government has already issued a series of firm denials, sources confirmed yesterday,” the spoof ran.
“Reporters who dial the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Hacking are now greeted with an electronic message asking them to press a specified button to direct their inquiry.”
“Press One if your call concerns ‘purchase of organs harvested from executed criminals,’ Two for ‘mysterious deaths linked to Chinese-owned tech firm abroad,’ Three for ‘kid got crushed by official,’ Four for ‘inexplicably banned from Twitter…’ the 47-minute message begins.”
Mr. R. makes fun of everyone, including non-Chinese who develop a sentimental attachment to the country and talk about it endlessly after they leave.
The New York Times has been the butt of his jokes too, with a recent story about an “ace reporter, Chase Ketterman,” who was “found crushed under 40 tons of incriminating documents”, a reference to a story by the Times about the wealth of the family of the former prime minister, Wen Jiabao, which won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize.
I interviewed Mr. R. by email about what he’s doing, and about Chinese-language satire, too.
DKT: Is China surreal? More so than elsewhere?
Mr. R.: Yes, often and (it) will probably remain so for years to come – it’s always bedazzled and befuddled foreigners, after all. Step out of any high-speed rail station today and find steaming pork intestines being hawked from a donkey, next to a branch of ‘Star*****.’ Just relatively speaking, there are always going to be more weird things happening because there are so many more people. And the state itself is both authoritarian and lawless; the government pays so much attention to keeping a grip at the top that it effectively has to let the rest take care of itself. So there are a lot of institutions and people who are effectively running wild.
Q: What inspired you to start doing this?
A: It’s one way to express thoughts that couldn’t be properly articulated anywhere else. When you like a place, you want to see it get better. But many of the engines of social improvement, like a free press or independent judiciary, simply don’t exist here. Instead, China retains a feudal culture of deference towards officials or bosses, however incompetent. People are waiting for someone to point out that their emperors have no clothes – and I’m more than happy to be that person.
Q: Is there a lot of satire in China, do you feel — in English or Chinese?
A: In English, not much that I’m aware of. In China, there is, but it’s almost nothing like the ruthless, Swiftian take-no-prisoners definition, unlike you count Taiwan’s Next Media Animation, which is often pretty puerile. A mainland comic might perform a spooky, dead-on impersonation of Mao or Deng but that’s as far as it usually goes – the voice and mannerisms. He couldn’t possibly do a ruthless critique of Maoist policy or Tiananmen; I daresay he wouldn’t even want to. On television, you have the likes of Zhou Libo and Guo Degang, who are hugely popular stand-up comics. Naturally, they do topical jokes. Zhou does softball stuff for the older generations, who seem to have a taste for that stuff. Guo has a coarser northern style, and that has actually gotten him into trouble. A couple of years back, he was the victim of a politically motivated ‘Three Vulgarities’ campaign, which saw Guo’s BTV show cancelled and his DVDs yanked from shelves.
Away from the mainstream, you’ll find a lot of stuff on the Internet that’s funny and edgy by local standards – memes, jokes about bacon-flavored water, that kind of thing. Pictures of Jiang Zemin yawning and gawping at waitresses at the Two Sessions are always popular.
The best satire usually comes from well-channeled fury, like the allegorical ‘Little Rabbit, Be Good’ video, a South Park-esque animation that depicts ordinary Chinese as rabbits being systematically suppressed by tigers (Communist thugs) in a variety of scenarios based on real-life incidents, until they finally rebel in a gory uprising. It’s shocking because you so rarely see that kind of savage venting here: it’s just a hint of the emotions swirling beneath the surface. But the system currently won’t allow it – that video was wiped from the Chinese web very quickly – even though allowing such outlets is probably more beneficial for ‘stability’ than not.Marilyn Manson has been pretty active of late, splitting his time between finishing his new album 'The Pale Emperor' and enjoying a recurring role on the just-wrapped final season of 'Sons of Anarchy.' Manson recently took some time to speak with 'Loudwire Nights' host Full Metal Jackie about both projects and you can check out the chat below:
Marilyn Manson with us on the show. So happy to have you here.
Marilyn Manson: I haven’t talked to you, Jackie, since that black carpet. I was a little confused because it was chaotic. I think that little girl from 'The Walking Dead' tried to eat me.
It can get crazy on that carpet.
I think that puns have really lapped themselves and become funnier by not being funny. Like being Dr. Double Entendre. Every time I worked on a movie set and certainly with 'Californication' mostly I would say to the directors, 'Do you want my jacket on or jacket off? Jacket on or jacket off?' So you need to say that sometime as Full Metal Jackie -- jacket on or jacket off? It would take them forever, because it's so stupid. And then they would say, 'No Manson, jacket off.' I’m like, 'Really? You didn’t pay me that rate for that -- for the sexual stuff.'
Can I borrow that?
You may have that. I broke that birdbath for you.
[Laughs] Throughout the course of your career there's been plenty of controversy, obviously. Most recently, an explicit video with Eli Roth and Lana Del Rey. Intuitively, what tells you whether or not to embrace a controversial situation or refute it?
I would just say no comment on that. There is what my publicist said and there is what I said, which I don't want to get more angry emails from anyone. Mostly I would say it's not -- it's exactly what I said. I would just leave it at that. I know that sounds pretty p--sy for me. It’s very simple, I said what I had to say and I don’t think there’s much more to say about it. I don’t want to start off an interview, sadly, by jacking it off.
What creative satisfaction do you get from television and film and how does it come full circle to inspire you musically?
I spend the bulk of my time when not making music or painting or whatever thing that I might be doing that is my outlet by watching film. I think most of the people that know me that are filmmakers or actors are surprised by the amount of cinema that I watch and I simply have a projector on a white wall. And a lot of people like to come over to my place to watch things and are amazed. People that are much more prestigious actors or richer or whatever you think that describes yourself as success in your craft.
My friends who I tend to associate only with -- people that are considered great actors or artists or directors or whatever just under the scope of people that I think have integrity -- that would stand up for me in a knife fight, those are the people I hang out with. And I carry a gold switch blade. You want to listen?
Yep!
I hit the phone. It’s actually called a gold-plated utility thumb assisted knife on Amazon.com. You can buy that right now.
Does it go off in metal detectors?
It does, but I don’t really generally carry a switchblade through the airport. It’s what I would call stupid. But I do have a credit card made of platinum, not my black card, but one is also a shiv. But that just comes from my experience with 'Sons of Anarchy.' That’s where I learned to shuffle or try to smuggle things through my assistant’s undercarriage -- his innards which I would say, "Could you just put the switchblade inside of you?" He is looking me in the eye right now.
How much of yourself did you inject into the Ron Tully character on 'Sons of Anarchy'?
Well it’s hard to tell. It’s hard for me to still watch it objectively because it became a role that was bigger than I thought it would be. Initially it started with Kurt Sutter wanting to use one of my songs, 'Worship My Wreck,' a song on my record which he didn't end up using. I think that the whole meeting was through Shooter Jennings. We had done a song together that he wrote the music for and Kurt wrote the lyrics for and I was really interested in being on the show because my father loved it as much as I did. And my mother had just died. And the show is just so much about a father and son relationship.
I want to trick my father into coming to L.A. to get out of Ohio because I wanted to shake his shadows and his demons off. I eventually ended up doing that but I didn't intend to be an actor on that, that was a dream come true. I didn't even know that was an option and when they said it initially was, I got the phone call when I was in Ohio at my mom's funeral and I got the phone call from Kurt Sutter's people and said, "Dad, I'm gonna be on the show." He said,"That's great." I said, "Dad, I'm gonna be the head of the Aryan nation." He said, "OK." I said, "Dad, I'm gonna get paid. I'm gonna be in it with Jax, with Charlie Hunnam." And it made my dad smile, and that was the biggest deal for me that I made my dad happy about it. I never had brothers growing up. I never had anyone stand up for me, and Charlie and Boom and Deo and Tommy Flanagan, they had my back in situations, where, just as now, the fact that I'm up before noon, It's not a time for me but I can adapt.
People have great assumptions about my ability to adapt to different schedules. It's very simple, I have to sleep 7-8 hours to make this magical voice as gravely as it does. However, it can happen any time. I used to think that 3AM was when my brain fired off the most, so I thought that was my most creative time but what I realized was, that was when my brain had to stop [sings circus music] and be a circus. But what would happen, I started making this record I made the greater portion of this album with Tyler Bates. I know I'm skipping past your all your questions and just monologuing it -- but the greater portion of this record was made during daylight hours. I did not have that 3AM circus in my head because I was on 'Sons of Anarchy' time and I was on a different approach when I realized that if I get finished with what I want to do during the day, I don't have that circus. I used to think that circus in my head was when I was supposed to function. So, the past three or four records that's when I thought I was supposed to record and I was wrong. I'm not saying I don't like those records, I'm just saying I was wrong about that.
What's the inspiration behind your new album 'The Pale Emperor'?
Well, 'The Pale Emperor' came from a book that I was given in 2000 by [Johnny] Depp. We have each other's back as in we have the same tattoo on our back. It covers our entire back. It was about Heliogabalus which may be a little esoteric for our listeners. He was the emperor of Rome before Caligula. He was the first one to deny God and that's a big deal. For whatever reason I had just opened up all the boxes of my past life. I moved into a new house while I made this record. Normally I'd title the album before the album was made but this time I titled it after it was made. I unearthed all of these books and I found this book Johnny gave me in Y2K when I went to stay with him in South of France because we thought the world was going to |
has used
Cringely as a platform for a lucrative career outside InfoWorld as an author
and pundit. "Triumph of the Nerds," the PBS show, was based on "Accidental
Empires," a successful 1991 book Mr. Stephens wrote under the Cringely name.
He is working on another Cringely book and a possible TV series, and commands
up to $5,000 for Cringely speeches.
But few outside of InfoWorld know of the ruse. In "Nerds," Mr. Stephens, in
Cringely mode, tooled around Silicon Valley in his red Thunderbird
convertible, interviewing dozens of tech luminaries such as Bill Gates, Paul
Allen and Steve Jobs. Most of them didn't know Cringely is just a pen name.
"It was months before I learned that he wasn't named Bob," says Stephen
Segaller, who co-produced the show for Oregon Public Broadcasting. Blindsided
by the IDG lawsuit, OPB executives told Judge Keeton that reshooting the show
to expunge the Cringely name would expose them to claims from distributors and
broadcasters who had put up money for the show. "The timing was
excruciating," Mr. Segaller says.
Cringely has been an affliction to computer companies since 1986. The popular
column is rife with leaks about products, defects and consumer gripes. But in
the hands of Mr. Stephens, the line between author and alter ego blurred. Old
girlfriends of Mr. Stephens, for example, appeared in the column as
Cringely's old girlfriends-and continued to appear after his ouster. Mr.
Stephens introduces himself as "Bob Cringely," has a credit card in Cringely's
name and sometimes ponders real-life options by wondering what Cringely would
do.
Mr. Stephens's real life, meanwhile, at times reads almost like a novel. He
says he began writing obituaries for an Ohio newspaper at the age of 14 and
freelanced from Lebanon and other hot spots in his 20s. He claims a doctorate
in communications from Stanford University; it says its records show only a
master's degree. An accomplished stunt pilot, Mr. Stephens once blew his
savings on a propeller company.
Lucky Nerds
"Accidental Empires," which helped make Cringely a high-priced pundit, argues
that the industry was shaped by lucky nerds out to impress their friends.
That thesis grates on executives like Mr. Gates, chief of Microsoft Corp., who
also disputes an anecdote in the book that describes the billionaire as
scrounging in his pockets for coupons at a checkout counter. Mr. Stephens
stands by Cringely's account.
InfoWorld initially thought Mr. Stephens's outside activities were good
publicity. The magazine signed a 1989 contract that allowed him to write the
book, while reserving its rights to the Cringely name. But relations soured
between the writer and Stewart Alsop, an industry analyst and InfoWorld
executive vice president. In December 1994, Mr. Alsop fired Mr. Stephens, but
asked him to keep freelancing for $1,500 per Cringely column.
InfoWorld, however, neglected to get Mr. Stephens's approval to use his
articles outside of the magazine. After negotiations over a license to his
copyrights stalled, InfoWorld in December 1995 dumped Mr. Stephens altogether
and demanded that he stop using the Cringely name. Mr. Stephens refused,
demanding that IDG pay him $250,000 for violating his copyrights by publishing
his Cringely articles on the Internet's World Wide Web and elsewhere. That
was when InfoWorld and IDG sued him for trademark infringement.
"The issue is the confusion," explains Patrick McGovern, IDG's chief
executive officer. "We have a terrific column coming out as Cringely, and Mark
Stephens has nothing to do with that at all."
Character Issue
Courts usually side with trademark holders in such disputes. Actor Clayton
Moore, the Lone Ranger in the old television series, was blocked from
appearing in his Lone Ranger mask for five years by a company that was
promoting a movie using a different actor. But in the Cringely case, Mr.
Stephens makes the novel claim that his years of molding the Cringely
character entitle him to joint trademark rights. (The column is still running
under the Cringely name, under at least two different writers since Mr.
Stephens left.)
Judge Keeton mused in an April opinion that Cringely had indeed become a
jointly created fiction, raising "fundamental" legal questions that might
trouble even a legal Solomon. "The Robert X. Cringely of this litigation," he
said, "is indivisible."
Claude Stern, Mr. Stephens's lawyer, says IDG abandoned the Cringely
trademark by not adequately supervising Mr. Stephens's use of it. Veronica
Devitt, a San Francisco trademark expert, thinks such a defense won't work but
agrees that IDG erred in failing to get a copyright license from him. Says
Mr. Alsop: "We will not disagree with our opposition that we are human and
we've made mistakes."
To some, the case mainly points out the way the telephone and electronic mail
make it easy to sustain a fictional identity, in a way that perhaps can fool
even its creator. "It's a tale of Narcissus for the digital age," says Paul
Saffo, an analyst at the Institute for the Future, a think tank in Menlo Park,
Calif.
Insists Mr. Stephens: "I am Bob."From the University of California at Santa Barbara:
A Sticky Breakthrough
UC Santa Barbara researchers make strides in their quest to develop an underwater adhesive
In an important step toward creating a practical underwater glue, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have designed a synthetic material that combines the key functionalities of interfacial mussel foot proteins, creating a single, low-molecular-weight, one-component adhesive.
Their findings appear in the journal Nature Communications.
“We have successfully mimicked the biological adhesive delivery mechanism in water with an unprecedented level of underwater adhesion,” said UCSB research faculty member Kollbe Ahn, the article’s lead author. An adhesive primer that can overcome the barrier of water and contaminant “biofilm” layers to adhere to virtually any mineral or metal oxide surface has a variety of applications, from basic repair of materials regularly exposed to salty water, to biomedical and dental uses, as well as nanofabrication.
“More importantly, this less than 2 nanometer-thin layer can be used not only at the nano-length scale, but also in the macro-length scale to boost the performance of current bulk adhesives,” Ahn added.
Inspired by mussels’ ability to cling to surfaces despite the constant pounding of waves and wind, the interdisciplinary group of scientists studied the combination of proteins mussels secrete in the form of byssus threads that extend from their feet and anchor them to rocks, pilings or any other surface in their vicinity. The work builds upon research conducted by UCSB professor J. Herbert Waite, who for three decades has investigated the adhesion strategies employed by mussels in the inhospitable rocky intertidal zone. While wet adhesion is an adaptation that is widespread among inhabitants of the intertidal zone, he said, mussels in particular lend themselves to the kind of fundamental research necessary to understand how it is possible to stick to something wet or submerged.
“They actually stockpile everything they use to stick to the surface in finite quantities that can be purified and characterized,” said Waite. “That has to be done before you can copy it.”
But science had struggled to emulate the ability the molluscs have developed over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. According to Ahn, at least part of the reason for the difficulty has been the lack of a deep and fundamental understanding of the biological mechanism at the molecular level, leading to synthetic adhesives that have generally fallen short in the quality of adhesion and often required complex and somewhat impractical processing and functionalization.
While collaborating with colleagues from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the UCSB research team developed a less complex material that nevertheless demonstrates a record high wet (or underwater) adhesion — up to 10 times the effectiveness previously demonstrated in other such materials.
Key to this technology is the synthesis of a material that combines the key functional molecular groups of several residues found in the biological adhesion proteins. In mussel feet, the amino acid L-Dopa (also used in humans as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease) contains hydrogen-bonding chemical groups called catechols. These are found in especially high quantities at the interface between the plaques at the ends of the byssus threads the mussels secrete, and the often wet and submerged surfaces to which they adhere. By mimicking the characteristics of mussel foot proteins that are particularly rich in this amino acid, Ahn and colleagues designed a molecule that can prime and fuse two surfaces underwater.
To date, the researchers have studied the practical electronic and biomedical applications of this and other families of self-assembled monomolecular-layer catechols and have three patents pending. In addition, they launched NanoM Technologies, LLC to further develop this technology.
Applications of this catecholic adhesive primer are diverse. It can be used to prime or stick surfaces that regularly come into contact with the elements, or added to materials to make them self-healing in wet situations.
Additionally, said Ahn, the small molecules of this adhesive form atomically smooth, ultra-thin glue layers, which hold particular promise for the fabrication of nano-scale electronic devices, including circuits and battery components. The spontaneous coating process, he added, is based on molecular self-assembly in water, without the aid of toxic chemicals, volatile organic solvents or external energy inputs such as heat or light — a sustainable and environmentally friendly process that satisfies the requirements of the emerging discipline of green chemistry.
“This finding opens the door to a new generation of nanofabrications,” he said.
Research on this study was also conducted by Jacob Israelachvili, Saurabh Das, Razieh Mirshafian, Yair Kaufman, Roscoe Linstadt, Bruce Lipshutz and Nadine Martinez-Rodriguez at UCSB, and Ellina Kesselman and Yeshayahu Talmon at Technion-Israel Institute of TechnologyCodi Wilson, CTV News Toronto
A strong majority of Torontonians say they approve of implementing tolls on the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway to pay for transit and infrastructure, according to a new poll released Monday.
The Mainstreet Research poll, which was conducted on behalf of the Transit Alliance, surveyed 2,280 Toronto voters and asked respondents about three possible revenue streams to help pay for transit and infrastructure projects, including road tolls, a property tax hike and a Toronto sales tax.
When inquiring about tolls, the pollster wrote, “Proponents of road tolls for the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway say road tolls would force non-City of Toronto resident to pay their fair share, critics say road tolls are a unnecessary tax hike. Do you approve or disapprove of introducing tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway to pay for transit & infrastructure?”
In response to the question, 70 per cent of Toronto voters said they support road tolls while just 25 per cent said they disapprove of the idea.
Support for tolls was strongest downtown, with 77 per cent support. In Etobicoke, 61 per cent said they would support road tolls to fund infrastructure and transit and in Scarborough, 68 per cent supported the idea.
The other two possible revenue tools presented to respondents were not as popular.
When approaching the topic of a Toronto sales tax, the pollster told respondents that proponents of the tax believe it would be a “sustainable progressive tax that would affect residents based on how much they spend.”
The respondents were also told that critics of the tax argue it would “move sales outside the city and that the city of Toronto doesn’t have the authority to introduce a sales tax.”
When asked about their support for such a tax, only 21 per cent of those surveyed said they would be in favour of it.
Addressing the possibility of a property tax increase, Mainstreet told respondents that those in favour of a hike say Toronto’s property taxes are “low compared to the rest of the GTA.” Critics, according to the pollster, say increasing property taxes would “price residents out of the city.”
When questioned about their support for a property tax hike, 32 per cent of respondents said they would support it to pay for transit and infrastructure.
Asked to choose their preferred option between the three revenue streams, 65 per cent said they preferred tolls while only 13 per cent preferred a property tax hike and just six per cent said they would choose a Toronto sales tax.
The poll, which was conducted on Nov. 25, is considered accurate plus or minus 2.05 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
The survey comes less than a week after Mayor John Tory announced his support for tolling the two major Toronto roadways.
Another poll conducted by Forum Research on Nov. 24 found that Torontonians are more divided about the idea of tolling the Gardiner and DVP.
That poll found that of 730 respondents, 46 per cent approved implementing tolls on the busy highways to fund infrastructure while 45 per cent disapproved and nine per cent didn’t have an opinion.Dialogue instead of violence and anger.
Instead of a protest, Black Lives Matter activists in Wichita, KS, joined their local police department for the First Steps Cookout to open dialogue and bring together the community. Both sides decided this was a better option, especially after police shootings in Dallas, TX, and Baton Rouge, LA.
We are having a great time with everyone at McAdams Park. #thatsmywichita pic.twitter.com/V3Z8s2za9F — Trooper Chad (@TrooperChadKHP) July 18, 2016
It's not pretty. But the Whip and Nae Nae were hit by none other than me! #thatsmywichita -OM pic.twitter.com/AS73lZQ5dY — Wichita Police (@WichitaPolice) July 18, 2016
BLM planned a protest, but Chief Gordon Ramsay (no, not the celebrity chef!) persuaded them to attend the cookout. Pictures show that all had fun and had a positive impact on the community:
“Very good vibe. Very good vibe. It’s everything I was hoping for,” says Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay.
A.J. Bohannon had organized the BLM protest, but decided to help the Wichita PD with the cookout instead:
“First thing we want to do is break that boundary and break that barrier, the second thing we want to do is start that conversation,” said Bohannon.
Ramsay held a question and answer forum with the citizens:
One man says he viewed the cookout as an attempt to take attention away from real cause of the tension between some citizens and police. Ramsay says his department is committed to making things better. “This isn’t something we’re going to change overnight or tonight,” he says. “It’s just going to take continual effort on everybody’s part. And work on policy changes, relationships. And that’s what’s going to get to the heart of the issues.”
Resident James Holland enjoyed the cookout and has never seen anything like it before:
“If I were to ask you the question when was the last time you saw this happen, you would say never because it has not happened,” said Holland. Holland is hopeful the cookout will move the community in the right direction. “I believe that this event is going to show our community that you can voice your opinion without being radically offensive,” said Holland.
Businesses and residents donated food and supplies when they heard about the cookout. The Wichita Wagonmasters helped cook the food so the police “could mingle and visit with citizens.”
Here are more pictures! Let’s hope more communities do this. There are more pictures on the Wichita PD Twitter account. Please look and retweet them!!
These two made my dance skills look pretty weak???? #ithinktheycandance #thatsmywichita -OM pic.twitter.com/h0Il07MZyF — Wichita Police (@WichitaPolice) July 18, 2016
In a world full of hate it's about time we remember what love is????????????#ThatsMyWichita #1stStep pic.twitter.com/tapG0RI7Wg — Jaslyn. (@HeauxsLoveJay) July 18, 2016
It's a surreal feeling being part of the discussions here at McAdams Park tonight #thatsmywichita pic.twitter.com/nDkN49K0SQ — Austin Clift (@KAKEAustin) July 18, 2016
#BlackLivesMatter leaders and @WichitaPolice meeting over dinner with big turnout from community at McAdams Park. pic.twitter.com/HrgZCcnv9P — Darren Dedo (@DarrenDedoKSN) July 17, 2016
The #firststepsbbq is getting started. Come out to McAdams park to grill out and get to know your local officers. pic.twitter.com/x8mIkcs5qR — Jessica Winter (@KAKEJessica) July 17, 2016
[Featured Image via Twitter]If you have been into trading (or any performance endeavor) for awhile, I'm sure that you have heard about how meditation helps elite performers stay at the top of their game.
But you may be wondering: Does meditation really work and can you measure the effectiveness of a particular type of meditation practice or mindfulness aid (device, audio recording, smart drug, etc.)?
Actually, I have no doubt that it works. But I was was wondering if it could be easily measured and more importantly…optimized.
There are a lot of different meditation techniques out there, how do I know that works best for me?
This is the primary question that I wanted to answer.
I also had related questions like:
Is TM the best meditation technique for me?
Do you really have to sit up straight, with your back straight and legs at 90 degrees to get a good meditation session?
Can I lie down and still have an effective meditation session?
Can I measure my mental state in real-time, so I know that I am in a good state for making important decisions (like taking trades)?
And much, much more…
Yes, I acknowledge that it may not be possible to answer any of these questions. But let's give it a shot anyway.
Here's how I'm going to attempt to do it…
In this post, I'll show you research that shows you that meditation does work. Then I'll get into the equipment that I'm currently using and how I'm going to quantitatively show the effectiveness of different meditation practices, to find out what works best for me.
Finally, I'll show you how I a took a baseline measurement and give you the data that I'm going to use to measure effectiveness of different techniques.
Does Meditation Really Work?
First, let's address the elephant in the room. If you aren't sold on the benefits of meditation yet, then you aren't going to be willing to try it.
So let's take a look at a few articles that show how meditation can benefit you.
Meditation Can Physically Change Your Brain in as Little as 8 Weeks
In this interview, a Harvard neuroscientist explains the results of two tests that were done to measure the effect of meditation on the brain.
The first study showed that life-long meditators had more gray matter in certain areas of the brain, compared to people who didn't meditate. These are the areas associated with decision making, memory and the senses.
Next, they wanted to find out how long it would take meditation to take effect. Their data showed increased brain volume in five different areas of the brain, areas related to concentration, memory, learning, stress and more.
Meditation Reduces
This article does a great job of explaining the benefits of mediation in plain English. For me, the most useful insight was that meditation can help us reduce activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with self-reference and rumination.
The result of an overactive medial prefrontal cortex is the reason that we can get stuck in ruts. By calming this part of the brain down, we can move forward more easily.
List of Other Studies
Those were just a couple of the best examples of studies that show that mediation works. If you would like to read other studies, here are a few more links.
We do This in Trading, So Why Not in Meditation?
In trading, you need to find a method that fits your personality, schedule and goals. I believe that almost everything in life is like that.
You need to find what works for you.
The career you choose will depend on your interests and abilities. Your partner needs to be a good fit for you. Hell, you are going to have a favorite flavor of ice cream, based on how your tastebuds are wired.
So why do we get stuck on one type of meditation practice, even if it might not be working for us?
Well, there can be some perfectly understandable reasons for that. Chalk it up to human nature.
Some of them may include:
Religious affiliation
Religious aversion
Guru loyalty
Peer pressure
Laziness
Lack of experience
It's too “woo-woo” and can't possibly work
But I believe that the biggest reason is…
An inability to objectively measure the effect of mediation on ourselves.
Think about for a minute.
When you fill out your trading journal or check your brokerage account statement, you can see that you made exactly $15,384.21 this month.
That's as objective as it gets. Either you made money or you lost money and you know exactly how much.
But with meditation, there isn't really a way to measure the results.
OK, I kind of feel better today…but was it because of my meditation session or the wine I just had?
So the question still remains, can the effectiveness of meditation be measured by the average person, at home?
Let's find out…
How to Measure Your Brainwaves at Home
Until fairly recently, it was almost impossible to take any kind of meaningful measurements of your brainwaves at home. You could ghetto-rig something like this, but the results would be a little suspect, and would depend heavily on how good your soldering skills are.
In order to get a legit reading, you had to go to a lab, usually at a university, and get your brainwaves measured there.
They would use a EEG machine that costs thousands of dollars and you would have to put some weird gel on your head and attach a ton of sensors on your scalp.
…and maybe one on your ear.
The whole procedure would probably take about an hour.
I've done it before, for a marketing study. They showed us a bunch of videos and recorded our responses.
I didn't get to see the results, but it was interesting to see the process in action.
But new technology has made it possible to get started with brainwave measurement at home. I was fascinated by the potential of this technology, so I decided to do some research on it.
Here is what I found…
Brainwave Measurement Tools
First, I needed to find a way to measure my brainwaves. There are a few devices out there, but they are still pretty pricey, so I weighed my options carefully.
Why EEG Data is Important
In these product reviews, I will mention raw EEG data was one of the primary reasons for considering a device or not.
Here's why…
We can measure the state of our brain by measuring the dominant frequency that it gives off. Ultimately, this is the important thing that I want to be able to measure.
These are the primary brainwave frequencies and their associated states:
Delta (0.1-3 Hz) – Associated with deep sleep
(0.1-3 Hz) – Associated with deep sleep Theta (4-8 Hz) – Memory access, learning and creativity
(4-8 Hz) – Memory access, learning and creativity Alpha (9-13 Hz) – Relaxation, meditation
(9-13 Hz) – Relaxation, meditation Beta (14-30 Hz) – Wide awake, focused
(14-30 Hz) – Wide awake, focused Gamma (30-50 Hz) – Learning, information processing
So if I'm backtesting, I probably want to be in a Gamma state to promote learning. If I'm actually trading, I might want to be in a Theta state, to have easy access to my training.
When I'm not in the right state for the task at hand, I want to know that and be able to get myself into that state, for optimal performance.
But that is a more complex topic, to be tackled later. For now, I'm just going to measure relaxation level, as quantified by my measurement device.
Researching these devices took me a lot of time, so hopefully this summary helps you find the best solution for you, much faster.
Emotiv EPOC+
I consider this the Cadillac of brainwave measurement devices. Money no object, this is the first device that I would buy.
Two reasons:
This is probably the closest that you are going to get to a lab quality EEG, at home. It has 14 sensors and will probably give you the most complete data. Emotiv is already doing some really cool things with their headsets. Check out this video:
They are also beautifully designed. Well, as beautiful as this type of thing can get.
Why didn't I get it then?
First, the cost. It currently runs about $800 and that is just for the headset. At the time that I was looking at it, the software development kit would cost an additional several hundred dollars.
The little brother of the EPOC+, the Insight, was an option at about $300. But again, the software was an additional cost.
The software development kit (SDK) cost was important to me because I might want to create software for the headset. But more importantly, if the software is not freely available to other developers, it is less likely that there will be useful software out there that can perform specific functions.
In particular, I wanted access to the raw EEG readings. So while this seems like the best solution out there, it was not cost effective, so I had to pass.
Versus
The next measurement device I found was the Versus. While this device had some impressive endorsements, I felt like there was too much abstraction going on with this device.
What I mean by that is, they have some cool apps, where you can do things like fly a plane with your thoughts. But I was more interested in getting the raw data and quantifiable numbers.
It was also very expensive and a lot more than I wanted to pay. Plus, the headband is bulky and didn't seem like a very elegant solution.
…and why do I need earmuffs?
So on to the next…
NeuroSky MindWave Headset
I almost bought the MindWave headset, as it seemed like a good balance between price and functionality. At only $100, it could potentially be a great deal for the money.
But as I was going through the reviews on Amazon, it seemed like they had significant quality control issues. On top of that, their SDK, with access to raw EEG readings, is also quite expensive, at $500.
So for those two reasons, I decided to pass.
They do have a new BrainLink Pro device that looks promising. But you still have to pay for the software.
Focus Band
The Focus Band came up on my radar, but right away, it didn't seem like a viable solution. First of all, it seems crazy expensive for what it is.
Second, I didn't see a SDK available, so it looks like you are limited to whatever the company puts out. Quite frankly, their website also looks pretty cheesy.
It could be a good product, but nothing on the website communicated that to me. The device also looks too simple to do the job.
I might be totally wrong about that, but that was my impression.
Pass.
Muse Headband
Finally, we come to the Muse headband. At $249, it was on the lower end of the spectrum, and in line with the Emotiv Insight.
I almost bought the Insight and I think it might be a better device, overall.
But what made me buy the Muse was it is still a solid device and they offer a free software development kit, with access to EEG data.
What a concept…
If you want people to use your product, maybe you should make it easier to make software with it. Having a free SDK also makes it more likely that people will create useful software with it.
I was sold. The also have a cool app that is easy to use and allows you to take measurements of your sessions. So that is what I'm going to use for this experiment.
Is Muse the best device out there for measuring brainwave activity?
I don't know, the jury is still out on that. But I feel that it is the best starting point for anyone wanting to experiment with brainwave measurement at home.
My First Experiment
So I ordered my Muse Headband and started testing it. Here is the result from one session that I posted to Twitter:
I just completed 7 mins of #MuseMeditation with 1 recoveries and 25 birds. @ChooseMuse https://t.co/wzuQwz684s — Hugh Kimura (@TradingHeroes) August 27, 2016
The first thing that I wanted to do was setup a baseline measurement to compare to other results. So I started with a basic position that a lot of meditation practitioners recommend.
I sat in a chair with my back straight, legs at about 90 degrees, hands on my thighs and feet flat on the floor. Here's an example:
In this position, I took 10 readings over several days. They were done on random days and times, to get a good average.
I didn't use any aids in this round of testing, since this was a control test. I just tried to calm my mind as much as possible and breathed through my nose, until time was up.
Each session was only 7 minutes. As a meditation practice, that's probably not long enough to start to get any major benefits.
However, in this study, I think it is long enough to get meaningful readings of how effective a particular meditation method is. I've used a couple of meditation aids, which I will get into in future posts, and they have had a similar effect, regardless if the session was 5 minutes or 1 hour.
I measured my results with the Muse app. They have “calm points” which you can read more about here. It is a little overly simplistic, but it gives you a great way to quantify a meditation session.
Just to clarify, I didn't use the app's audio prompts to help me meditate. I only used it to keep time and measure my brainwave activity.
There are “calm points” and the idea is that you get 1 point for every second your mind is in a neutral state and you get 3 points for every second your mind is in a calm state.
Here are my results from the 10 sessions:
8:52 am, 55% calm, 858 calm points 8:42 am, 28% calm, 614 calm points 2:22 am, 76% calm, 1050 calm points 9:09 am, 43% calm, 773 calm points 1:16 am, 51% calm, 844 calm points 9:22 am, 51% calm, 849 calm points 11:18 pm, 59% calm, 911 calm points 1:47 am, 55% calm, 878 calm points 9:27 am, 36% calm, 725 calm points 12:39 pm, 59% calm, 915 calm points
So the averages are:
51.3% calm
841.7 calm points
Therefore, this is what I should expect, when doing a basic mediation, with no aids and in this sitting position. This will be the baseline for future experiments.
Conclusion
So that was my first test of using the Muse headband to measure the effectiveness of different meditation techniques. In future blog posts, I'll show you the results from other tests that I have done.
My future tests might include:
Audio recordings
Environment changes
Different meditation positions
And more…
I also downloaded an app that shows brainwave data. I'm still learning how to use it, so more on that when I figure it out.
Here's a screenshot to the right. It shows all five brainwave frequencies and which one is dominant, in real-time.
To learn more about meditation for traders, I would also going through the Advanced Traders Mindset Course.
Have you tried meditation before? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below..
Disclaimer: Some links on this page are affiliate links. We do make a commission if you purchase through these links, but it does not cost you anything extra and we only promote products and services that we personally use and wholeheartedly believe in. A portion of the proceeds are donated to my charity partners.Jim Boggess of Jimbo's Deli exercises his right to express himself. Rick Epstein | Hunterdon County Democrat
FLEMINGTON -- The sign in the deli window says, "CELEBRATE YOUR WHITE HERITAGE IN MARCH, WHITE HISTORY MONTH."
Jim Boggess, proprietor of Jimbo's Deli on Main at 22 Main St., says, "No matter what you are -- Muslim, Jewish, black, white, gay, straight -- you should be proud of what you are. I shouldn't have to feel bad about being white."
But a neighbor and former customer, Bhakti Curtis, who is bi-racial, doesn't accept that. He said the sign, is "mocking Black History Month," especially the way the T was crossed in "WHITE." The cross piece was not right at the top, it was lower down, in a style used by the Ku Klux Klan and other white-power groups, Curtis said. That cross piece of the T has since been broadened to make it a more traditional, if top-heavy, capital T.
On March 3, Curtis saw the sign, told Boggess it offended him, but got no satisfaction. So he filed a complaint with the Flemington police. Detective Sgt. William Svard said Cpl. Louis Hribik's report indicates that Curtis said the sign is "racist," that he felt harassed by it and wanted to know what would be done about it.
Hribik went to Jimbo's, looked at the sign, spoke with Boggess and decided that the sign wasn't derogatory or racist and that no further police action was needed.
Boggess agrees with that assessment and believes he's lawfully exercising his right of free expression. He keeps a copy of the Bill of Rights in his establishment for ready reference.
He said reaction to the sign has been mixed. Lots of people have been photographing his sign with their phones and giving him a thumbs-up. But others have objected, including someone from the Business Improvement District who asked him to take it down, he said.
Another critic of the sign is John Puckett, owner of the Main Street Bagel Co. a couple doors away. He said the sign is "an embarrassment" to Flemington "and makes us look like a town full of inbreds."
Boggess said, "If there's any racial discrimination going on, it's by people who are objecting to his sign "because I'm white." He said that while other groups have their own celebrations, "I just want to be included. Why is this such a big deal? I don't get it."
He said, "I love everybody and everybody should celebrate what they are."
But Curtis is not feeling the love. "A business can't go putting racist signs in the window because everybody has a right to go in that store. Everybody! And have a right to buy something from that man and not feel demoralized or degraded."
He said that racial parity has not yet been achieved, as evidenced, for example, by the recent shootings nationwide of unarmed black men by police.
Boggess notes that he didn't invent White History Month; it has its own website, which celebrates it in April. "But I'm having it in March," he said.
So is the sign staying up? Boggess said on Wednesday, March 4, he'd leave it up for as long as he can, "but I'm getting a lot of pressure."
That same morning, Curtis encountered Sgt. Svard and Police Chief George Becker in Cocco's Cafe and asked them about the case. The conversation got unpleasant. Afterward Curtis went to the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office to file a complaint that he had been unfairly threatened with arrest. "You can't use authority like that," he said.
Because of the involvement of the Prosecutor's Office, Svard said he could not comment yet on what transpired at Cocco's.
Curtis observed about the Cocco's episode, "I'm big and black and have a loud voice. But that's not against the law." Curtis is determined to stand up for himself and continue his exploration of what is and isn't against the law. On Wednesday morning, he said he was going to see a lawyer to talk about whether his civil rights have been violated by the police and by the sign.
For the record, although Curtis has a problem with White History Month, he is part white. "I'm black, Irish and Polish," he said, "but I look black. I grew up in a white family, and I love white people. I just hate racism."A geothermal drilling station near St. Gallen is being used to find hot water that could supply half the city's buildings with energy (Keystone)
Drilling for geothermal power sources caused a minor earthquake early Saturday morning, which was felt across a large area of eastern Switzerland from St. Gallen to Appenzell. The project has been halted while the quake is investigated.
The epicentre of the magnitude 3.6 quake was registered at a depth of four kilometres. The shaking is directly related to test measurements and simulations for the drilling of geothermal power plant project in St. Gallen, according to the Swiss Seismological Service (SED), based at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology. The project, which was put on hold following the quake, is the largest of its kind currently underway in Switzerland.
Minor damage to buildings as a result of such a quake can’t be ruled out, the SED noted, although none has been reported.
The goal of the geothermal drilling project is to find hot water (140 degrees Celsius) |
immigrants are found to be better off with immigration. Again, in the canonical framework this is extremely unlikely, as new immigrants are more closely substitutable with incumbent immigrants than with natives. The reason for these somewhat surprising results is the job-creation effect described above. Namely, immigration can grease the wheels of the labour market by affecting job creation incentives.
What explains the cross-country heterogeneity in benefits?
The comparative statics from our analysis reveal that the following country characteristics increase the native immigration gains from a one-percentage-point increase in the immigrant labour force share:
(i) Higher native–immigrant wage gaps, regardless of the skill group;
(ii) A lower native–immigrant unemployment gap for the low-skilled;
(iii) More generous unemployment insurance;
(iv) A higher share of tertiary-educated workers amongst immigrants;
(v) Lower government expenditures.
The intuition is as follows. Lower bargaining power for immigrants implies that they have lower wages, and this encourages firms to create more jobs. Also, lower job-destruction rates for immigrants make hiring an immigrant more valuable for firms and encourage firms to create more jobs. A more generous unemployment insurance system makes immigration more beneficial for natives because higher unemployment benefits reduce job creation, and immigration helps to alleviate this distortion. In other words, the greasing-the-wheels effect and its lowering of the unemployment rate are particularly valuable when distortions are large. A higher share of tertiary-educated immigrants and lower government expenditures increase the benefits because they lower the extent of redistribution from natives to migrants.
Conclusions
Our analysis shows that immigration into imperfectly competitive labour markets need not be worsening labour market outcomes for natives. Instead, it can improve the job creation incentives of firms. Thus, measures that aim at eliminating the immigrant–native wage gap may hurt natives. This positive effect is threatened if immigrants are too often unemployed or if too many of them are unskilled. Policies reducing the rate of job loss for immigrants would therefore help natives. Finally, in contrast to widespread belief, immigrants do not seem to hurt low-skilled natives, even in the more realistic framework developed here. This is because immigration is often balanced between more and less educated, because its job-creation effect can help, and because redistribution towards immigrants is not as large as often suggested in the debate.
References
Battisti, M, G Felbermayr, G Peri, and P Poutvaara (2014), “Immigration, Search, and Redistribution: A Quantitative Assessment of Native Welfare”, NBER Working Paper 20131.
Boeri, T (2010), “Immigration to the Land of Redistribution”, Economica, 77(308): 651–687.
Borjas, G J (1995), “The Economic Benefits from Immigration”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2): 3–22.
Borjas, G J (2003), “The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4): 1335–1374.
D’Amuri, F, G Ottaviano, and G Peri (2010), “The Labor Market Impact of Immigration in Western Germany in the 1990s”, European Economic Review, 54(4): 550–570.
Dustmann, C and T Frattini (2013), “The Fiscal Effects of Immigration to the UK”, CreAM Discussion Paper 22/13.
Hanson, G H (2009), “The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor”, Annual Review of Economics, 1(1): 179–208.
Ottaviano, G I P and G Peri (2008), “Immigration in Western Europe”, VoxEU.org, 17 April.Peeking through the tinted glass of his rented limo, "Mean" Gene Okerlund studied the lively crowd emerging onto the Manhattan sidewalks from the subway and Port Authority Bus Terminal.
On broadcasts for what was then the World Wrestling Federation—the company now known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—Okerlund was an animated pitchman, selling plotlines and upcoming events. But on this day in 1985, he appeared introspective.
Diverting his attention from the street, Okerlund looked over at fellow announcer Jesse “The Body” Ventura and his wife, Terry, as the car inched closer to Madison Square Garden for the first WrestleMania.
Both men had attended wrestling’s so-called super-cards before. At the time, there were more than a dozen regional territories in North America and, occasionally, a special show would feature names from various promotions.
But with WrestleMania, World Wrestling Federation head Vince McMahon was taking a very sharp turn. Instead of working in concert with his fellow promoters, McMahon was paying the best wrestlers to perform exclusively for him. And rather than remain in the Northeast region his father and grandfather promoted, McMahon was planning to expand not just around the country, but the globe.
At this stage of the game, many fans were unsure whether the finishes they saw in the ring were predetermined; some wrestling insiders feared that revealing the truth would kill the business. Now, McMahon was going for a new breed of spectator, attempting to attract people who appreciated the diversion for its audacious showmanship.
To draw them to WrestleMania, McMahon was bringing in celebrities. Cyndi Lauper, the Grammy Award-winning singer, would be managing Wendi Richter in her bid to capture Leilani Kai’s WWF Women’s Championship. Mr. T, who had appeared with WWF champion Hulk Hogan in Rocky III, would be teaming with him in the main event. Even Liberace, the sequin-adorned pianist so popular on the Vegas Strip, would be dancing in the ring with the Rockettes.
As the skyscrapers above them cast shadows on the limousine, Okerlund was still gazing at Ventura. “Jesse,” Gene asked after a few moments, “What are you thinking?”
The future governor of Minnesota rocked back and forth. “I don’t know what to expect,” he said.
Ventura wasn’t alone in his uncertainty. "Jesse’s attitude was the same as everyone else’s," Okerlund recalled in a recent interview with Bleacher Report. "No one knew if WrestleMania would fly, and it flew. It flew like nothing else."
This is an oral history of that first WrestleMania. But it doesn't commence on the afternoon of March 31, 1985. Rather, it starts about two years earlier—a year after McMahon purchased the company from his ailing father, at which point “the boys” in the World Wrestling Federation dressing room begin to sense that things may never be as they were before.
Grappling with Their Mission
Nikolai Volkoff: “We were all in a meeting and Vince asked, ‘How do you feel about changing wrestling into entertainment?’ The older guys, like Chief Jay Strongbow, said no. That was funny because Strongbow wasn’t really an American Indian. He was Italian. He’d even joke that he was a ‘Wop-A-Ho.’ But that’s what guys like him had in their blood. I had a different mentality because I grew up in a communist country and I knew how to adjust to a new system.
“Vince understood that people always want to see something new. Even if some of the wrestlers didn’t like it, Vince was going to take the business to a new level.”
Steve Taylor, Photographer: “Vince McMahon had started his own magazine, and he flew me up to Cape Cod for an interview to see if I wanted to be the photographer. We were having lunch and he was talking about going worldwide and making the World Wrestling Federation into a major media thing. I was thinking, ‘He’s a great salesman. He’s pretty persuasive. This really could be something big.'
“So I gave notice at my other job. But this is typical Vince: Before I left, I was already doing a shoot with Sergeant Slaughter.”
Hulk Hogan was the most charismatic “babyface”—or fan favorite—in the world. At the time, he was working for Minneapolis-based promoter Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association (AWA).
Under the pretense of generating publicity for the AWA in WWF Magazine, McMahon arranged for Taylor to attend one of Gagne’s shows.
Steve Taylor: “I got to Chicago and everyone was suspicious. They were watching me everywhere I went. Technically, we had a working relationship, but not really. Vince told me he was actually sending me there to slip his home phone number to Hulk Hogan. I had the piece of paper in my pocket and I managed to pass it to him when I shook his hand.”
Mean Gene Okerlund: “I’d been with Hulk Hogan in the AWA, and we were very tight. He was one of the reasons I also left for the WWF. Over the years, I’d really watched him develop. Because, boy, some of those early interviews we did, they were a struggle. But eventually, he developed that ‘Let me tell you, brother!’ style and never looked back.
“You can’t even compare his presence to any of the big stars the WWE had in the past. He was something hip—a Marvel comic book hero. Look, there had been mainstream people involved in the business before. Retired boxing champions like Jack Dempsey and Joe Frazier had been brought in as guest referees. But the demographics they drew would not include people like Andy Warhol, Diane Keaton and Danny DeVito. Those celebrities came to WWF shows to see Hulk Hogan.”
Hogan’s WrestleMania I nemesis had already joined the company after establishing himself as the industry’s best “heel”—or villain—in a number of territories. Rowdy Roddy Piper’s manic interview style was unparalleled, so much so that McMahon gave him his own WWF interview segment, "Piper’s Pit."
In one of the most memorable moments in WWE history, Fijian highflier Jimmy "Superfly” Snuka was brought onto the set. After a series of questions belittling Snuka’s Pacific Islander heritage, Piper suddenly erupted, battering Snuka with a coconut.
And he was just hitting his stride.
Roddy Piper: “Before I came into the WWE, Don Muraco had been the top heel, working with Snuka and (WWF champion Bob) Backlund and selling out buildings. But so much was on his shoulders and he was so tired. When I started with WWF, he looked at me and said, ‘Here, I hand you the torch.’ And he wasn’t joking.”
By early 1984, WWF champion Bob Backlund, a great athlete with a sincere, all-American boy persona that didn’t always translate to the company’s edgy audiences, had been dethroned by the Iron Sheik, a colorful Iranian whose career skyrocketed after Islamic revolutionaries invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Everything was now in place for Hogan to take the title from the Sheik on January 23 at Madison Square Garden—and usher in a new era.
Iron Sheik: “Without the Iron Sheik, there never be a WrestleMania, and let me tell you why. When I start in this business, Mr. Gagne in Minnesota was my coach. One week before my match with Hogan, he called me and said, 'Don’t drop the belt to that bleached-blonde jabroni. He’s a punk. I’ll give you $100,000. You get in the ring with him at Madison Square Garden, you break his leg, take his belt and bring it to the AWA. We put Vince out of business.'
“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Gagne. I don’t know what to do. So I said, 'I’ll call you back in 24 hours.' Then, I talk to Sergeant Slaughter. I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Sergeant, I have a problem.’ Sergeant Slaughter is also trained by Verne Gagne. But he says, '$100,000 is nothing. We’re going to make millions working with Vince.' So I told Mr. Gagne 'No.' I lose the match to Hulk Hogan.
“But I did it with pride and honor.”
Colossally big stars and colossally bad names
Having accomplished his goal of anointing Hogan, McMahon concentrated on other storylines that would eventually lead to WrestleMania I, arranging for Lauper to visit Piper’s Pit and get into an altercation with both Piper and Captain Lou Albano, the unkempt manager who played her father in her hit video for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
On July 23, 1984, with Lauper in her corner, Wendi Richter won the WWF Women’s Championship from perennial titlist The Fabulous Moolah in Madison Square Garden. Albano was in Moolah’s corner. The show was given a name, “The Brawl to End It All,” and, because of Lauper’s involvement, was broadcast live on MTV.
But McMahon was thinking even bigger.
Vince McMahon (from WWE’s True Story of WrestleMania DVD): “Certainly it takes no genius to recognize there’s always this one big, huge event, whether it was sports or entertainment. So why not wrestling?”
Howard Finkel, WWE Ring Announcer (from WWE’s True Story of WrestleMania DVD): “He was trying to come up with a name for what we could call the event. And I said, ‘The Beatles, when they came to the United States back in 1964, their phenomenon was dubbed Beatlemania. Why can’t we call our event WrestleMania?’”
Retired wrestler George Scott was Vince McMahon’s booker, recruiting talent from other territories and helping conceive storylines.
George Scott: “At one point, Vince wanted to call the event The Colossal Tussle. I thought that was really stupid. So I started flapping my arms and skipping around the room, going, ‘Oh, the Colossal Tussle, the Colossal Tussle.’ I was doing a little imitation of (former Georgia promoter) Jim Barnett. He was a good friend but very effeminate. I skipped out the door and Vince yelled, ‘Get back in here. We’re calling it WrestleMania.’”
One of the storylines was tied to a Lou Albano babyface turn. During an in-ring ceremony presided by Dick Clark, Captain Lou was presented with a gold record for his contributions to the emerging “Rock ’n’ Wrestling Connection”—prompting a jealous Piper to bust the platter over his head. When Lauper rushed to Albano’s aid, she was also menaced by “Hot Rod,” inducing Hulk Hogan to save her.
As a result, Hogan and Piper met in the main event of a February 18, 1985, card dubbed “The War to Settle the Score.” Once again, the show was broadcast live on MTV. On the undercard, Wendi Richter dropped her title to Leilani Kai—but Lauper vowed her friend would win it back at WrestleMania. And to further enhance the intrigue building toward the biggest wrestling show ever, just prior to the Hogan-Piper confrontation, Mr. T sat down in the front row.
Mr. T (as told to the Daily Mirror’s Ringside blog in 2009): "Vince McMahon called me. See, not to be egotistical, you know, but they know what I bring. You know what I mean? I bring the excitement, I bring the fun. We discussed the money stuff and whatever, and after that, we discussed the plan. How you wanna work it? And that’s what we did. It was fun."
Roddy Piper: “They wanted me to take a dive and I said, ‘No.’ If Hogan and I were going to be in a tag team match at WrestleMania, why would he—the champion—beat me a month before? If anything, I’d beat him. Hogan would want his revenge. We’d have our match at WrestleMania, and after that, he’d beat me and get back the title.
“So I wouldn’t lay down for Hogan. It caused tension between us, but my reasoning was sound.”
Instead, the match ended in a disqualification. After Roddy’s confederates, “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and Cowboy Bob Orton interfered, Lauper tried to assist. Piper saw her coming and appeared to kick her in the head. This deed apparently outraged Mr. T so much that he gave into his compulsion to hop the railing and join the fray.
Mr. T (as told to the Daily Mirror’s Ringside blog): “Being the manly man I am, I say, ‘What kind of stuff is that?’ And the crowd start hollering, ‘T. T. T.’ So then, I climb up on the ring apron, you know, ‘You don’t do that to no lady. You gonna get it now, fool.’ I walk in there, and I’m looking at this guy. ‘Don’t you never mess with a lady.’ And the other guy jump me from the back. Set up pretty good.”
Fans were shocked and overjoyed. Everything was in place for a WrestleMania main event featuring Piper and Orndorff—with Orton in their corner—against the Lauper-supported tandem of Hogan and Mr. T.
Nikolai Volkoff: “The wrestlers whose minds worked old-school, they didn’t like Mr. T. They felt he didn’t belong there. But, as entertainment, he was perfect.”
Roddy Piper: “There was a big difference between Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T. While Cyndi came into our business not to take anything out, Mr. T thought, ‘What can I do for Mr. T?’”
Mean Gene Okerlund: “Mr. T could rub anyone the wrong way. He was making a lot of money, and he was leading Hogan around by the arm, when it should have been the other way around.”
George Scott: “Mr. T ran up something like $22,000 in expenses in one week. I think that kind of freaked Vince out. He told me if WrestleMania wasn’t successful, he’d go bankrupt.”
Vince McMahon (from WWE’s True Story of WrestleMania DVD): “It was a huge gamble, the biggest gamble I’d ever been involved with. It was a roll of the dice. Would it work?”
Hulk Hogan (from WWE’s True Story of WrestleMania DVD): “I said, ‘This guy’s crazy. This guy’s going to piss everybody off, all these little territories. Vince is going to get everybody so mad that everybody who works on the WrestleMania card will be blackballed. And if Vince fails, I’ll never be able to go anywhere else and make a living.’”
Roddy Piper: “There was a press conference at Rockefeller Center leading to the event. Out of nowhere, Mr. T just dove on me. No discussion about it beforehand. He didn’t have any respect.”
Mr. T (as told to the Daily Mirror’s Ringside blog): “(Only) one guy knocked Mr. T out and that was Rocky. ‘Cause they paid me a lot of money and I needed it.”
Roddy Piper: “At WrestleMania, he wanted to treat our match like a cartoon and bang the heels’ heads together. And I laid the law down that I would not let Mr. T pin my shoulders. I wasn’t being difficult. I’m not going to let someone come into my business and treat me like a clown.”
To a degree, Hogan expressed the same sentiment four days before WrestleMania, when he and Mr. T were interviewed by Richard Belzer on his show Hot Properties. After some pleasantries, the comedian challenged the WWF champion to put him in a wrestling hold.
In the past, wrestlers would find themselves in this predicament often, usually in barrooms or gymnasiums. If the questioner appeared too cavalier or condescending to the business, the logic was to humble him by clamping on a front face-lock, instantly cutting off air to the brain.
Brutus Beefcake: “I’d been close friends with Hulk for a while, and I’d never seen him do that to anyone before. But Mr. T was prodding him: ‘Do it. Do it.’ And when Hulk let go, Belzer fell down and split his head open on the stage floor. If someone challenges your livelihood, you answer. I’m not sure if it was good or it was bad. If anything, it might have gotten a few more people interested in seeing WrestleMania.”
How to Steer a Plowed Yankees Skipper
Although the infant medium of pay-per-view was available in a few select locations, the World Wrestling Federation’s goal was luring crowds to venues around North America to watch the show on closed-circuit television. So they went outside the wrestling world in an attempt to draw even more fans.
Mean Gene Okerlund: “(Former Yankees manager) Billy Martin was brought in as a special ring announcer. I’d been given instructions to meet him in Newport Beach, Calif., to do some type of promo, and he was in a bar with an American Airlines flight attendant and didn’t know anything about the event. By this time, he’s plowed. I told him the names of the people in the main event, but he couldn’t remember. So we both went outside and put on dark glasses, so you couldn’t see his eyes. I told him I’d talk about the wrestlers, and he’d respond with a baseball story. And you know what? It all worked. It had to work.”
Roddy Piper: “Muhammad Ali was announced as the special referee. I'd done one thing with him before—in 1976, when he was building up his (boxer vs. wrestler) match with Antonio Inoki. We were in the ring in Los Angeles, and he whispered in my ear, 'Hip-toss me.' So I hip-tossed him. His shoes come flying off. All these guys with bulges in their pockets poured in. People thought I'd gone into business for myself and gave him a cheap shot. But he was such a great man, he decided to give a young kid the rub.
“I really wanted to work with Ali at WrestleMania. But as we were going through the paces to build up the event, we realized it could get very ugly—and he could get very hurt—without some control. So we made Ali a special official at ringside.”
Mean Gene Okerlund: “Before the show, Vince pulled me into his office and said, ‘We don’t have anyone to do the Star-Spangled Banner.’ I thought we’d have Billy Joel or someone. Now, I’d lived my whole life in this country and had my allegiance to the USA. But I couldn’t have sang that Star-Spangled Banner if I hadn’t written the lyrics on my hand.”
The Full Card
Prior to WrestleMania I, most major wrestling shows had featured a number of preliminary matches, as opposed to an entire card of main event talent. Following convention, Tito Santana was booked in the opening bout against The Executioner, who was masked.
The Executioner ("Playboy" Buddy Rose) was an unknown entity in the WWE, and Santana was insulted that he was being "wasted” in what he presumed was a forgettable skirmish. But McMahon explained that he needed someone who could excite the crowd in order to start WrestleMania properly. And by the time The Executioner submitted to Tito’s figure-four leglock, that goal had been met.
This was followed by a match centered around King Kong Bundy, a New Jersey native for whom the World Wrestling Federation had big plans. Officially listed as more than 450 pounds, Bundy pinned S.D. ("Special Delivery") Jones in what was heralded as a record 23 seconds. The World Wrestling Federation had done its job of introducing Bundy to its expanded audience as a monster.
The next match was something of a showcase for Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, who would win the World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental title from Randy “Macho Man” Savage two years later at WrestleMania III, in a match many considered the best the company had staged on pay-per-view.
At WrestleMania I, Steamboat used a flying body press to defeat Matt Borne, a second-generation wrestler whose idiosyncratic personality enabled him to effectively create the Doink the Clown character in the early 1990s.
The one WrestleMania match that blended the old with the new pitted Brutus Beefcake against David Sammartino. Beefcake was accompanied by his manager, Johnny V. David Sammartino came with his father, “Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino, who first won the company’s title in 1963. Inevitably, Johnny V. and Bruno Sammartino both ended up in the ring, leading to the referee declaring the bout a no-contest.
In the first title match on the card, Intercontinental champion Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, a hard-hitting spark plug whose matches always had a touch of believability, was challenged by the Junkyard Dog, the most popular African-American wrestler in the United States. The Junkyard Dog won via count-out.
This was followed by a second championship match: the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff challenging Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham for their WWF Tag Team titles. According to wrestling insider terminology, Windham and Rotundo were “white meat babyfaces.” In contrast to the challengers’ anti-American ravings, the titlists were smiling flag-wavers who called themselves the U.S. Express.
The villains won after the Iron Sheik legitimately busted a can over Windham's head. "I wanted to make it believable," the Sheik explained.
Nikolai Volkoff: "I never really wanted to be a Soviet heel because I escaped from a communist country and I thought communists were bums. But my manager Freddie Blassie told me, 'We’re in business to make money. You speak the language. And if you hate them so much, show people how bad they are.' The Sheik was really a bodyguard for the Shah and didn’t like the Ayatollah. But he could speak Farsi and play the character."
Iron Sheik: "To become the tag team champion at the biggest show at Madison Square Garden, it was pleasure for me. It was great. It was the No. 1 best feeling in the world."
As with other major wrestling shows, WrestleMania I contained a bout with a retirement stipulation. Andre the Giant pledged to leave the sport if he failed to bodyslam Big John Studd. Like Andre, Studd—who was listed as 6'10"—proclaimed himself a leviathan of the World Wrestling Federation. If he couldn’t bodyslam Andre, he promised to award Andre $15,000.
No one expected Andre to retire. Yet, despite the predictability, fans were immensely happy with the outcome of WrestleMania I’s “Bodyslam Challenge,” particularly when Andre slammed Studd, grabbed an athletic bag with a WWF logo and began to toss the contents—largely $1 bills—to ringside.
The next encounter was another example of what the people wanted to see. Wendi Richter not only captured the WWF Women’s Championship from Leilani Kai, but Lauper tussled with Kai’s manager, The Fabulous Moolah, on the arena floor.
The only thing left was the main event.
A Finale that Nearly KO'd Ali
Mean Gene Okerlund: “Liberace was the special guest timekeeper for the main event. He came out with the Radio City Rockettes and they linked arms and did a high-stepping dance in the ring. Now, the Rockettes probably wouldn’t mean jack s**t to someone today. But back then, man, wrestling had never seen anything like this, and it meant something. It’s like your first piece of a**. You just never forget it.”
Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff: “I didn’t like working with Mr. T. I thought he was a piece of s**t. He wasn’t that good of an athlete, and I had to go out there and make him look like King Kong. He didn’t sweat. I did.”
Yet, the crowd was enthralled as Orndorff and Piper clashed with Hogan and Mr. T—so much so that, at one point, Muhammad Ali seemed to become lost in the moment. From the dressing room, George Scott watched in horror, as the former boxing champion defied orders and climbed into the ring.
George Scott: “I had to run out to get him, take him by the arm and lead him back to ringside, where he was supposed to be.”
Roddy Piper: “I kept it to amateur wrestling with Mr. T. I wouldn’t let him throw a punch. At one point, he tried to get cute, and I got him in a front face-lock just for a second, to put him in his place.
“But when I saw him bend forward, I knew what I needed to do to make it look good. I told him to drape me over his shoulders and pick me up. He held me there, like a fireman’s carry, and stopped until I told him to spin me around. That’s the photo that went all over the world—me getting the airplane spin from Mr. T.”
The match ended when Piper’s bodyguard, Cowboy Bob Orton, sneaked up the turnbuckles and came off the top rope as Orndorff held Hogan in place. But Orton brought down his signature plaster cast on Orndorff instead, and he was quickly pinned by the Hulkster.
As Hogan and Mr. T celebrated, Piper and Orton abandoned Orndorff in the ring. His eyes darted as he looked out at the crowd, distraught. The crowd looked back sympathetically. The show was over, but the story would continue—with Mr. Wonderful in a new role as a babyface, battling Piper.
Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff: “I knew a lot of new fans were watching, so I didn’t make the match too complicated. They remembered the finish and they knew what it meant. That’s all that mattered.”
Roddy Piper: “When the match was over, Mr. T and Hogan were whisked off to a celebration function that had been preplanned. So Ace (Orton) and I shower, dress and go back to our limos, and there were no cars. We walk down the ramp and the only thing I see there to protect us is one policeman on a horse. I’d had death threats, and the crowd in New York was pretty wild. So we pulled a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opened the door, ran through the crowd, jumped in a cab and aggressively told the driver to go.
“To this day, I don’t think it was a misunderstanding. Somebody—I’m not sure who, because there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen—wanted to take a shot at me. We were left there on purpose because I didn’t cooperate. And it caused a lot of tension with me and the WWF.
“While Hogan and Mr. T were in the Rainbow Room, getting their picture taken, we went to the Ramada Inn, like it was just another night. We might as well have worked Poughkeepsie.”
The next morning, The Associated Press reported that one million fans had watched WrestleMania I on closed-circuit television. Even more importantly, the few who could receive pay-per-view appeared to have taken advantage of this new opportunity, enabling the World Wrestling Federation to become a leader during the medium’s embryonic stages.
Mean Gene Okerlund: “We weren’t just promoting wrestling matches anymore. WrestleMania tipped the scales purely into entertainment.”
Vince McMahon (from WWE’s True Story of WrestleMania DVD): “Having had the success of WrestleMania I, from an ego standpoint, I think we thought we could do most anything.”
Nikolai Volkoff: “WrestleMania I was very, very good for WWE. For everybody else, it was no good. It’s Mother Nature. The big fish eats the small fish. You cannot go against the laws of Mother Nature.”
Almost immediately, McMahon began planning the second WrestleMania, to be broadcast simultaneously the next year from New York, Los Angeles and suburban Chicago.
The idea of a recurring supershow was not unique to the wrestling profession, yet even McMahon's most loyal and optimistic employees couldn't fathom his longtime vision of WrestleMania as an institution that, in 2013, would fill New Jersey's MetLife Stadium and draw a live gate of more than $11 million.
Keith Elliot Greenberg, a New York Times bestselling author and television producer, wrote for WWE’s publications for more than 20 years. He was at ringside for WrestleMania I.Statisticians have spent a lot of time attempting to do complicated inference for various machine learning models. In fact, there's an enormously simple and naive way to do this in complete generality: Simply use a paired T-test to compare the performance of two models on your test set!
Here are the details: suppose you have $n$ $(x, y)$ pairs, drawn iid from some true $(X, Y)$ distribution. "Machine learning" is the problem of trying to estimate $y$ using $x$, given the example $(x, y)$ pairs. Ultimately you produce a function $f(x)$ that's supposed to be a reasonable estimate for $y$. Typically, one has a loss function $L(y, f(x))$ that describes how good an estimate is. You can compare estimators by their expected loss, $L(f) = E[L(Y, f(X))]$. (The expectation we'll consider here is taken over new $(X, Y)$, where the $(x, y)$ points you used to fit $f$ are considered fixed. But there are other reasonable definitions, including expecting over the $(x, y)$ data pairs, or expecting just over the $y$'s and only looking at the loss at the $n$ $x$ points).
Now, let's say we have a test set of $m$ $(x, y)$ pairs, (separate from the $n$ you used to fit your model). If you wish to compare two models you fit, $f$ and $g$, you can look at $L(y, f(x)) - L(y, g(x))$ for each of the m $(x, y)$ pairs. This will give you $m$ iid random variables, and then you can use a T-test to test whether their mean is equal to zero or not. Put in words, this paired T-test can test the null hypothesis that $f$ and $g$ are equally good functions against the alternative that they aren't, (or against one-sided alternatives if you wish).
There's a lot you can do with this simple setup. For example, $f$ might be a model that includes some set of features, and $g$ might include these same features except one. So you can test the "significance" of individual features, just like you can do with linear or logistic regression, for example. You can also compare a model under different tuning parameters, two different kinds of models, (neural nets vs. random forests, for example), or last month's model vs. this month's.
This approach isn't a panacea, though. For one, it's quite wasteful in terms of how it's using data, and as a result is very low-powered. After being used to fit $f$ or $g$, the $n$ training data points are thrown away, and only the $m$ test points are used. Contrast this to the maximum-likelihood/likelihood-ratio-test (e.g. linear or logistic regression) approach to inference, where you can use the same $n$ training points for both fitting the model and also for inference. Fundamentally the reason you can do this for these parametric models is that you can easily understand the "degrees of freedom" of adding an additional feature, something that isn't possible in general machine-learning models.
A natural modification, then, is to use k-fold cross validation instead of just a single train/test split. But this doesn't quite work: First of all, doing this requires changing our expected loss definition. Previously, we were considering the $n$ $(x, y)$ points as fixed, but in the cross-validation setup we can't do that anymore since each point is considered random in its fold. That's not a big deal in and of itself--it just changes the hypothesis we're testing to how good a particular model fit on a random 80% (i.e. $1 - 1/k$) of the data is.
The problem, though, is that changing this setup and making all the $(x, y)$ points random makes the loss differences for held-out points no longer iid, even in the same fold. That's because the loss difference now depends on all the random $(x, y)$ pairs in the training folds (through $f$ and $g$), in addition to just the $(x, y)$ pair in the held-out fold. For example, if the loss difference of the first point in a held-out fold abnormally favors $f$ over $g$, it suggests that the $(x, y)$ pairs in the training folds may have made $f$ an abnormally better model than $g$, and hence that the loss differences in the rest of the fold may also abnormally favor $f$. (In the train/test split approach, we were considering the training points as fixed, effectively conditioning on $f$ and $g$ in the loss expectation and avoiding this problem). So the independence of the points no longer holds, and consequently we can't use the same T-test trick.
One idea I've had about this is to look at leave-one-out cross validation instead of k-fold CV. With LOOCV, the loss differences for different points will all be exchangeable. So potentially by finding the right exchangeability CLT theorems, and putting the right conditions on the model you're considering, you could have a powerful and general approach to hypothesis tests for machine learning models.
You might also enjoy...In this election it has become obligatory for politicians to appear on TV, at a workplace, in a hi-vis jacket. Because work is the new obsession. “Hard-working families” are a key meme in all the campaigns. The workplace – once a no-go arena in British politics – has become the ideal venue for photo-opportunities.
Strange, then, that the actual politics of work barely get a look in. Job numbers we have: the coalition has seen 1.7 million jobs created during its term. Apprenticeships are the new coinage of politics: to be offered to everybody who wants one. Zero-hours contracts are to be contested; the minimum wage raised.
But what goes on inside the workplace is still hard to make subject to public debate. Last week I stood outside a fast |
are other limitations as well. For instance, to use the platform, traders should already have some bitcoins because otherwise they would be unable to pay a security deposit and fees. The application must be always kept open during the trade because if the user goes offline, it makes finalising of the trade impossible.
The developers do not recommend using the platform in the countries where bitcoin is illegal because “undercover agents can act as peer traders.” They also advise opening a separate bank account for bitcoin trade to avoid blocking of the primary payment account if the bank is suspicious about bitcoin. Finally, they state that “while Bitsquare is developed to offer the right to privacy, it is not intended to facilitate criminal behaviour,” so, “in the event of disputes, arbitrators may need to verify the identity of the traders.”
Alexey TereshchenkoEMBED >More News Videos Horrifying new details are coming to light about the sexual assault and murder of a teenage girl found dead in an abandoned apartment in South Houston.
EMBED >More News Videos The body of a teenager was found in South Houston after days of searching for a missing girl. Jeff Ehling reports.
EMBED >More News Videos The body of a teenager was found in the search for 15-year-old Karen Perez. Jeff Ehling reports.
The makeshift memorial to a slain teen burned overnight.In late May, 15-year-old Karen Perez was found dead inside an abandoned apartment complex in the city of South Houston. Search crews found her body underneath a kitchen sink. Police charged her 15-year-old boyfriend with the crime.Ever since, family and friends have kept up the memorial for Karen.On Monday night at around 10pm, cell phone video captured by Eyewitness News viewer Ashley Montano showed the flames.City of South Houston's Fire Marshall Charles Sluder told abc13 the fire does not appear suspicious in nature."I was the first one who got on scene. You can see the structure there where the boards were burning. I was able to put that out with the fire extinguisher," said Sluder. "They had the little glass candles sitting on the bottom of that. That's what caused the boards to catch on fire. There was nothing suspicious about that. No accelerants or anything like that."Karen's mother, Rocio Perez, and other family members returned to the memorial Tuesday afternoon to clean it up. They plan to ask city leaders to do something about the dilapidated property at 1600 Avenue N."We're doing this for Karen. We're doing this for the kids. We don't want nobody else to have to go through this. It's hard. There are no words to explain this. It's very hard," said Maria Perez. "We're trying to stay together and help my sister, you know. Every single day, it's worse. It's hard. We know she passed away. It's hard to believe she's not with us anymore."After much community pressure, the city's "Dangerous Buildings Committee" plans to meet at 6pm tonight inside the city of South Houston's Municipal Court at 1019 Dallas Street.The Perez family said they want people to turn out and voice their outrage about the property.Mayor Joe Soto declined to speak on-camera about the situation. He told abc13 he also wants a solution.He stressed the legal system can make the process lengthy.You can find a lot of cool Docker utilities on the web. Most of these are open source and available on Github. Over the last two years, I have become quite active with Docker, using it for most of my development projects. As you start using Docker, you will find it is suitable for more use cases than you may have initially envisioned. You will want Docker to do a little more for you—and it will not disappoint!
The Docker community is very active, with a lot of useful utilities popping up daily. It is difficult to keep check of all the innovation happening in the community. To help you, I have collected some interesting and useful Docker utilities, which I use in my daily work. These utilities make me more productive, eliminating what otherwise would have been manual work.
Let’s go through each of the utilities I find useful in my journey to Dockerize stuff.
1. watchtower: Automatically update Docker containers
Watchtower monitors running containers and watches for changes to the images those containers were originally started from. When Watchtower detects that an image has changed, it automatically restarts the container using the new image. I use it in my local development where I would like to try out the latest built image.
Watchtower is itself packaged as a Docker image so you can run it just the way you would run any other container. To run Watchtower, you would run the following command:
In the command above, we started Watchtower container with a mounted file `/var/run/docker.sock`. This is required so that Watchtower can interact with Docker daemon API. We passed an option `interval` of 30 seconds. This option defines the Watchtower poll interval. Watchtower support a few more options, which you can use as described in their documentation.
Let’s now start a container that Watchtower can monitor.
Now, Watchtower will start monitoring `friendlyhello` container. When I push the new image to Docker Hub, Watchtower, in its next run, will detect that a new image is available. It will gracefully stop the container and start the container using the new image. It will pass the options that we passed to the run command. In other words, the container will be started with `4000:80` publish ports option.
By default, Watchtower will poll the Docker Hub registry to look for updated images. You can configure Watchtower to poll private registry by passing the registry credentials in environment variables REPO_USER and REPO_PASS.
To learn more about Watchtower, I recommend reviewing the Watchtower documentation.
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2. docker-gc: Garbage collection of container and images
The docker-gc utility helps clean up your Docker host by removing containers and images that are not required. It removes all the containers that existed more than an hour ago. Also, it removes images that don’t belong to any remaining containers.
You can use docker-gc both as a script and container. We will run docker-gc as a container. Let’s use docker-gc to find all the containers and images that can be removed.
In the command shown above, we mounted Docker socket file so that docker-gc can interact with Docker API. We passed an environment variable DRY_RUN=1 to find which containers and images will be removed. If we don’t provide this option, docker-gc will remove all of them. It is good to first verify everything docker-gc will clean. The output of the above command appears below.
If you are fine with the docker-gc clean up plan, you can again run docker-gc without DRY_RUN flag to perform the clean up.
The output of the above command will tell you all the images and the containers that docker-gc removed.
There are few more options that docker-gc supports. I recommend you read the docker-gc documentation to learn more about it.
3. docker-slim: Magic diet pill for your containers
If you are worried about the size of your Docker images, you will be blown away by docker-slim.
The docker-slim utility uses static and dynamic analysis to create skinny image variants of your fat images. To use docker-slim, you have to download its binary from Github. Binaries are available for Linux and Mac. Once you download the binary, add it to your PATH.
I created a Docker image for example application `friendlyhello` used in the Docker official documentation. The image size, as you can see below, is 194 MB.
As you can see for a simple application, we have to download 194 MB of data. Let’s use docker-slim to see how much fat it can remove.
The docker-slim utility will carry out a series of steps–inspecting fat image, instrument fat image, finally creating a slim version of the image. Let’s look at the size of the slim variant.
As you can see above, the image size was reduced to 24.9 MB. You can start the container and it will behave in the same manner. The docker-slim utility works well with Java, Python, Ruby, and Node.js application.
Try it yourself and see how much you can gain. In my personal projects, I have found that it worked for most cases. You can learn more about docker-slim from its documentation.
4. rocker: Breaks the limits of Dockerfile
Most of the developers using Docker use Dockerfile for building images. Dockerfile is a declarative way to define all the commands a user could call on the command line in order to assemble an image.
Rocker adds new instructions to the Dockerfile instruction set. Rocker was created by Grammarly to solve problems they faced with Dockerfile format. The Grammarly team wrote an in-depth blog explaining their reasons for creating it. I recommend you read it to better understand Rocker. The two problems they highlight in their post are:
Size of Docker images Slower builds
The blog also mentions some of the new instructions added by Rocker. Refer to Rocker documentation to learn about all the instructions Rocker supports.
MOUNT is used to share volumes between builds so they can be reused by dependency management tools. FROM instruction exists in the Dockerfile as well. Rocker makes it feasible to add more than one FROM instruction. This means you can create more than one image from a single Rockerfile. The first set of instructions will build the artifact using all the dependencies. The second set of instructions can use the build artifact. This reduces the image size drastically. TAG is used to tag the image at different stages of the build. This means you don’t have to tag images manually. PUSH is used to push images to a registry. ATTACH allows you to run an intermediate step interactively. This is useful for debugging.
To use Rocker, you must install it on your machine. For Mac users, it is as simple as running couple of brew commands:
Once installed, you can use Rocker to build an image by passing it to Rockerfile:
To build an image and push it to Docker Hub, you can run the following command:
Rocker has good set of features. To learn more about it, refer to its documentation.
5. ctop: Top-like interface for containers
The utility I have started using lately is ctop, which provides a real-time metrics view of multiple containers. If you are a mac user, then you can install ctop using brew as shown below.
Once installed, you can start using ctop. It only needs the DOCKER_HOST environment variable configured.
To view the state of all the containers, you can run `ctop` command.
To view the running containers only, you can use `ctop -a` command.
The ctop is a simple utility and very useful to learn about containers running on your host. You can read more about it in the ctop documentation.
These are some of the Docker utilities I find useful. Do you use any Docker utilities in your daily work? If so, let us know in the comments section below.We fight to bring the rapists to justice, but what are we doing for the rape survivors?
She is a celebrity hairdresser and one of the strongest voices of woman empowerment in India. You might also remember her as the funky, outspoken contestant from Bigg Boss Season 6 who took on Salman Khan.
In an incredibly powerful and poignant post on Humans of Bombay’s Facebook page, Sapna Bhavani speaks of how she was gangraped at 24 and why it has taken her 20 years to tell her story.
The post reads:
“When I was 14, I used to talk to boys; drive motor cycles, smoke cigarettes and people in Bandra would often call me a whore because of those things. I never understood the term back then, but sure if doing all those things made me a whore — I’d take it gladly. After my father’s death, I moved to Chicago where there were so many like me and it gave me the freedom to get inked, experiment with my hair and just be myself. One Christmas Eve in Chicago, I walked out of a bar alone late at night in a short dress and red lipstick. I was 24 and had been drinking, when from a dumpster a group of guys walked upto me and put a gun to my head asking me to give them blow jobs, eventually leading to gang rape. I remember walking home, showering and pushing this incident to the back of my mind for years and never letting it break my spirit – I still wear short dresses and the brightest red on my lips.
In years to come, I got married to my high school sweetheart, faced domestic violence and walked out of the marriage wondering how this could happen to ME, a feminist? It’s because sometimes there are things that are beyond your control. We live in a world where everyone stresses the importance of voicing yourself or walking out of tough situations, but I just want to say this— no one wants to be beaten up, get raped or sell their bodies. It took me 20 years to voice my incident, but for me a woman keeping it all within her because she has no other choice isn’t a sign of weakness – it’s a mark of strength and something we need to start respecting.”
The incident took place when she was 24 and is described in the post above in detail.
She was also part of a play titled ‘Nirbhaya’, which was directed by South African playwright Yael Farber.
“I was having a Skype session with Yael and I told her the story in my usual fun style. I told her I was wearing heels and ‘kill-me-red-lipstick (words changed). I even told her that at least the boys were cute. I said everything without saying ‘rape’ once. Yael was not amused. She cut to the chase. She said, ‘You don’t hear yourself. Do you understand what happened?’ The conversation took a serious graph. I thought I was being the smart one. But Yael just told me what it was. I was gang raped,” she said in an interview last year.
Beginning with the song from Pakeezah, the play recounts every detail, taking audiences through the agony the gang-rape victim went through.(This post is part 5 in a series about the philosophical ideas of Bioshock and Bioshock 2. On the one hand, it’s probably the most interesting in the series, but it is also kind of tangent to the main thrust of my, and Bioshock’s, argument. Anyways, to begin at the beginning, click here.)
Each of us has a moral duty to increase the common joy, and ease the common pain. Alone, we are nothing, mere engines of self-interest. Together, we are the Family, and through unity, we transcend the self.
As I described in my last post, I believe that Bioshock’s deepest message is more general than any attack on the particular philosophy of objectivism. Rather, the game is trying to convey that all rigid ideological systems are broken and bad. Instead of striving to adhere to inflexible systems of belief, Bioshock tries to argue, it’s better to live life in moderation, behaving according to gut feelings and cultural traditions about what’s right.” The key word back there is “trying”. Because instead of that message, the point that I and most other people picked up on was something else, along the lines of “A moral code of selfishness and the pursuit of power are bad… so, a code of altruism and utilitarian action must therefore be good.”
Sofia Lamb exists partly to mess with those people. Her philosophy, grounded in the exact kind of strict altruistic thinking that most players of Bioshock prided themselves about, exists to both demonstrate the flaws of that moral code and to show that players never came close to living up to those utilitarian standards in the first place.
But Sofia Lamb is more complex than a set of ethical commandments. Her worldview encompasses the antithesis of everything Ryan stood for, permeating Rapture with emanations of mystery, subtlety, paradox, and myth.
The root of Ryan’s ideology is deeper than selfishness; his doctrine of rational self-interest is motivated by a fundamental reverence for the greatness of the individual’s “self”: their unique and essential being. Ryan saw the human self as fundamentally noble and powerful. For Ryan, the unsurpassed ability of a man’s rational intellect, when coupled with his inalienable right to liberty and independence, allows for the greatness of the self to be expressed through the creations of the will.
Sofia, by necessary contrast, finds idea of self to be abhorrent; it represents for her not just humanity’s violent, competitive, destructive nature, but also the fact that we are shackled to that nature. Baruch Spinoza famously wrote that “Men believe they have free will because they are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.” Sofia sees the self as nothing more than a collection of such desires:
To the individual, his or her own instincts appear divinely ordained, but our drives are the product of evolved self worship and are, therefore, naturally corrupt. Alone, we are enslaved to our own perspectives. It is a kind of protagonist syndrome, of which we are all afflicted.
As a psychiatrist, Sofia would roll her eyes at Ryan’s emphasis on mankind’s pure and fundamental rationality. She believes that humans are weak and pathetic at the core; we are sinful creatures bound by natural law, driven by a tumultuous stew of subconscious desires beyond our control or ability to understand. “Rationality” is only a thin illusion thrown up by our deepest irrational –perhaps irretrievably insane– nature, for the purpose of appeasing our higher consciousness.
The story of Bioshock 2 keeps this theme at the forefront with the usual barrage of audio logs, and also by regularly subjecting the player-character to liminal states of consciousness: a long coma, multiple momentary blackouts, flashbacks, and extended hallucinations. But one of my favorite things about games is that, in the words of a Sequelitis youtube video, “You don’t have to empathize with a character on a screen– the feeling can happen directly to you.”
Bioshock 2 attempts to arouse the unconscious, nonrational aspect of our nature by flooding Rapture with new sexual and mythic resonance. Little Sisters, which were drooping abominations in the original Bioshock, now wear cleaner clothes and feature more inviting, adult faces. The star new enemy in the game, the Big Sister, is an agile and eerily sexualized echo of Bioshock’s Big Daddy. (Note: Bioshock’s “Rosie” type of Big Daddy is vaguely female, but totally not sexual, which goes to show that having such feminine Big Sisters is deliberate on the sequel’s part, rather than a necessary consequence of introducing female minibosses.) Furthermore, Bioshock 2’s story is driven by the player character’s implanted psychological drive to reunite with Sofia’s daughter, Elanor Lamb (pictured above as a Big Sister). This creepy father/daughter relationship is called a “pairbond” –a term which, in biology, refers to animals which mate for life.
Furthermore, by portraying Rapture eight years after the events of the first game –now fallen, flooded, and overgrown with sea life– Bioshock 2 emphasises Rapture’s underwater setting in a way that the original game never managed. The city which once was a sharp-edged monument of concrete and steel is now almost an organic entity, colonized by the pulsing metabolism of deep-sea life. And although Bioshock’s claustrophobic hallways and cramped tunnels always had a sense of intimate interiority, this feeling is deployed more deliberately in Bioshock 2, and greatly magnified by the encompassing presence of the surrounding ocean.
All this sex stuff exists to do more than simply creep the player out. (Although it is interesting that Bioshock 2’s atmosphere banks so hard towards horror compared to the first game, even as its gameplay moves away from scares towards bigger, more explosive action. Unlike the first game, Bioshock 2 is comfortable with contradiction.) The game uses sexuality to not only invoke thoughts of our irrational drives, but also to represent that which is fundamentally beyond rationality. This metaphor of woman as the yearned-for transformative/transcendent Other is the same thing that is at work in Braid, To The Moon, and arguably Dear Esther. Each of those games uses the same basic metaphor in different ways; in Bioshock 2, the Rapture Family’s religious use of sexual yearning points towards a critical pillar of Sofia’s philosophy.
Ryan’s city was named “Rapture” not in reference to any kind of literal transcendence: his point, rather, was that greatness and deep fulfilment could be attained in this world, because the heights of human experience were not qualitatively different from everyday life. Ryan’s philosophy, positing that life in this world is at its core something to be respected and celebrated, concludes that the best possible life is merely a more focused, more free and powerful version of normal, everyday experience. The tacky mythological names of Rapture’s many buildings and locations originate not in reference to the distant heavens that Ryan despised, but out of the ambition to capture the greatness and sanctity of this life, to create a true utopia in this world.
But Sofia has not such respect for everyday existence. She sees human life in its natural state as a blind evolutionary struggle, a “war of every man against every man” which Thomas Hobbes famously described as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In Bioshock 2’s finest moment, the player is forced through a scripted escape sequence, blindly following a directional objective-arrow as the camera rocks erratically, lights flicker, explosions go off on nearby objects, and jets of high-pressure water rupture the level. “I want you to commit this moment to memory for me –this howling, brutish slog through the dark.” Sofia commands, as the player swings their view around corners and sprints down flooded hallways, “This is who we are.” In the flooding of Siren Alley, Sofia shares her vision of our universe of matter and natural law: it is cold and hostile to human emotional needs, an indifferent void which rejects any search for meaning, happiness, and deep satisfaction. The human condition, she argues over the sound and fury of the dying city, is only a brief interval of depression, delusion, pain, and the paralysis of existential horror, cruelly bookended by absolute oblivion.
And lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from Ego…
What hope remains in this grim picture? Sofia tells us that our lives can be redeemed only through a kind of spiritual transformation inaccessible to rational thought. This radical state of transcendence is completely unlike ordinary life, which (no matter how stable or pleasurable) is empty and unsustainable.
Ambient touches of this mysticism pervade Sofia’s Rapture: galaxies of tiny candles shimmer in reverent devotion, enshrining the bronze abodes of the Little Sisters. The recurring image of the striking blue butterfly, representative of the “Imago”, the final transformative stage of metamorphosis. The echoing lamentations of repentant Splicers: “We thought we could hide from the light down here. We were wrong!” In the particularly philosophical Siren Alley level we see how Simon Wales –Rapture’s original architect, now grown old and blind– has turned to a Rapturian perversion of gnostic Christianity to redeem his shame at the crumbling of the city’s flawed infrastructure. In Bioshock 2, the religious names of Rapture’s locations take on a different meaning: from the perspective of inhabitants who have fallen so far, the city is an ancient ruin, an impossible and mythical place. Even the scientific basis of Tenenbaum’s work with plasmids and sea-slugs is re-cast in a mystical light, with the miraculous ADAM-generating sea slugs revealed to have been produced by the radioactive emanations of a deep abyss glowing with the godly, transcendent blue light of cherenkov radiation.
With mysticism the game can go farther than it did with sexuality, by invoking this religious sense of transcendental yearning even more directly within the player. Since the player-character in Bioshock 2 is a diving-suit-clad Big Daddy and thus immune to the extreme pressures of the ocean floor, the game features several short segments that occur in the depths outside Rapture’s walls. Look up any review of Bioshock 2: all seem to agree that these slow-motion underwater walks are calm, novel, beautiful, and far too tantalizingly brief. The contrast between the glowing, arresting beauty of the Dear-Esther-like deep ocean paths versus the complex, stressful, tactical and systems-driven shoot-and-loot gameplay of mundane play creates a deep rift in the game. This split mirrors the two worlds of religious faith: the plane of temporal, earthly affairs, and a hidden, higher, eternal realm of redemption and perfection.
Personally, I’m not sure if Sofia Lamb actually believes her own mytho-poetic religion. On the one hand, she definitely has transcendent ideals: Sofia, unlike Ryan, recognizes that her philosophy of life is extremely difficult for normal humans to obey, hence her plans to unite all the consciousness of Rapture in the mind of her daughter Elanor Lamb (who is to become a new breed of human: the first of a society of “Utopians”). On the other hand, she also seems to view religion as a convenient opium of the people; as a comforting lie that promotes happiness and altruism among the suffering, weak-willed masses.
Trying to mesh Sofia’s metaphysics with her morality exposes another seeming contradiction: if Sofia has such a low opinion of her fellow (pathetic, sinful, lost, broken) humans, why is she so eager to devote her life to the greater good of this sorry species? Here’s how I see it working out:
Sofia’s hatred of selfishness (and, indeed, of “the self” entirely) does not exist a priori, but is motivated by the same fundamental force that drove Ryan: the pursuit of absolute freedom of will. But while Ryan fought against constraints on his liberty imposed by an altruism-preaching external society, Sofia Lamb’s psychiatric training led her to consider the greatest enemy of free will to be her own internal, instinctual desires and selfish compulsions. For her, the main attraction of altruism is not actually the benefit it provides to others, but the self-denial that allows her to rebel against her inborn selfishness.
(As you may have realized, this strategy does not totally solve the problem: Sofia’s “altruism” is in a certain way quite selfish, since she is motivated by an intellectual craving to rebel against her inborn desires. Sofia realizes this; it is the reason why she labors to create a race of self-less utopians, genetically freed of inborn compulsions.)
But regardless of the success of Sofia’s Utopian experiments, we might ask her: “What’s the end goal here? I could understand Ryan’s vision: a world of independent artists, scientists, and industrialists, fearlessly pursuing their own interests. But what happens when the whole world (Utopian or not) adopts your altruistic worldview? If everyone’s sacrificing themselves to help others, who’s left to help?”
This is where Sofia would say that we’re still looking at society like Ryan did, as an arbitrary collection of important individuals. In fact, according to Dr. Lamb, it’s the nebulous network of relationships between individuals that really matters, just as individual ants are insignificant and stupid compared to the emergent intelligence and power of a colony. (I’m talking in Godel, Escher, Bach terms here, but Sofia would probably phrase things more similarly to real-world social activist, feminist and psychiatrist Jean Baker Miller, who posited a “relational model” of human development in her book Toward a New Psychology of Women, a theory in which social isolation is “one of the most damaging human experiences” and a therapist should “foster an atmosphere of empathy and acceptance for the patient, even at the cost of the therapist’s neutrality”) This is the purpose of Dr. Lamb’s quasi-religious movement, the “Rapture Family”: to shift the foundation of meaning away from the individual and towards the community, and furthermore to offer the promise of individual redemption through immersion in the transcendent “soul” of the community:
What is the soul? An ineffable spark of continuity, living within us, yet beyond us. Mortality, our eldest truth, and the soul, our eldest contradiction. I submit the following conclusion - the soul is not in us, but between us.
Of course, for all her philosophical subtlety and sophistication, Sofia’s religious, altruistic, communalist worldview will be her downfall as surely as Ryan’s simple Objectivist creed was his. And, just as Ryan was slain by his own biological son, we’ll soon see just how keen Sofia’s daughter is at becoming the First Utopian, and Savior of Rapture…A Republican bill would block a regulation of President Obama’s that they see as executive overreach, but privacy advocates claim it could allow companies to sell your private Internet and search history. Who’s right?
The context and what the bill does
The Federal Trade Commission maintains jurisdiction over most aspects of the Internet. But after the 2016 election during the lame-duck session, another Washington agency called the Federal Communications Commission issued new regulations related specifically to Internet service providers, also known as ISPs. (You’ve probably heard of some of the country’s biggest ISPs, which include Comcast, Verizon, AT&T;, Time Warner, Cox, and CenturyLink.)
These new rules required all Internet browsing data, as well as data regarding app usage on mobile devices, be subject to the same privacy requirements as sensitive or private personal information. This overtook the previous rule by the FTC, the agency which previously had authority over regulating ISP’s and differentiated privacy requirements based upon the sensitivity of the information, with more stringent rules for such things as health information or Social Security numbers. The methods are also more invasive to the ISP companies, since the FCC also issues pre-emptive regulations while the FTC primarily conducted investigations.
Introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) — chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law — and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN7), Senate Joint Resolution 34 and House Joint Resolution 86 are companion bills that would nullify the FCC’s rule. However, they would not return jurisdiction over regulating ISP’s back to the FTC, as they were previously.
What supporters say
Many Republicans saw these new rules as a power grab during the closing days of the Obama Administration. The rule was issued on December 2, 2016 and took effect on January 3, 2017, less than three weeks before President Trump took office. Supporters of the bill argue that the legislation would prevent the one-size-fits-all regulation.
“Under the FTC’s watch, our internet and data economy has been the envy of the world. The agency’s evidence-based approach calibrates privacy and data-security requirements to the sensitivity of information collected,” Senate lead sponsor Flake wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
“The FCC rules subject all web browsing and app usage data to the same restrictive requirements as sensitive personal information. That means that information generated from looking up the latest Cardinals score or checking the weather in Scottsdale is treated the same as personal health and financial data.”
ISP companies also contended that the FCC rules have placed them at a disadvantage with other non-ISP Internet companies that also collect user data, like Netflix or Facebook.
What opponents say
Privacy advocates warn that the legislation could produce dire consequences for consumer privacy, with Privacy News Online calling it “a bill to let telecoms sell your private Internet history.”
“Its goal is to remove all the hard-earned net neutrality regulations gained to protect your internet history from advertisers and and worse,” they wrote. “Specifically, the FCC had been able to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from spying on your internet history, and selling what they gathered, without express permission. This legal protection on your internet history is currently under attack thanks to these 24 Senators and lots of ISP lobbying spend.”
That’s not false, as ISPs have been previously shown to sell user data to third parties, who in turn use it for marketing or other purposes.
Odds of passage
The odds of passage are decent — if Trump’s new FCC Commission Ajit Pai doesn’t overturn the rule on his own first. Pai already placed a partial halt to some of the ISP rules in February.
The Senate legislation has attracted 23 cosponsors, all Republicans. It awaits a vote in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
The House legislation has attracted 16 cosponsors, also all Republicans. It awaits a vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Blackburn is the third-most conservative House member, based on a GovTrack analysis.Photo
Dayangji Sherpa lives with her 25-year-old daughter, Nima, in a one-bedroom apartment in Woodside, Queens, where they sleep in the same bed to save money. But on Sunday, they stood on a dais before an altar of glittering gold Buddhas while some of the highest-ranked Buddhist monks from around the region bowed their heads to the women and showered them with benedictions. It was the culmination of a rare ceremony where every single text of their Buddhist canon is read from morning until night by monks, who are fed, housed and paid by a sponsor until all 108 books are read.
It took more than a month. And it cost more than $50,000 — the elder Ms. Sherpa’s life savings.
Completing the Kangyur, the Tibetan-language version of the sacred Buddhist texts, is done as a form of prayer for peace for all sentient beings, several monks explained. For nearly 40 days, ending last week, about a dozen monks called from around the region read eight hours a day, aloud and simultaneously, seated cross-legged in a converted brick church in Elmhurst.
There had never been such a reading in New York, according to Urgen Sherpa, 41, a former general secretary of Sherpa Kyidug, which represents Sherpas in the United States, including an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 in New York. (Mr. Sherpa is not related to Ms. Sherpa: many Sherpas, who are an ethnic group from high in the Himalayas in eastern Nepal, use the surname.) Kangyur readings are rarely commissioned even in Nepal, Mr. Sherpa said, because of the high cost.
Ms. Sherpa, 54, a home health aide, estimates she paid about $111 per monk per day. It included twice-daily meals of Nepalese and Tibetan comfort food at Himalayan Yak restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue and an attendant to provide an endless supply of traditional salted butter tea. Other members of the community also made donations.
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“People can do this, but nobody does it,” Ms. Sherpa said. “I’m not rich. I wanted a do a good thing.”Google, as is its wont, is always trying to make the World Wide Web go faster. To that end, Google in 2009 unveiled SPDY, a networking protocol that reduces latency and is now being built into HTTP 2.0. SPDY is now supported by Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and the upcoming Internet Explorer 11.
But SPDY isn't enough. Yesterday, Google released a boatload of information about its next protocol, one that could reshape how the Web routes traffic. QUIC—standing for Quick UDP Internet Connections—was created to reduce the number of round trips data makes as it traverses the Internet in order to load stuff into your browser.
Although it is still in its early stages, Google is going to start testing the protocol on a "small percentage" of Chrome users who use the development or canary versions of the browser—the experimental versions that often contain features not stable enough for everyone. QUIC has been built into these test versions of Chrome and into Google's servers. The client and server implementations are open source, just as Chromium is.
"Users shouldn't notice any difference—except hopefully a faster load time," Google's Jim Roskind wrote in a blog post.
Roskind apparently goes by the title of "RTT Reduction Ranger" at Google, referring to "round trip time." Roskind wrote that round trip time, "which is ultimately bounded by the speed of light—is not decreasing, and will remain high on mobile networks for the foreseeable future." QUIC, he writes, "runs a stream multiplexing protocol over a new flavor of Transport Layer Security (TLS) on top of UDP instead of TCP. QUIC combines a carefully selected collection of techniques to reduce the number of round trips we need as we surf the Internet."
An FAQ and an in-depth design document provide more information than most people would want to know about QUIC. Besides running multiplexed connections over UDP, QUIC was "designed to provide security protection equivalent to TLS/SSL, along with reduced connection and transport latency," the FAQ states.
"QUIC will employ bandwidth estimation in each direction into congestion avoidance, and then pace packet transmissions evenly to reduce packet loss," Google says. "It will also use packet-level error correction codes to reduce the need to retransmit lost packet data. QUIC aligns cryptographic block boundaries with packet boundaries so that packet loss impact is further contained."
Google had to design QUIC carefully to avoid it becoming a nice theoretical system with no applicability to the real world. That's why Google is using UDP instead of building a protocol made entirely of new technologies. "Middle boxes on the Internet today will generally block traffic unless it is TCP or UDP traffic," Google said. "Since we couldn’t significantly modify TCP, we had to use UDP. UDP is used today by many game systems, as well as VoIP and streaming video, so its use seems plausible."
Ultimately, Google's goal is not necessarily to replace the Web's current protocols but to bring improvements to how TCP is used with SPDY. SPDY already provides multiplexed connections over SSL, but it runs across TCP, causing some latency issues.
Whereas TCP uses a three-step process (or a "handshake") to negotiate connections between Web users and servers, UDP is handshake-less. UDP sends packets out the door without any error checking, improving speed while reducing reliability. QUIC attempts to provide the speed advantages of UDP while making data delivery more reliable.
From Google's QUIC FAQ:
Why can’t you just evolve and improve TCP under SPDY? That is our goal. TCP support is built into the kernel of operating systems. Considering how slowly users around the world upgrade their OS, it is unlikely to see significant adoption of client-side TCP changes in |
, who's obviously done it a few times. You have to have that emotional core. If anything, you almost have to be more grounded in the emotion, because you can't fake it. I have found, there is this kind of mumblecore post-Brando form of acting that is really great and good in the right circumstance, but that is not good for being a Klingon. I've always gravitated towards heightened things, singing, Shakespeare, movement, and the masked. Also, it's not a mask with L’Rell, it's a prosthetic. There are masks that you put on. This is a prosthetic. It is a prosthetic that has a very specific application. Also, we can't eat in costume. We have the Klingon cleanse smoothies. We have a great nutritionist, and she puts real, substantial stuff in there. It's all vegan-based. That kind of keeps me centered, too. I'm not eating big meals. I'm kind of in the zone.
How immersive are the Klingon sets? The Klingon ship sounds insane.
Oh, my goodness. That first moment of walking on the ship, it's unreal. It's a cathedral. It really does help to have it, and they've been speaking to it a bit this week about how they wanted as much as possible to be practical. Of course, we can't actually have space out the oculus, but other than that, to really feel the weight of the bridge and the stairs, it's so meticulous. Because we're really redefining the Klingons, there's real detail, and such a sense of beauty and culture. I think it just helps make you believe it.
What’s it been like to speak Klingon?
Ah, yes. I love it. I've reached the point now where I can read and write it pretty well. I’m still not fluent, because the syntax is opposite of anything I know, but it's a really ultimately liberating process. Often in film and TV, it’s, “OK, we're going to show up on the day, and we're just going to find it and capture that lightning in a bottle." We can’t do that because we have to memorize the meaning of each word and the structure of each sentence, and make sure you really understand it logically, so that you can then inhabit it emotionally. I spend a lot of time with our dialect coach, Rea. We have these two-hour sessions where we go through and she helps me refine the sounds.
Then, what has been great, too, is my scene partners…, like Kenneth Mitchell, who is an angel. It's so funny. We joke about the Klingons. We're like, "Such sweet people." We get together and we rehearse it in English, then we go back and we rehearse it in Klingon. We have the back translations, each word's meaning. We'll go sentence by sentence and make sure that, "Oh, that's a very key word that I want to respond to." For me, it really does bring me back to when I work on Shakespeare, which is that so many of the words we aren't familiar with and you need to have those definitions. Then, once you know it, especially with the Klingon, it's a little bit different, because this will be subtitled, but if you know what you're saying, that emotion comes across.
You're going to be a fresh face for a lot of the people watching Discovery. What’s your background? How and why did you pursue acting?
Well, for me, my funny story with getting into acting is that both of my parents are actually character actors. I grew up in L.A. Until fourth grade, I thought that everyone was an actor. What I realized was I had a friend talk about her dad being a doctor, and I was like, "Right, and then he goes and acts." Around fourth grade is when it started hitting me that, “Oh, no, all these imaginary games I liked to play, that's specific to me.” My best friend Eve and I started filming each other making movies. We were obsessed with sci-fi/fantasy, creating our own versions of that.
Then, in middle school, I got into the performing arts magnet, Millikan. I got into their musical theater program and I became a theater geek. Then, in high school, I went to Campbell Hall and had an amazing drama teacher, Josh Adell, and did really delve into the work behind the fun. Then, when I was looking at colleges, when I stepped into the halls of Juilliard for my first little tour, I was like, "Oh, I really want to be here." It just felt right. I had a friend go and tour it, and he was like, "Yeah, it felt like you." It was weird and it was interesting because my dad had gone there, but he wasn't pushing me in any way.
You had audition to get into Juilliard, right?
Right. The audition process happened, and I ended up getting in. The one thing I say about the transition from high school to college is that acting went from my escape to being my constant reality. I'm so grateful for that because the stamina that I built at Juilliard has transferred so beautifully to what we do on Trek. Hours, yes. Just the stamina. The Shakespearean quality of it. The fun fact, too, that I love is that (Discovery co-star) Mary Wiseman and I were in the same class at Juilliard. It's been such a beautiful experience being reminded of the hard work that we do and the stamina that we build, and the respect for our different archetypes, the fact that I can't do what she does. It's wonderful, and I adore her. Everyone keeps talking about how she's a comedic genius, and I second that, and third that, and fourth that.
Star Trek can be a game changer for an actor. How ready are you for that element, and also, you're going to be behind the prosthetics, so how helpful is that, in that you'll be able to walk down the street a bit more anonymously than some of your co-stars?
Well, if somebody does recognize me, I'm going to be like, "You really know the show." I think it'll be very interesting. What I've always loved about acting is the transformation, is being able to tell a story, not have it be about me as Mary looking good. It's always about, "Who is this character? How does she look? How does she live? How does she breathe?" This is such an extreme version, it's kind of remarkable. Because of the way I feel she fits into the story, fits into Star Trek, because I'm so proud of what she represents, I just really feel that it takes my ego out of it and makes it about the larger story that we're telling in Discovery. I'm so thrilled that the Klingons aren't one-dimensional. L'Rell is definitely… she's six dimensional. There's so many aspects of her and I'm constantly being challenged and being allowed to explore different aspects of myself. I really do hope that there will be young girls and boys who can strangely relate to her or understand where she's coming from. Just like with all of the characters on this show, I really think that they'll see that.
Star Trek: Discovery will debut September 24 on CBS All Access in the U.S. and Space Channel in Canada. The series will premiere on Netflix in the rest of the world on September 25.Snapshots of plane crashing in Mukilteo, Wash., taken from dash cam video by Guanting Li (used with permission from Li)
MUKILTEO, Wash. -- A small plane that had just taken off from Paine Field crashed on a busy Mukilteo road Tuesday afternoon, sending a rain of fire down on cars idling in early rush hour traffic below.
Miraculously, only two people suffered minor injuries in the event, and only one needed to be hospitalized.
Dramatic dash cam video captured by driver Guanting Li shows the plane clip some power lines then erupt into a ball of fire as it hit the ground.
WATCH: Dash cam video captures Mukilteo plane crash:
"I'm so lucky," said driver Amanda Hayes, who told KOMO News the plane's wing actually scraped her car as it came down. "I just said, 'Get down!' And before I know it, I could feel the heat on my face... and like the fireball and the wing clipped at the end."
"When it was over, I wasn't sure if we were OK, if our van was OK. I don't know, that's probably the closest I've come to really thinking, 'oh this is the end,'" added Hayes.
"I heard an explosion, a big 'boom!' like this, and you saw the smoke blow up and then, 'whoosh' he hit the cars and then he went to the side of the road," said Elaine Warbus who witnessed the crash while stopped at the red light. "A plane literally fell out of the sky, right there on top of three or four other cars. It's a mess out there."
The Federal Aviation Administration says the plane is a single-engine Piper PA32, and that it crashed on Harbour Pointe Boulevard after taking off from Runway 16R at nearby Paine Field.
Mukilteo police say the plane lost power at around 500 feet and the pilot attempted to find an empty spot on the road to set down. However, the plane struck a power line and clipped a traffic signal, rupturing a fuel tank that ignited a mid-air fuel spill, dousing an SUV waiting at the traffic light below in burning fuel. The plane skidded to a stop on the southbound lanes of Harbour Pointe Boulevard, just yards from a gas station and hotel and a half block from Mukilteo's City Hall.
One person was taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries while a second person was treated at the scene, Mukilteo police said. The pilot, a 30-year-old Oregon man, didn't report any injuries.
The ensuing crash and power outage created gridlock in the area as the busy Mukilteo Speedway was shut down at the start of the evening commute.
Tyler Smith told KOMO NewsRadio that he was coming out of the supermarket when he saw a cloud of smoke and discovered the small plane had crashed.
He said he saw a pilot and passenger walking away, and described it as a small plane with its wings clipped away.
Power was knocked out to several nearby homes and businesses. Snohomish County PUD crews restored power to all affected customers about an hour later.
The NTSB is now investigating the crash.A falcon-like bird was unwittingly turned into a documentary filmmaker during its trip for lunch. At a rockhopper penguin colony, a striated caracara thought it had caught a break when it located the one remaining egg that hadn't been hatched — but it turns out, the egg hadn't hatched for good reason: it was a camera in disguise. After a short assessment, the caracara took off with the camera, capturing incredible, swooping footage of the penguin colony from above.
That isn't the end of the egg-cam's journey though. After falling from the caracara's grasp, a pair of turkey vultures descend on it next, sending it tumbling down a hill toward the colony. The footage was captured as part of Penguins — Spy in the Huddle, a BBC One documentary series that makes heavy use of these disguised cameras. It's been a good few months for birds stealing cameras, and if the popularity of the egg-cam is any indication, there should be more incidents to come.If you are running the latest Mac Sierra OS the recent Pro Video Formats update, version 2.0.5 adds the ability to play back MXF OP1a files in Quick Time Player without the need to transcode.
You can also preview MXF files in the finder window directly! This is a big deal and very welcome, finally you don’t need special software to play back files wrapped in one of the most commonly used professional media wrappers. Of course you must have the codec installed on your computer, it won’t play a file you don’t have the codec for, but XAVC, ProRes and many other pro codecs are include in the update.
At the moment I am able to play back most MXF files including most XAVC and ProRes MXF’s. However some of my XAVC MXF’s are showing up as audio only files. I can still play back these files with 3rd party software, there is no change there. But for some reason I can’t play back every XAVC MXF file directly in Quicktime Player, so play as audio only. I’m not sure why some files are fine and others are not, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. Why it’s taken so long to make this possible I don’t really know, although I suspect it is now possible due to changes in the core Quicktime components of OS Sierra. You can apply this same Video Formats update to earlier OS’s but don’t gain the MXF playback.
Thanks to reader Mark for the heads-up!
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Like this: Like Loading...President Donald Trump honored the families of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
Accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, Trump walked among the white marble headstones and greeted Gold Star families, including Brittany Jacobs and her six-year-old son, Christian, who was dressed like a Marine.
The boy's father, Marine Sgt. Christopher Jacobs, died during a training accident in California in 2011.
On "Fox & Friends" this morning, Brittany said Christian ran up to Trump and struck up a conversation.
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Christian asked if he wanted to see his father's headstone and "meet my daddy," and Trump accepted the invitation.
Brittany said it was surreal to see her son talking to the president.
"We didn't expect it. We were hoping we'd get to see him there that day," she said. "And it was just amazing."
Christian, who wants to be a Marine like his father, had one word to describe the experience: "Awesome."
Watch more above.
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Trump Makes Special Trip to Graves of Iraq, Afghanistan War SoldiersRussia accused Ukraine’s acting foreign minister on Sunday of “going beyond the limits of decency” by calling President Vladimir Putin a “dickhead” during a violent protest outside its embassy in Kyiv, following the shooting down of a Ukrainian military transport, in which 49 servicemen were killed.
A senior member of Russian parliament called for Andriy Deshchytsia to resign and Moscow protested to Kyiv about Saturday’s violence, during which cars were overturned, windows broken and a Russian flag ripped up.
The protests were in response of the downing of a Ukrainian military plane by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday outside Luhansk, in which 49 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. Moscow denies backing the rebels.
Deshchytsia said he had gone to the rally to try to stop it turning violent, but video footage on YouTube also showed him saying “I am for you protesting. I am ready to be here with you and say ‘Russia, get out of Ukraine’.”
“Yes, Putin is a dickhead, yes,” he went on to say, and the protesters responded by chanting the phrase.
The violence has increased tensions that were already high following the overthrow of a Moscow-leaning president in Kyiv in February, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March and an uprising by pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine that began in April.
In a telephone call with his French counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “expressed outrage over the inaction of the Kyiv authorities who allowed the rioting outside the Russian embassy,” the ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov also said a note had been sent complaining to Kyiv about the demonstrations, and that he had protested to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United States and the European Union condemned the violence.
Limits of decency
Lavrov went on to criticise Deshchytsia, in comments to Russian reporters in Moscow in which he said the aim of the protest appeared to be to seize the embassy.
“I am particularly disturbed that the so-called protesters near the embassy were joined by Andriy Deshchytsia … having allowed himself to make statements that go beyond the limits of decency,” Russia news agencies quoted him as saying.
“I understand who he has to learn from,” Lavrov said, in a reference to the United States, Ukraine’s ally. “Nevertheless a diplomat, as Deshchytsia is, has to choose his words … I don’t know how he will talk to us and work with us now.”
Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, led calls in Moscow for Poroshenko to dismiss Deshchytsia.
“Poroshenko should change his foreign minister. He doesn’t control himself very well,” Pushkov said on Twitter, and went on to suggest in televised comments that Moscow should halt all dialogue with Kyiv and cut off gas supplies to Ukraine.
Deshchytsia, 48, was appointed in February on an interim basis because Ukraine at the time had an acting president who was not empowered to appoint him permanently.
He could be on the way out anyway, because President Petro Poroshenko, who was sworn in on 7 June, is expected to name a permanent foreign minister in the next few days.
Defending his actions, Deshchytsia, a career diplomat, told Moscow’s Ekho Moskvy radio station that he had urged the demonstrators to protest peacefully, and not resort to violence.
Asked about his comment on Putin, he said: “I have told you what I want to say. You asked for my comments [on the rally], I’ve made my comments.”
‘Kidnapping of children’
The Ukrainian authorities protested on Friday what they called ‘kidnapping of children’ by pro-Russian separatists.
Reportedly, on June 12, 2014, in Snizhne, Donetsk region, armed pro-Russian separatists kidnapped a group of 28 Ukrainian citizens, including 25 children from family-type orphan homes, who were en route to a health facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Threatening with weapons, the separatists forced the driver of their bus to change his route. The vehicle, together with its passengers, and accompanied by a group of armed men, was directed to the checkpoint “Dolzhanskyi”, in the Luhansk region, in order to transport them to the Russian Federation.
According to available information, an accompanying person and 9 children were dropped off the bus on the Ukrainian-Russian border. However, 18 other persons were taken to the Russian Federation, and now they are staying in Donetsk, in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation.
“The Russian side has flagrantly violated international commitments related to respect for children’s rights undertaken under the multilateral conventions, including articles 11 and 35 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”, the Ukrinian authorities state.
These actions should be qualified as international kidnapping. Illegal transportation of children has relevant legal consequences for the separatists, as well as other persons who assisted them in committing this crime, Kyiv further stated, calling on the international community to strongly condemn “such immoral actions” and engage in order to assure immediate return of the Ukrainian citizens to their homeland.Omega Pharma-QuickStep had named a solid line-up for the Tour de France as it bids to make a serious impact on the general classification after a startling run of spring form that saw the team dominate the cobbled classics. Related Articles Velits believes Leipheimer can come good in Amgen Tour of California
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Although he requested not to be considered for the United States Olympic team, Levi Leipheimer will lead Omega Pharma-QuickStep in July. The veteran American was a new arrival at the squad from RadioShack in the off-season and after a crash-interrupted opening to the campaign, he showed his form is on the up with a third-place finish at the Tour de Suisse.
Another new signing, Peter Velits, will also be aiming to produce a solid performance over the three weeks. A podium finisher at the 2010 Vuelta a España, the Slovak was impressive in winning the Tour of Oman in February after a 2011 campaign hampered by a nagging knee injury.
Velits’ fellow arrival from HTC-Highroad, Tony Martin, is also in the line-up and world time trial champion is among the favourites to don the first yellow jersey of the race after the Liège prologue. Indeed, with two long time trials to follow later in the race, Martin could make an impact on the overall standings himself, although he has long insisted that his priority is to win the Tour’s time trials and prepare for the same event at the London 2012 Olympics.
“In the time trials we can count on Levi and the undeniable skills of Tony Martin, who will be in his element with more than 100 kilometres on the schedule,” said team manager Patrick Lefevere.
Sylvain Chavanel and Jerome Pineau are perennial animators of the Tour and the attacking French duo will be given licence to create their own opportunities throughout the race, along with Dries Devenyns.
“For the individual stages we will have high-calibre athletes like Sylvain Chavanel, a natural attacker, as well as Dries Devenyns,” said Lefevere. “We will also see Jerome Pineau at the start line, an athlete who really knows how to play his cards, as well as how to be a perfect team player when the occasion calls for it.”
The squad is completed by rouleurs Stijn Vandenbergh and Bert Grabsch, and climber Kevin De Weert, who finished 13th in Paris last year.
As had been previously announced, Tom Boonen forgoes the Tour de France this time around and will instead race the Tour de Pologne as preparation for the London 2012 Olympics.
“Overall, the formation is well balanced and they will be able to stand out in the individual stages as well as in the general classification,” said Lefevere.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep team for the Tour de France: Sylvain Chavanel, Kevin De Weert, Dries Devenyns, Bert Grabsch, Levi Leipheimer, Tony Martin, Jerome Pineau, Stijn Vandenbergh, Peter Velits.Hogan, selected through special circumstances at 17 years of age by Melbourne but unable to play AFL until 2014, has been such a star for the Scorpions that it is impossible not to think he could have made a serious impact in the AFL this year. Lyon did not dispute this but argued that Hogan will be better equipped for a long AFL career for being able to draw on the confidence gained from battling away against men for 12 months.
All that I have seen over 13 years in the system tells me that Roos and Lyon are right.
I was in Sydney when Jesse White arrived in 2007. He was a talent who didn't know it. Tall, powerful, agile and quick, Jesse trained and played the game like I suspect footballers did 100 years ago. To his new teammates it seemed as if the game to Jesse was a quaint pastime, not a profession.
Six years later, at the end of last season, he was still grappling unsuccessfully with its harsh realities. Not surprisingly, the Swans offered him up to Adelaide as a sweetener to a deal for Kurt Tippett that, fatefully, fell through.
Today, as Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has put it, White would be on the recruiting wish lists of every club in the country. He kicked four goals against Richmond last Sunday, the most recent performance in a string of games unlike anything seen from him before. What I would say about this abrupt turn of events is that Jesse White is just 25 years of age and that in 2006, when he was drafted and drawn away from the Gold Coast pleasure strip, he wasn't ready for the game.That's a statistic that perfectly encapsulates how important Kershaw has been to a starting rotation that was seemingly decimated by injuries before the season even began. It also speaks to how much the Dodgers' bullpen has stepped up in his absence, helping Los Angeles go 8-3 since Kershaw went on the disabled list June 30.
On Sunday afternoon, Kenta Maeda became the first Dodgers starter to throw a pitch in the seventh inning since ace Clayton Kershaw back on June 20.
On Sunday afternoon, Kenta Maeda became the first Dodgers starter to throw a pitch in the seventh inning since ace Clayton Kershaw back on June 20.
That's a statistic that perfectly encapsulates how important Kershaw has been to a starting rotation that was seemingly decimated by injuries before the season even began. It also speaks to how much the Dodgers' bullpen has stepped up in his absence, helping Los Angeles go 8-3 since Kershaw went on the disabled list June 30.
"We all know how early the (bullpen) phone is ringing, but the good thing about it is how all those guys' character is," said Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen on Saturday. "Whatever inning the phone rings certain guys just have to pitch. Guys don't complain, they just want to win ballgames.
"That's a good group of guys we have down there."
The Dodgers head into the All-Star break well positioned for a late-season run. The team stands at a season-high 11 games over.500 and holds a firm grip on the National League's top Wild Card spot -- in large part thanks to a bullpen that was much maligned in the opening weeks of the season. The recent heroics of LA's relievers have earned them the Bullpen of the Week award presented by The Hartford.
As part of the MLB Prevailing Moments program, each Monday throughout the 2016 season, MLB.com is honoring the "Bullpen of the Week presented by The Hartford." An industry-wide panel of MLB experts, including legendary stats guru Bill James, constructed a metric based on James' widely renowned game-score formula, to provide a weekly measurement of team-bullpen performance.
Here's how the Bullpen Rating System is compiled for each week. For reference, a weekly score of 100 is considered outstanding:
• Add 1.5 points for each out recorded
• Add 1.5 points for each strikeout
• Add 5 points for a save
• Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed
• Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed
• Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed
• Subtract 1 point for each walk
• Subtract 5 points for a blown save
The Dodgers won their second Bullpen of the Week award this season going away -- scoring a total of 157 points. Los Angeles relievers allowed just six earned runs in 36 innings of work, striking out 40 batters and walking only seven. Jansen earned three saves this past week, placing him into a tie for the second-most saves in the Majors with 27. Since he blew a save against the Giants on June 11, Jansen has tossed 14 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and two walks.
Los Angeles' bullpen displayed an ability to withstand adversity and succeed despite unexpected circumstances. Here's a look at their biggest obstacle:
The unexpected: The Dodger Stadium stands were filled to capacity Monday to see the hometown team take on the AL East-leading Orioles on Independence Day. Unfortunately, rookie starter Julio Urias did not pitch his best on this big occasion, allowing five runs on six hits and two walks in just 3 1/3 innings. With his team down 5-2, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was forced to go to his bullpen to get the final 17 outs against the AL's most homer-happy offense.
How they prevailed: A combination of five relievers (Louis Coleman, Pedro Baez, Joe Blanton, Adam Liberatore and Jansen) saved the day for Los Angeles, tossing 5 2/3 shutout innings and allowing just two Orioles hits the rest of the way. Jansen struck out two of the three batters he faced in the 9th, preserving a come-from-behind 7-5 victory and sending the fans home happy and putting an emphatic exclamation point on a Fourth of July win.
The Pittsburgh Pirates' bullpen placed second in the BRS Standings with 114.5 points last week. Closer Mark Melancon has converted his last 23 consecutive save situations, and his 111 saves since the start of the 2014 season are the most of any pitcher in the Major Leagues.BL: "Overtraining syndrome" sounds like something that must happen to anybody who puts in this kind of distance, but the symptoms range from somewhat distressing to terrifying — or am I being melodramatic?
But numbers of ultramarathoners have now run out the other end of excellence and into exhaustion. Meaghen Brown wrote about that subject for Outside Magazine and she joined Bill Littlefield.
Ultramarathoners train hard and they train a lot, and it’s likely that, until fairly recently, nobody involved with the sport had a problem with that. Of course one trains hard for a race that lasts all day and into the next... and maybe into the day after that.
MB: No, that's actually true. There are basically three levels of overtraining. There's overtraining, which everybody has heard about. You, maybe, are really tired for a week after putting in a lot of miles for a marathon. There's non-functional overreaching, where you start to have some strange hormonal things going on. And then there's what I wrote about in the article, which is overtraining syndrome, and those symptoms are pretty terrifying.
People have reported profound exhaustion, sometimes the ability to not even get out of bed. Muscle soreness that never really goes away. Just the feeling of having like seven cups of coffee. Heart palpitations, loss of libido. Those are sort of the ones that you hear a lot.
BL: How common are these symptoms? How common is overtraining syndrome?
MB: So there aren't really any numbers to be able to answer that question very well. Overtraining syndrome is something people have known about for quite a while, but you're only seeing more and more cases now that this sport is becoming more competitive. And you don't have to be an elite athlete to get overtraining syndrome. This can happen to anybody, which isn't really touched on in the piece. But in terms of numbers, nobody is really able to answer that question right now.
BL: Has this syndrome been around long enough so that doctors know it when they see it or are they still kind of operating in the dark?
MB: It's been around for a long time. In fact, there's an old, ancient Greek text that actually mentions something that sounds a lot like overtraining syndrome. Unfortunately most sports medicine doctors don't see enough cases to be able to know what it is. And it often mimics other diseases. There's a disease called Addison's, which looks a lot like chronic fatigue, and so there are parallels with that. If an athlete tests with low testosterone or wacky blood levels — doctors basically want to rule everything else out before they say it's overtraining syndrome, and a lot of doctors don't even know what it is.
[sidebar title="Running For 63 Days To Combat Smoking In Chile" width="630" align="right"]Read about Matías Anguita, Chile's most famous ultramarathoner, who set a new world record by running the length of Chile in only 63 days.[/sidebar]
BL: Ultramarathoner Mike Wolfe talked to you about the mind-body connection. Is he suggesting that part of what causes overtraining syndrome is mental exhaustion, or does the mental exhaustion result from the overtraining?
MB: He didn't suggest that as a connection that he had seen. It was actually something I asked him about because I was seeing this pattern with a lot of runners that I talked to where they really did have this mental exhaustion component to it too. And one person that I spoke with talked a lot about flow states, which is when you're in this space of absolute perfection. Runners experience this a lot, surfers experience this. It's like every single molecule of your being is focused on this athletic or creative endeavor. And a lot of these runners, it was almost as if they had been in a flow state for so long, they could no longer function in daily life with that.
And so, not being able to draw from that mental component because to run 100 miles actually takes a lot of mental energy. Some people say it's about 75 percent mental, 25 percent physical. So they didn't have the mental energy or the physical energy and they were kind of feeding off of each other.
BL: Your article suggests that this syndrome is “robbing a generation of top athletes of their talent.” How big a threat is this to the whole sport of ultramarathoning?
And there are some people out there — Jason Koop is an ultra-running coach who's working with a lot of top athletes right now — who's really trying to rejigger that approach and have the athletes train at a much higher intensity but much lower volume and take a lot more rest days. And there's some thinking in the ultra-world that that may be the direction that the sport needs to go. But right now it certainly hasn't caught up with the rate this is occurring.
BL: I may be just guessing here because my knowledge of ultramarathoning is not extensive. But it would seem to me the kind of person who regularly runs 100 miles might come to believe "Yeah, yeah, this could happen to somebody else, but it'll never happen to me."
MB: For sure. Mike Wolfe definitely believed that. I mean, he knew it existed, as did Kyle Skaggs and a number of other runners in the piece. But they all, they'd had a bunch of great years and they'd trained hard and were racing well. And they really did have this feeling of, "That can't happen to me." And I think people who don't race at the elite level also believe that. They're not on the podium and they're not sponsored, so they assume that this can't really happen to them, but it actually can.The British Public is no longer sure if either side of the EU Referendum campaign actually wants to win their vote.
The question of “Are you taking the piss?” has come following a series of baffling statements from both camps, almost guaranteed to make people vote against that side’s position.
“I was a bit unsure how I would vote as they were all spinning facts to supported their side, if you believed any of it” reported a member of the public, Mrs Elaine Grint.
“But when David Cameron said leaving would start World War Three my first thought was ‘I’m not voting for you, as that’s clearly bollocks’.
“Then the next day they had Ian Duncan ‘Massacre Of The Innocents’ Smith being all worried about the sick and the poor if we stay in the EU, and that’s more piss-taking than I could ever support.
“So I was back on the fence, as the garbage from each side was balancing itself out.
“But then someone obviously thought it was a good idea to get Gordon Brown to tell me to stay and now I hate all foreign people, ever.
“Apparently he’s going to have a debate with Boris Johnson, who’s been telling everyone that America would never join a Federal Super-State even though it is one and one that worked out quite well for them.”
Fellow fence-sitter Damon West admitted that he just can’t see how any of this is supposed to encourage anyone to think about voting for either of them.
“Previously I was bored whenever the topic came on the radio; now I’m just wondering what the hell they’re playing at.
“I’ve not been this confused since I saw my kid’s 6th form art project about crying cubes.
“Maybe it’s some advanced counter-psychology, like how you keep watching Keith Lemon even though you want to kick his teeth in.
“Maybe it’s a cry for help, because the campaign has been going on for so bloody long?”
Both the Leave and the Remain campaigns have confirmed that they are definitely trying to win it, no matter what it may look like.
Ladbrokes have refused to comment on large bets being taken from Panama.Every once in a while, local news will report on an outraged student and parents who get booted from a public school dance because of inappropriate attire, with general clucking of tongues about either the appalling taste shown or the trauma of a ruined teenage experience. One Catholic school tried to head off the problem by requiring its young women to submit pictures to the school ahead of time for pre-approval of prom dresses — and discovered that the clucking of tongues simply can’t be avoided. Delone Catholic High School finds itself at the center of controversy in Pennsylvania, with some parents accusing it of unfairness, while others want more enforcement of standards.
With all of the horrible news going on overseas, this is my idea of a palate cleanser. Let the food fight begin!
Delone Catholic high school in McSherrystown Pa. warned its female students they must submit a photo of their prom dress to be pre-approved by faculty before the May 1 dance. The plan states that gowns may not be extremely short, have an extremely low cut front or back, or be “inappropriately revealing.” Girls who show up in un-approved attire would be turned away at the door. “I think it’s a little ridiculous,” Margaret Eser, whose daughter is attending Delone’s prom, told the York Daily Record. The policy, which was put in place on March 1, raised concerns for students who had already purchased dresses for the dance. “I honestly think it’s unfair,” Delone senior Dominique Dockins told the paper.
The school says they warned both students and teachers last year:
Although the pre-approval requirement for gowns is new for Delone Catholic, the principles guiding the dress code have been the same for decades, said Principal Maureen Thiec. School officials drafted a written dress code for formal and |
2016 at 10:06am PDT
As results came in late Tuesday night, women across the country were dismayed that so many in the nation were ready to support a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women and had been accused by multiple women of doing so. The choice came down to the first female president or a man who said he can grab women “by the pussy.”
Trump had also brought forward women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct and said Clinton herself was just as much to blame because she supposedly helped him silence these women. (There’s no evidence that she did.)
Carlos Barria/Reuters As it became increasingly clear that Hillary Clinton would not win Tuesday night, many of her supporters left the Jacob Javits Center early.
Even in 2016, Clinton still had to put up with plenty of sexist attacks. Trump accused her of playing the “woman’s card,” saying if it weren’t for her gender, she wouldn’t even get 5 percent of the vote. He also said he didn’t think she “looks presidential,” called her a “nasty woman” and scoffed at the idea of her commanding the nation’s military.
Clinton has put up with similar attacks in the past. Over the years, she’s been called the kinds of derogatory names that you’d expect. Men have shouted at her to go iron their shirts in the middle of a campaign rally, instructed her to smile more and wondered why she is trying so hard and acting so ambitious.
In a heartbreaking concession speech Wednesday morning, Clinton acknowledged that in the end, she will not be the one to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling.
Clinton talked about how proud she was to have been the champion and role model for so many women around the country. She encouraged them to keep fighting ― and remember this is about more than her.
“To all the women ― and especially the young women ― who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion,” Clinton said. “Now, I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day, someone will ― and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.”
“And to all the little girls who are watching this,” she added, “never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”Text size
Confirming a story in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Symantec (SYMC) said after the bell this afternoon that it will purchase the "Authentication Services" business of Verisign (VRSN) for $1.28 billion in cash, acquiring products that secure encrypted Web browser sessions and authenticate users of email programs, among other things.
The unit brought in $102 million in revenue for VeriSign in the most recent quarter, roughly 40% of total sales, the company said.
The transaction will dilute Symantec earnings by 9 cents per share for the current fiscal year, which ends in March of 2011, owing to the deferred revenue component of the business. Symantec expects the business to start adding to its quarterly profit starting in the September quarter of next year.
Symantec shares were unchanged at $15.63 in late trading, while Versign stock was up 71 cents, or 2.5%, at $28.70.
-- Tiernan Ray, Barrons.com"We need a foreign policy that recognizes our limits and preserves our might, a common-sense conservative realism of strength and action."
Editor’s Note: The following is the prepared text of a speech by Senator Rand Paul delivered in New York City at the Center for the National Interest’s annual dinner on October 23, 2014.
Thank you. It’s an honor to be at the Center for The National Interest.
Immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis Fukuyama wrote that we are at “the end of history.”
The world, Fukuyama argued, had arrived at what he called the universal triumph of “Western liberal democracy as the final point of human government.”
Almost 25 years later, we know Fukuyama was either wrong or, at the very least, a bit optimistic.
History has not ended.
Russia slides backward vainly hoping to resurrect the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin justifies aggression in Ukraine as defense against decadent and hypocritical Western powers.
In East Asia, Beijing extols the remarkable rise of China as the supremacy of a one-party state capitalism.
In the Middle East, secular dictatorships have been replaced by the rise of radical jihadist movements, who in their beliefs and barbarity -- represent the antithesis of liberal democracy.
These challenges are in part consequences of failing to define our national security interest in a new era.
Our allies and our enemies are unsure where America stands.
Until we develop the ability to distinguish, as George Kennan put it, between vital interests and more peripheral interests, we will continue to drift from crisis to crisis.
Today I want to share with you my views on how to address these threats and how I see America’s role in the world.
I want to spell out for you what I believe to be the principles of a national security strategy of strength and action.
Americans want strength and leadership but that doesn't mean they see war as the only solution.
Reagan had it right when he spoke to potential adversaries: "Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.”
After the tragedies of Iraq and Libya, Americans are right to expect more from their country when we go to war.
America shouldn't fight wars where the best outcome is stalemate. America shouldn't fight wars when there is no plan for victory.
America shouldn't fight wars that aren’t authorized by the American people, by Congress.
America should and will fight wars when the consequences….intended and unintended….are worth the sacrifice.
The war on terror is not over, and America cannot disengage from the world.
President Obama claims that al Qaeda is decimated. But a recent report by the RAND Corporation tracked a 58 percent increase over the last three years in jihadist terror groups.
To contain and ultimately defeat radical Islam, America must have confidence in our constitutional republic, our leadership, and our values.
To defend our country we must understand that a hatred of our values exists, and acknowledge that interventions in foreign countries may well exacerbate this hatred, but that ultimately, we must be willing and able to defend our country and our interests.
As Reagan said: “When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.”
Will they hate us less if we are less present?
Perhaps….but hatred for those outside the circle of "accepted" Islam, exists above and beyond our history of intervention overseas.
The world does not have an Islam problem.
The world has a dignity problem, with millions of men and women across the Middle East being treated as chattel by their own governments.
Many of these same governments have been chronic recipients of our aid.
When the anger boils over as it did in Cairo, the anger is directed not only against Mubarak but also against the United States because of our support for Mubarak.
Some anger is blowback, but some anger originates in an aberrant and intolerant distortion of religion that wages war against all infidels.
We can’t be sentimental about neutralizing that threat, but we also can’t be blind to the fact that drone strikes that inadvertently kill civilians may create more jihadists than we eliminate.
The young activist Malala Yousafzai, whom the Taliban in Pakistan shot in the head at point-blank range for insisting that girls have the right to attend school, voiced this concern when she met with President Obama.
She said: “It is true that when there’s a drone attack…terrorists are killed. But 500 and 5,000 more people rise against it and more terrorism occurs.”
The truth is, you can’t solve a dignity problem with military force. It was Secretary Gates who warned that our foreign policy has become over-militarized.
Yes, we need a hammer ready, but not every civil war is a nail.
There is a time to eliminate our enemies, but there is also a time to cultivate allies and encouragers among civilized Muslim nations.
Those of you who are familiar with me know that I deeply believe in individual liberty.
But I have learned through experience that this ideal can only be achieved by recognizing, as Bismarck said, that, policy is the art of the possible.
We need a foreign policy that recognizes our limits and preserves our might, a common-sense conservative realism of strength and action.
We can’t retreat from the world, but we can’t remake it in our own image either.
We can’t and shouldn’t engage in nation building, but we can facilitate trade and extend the blessings of freedom and free markets around the world.
Here’s how I see the most important principles that should drive America’s foreign policy.
First, the Use of Force is and always has been an indispensable part of defending our country.
War is necessary when America is attacked or threatened, when vital American interests are attacked and threatened, and when we have exhausted all other measures short of war.
While no foreign policy should preclude the use of force, Reagan understood that war should never be the first resort.
Eisenhower understood this also when he said, “Belligerence is the hallmark of insecurity.”
The war in Afghanistan is an example of a just, necessary war. I supported the decision to go into Afghanistan after 9/11.
I still do today.
America was attacked by Al Qaeda, and there was a clear initial objective: dismantle the Taliban, and deny Al Qaeda safe haven.
The invasion showcased the best of modern American military strength and ingenuity: we went in with Special Forces and heavy air power, and formed critical alliances.
The Taliban were ousted from power, and Al Qaeda fled. We kept a limited force in Afghanistan to wage counterterrorism and we understood, at first, the limits of nation building in a country decimated by over 30 years of constant war.
Only after our initial success did the lack of a clear objective give rise to mission creep. Today Afghanistan is more violent than when President Obama came into office.
He deployed another 50,000 troops, nearly doubling our forces in Afghanistan, and added $120 billion dollars to the deficit.
And yet, the results are discouraging. The leading cause of death among our soldiers now comes from enemies disguised in the uniforms of our allies.
1,422 troops have died since President Obama ordered the surge.
We have now spent more money in Afghanistan than we did for the Marshall Plan and yet after the killing of Bin Laden and the toppling of the Taliban, it is hard to understand our exact objective.
Stalemate and perpetual policing seem to be our mission now in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
A precondition to the use of force must be a clear end goal. We can't have perpetual war.
A second principle is that Congress, the people’s representative, must authorize the decision to intervene.
Reagan's defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, outlined a systematic approach to sending American troops to war.
A critical component of this doctrine is support from the American public.
The Libyan war was fought without the approval of Congress or the American people.
President Obama claimed our military was “being volunteered by others to carry out missions” in Libya. He fundamentally misunderstands our Republic.
Let me be very clear:
France doesn’t send our men and women in uniform to war, the United Nations doesn’t send our soldiers to war, Congress, and only Congress can constitutionally initiate war!
The war in Libya was not in our national interest. It had no clear goal and it led to less stability.
Today, Libya is a jihadist wonderland, a sanctuary and safe haven for terror groups across North Africa.
Our Ambassador was assassinated and our Embassy forced to flee over land to Tunisia. Jihadists today swim in our Embassy swimming pool.
The Obama administration, urged on by Hillary Clinton, wanted to go to war but didn't anticipate the consequences of war.
Libya is now more chaotic and America is less safe.
War should not be a unilateral decision taken in the isolation of the White House. But that is what happened.
In failing to seek Congressional authority, President Obama missed a chance to galvanize the country. He missed a chance to lead.
A President who recognizes the Constitutional limitations of power is not weakened, but actually empowered by the public debate that comes with a declaration of war.
I support a strategy of air strikes against ISIS.
Our airpower must be used to rebalance the tactical situation in favor of the Kurds and Iraqis and to defend Americans and our assets in the region.
Just as we should have defended our consulate in Benghazi, so too we must defend our consulate in Erbil and our embassy in Baghdad.
I don't support arming the so-called Sunni moderates in Syria, though.
I said a year ago and I say it again now. The ultimate sad irony is that we are forced to fight against the very weapons we send to Syrian rebels.
The weapons are either indiscriminately given to "less than moderate rebels” or simply taken from moderates by ISIS.
600 tons of weapons have been given to the Syrian rebels, inadvertently creating a safe haven for ISIS.
Although I support the call for defeating and destroying ISIS, I doubt that a decisive victory is possible in the short term, even with the participation of the Kurds, the Iraqi government, and other moderate Arab states.
In the end, only the people of the region can destroy ISIS. In the end, the long war will end only when civilized Islam steps up to defeat this barbaric aberration.
A third principle is the belief that peace and security require a commitment to diplomacy and leadership.
Around the world we see the consequences of failed diplomacy and absence of leadership after 6 years of the Obama administration.
Military force is meaningless if our leaders cannot reinforce American diplomacy through engagement and leadership.
President Obama never invested in relationships with Congress, and the same is true of his foreign policy. To have friends, you have to be a friend.
In the run up to the Gulf War in 1991, Arab nations believed that once President Bush drew a line, he wouldn’t let Iraq cross it.
And President Bush didn’t “dance on the Berlin Wall” when it crumbled; instead he worked behind the scenes to help the Cold War end calmly.
In light of the new threat posed by ISIS, I believe it is even more imperative that Tehran and Washington find an effective diplomatic solution for limiting the Iranian enrichment program. A nuclear armed Iran would only further destabilize a region in turmoil.
Another diplomatic challenge is Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. Putin’s actions not only threaten Ukraine, but represent a threat to the post-Cold War European order.
I support the sanctions that the U.S. and the European Union put in place against Russia.
I also agree with the measures taken at the NATO Summit to increase the Alliance’s military preparedness, especially increased European defense spending.
We need to use sanctions and defense spending to achieve a diplomatic settlement that takes into account Russia’s long-standing ties with Ukraine and allows Kiev to develop its relations both with Russia and the West.
As Kissinger put it: “If Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.”
Ukraine is geographically and historically bound to both regions.
We will need to understand that even with our help, Ukraine will not be able to stand up to Russian pressure unless it undertakes some fundamental reforms, such as stamping out corruption and restructuring its energy sector.
This brings me to the last principle I’d like to discuss today: we are only as strong as our economy.
Admiral Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put it succinctly: the biggest threat to our national security is our debt.
A bankrupt nation doesn't project power but rather weakness.
Our national power is a function of the national economy. During the Reagan renaissance, our strength in the world reflected our successful economy.
Low growth, high unemployment, and big deficits have undercut our influence in the world. Americans have suffered real consequences from a weak economy.
President George W. Bush understood that part of the projection of American power is the exporting of American goods and culture. His administration successfully brokered fourteen new free trade agreements and negotiated three others that are the only new free trade agreements approved since President Obama took office. Instead of just talking about a so-called “pivot to Asia,” the Obama administration should prioritize negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership by year’s end.
Free trade and technology should be the greatest carrot of our statecraft.
Trade is a critical element of building a productive relationship with other nations, including China.
While our relations with China are complicated, trade has drawn us together and mutual investment can also play a constructive role. In an era in which geopolitics could drive us apart, we need to look for new areas for US-Chinese cooperation.
Promoting free markets should be a priority.
The only long-term strategy that will change the world is fostering successful capitalist economies that increase living standards and connect people through trade.
From Kiev to Cairo to Tunis, we are witnessing a historic time of protest against the injustice of overbearing, corrupt governments.
If the long war is ever to end, we must understand the frustrations of the street.
It isn't always abject poverty or religion that motivates recruits or sets off conflict.
Often it is the despair and humiliation that comes from overbearing government.
Twenty-six year old Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street merchant who set himself afire and began the Arab Spring, was an aspiring entrepreneur foiled by a corrupt government.
Bouazizi had a dream: he’d save for a pick-up truck. But cronyism and an overbearing government stifled his dream.
Constantly harassed for money he didn’t have, Bouazizi doused himself in kerosene and lit a match.
My great-grandfather came to America with a dream not unlike Bouazizi’s. He peddled vegetables until he saved enough to purchase a truck, elevating him to what they called then a "truck farmer," a level that allowed him to purchase a home and small bit of land.
The difference between America in the late nineteenth century and places in the Middle East…South Asia..Africa…and South America…today is that bribes and cronyism were not necessary to get a license to purchase a truck or sell vegetables.
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto spoke to Bouazizi’s brother and asked if he left a legacy. Bouazizi’s brother responded: “Of course, he believed the poor had the right to buy and sell.”
Tonight I have outlined the principles we must remember if we are to advance security, peace, and human dignity.
These principles of conservative realism are a return to traditional Republican values that recognize our limits and realize our might.
Americans yearn for leadership and for strength, but they don't yearn for war.
Our enemies should bear witness to the unmatched and unstoppable American force that was justifiably unleashed after 9/11 and know that terrorism will never defeat America, that terrorism will only awaken and embolden our resolve.
But the world should also know that America aspires to peace, trade, and commerce with all.
That though we will not abide injustice we will not instigate war.
That our noblest intentions are sincere and war will always be our last resort, and that “our reluctance for war must not be mistaken for lack of resolve” …
That the exceptional ideas that formed our republic unify us in the defense of freedom, and we will never back down in the defense of our naturally derived, inalienable rights.
Thank you.
Image: Creative Commons 2.0/Flickr.Actor Danny Miller, who plays a gay character on the UK television soap opera Emmerdale was attacked while out in Manchester by a group of men in who shouted gay slurs at the 19-year-old. Unreality Primetime reports on the moments that let up to the assault:
“As they mounted the homophobic attack, one of the crowd shouted, ‘There’s that gay lad off the telly – let’s f***ing get him.’”
“An onlooker told The People: “It was terrifying. A group of lads shouted, ‘Oi gay boy, you out with your boyfriend tonight?’ “Another screamed, ‘Oi faggot, is that your boyfriend?’ Then the yobs started running and screaming, ‘Get him, get him.’”
Apparently, Miller was punched by at least one person in the mob.
He tweeted: about the incident later and reassured everyone that he was unharmed.
“Don’t listen to what has been put on here tonight. I was attacked by a couple of lads tonight but managed to escape unharmed. Don’t worry.”
“Afraid to say it was Emmerdale related. Not sure why though. Hadn’t seen them before ever. Don’t worry though.”
The homophobes couldn’t even separate television from reality. Miller himself is not gay.Today’s Civil War Caturday (by the way, that’s pronounced “Kivil War Katurday”), right in the middle of Easter. Got me thinking about my religion, if I have one now, and I realized I do, kind of: The Monitor and the Merrimack.
If there’s an idea of god I could buy, it’s the two ironclads, total opposites, fighting each other. That scene is burned in my brain—and not just mine, either. Real Americans see it all over the place, which is why there’s a rock formation in Moab, Utah, called “Monitor and Merrimack.” We see those two shapes the way Richard Dreyfuss saw Devil’s Mountain in Close Encounters.
Monitor and Merrimack, Moab, Utah
For you heathen who weren’t raised right, the Monitor and Merrimack were the first two ironclad warships in combat. They fought to a draw in March, 1862, at Hampton Roads, a harbor near the mouth of the James River that flows down from Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. There’s something permanent about their fight, though. In a way, if you believe in it like I seem to, it’s like it never ended. The Monitor and the Merrimack are still fighting, and always were fighting, even before people got the idea of building them.
They’re a perfect pair, because aside from the fact that no crummy wooden warship had a chance against either one, they have nothing in common. Even the way they were born showed how they were the heart and soul of the two totally different Americas that made them, the two Americas that were at each others’ throats then, and still are, and always will be. I’m not saying good and evil, but…yeah, I am saying good and evil, as long as I get to admit that evil has a big pull too, I’m not automatically non-stop on the side of good. But yeah, with that in mind I’ll admit: North equals good equals Monitor, and South equals evil equals Merrimack. It’s like: Yay for them both, but I hope the Monitor wins.
It never does, though. The battle always comes out a draw, because that’s the frustrating annoying way the world is set up. That draw is part of why the two ships fighting for eternity makes such a perfect religion. I never liked the idea of God being all-powerful because how come…well, never mind my fill-in details; everybody’s got their own “If God’s so nice, then how come…” to fill in.
The only way you can forgive god, or the gods, or the galaxy or whatever you call it, is if it’s not all-powerful, if it’s trying its best but having a very hard time, like the Army of the Potomac. And evil has its own problems and its own heroes and to be honest is pretty damn cool in its own right.
Evil has to improvise, like the South. They knew they couldn’t fight the North’s naval blockade ship-for-ship. The US Navy ballooned up to the biggest and strongest in the world. That’s right, “strongest”—and don’t you Brits give me your Royal Navy theme-music. I just wish, God how I wish, our navy had had a chance to slap you guys around circa 1862, when you were flirting with Dixie Cotton every time you thought her ex wasn’t looking!
So the South had to think harder, the way besieged countries do. The Merrimack came out of the same brilliant desperation that coughed up the Me262. It wasn’t as beautiful as that interceptor, though, because it was a ship brought back from the dead. The Confederate Navy wanted to build an ironclad warship from scratch but found out they just didn’t have the industrial base to make steam engines powerful enough to push all that armor plate and ordnance. So they dug up the dead US Navy steamship Merrimack, wrenched her up from the bottom of a river, cleaned her up and built a totally new superstructure for her, in-sloping walls that started with two feet of wood reinforcing, fronted by four inches of iron plate. More than anything, the reborn Merrimack looked like a WW II sub resting on the surface, with a flattened, stretched conning tower. Which is another perfect detail that can’t just be an accident, because didn’t the South raise her up off the mud and bring her a second life? And didn’t that same South give us the first working war submarine? If you ever wanted a clue that you’re dealing with the forces of the underworld (South equals under, for that matter), the history of the second life of the Merrimack would be it.
They fight forever in our heads.
And the Underworld is always good with guns. The Confederate ironclad had gaps in the armor for 10 guns, including two big Dahlgrens, the best naval guns in the world. On March 8, 1862, the Merrimack—which the Confederates called “C. S. S. Virginia,” but I’m calling it “Merrimack” because for one thing the two deities here both start with “M” and I’m not messing with something as perfect as that—sailed down the river to attack the US naval vessels anchored in Hampton Roads.
This is like the scene in every good horror film where the good people, the loyal deputies, all fire at the monster-hero without effect. The Terminator driving straight into, and I mean into, the LAPD station, that scene. The US Navy was something back then, brave, knew what they were doing—but they were in wooden ships with small cannon. They didn’t have a chance. The Merrimack, which had a few wooden steamships in tow like a bully’s hangers-on, steamed slowly up broadside to the USS Cumberland and opened fire at point-blank range, while the Cumberland’s small deck guns bounced shells off her iron sides.
Soon the Cumberland started sinking, still firing. More than a hundred sailors were dead on her decks. She went down trying to take the monster with her, just like the doomed good-guy should, because the Merrimack’s iron bow ram was caught in the Cumberland’s hull and Cumberland did her best to take the Terminator down with her. But it’s too early in the story for the monster to die, so Merrimack broke free just as Cumberland went under.
The monster needed another victim to show its strength; you know how these scenes go. So the Merrimack turned on another wooden ship, the Congress. Congress fired back for an hour—an hour, a wooden ship firing point-blank into iron plate studded with heavy artillery! Then, sinking, she surrendered. The sailors were allowed to start evacuating until Union shore batteries fired at the Merrimack. That made the Confederate captain mad and he ordered hot shot, literally hot lead, fired on the Cumberland, which burned and sank and took more than a hundred men with her. Don’t make the monster mad. It’s like these people had never seen a horror movie, which they hadn’t.
The third time, something different happens. That’s in every story I know. And that’s how it was this time. The Merrimack looks around for another target, finds the USS Minnesota. And let’s stop there. Minnesota–the state, that is–was the purest of the pure back then. The furthest north, the furthest west, the two good directions. A new state, no slaves, settled by innocent Scandinavians who never really got the Ulster crazy hum America always carried in its belly. And now this iron monster from the murkiest heat of Dixie turns on the ship named after the headwaters, where the Mississippi is still a clear little brook. It’s too perfect. Tell me this isn’t a battle of gods!
The Minnesota ran aground, like the leading lady tripping over her high heels as the monster bears down on her. But since the Merrimack, loaded down with all that heavy ordnance and iron plate, had a much deeper draft, it couldn’t even get close enough to Minnesota to kill her. So it had to draw back, sulking like Christine when some victim makes it across the ped xing, headlights just aching to plow through the cheerleader.
Now it’s night. The Merrimack steams home for repairs—Schwartzenegger digging buckshot out of his hydraulic arm in that skid row rented room—while the rest of the US Navy waits to be destroyed, one wooden ship at a time.
Except another ironclad was coming toward Hampton Roads, the equal and opposite, the good twin, as pure a product of the good, well-fed North as Merrimack was of the feral South: The Monitor. Another three-syllable “M” word. I read that in the Mayan religion, the hero is, or are, twins. I’ve always liked that idea, but not identical twins, more like opposite twins, but still twins, more like each other than they are like any of the ordinary mortals they fight for/against.
The Monitor was born in cool, rational heads, the opposite of the South’s booby-trap rigging desperation. The Monitor plans were drawn up on clean paper in the offices of brilliant, educated men. It was the child of an official body called “The Monitor Board,” appointed by Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, a typical Victorian superman, and designed by John Ericcson, a Swedish engineering genius, Minnesota, Ericcson…I’m telling you, this is about the most Northerly north meeting the most Southerly south, not even geography, this is a god-fight.
The North had the immigrants’ brains, and immigrant desperation is a match for the cool Satanic inventions of the South any day. Ericcson’s design was as pure, clean, and strange as the Merrimack was ugly, dark and lethal. The turret was a perfect cylinder, the engine and hull were smooth minimal steel, everything had the almost-alien look of a truly brilliant design. Ericcson’s model was called a “Monitor” because it was like one huge eye, an armored cyclops. Or, like other people with no respect for religion said, it looked like a tin can on a board. The tin-can turret held two huge guns, 11-inch Dahlgrens. That was all that showed above water. None of the fuss and mess of other ship architecture at all. It was the cleanest design in the history of weaponry. Samurai swords look over-embroidered and busy compared to the Monitor.
And naturally it looked helpless against the big, bad, grinding mass of the Merrimack. The contrast is everything here. It’s the basis of my religion, if you want to put it that way. They’re equal, more or less, but they don’t look equal. The Monitor looks too small and fragile, like it should. But it’s faster, it’s smarter—it’s David to the Merrimack’s Goliath, only better, because that Bible story never worked for me thanks to Yahweh already declaring for David. Once an all-powerful god announces he’s on your side, where’s the suspense, where’s the heroism? There is none. David could have picked a piece of lint off his tunic and blown it toward Goliath and it would have blinded him and made him trip and break his neck. The rock was just a prop. That’s cheap, and dirty—who’s the bully anyway, Yahweh, you cheating punk up in your cloud, fixing the fight to get good odds on the little guy?
The Monitor, I keep trying to say, is a different religion, a Union religion that Yahweh would’ve had a jealous little-girl fit over. It had nothing on its side but the cool Northern brains that dreamed it up, and they hadn’t had much luck against the hot crazy demons of the South in the first year of the war. It must’ve been some seriously cold comfort for the wooden ships of the Navy to see their tuna-can savior stationing itself just offshore of the Minnesota. “Oh, great: My bodyguard, the five-foot nothing science nerd!”
When the Merrimack came out of its upriver lair at dawn on March 9 and steamed downstream to kill off the Minnesota, the Confederates didn’t even recognize the Monitor as an opposition vessel. They thought it was a spare boiler being towed across the harbor. Then the boiler opened fire with its 11″ Dahlgren, bigger than any gun the Merrimack had. The Monitor was big in offense, but a tiny target, the design goal of any armored vehicle. In fact, if those 11″ guns had been charged with a full load of powder they could have pierced the Merrimack’s hull. But the Northern design team was a little wary of that much bang in a tiny turret, and I can’t say I blame them. So the Monitor’s big shells dented but couldn’t break the Merrimack’s shell.
Merrimack fired back with a broadside that missed Monitor’s little turret but hit the Minnesota, the big TKO’d Swede Monitor was protecting. The Minnesota, game as ever, fired its cannon back, stuck there on its mudbank. A big dumb jock, but brave, and on the right side. You have to love the Minnesota. And Cumberland, for that matter. That’s what’s better about this religion: everybody’s got a good job to do, and even the evil is great.
The Merrimack: Now she is a god.
They fired at each other point-blank, with the Monitor’s big guns in their 360-degree rotating turret always bearing directly on the Merrimack, and the Merrimack’s big black slab-sides absorbing all that punishment and still spitting back shells. If the Merrimack had had solid shot for its Dahlgrens, they might have zipped right through the Monitor’s thinner armor plate. But the Underworld always has to improvise, it’s always under embargo like Dixie was, and they didn’t have solid shot in the right size, so the Merrimack had to be content with exploding shells.
Finally one of them blew just in front of the viewing slit of the Monitor’s turret and the little savior withdrew. The Merrimack was happy to call it off too, seriously dinged up, its zombie engines, that’d lain in the mud a long time before being resurrected, grumbling and threatening to quit, the armor plate buckled and bent.
Both deities steamed away and both declared victory. And both those particular ships died, in another perfect opposites way: the Merrimack died by fire, burned by her crew when her base was captured by the Union, and the Monitor died by water, sunk when high seas slopped over her little turrets out on the ocean.
But those were just the two temporary things that held the fight that day. North and South, Minnesota and Virginia, they’re still fighting. Not just in DC but my head. And in Moab. Everywhere, actually, because there are other pairs like that. For me, making up a better religion while I had to sit in the pew and listen to the grownups ranting, the Monitor and the Merrimack were just the first and best of the fighting pairs. The next I recognized was the same one every normal person has in their heads: the whale and the squid, fighting forever in your head and in the black depths of the ocean.
Other bodies, same battle
The Merrimack comes up from the mud to fight the Monitor; the whale goes down to the underworld to fight the squid. And just like the Monitor and the Merrimack are both perfect and wonderful, the whale and the squid are both great too, the muscle, big lungs and strong jaw of the whale against the cold boneless pull of the tentacles. They’re not exactly equal; I’m always on the side of the Monitor and the whale. But I worship the Merrimack and the squid too, where they belong, proper gods of the underworld.
And they fight forever, amen.
Would you like to know more? Gary Brecher is the author of the War Nerd. Send your comments to gary dot brecher at gmail dot com. Read Gary Brecher’s first ever War Nerd column by clicking here.
Click the cover, buy the book!Ancient Egypt: The History of Creation Search Two versions of the creation myth A Book of Knowing the Evolutions of Ra and the Overthrowing of Apep
[These are] the words which the god Neb-er-tcher spoke after he had come into being: "I am he who came into being in the form of the god Khepera, and I am the creator of that which came into being, that is to say, I am the creator of everything which came into being. Now the things which I created, and which came forth out of my mouth after that I had come into being myself were exceedingly many. The sky (or heaven) had not come into being, the earth did not (exist, and the children of the earth, and the creeping things had not been made at that time. I myself raised them up from out of Nu, from a state of helpless inertness.
Neb-er-tcher: Lord to the uttermost confines, i.e. Lord of the universe. A god fighting the evil opposing Osiris, also one of the titles of Osiris. In the papyrus of Ani the following wish is expressed: Grant thou that I may come forth, and that I may be master of my legs, and let me live there like Nebertcher upon his throne.
Khepera: The dung-beetle was identified with Atem and later with Re. He came into existence without being created. As sun-god he rose in the morning out of the underworld.
Nu: Nun, the primordial waters existing before creation, when the world was still formless, i.e. chaotic
I found no place whereon I could stand. I worked a charm upon my own heart (or, will). I laid the foundation [of things] by Maat, and I made everything which had form. I was [then] one by myself, for I had not emitted from myself the god Shu, and |
ürnberg 1-0 Augsburg, Hoffenheim 1-2 Bremen, Freiburg 3-0 Wolfsburg, Leverkusen 0-0 Dortmund, Hannover 1-1 Mainz, Schalke 1-0 Gladbach.Once touted as the showcase of US-led economic development, debt-strapped Puerto Rico is currently embroiled in a struggle for survival. (Photo: Ulises Jorge / Flickr)
You could call it a perfect storm: a fiscal crisis converging with a deep secular economic decline.[1] Once touted as the showcase of U.S.- led economic development, debt-strapped Puerto Rico is currently embroiled in a struggle for survival. During the mid-twentieth century, Puerto Rico grew at a rapid pace, betting on cheap labor, privileged duty-free access to the U.S. market, and tax incentives for U.S. companies. By the 1970s, however, the formula had lost steam and the government turned to ever-more crafty means to keep the economy and itself afloat by seeking new federal tax exemptions for U.S. firms, obtaining additional transfers in federal funds, increasing government employment, and issuing public debt in ever-larger amounts. By the year 2000, the government ran on ever-larger deficits. The dance came to a screeching halt in 2014, when Puerto Rico’s debt was degraded to junk status and the island was effectively shut out of the financial markets. [2]
“We now know that the world we thought we lived in no longer exists,” says Iram Ramírez, senior international representative for the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU/AFL-CIO) in San Juan. “The country is not equipped to deal with the situation. We came to a reality check too fast,” he states.
The country he refers to is Puerto Rico, whose multiplicity of bynames (island, country, nation, “pueblo,” territory, colony, possession, Commonwealth, Free Associated State, potential state of the Union) reflects the multifaceted, and at times elusive, complexity both of its history and current situation. What is not elusive is the magnitude of its economic collapse. Puerto Rico’s economy has been contracting for almost a decade: Gross National Product (GNP) declined by an aggregate of 13 percent between fiscal years 2006 and 2014, gross fixed domestic investment decreased 24.5 percent, and bank assets plummeted by a whopping 41.8 percent.[3] If no measures are taken, the government’s projected financing gap could reach $63.4 billion by 2025,[4] a crushing burden considering the shrinking economy and the government’s inability to access the financial markets. In theory, to achieve overall structural balance in fiscal year 2016, Puerto Rico’s government would need to reduce its expenses by up to 4.9 percent of the island’s GNP,[5] a gargantuan task for a society that has relied for decades on the government for employment, investment, contracts, purchases, and tax exemptions.
Labor’s Quagmire
The fiscal and economic predicament has had a devastating impact on the working and middle classes. More than one in five jobs have been lost in the last decade: a decrease of 272,803 positions between April 2006 and November 2015.[6] The brutal implication of this number needs to be assessed in the particular context of the island’s fragile labor market. “Even in the best of times, employment [levels] in Puerto Rico have never been particularly good,” explains María Enchautegui, senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. “We have never been able to produce enough jobs.”
The crisis has made a grim reality worse. Unemployment stood at 12.5 percent in November 2015 while labor force participation was a dismally low 40.4 percent.[7] Median household income is $19,886 while the poverty level stands at 45.2 percent.[8] Only 10 percent of wage and salary workers belonged to some sort of organized labor group in October 2014, down from the 12.2 percent registered in October 2012. If affiliation to brotherhoods and associations (groups that have no legal representation rights over workers) is discounted and only affiliation to labor unions is considered, the number then stands at 6.2 percent.[9]
The fragile state of the economy is taking a toll on private-sector unions as existing companies either struggle to survive or push for cost reductions. “Most of the negotiations are now ‘give back negotiations’ to reduce benefits,” says OPEIU’s Ramírez. “The bargaining agreement is literally put on the table” and “[the negotiation is] about sheer survival: either we restructure or we close shop.”
In the public sector, bulwark of the Puerto Rico labor movement, the situation is dramatic.[10] Two fiscal emergency laws — Law 7 enacted in 2009 by pro-statehood Governor Luis Fortuño and Law 66 approved in 2014 by pro-Commonwealth Governor Alejandro García Padilla — have curtailed the size of public employment by either decreeing outright downsizing (Law 7) or mandating hiring freezes in the central government (Law 66). As a result, one in four government jobs has disappeared in the last six years, a loss of 67,800 posts between June 2009 and October 2015.[11] Those remaining in public employment have seen their compensation and benefit packages erode. Since 2014 — as a result of Law 66 — wages have been frozen and previously negotiated increases eliminated, while vacations, promotions, and bonuses have been reduced. The cost to public-sector employees, according to several union leaders, has been on the order of between $800 and $1,000 million in lost benefits in less than three years.[12]
“It has been dramatic,” says Federico Torres Montalvo, secretary general of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUTE), a network of public-sector unions. “As a result of Law 7, in some [government agencies] there was up to a 50 percent reduction in the number of members we represented.” The loss of membership (and thus, of economic capacity) has been seen across all public-sector unions, although some have been able to partly compensate for the erosion by focusing on unorganized workers. Roberto Pagán’s Sindicato Puertorriqueño de Trabajadores (SPT/ SEIU), Local 1996, for example, succeeded in forging an agreement with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz to collectively represent the capital city’s municipal employees.
Public-sector organizations have been noticeably shaken. The SPT, for example, lost five hundred of its nine hundred union representatives in 2009. “[They were] the youngest workers, who were also the most active ones in the union,” reminisces SPT’s Pagán, stressing the cost austerity has had in terms of organizational structures and leadership. “We have recomposed our structures... but that has not necessarily been the case in all unions. There has been a general decrease in mobilization capacity because structures have been hit and workers are now afraid to protest.”
The attrition has yet to reach an inflexion point. With the local government failing to meet revenue targets and struggling to make debt service payments, pay suppliers, and maintain basic public services,[13] calls for further austerity and belt-tightening seem to gain momentum. In Washington, D.C., proposals for a federally created Fiscal Control Board for Puerto Rico are being discussed. In its more stringent version, such a Board would have wide oversight powers over public pension systems, public corporations, and Commonwealth budgets,[14] a throwback, some argue, to the beginning of the twentieth century when governors were appointed by the president of the United States and Puerto Rico lacked internal self rule. Meanwhile, in San Juan, Puerto Rico Government Development Bank consultants have recommended that Puerto Rico be fully exempt from the $7.25 federal minimum wage, suggesting that one-third the general mainland rate be considered as an alternative. They have also recommended the island revise local labor laws enacting protections regarding overtime, paid vacation, bonuses, probationary periods, and just cause for lay-offs.[15]
Seeking the Offensive
“Yo voy a guerrear (I will wage war),” reacts Pedro Irene Maymí, president of the water utility’s Unión Independiente Auténtica de los Empleados de la Triple A (UIA). “They want to take Puerto Rico back to the ’30s and ’40s. It is the responsibility of this country’s union leaders to stand up against it,” he says. Maymí is also president of the Central Puertorriqueña de Trabajadores (CPT), a federation that represents some thirty thousand public service employees. Days before our interview, UIA had staged a sitin in front of the Puerto Rico Labor Department demanding the government pay water utility workers the stipulated Christmas bonus, a legally mandated benefit that is part of a local worker’s compensation package. In 2014, as part of the negotiations surrounding Law 66, public-sector unions had accepted that the bonus be reduced, but now the water utility was refusing to pay even that. “The aim is to dismantle public service. Everything is being justified now using the debt crisis as an excuse,” he states.
Maymí sits in his Río Piedras office with several other leaders from independent publicsector unions, that is, unions not affiliated with mainland- or U.S.-based unions or federations. Independent unions were critically important in the emergence of the island’s militant and politically conscious nuevo sindicalismo (new trade unionism) during the 1970s and still maintain an aura of combativeness.[16] The group reflects on how proposals for continuing to downsize government have gained traction and on how the labor movement should confront further austerity measures. Longtime CPT leader Víctor Villalba declares, “We can’t remain on the defensive anymore. We need to take the offensive.” The group concurs and discusses “como tomar la calle” — how to mobilize and take the streets — no easy task, concedes Maymí, who admits that “the country has lost its instinct to ‘fiscalizar’ (confront) the government.”
Francisco Reyes Márquez, of the Unión de Empleados del Fondo del Seguro del Estado (UEFSE, the State Insurance Fund Union) states,
All unions agree that we need to retake the streets and wage whatever struggle needs to be waged. What we have not defined is how... Workers are screaming for something to be done... and [the common denominator] has be to defend... what little we have left that is about to be taken away from us.
The group talks about plans to organize regional assemblies throughout the island with the aim of “retaking the streets” and exercising pressure on local legislators.
But will people follow if unions lead? CUTE’s Torres Montalvo, a longtime veteran from the heyday of independent union activism in the 1970s and 1980s, concedes that the current situation is highly complex. Organizations have been weakened by the government’s downsizing, and public service employees have been demonized in public opinion. Furthermore, he admits, the labor movement stands divided. “We have been unable to articulate a united position,” he states. “[Some] think we should give government space to recover... some believe we should take to the streets now.”
Underlying the discussion is a profound disenchantment with the administration’s stance toward labor. Public service unions had the expectation that they would be invited to collaborate in the development of policy. “It is a perversity because dimos mucho grano de mi maíz (we gave a lot),” he states bitterly. “If they now try to go beyond [the negotiated concessions of] Law 66, yes, we could say we were duped because we thought [the concessions] were going to be enough until 2017.” The Coalición Sindical, for one — a coalition linked to the CPT that claims to represent some eighty thousand public employees and that Torres Montalvo led at one time — put forth a twenty-four-page counter-proposal to the administration’s austerity program focused on the development of a sustainable and solidarity-based economy but never received acknowledgment of its proposals.[17] Torres Montalvo feels the labor movement now needs to combine traditional street mobilization with “new styles.” In his case, this means trying to coalesce a broader anti-austerity agenda with wider sectors of society — such as community groups, NGOs, and academia — that can rally around efforts to combat government corruption.
The move to influence both the local and U.S. political agendas is a prominent item for many local unions. The SPT is throwing its organizational resources behind Vamos, a political coalition movement that is seeking to break the hold that the two majority traditional political parties — the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista and the pro-Commonwealth Partido Popular Democrático — have not only on the island’s electoral system but also on the government. Puerto Rico is a highly clientelistic society, with elections functioning as a winner-takes-all contest in which jobs, contracts, and preferential legislation are parceled out to the winning political party. In this, the island resembles Latin America and its complex web of patronage networks.
The SPT’s strategy is a gamble, as Puerto Rico’s electoral law favors the two-party alternation that has dominated the life of the island since 1968. On the one hand, candidates are banned by law from running under more than one party, a prohibition that for practical purposes curtails formal political coalitions. On the other hand, most legislative seats are allocated by region, and thus, minority collectivities end up underrepresented in the final distribution of elected posts. In past elections, independent movements, such as Movimiento Unión Soberanista (which sought political sovereignty for the island) and the Partido del Pueblo Trabajador (which advocated for a worker-focused economy), have failed to garner even enough votes to remain inscribed in the Comisión Estatal de Elecciones, the local electoral board.
Pagán explains that for the 2016 electoral cycle, Vamos will focus on endorsing legislative candidates from existing political parties that support the entity’s program. Vamos is seeking to counter the austerity-focused Plan de Ajuste Fiscal (Fiscal Adjustment Plan) peddled by the government in its negotiations with bondholders with an alternative economic development program focused on increasing the local minimum salary, nurturing indigenous companies, fostering community and municipal development, re-structuring public debt while protecting public pensions, and revamping the island’s tax system to limit corporate exemptions and tax mega-stores. “The most important day for Vamos will be November 9, the day after Election Day,” says Pagán, anticipating that the big political push will be for 2020. “We need to organize a new political force that can aspire to govern, and that, we know is a process that can take years.”
Labor’s outreach has extended to the mainland, as unions affiliated with U.S.-based organizations have mobilized the “mollero político” (political muscle) of their parent entities to push Washington for a federal response to the island’s crisis. CSEA’s La Luz highlights that “without the strength of [mainland] labor unions such as AFCSME, UAW, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO, Puerto Rico would have no chance of getting the package approved.” The statement is historically significant, as, in various instances of Puerto Rico’s complicated history, U.S.-based unions have been accused of “labor colonialism.” They now seem intent to use their powerful connections to tip the scales in Puerto Rico’s high-stakes game.
La Luz stresses that while Puerto Rican diaspora groups in the United States are limited in geographical reach (generally based in the Northeast), U.S. unions have been able to bring to the fore on behalf of the island nationwide mobilizing power, political acumen, and (last, but not least) lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Mainland labor groups are now looking at ways for registering no less than two hundred thousand new voters among the Puerto Rican diaspora and ensuring that seven out of ten of these turn out to vote. According to La Luz, “the diaspora has become a determining factor in the future of Puerto Rico, because... in conjunction with the labor unions, [they] will be putting Puerto Rico in the forefront of the Presidential election.” For an island that native-born writer Eduardo Lalo has described as un país invisible (an invisible country), the possibility of becoming visible to decision-making circles is an attractive prospect.
Héctor Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU in New York, says that Puerto Rico’s crisis “is a more acute manifestation... of the same problem that is affecting the lives of workers in the U.S.,” where inequality has increased and speculative financial capital is harming working-class communities. Figueroa states that 32BJ and SEIU have been active in generating public pressure on hedge funds that hold the island’s debt while forging ties with Puerto Rican diaspora–elected officials and the most progressive sector within the Democratic Party. The idea is twofold: bring Puerto Rico to the forefront of the agenda in Washington — “where there is a political reality of indifference and neglect toward helping Puerto Rico,” he says — and mobilize the Puerto Rican diaspora in favor of a larger progressive agenda.
Toward a New Paradigm
Beyond attempting to counter short-term austerity measures on the island and trying to forge long-term progressive agendas in the United States, will Puerto Rican unions be able to survive the climate of sheer economic desperation that exists on the island? As the government anxiously tries to spur economic activity using its outdated Cold War era framework based on tax exemptions and corporate subsidies, the game for labor seems rigged. “[Puerto Rico] cannot continue with its low-wage discourse,” says OPEIU’s Ramírez. “We brought Lufthansa [Technik]... and the atrocity was that we gave them exemption from overtime laws... Puerto Rico’s bet has to be different,” he states.
And that, in the end, might be the crux of the matter. Puerto Rico needs a profound retooling of its productive and institutional apparatus, and labor’s future depends on successfully placing itself at the center of this new equation. Deepak Lamba-Nieves, research director of the Center for a New Economy in San Juan, says,
[Puerto Rico] should be thinking about a manufacturing sector that is aligned with the capacities of our labor force, which in the aggregate is more educated, has been pre-trained in specialized industries and has a level of bilingualism that helps it interact in the global economy.
According to Lamba-Nieves, this will entail many “tectonic” transformations: government will need to be rethought, its misalignments and coordination failures addressed; the private sector will need to transcend its rent-seeking behavior; and workers (and unions) will need to rethink their roles in the workplace. “There are no innocents [in this crisis]... This has been a concatenation of problems and misaligned interests that have been intent on protecting their own territory,” he states. “We need to do things differently because what is happening now is not beneficial to [any group].”
Notes:
1. I use the term secular decline rather than economic downturn to highlight the deep structural nature of Puerto Rico’s economic predicament. Barry Bosworth and Susan Collins use the term “secular deterioration” in their “Economic Growth,” in Susan M. Collins, Barry P. Bosworth, and Miguel A. Soto-Class, eds., Restoring Growth: The Economy of Puerto Rico (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution & Center for a New Economy, 2006), 56.
2. For an overview of the fiscal and economic situation, see Sergio Marxuach, “Analysis of Puerto Rico’s Current Economic and Fiscal Situation,” Center for a New Economy, October 2015.
3. Marxuach, “Analysis of Puerto Rico’s Current Economic and Fiscal Situation,” 4-6.
4. Working Group for the Fiscal and Economic Recovery of Puerto Rico, “Puerto Rico Fiscal and Economic Growth Plan. Update Presentation,” January 18, 2016.
5. This percentage is achieved using the $3.4 billion Financing Gap before Measures estimated for fiscal year 2016 by the Working Group as a proportion of a GNP of $69 billion.
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Local Area Unemployment Statistics/Puerto Rico.”
7. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Local Area Unemployment Statistics/Puerto Rico” and Government Development Bank, Economic Indicators, “Labor Force Participation Rate,” available at http://www.bgfpr.com/economy/prmonthly-economic-indicators-time-series.html.
8. U.S. Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, “Puerto Rico/Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations,” S0501.
9. Puerto Rico Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Affiliates Labor Union Statistics,” April 17, 2015. In Puerto Rico, where collective bargaining rights for public employees were recognized only in the mid- 90s, there is a long tradition of membership in brotherhoods and associations. These are labor organizations that are not recognized by law as having representation rights, but have gained that right in practice by garnering workers’ support for their ad hoc representation. See César Rosado Marzán, “Solidarity or Colonialism? The Polemic of ‘Labor Colonialism’ in Puerto Rico,” Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society 10, no. 3 (2007): 287-99.
10. By 2000, union density in the private manufacturing sector stood at 2 percent, down from 32 percent in 1965. César F. Rosado Marzán, “Dependent Unionism: Resource Mobilization and Union Density in Puerto Rico” (PhD diss., Department of Sociology, Princeton University, June 2005), 17.
11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “State and Area Employment/Puerto Rico/Government,” available at http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/.
12. The loss-of-benefit estimates coincide and were provided by leaders from the Sindicato Puertorriqueño de Trabajadores, Servidores Públicos Unidos, and Central Unitaria de Trabajadores.
13. According to a Government Development Bank internal document, a total of $3,835 million must be forked out for debt service during the first half of 2016. In January 2016, revenue estimates for the government were further revised downward while the expected financing gap was increased from the original June 2015 estimate. See the Working Group document cited in note 4.
14. U.S. Senate Bill 2381, “Puerto Rico Assistance Act of 2015,” introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Charles Grassley (R-IA) on December 9, 2015.
15. Anne O. Krueger, Ranjit Teja, and Andrew Wolfe, “Puerto Rico — A Way Forward,” Government Development Bank, June 29, 2015, 17-18.
16. The byname of “independent” has a double meaning in local labor parlance and refers to “independence” from both government control and control from U.S. unions. On the one hand, in the 1950s, the Partido Popular Democrático succeeded in creating a corporatist model that weakened the combative Central General de Trabajadores while incorporating many labor leaders into government. On the other hand, the tension with mainland-based organizations has been a constant throughout Puerto Rico’s history. Since the early days in the 1900s (when the AFL-CIO provided resources to help organize workers and eventually succeeded in neutralizing the most radical sectors among sugarcane and tobacco workers) up to the mid-1990s (when mainland labor groups achieved the representation of employees in many public-sector agencies and utilities), U.S.-based unions have been seen alternately as powerful allies with vital organizing capabilities or as “colonialists” who undercut local unions. Gervasio L. García and A. G. Quintero, Desafío y solidaridad: breve historia del movimiento obrero puertorriqueño [Defiance and Solidarity: A Brief History of the Puerto Rican Labor Movement] (Río Piedras: Ediciones Huracán, 1982). Miles Gavin, The Organized Labor Movement in Puerto Rico (Plainsboro: Associated University Press, 1979). Ramón Arbona Martínez and Armindo Núñez Miranda, Pedro Grant. La vida una lucha, una lucha la vida: Memorias de un líder sindical [Pedro Grant. Life as a Struggle, Struggle as Life: Memoirs of a Union Leader] (Río Piedras: Ediciones Callejón, 2005). Selected passages of César J. Ayala and Rafael Bernabe, Puerto Rico en el siglo americano: su historia desde 1898 [Puerto Rico in the American Century: Its History since 1898] (San Juan: Ediciones Callejón, 2011). Rosado Marzán, “Dependent Unionism”; and Rosado Marzán, “Solidarity or Colonialism?”
17. “Propuestas de la Coalición Sindical ante la crisis económica, social y política” [Proposals of the Coalición Sindical in Response to the Economic, Social and Political Crisis], October 5, 2014. Photocopy prMacross Frontier (マクロスF (フロンティア), Makurosu Furontia) is a Japanese animated science fiction space drama that aired in Japan on MBS from April 4, 2008 to September 26, 2008. It is the third Japanese anime television series set in the Macross universe.
Macross Frontier is the story of a human space colony fleet trying to find a habitable planet near the center of the Milky Way. The story focuses on three young adults (a famed pop singer, a private military pilot, and a rising pop singer) and the events that occur around them as the fleet faces a crisis of alien origin.[1]
Plot [ edit ]
The series features the 25th New Macross-class Colonial Fleet, dubbed the Macross Frontier, en route to the galactic center. This heavily populated interstellar fleet (consisting of numerous civilian vessels and their military escorts) contains a makeup of both human occupants and their Zentradi allies. As such, many of the Macross Frontier's companion vessels appear to merge more metallic Human designs with organic Zentradi aesthetics. Macross Frontier's plot explores a combination of action/political intrigue/space drama more than previous Macross series have done in the past.
As the series begins, during a mission to an unexplored asteroid belt a reconnaissance New U.N. Spacy (N.U.N.S.) VF-171 is destroyed by extremely powerful and fast insectoid biomechanical alien mecha known as the "Vajra" which immediately begin their attack on the rest of the fleet. Unable to stop the new enemy threat, the N.U.N.S. Colonial Defense Forces authorizes the deployment of a private military provider organization called S.M.S. (Strategic Military Services) which utilizes the new VF-25 Messiah variable fighter to combat the alien menace.
Media [ edit ]
Anime [ edit ]
The series was broadcast in Japan on MBS from April 4, 2008 to September 26, 2008 and animated by Satelight.[2] A pre-broadcast airing titled Macross Frontier Deculture Edition or Macross Special Edition (マクロスSP版, Makurosu SP Ban), showcasing a preview version of the first episode was aired on December 23, 2007. The series also received its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax on April 7, 2008.[3]
Manga [ edit ]
Three separate manga adaptations have been running in Shōnen Ace and Comp Ace, since February 2008, April 2008, and July 2008, respectively.
Soundtrack [ edit ]
Others [ edit ]
Radio Macross [ edit ]
Radio Macross is a radio program, based on Macross Frontier, which was first broadcast on Bunka Hōsō and MBS Radio on January 3, 2008. It has featured Megumi Nakajima and Kenta Miyake, voice actors for the characters Ranka Lee and Bobby Margot, as hosts.[4]
Macross Fufonfia [ edit ]
Macross Fufonfia is a series of flash-based 90-second promotional shorts developed by Satelight and sponsored by Mainichi Broadcasting System where characters from Macross Frontier are portrayed as office ladies and employees at the "Frontier Software Company". While not exactly standard anime, more a sort of paper cut-out animation, these ONA shorts are a fun spoof of the original series intended to promote the show. The series was aired in 2007 and featured 20 episodes.
Macross Frontier the Movie: The False Songstress [ edit ]
A theatrical version of the Macross Frontier anime television series was announced in Japan during the broadcast of the 25th and final episode Your Sound ("Anata no Oto") on September 25, 2008. According to interviews with Shōji Kawamori the movie was to be an adaptation of the story from the T.V. series. Japanese anime magazine Animedia had originally announced that the film was to be released during the summer of 2009.[5][6] Other reports later placed the premiere in the fall of 2009.[7] That report was confirmed by an itasha (vehicle decorated with character art) mini-van outside the "Macross: The Super Dimension Space Launching Ceremony" event that took place on February 22, 2009 in Japan. However, at that point, the creator Shoji Kawamori and the cast members Yuuichi Nakamura (Alto Saotome), Aya Endo (Sheryl Nome), and Megumi Nakajima (Ranka Lee) noted on the actual event, that the new date and the title were still subjected to changes.[8]
The theatrical film adaptation of the Macross Frontier opened in Japan on November 21, 2009 under the name Macross Frontier the Movie: The False Songstress (劇場版 マクロスF 虚空歌姫 〜イツワリノウタヒメ〜, Gekijōban Makurosu Furontia Itsuwari no Utahime). The Kadokawa Cineplex and Shochiku Multiplex theaters' websites revealed the title and date, and the second issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Macross Ace magazine eventually published the details on June 26, 2009. The teaser trailer for the film premiered in Japanese theaters on June 27, 2009 (the same day ticket pre-sales began in Japan).[9] The first movie retells the events of the anime from episodes 1 to 13, with significant alterations to the story and timeline of the television series.[10]
A Blu-ray Disc release of the movie, titled Macross Frontier The Movie: The False Songstress Hybrid Pack, was released on October 7, 2010. The Blu-ray release contains the Blu-ray jacket, the hybrid disc, a 48-page artwork booklet, a theatrical release archive, and a card featuring frames from the movie. The pack also included a code that allowed the owner to be entered into a contest to attend the Macross F Christmas Live event that year. A PS3 game titled "Macross Trial Frontier" is included in the Hybrid Pack, playable on the PlayStation 3. A standard DVD was also released in the same day.
Macross Frontier the Movie: The Wings of Goodbye [ edit ]
The official website of the Macross Frontier anime series has confirmed that there will be two theatrical Macross Frontier films. While the first film will re-edit the story of the television series with new footage, the second film, titled Macross Frontier the Movie: The Wings of Goodbye (劇場版 マクロスF 恋離飛翼 〜サヨナラノツバサ〜, Gekijōban Makurosu Furontia Sayonara no Tsubasa), which will be based also on the Macross Frontier TV series, will act as a sequel to the 2009 film, including a new story and new music.[11] In the Macross Frontier Girasama Festival, the movie's release date is confirmed to be on February 26, 2011.[12] The film is a rearrangement of aspects of the original TV series, having little to do with the original story.
Blu-ray and DVD editions of the movie were released by Bandai Namco Games on October 20, 2011. The Blu-ray version is still a Hybrid Pack, the same as the first movie released in Blu-ray.[13] A PS3 game titled "Macross Last Frontier" is included in the Hybrid Pack, and it can be played when the disc is in the PlayStation 3.[14][15]
Macross F Galaxy Tour Final in Budokan [ edit ]
In November 2008, a live concert of Macross Frontier's music was performed by May'n, Megumi Nakajima, and Yoko Kanno. A video recording of the concert was released in November 2009, and is available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
All That VF - Macross 25th Anniversary Air Show (Frontier Edition) [ edit ]
Coinciding with both the 25th Anniversary of Macross and the Blu-ray releases of volume one of both Macross Zero and Macross Frontier, the official website of Macross Frontier posted two newly animated short films featuring Air Show style demonstrations for both series. People who purchased the first pressings of either Macross Zero or Macross Frontier received a unique code to enter into the website and therefore be able to watch the short film of the respective anime.[16][17]
International release [ edit ]
Due to a current legal dispute over the distribution rights of the Macross franchise, involving Studio Nue and Big West against Harmony Gold, much of the Macross merchandise post 1999, including Macross Frontier, has not received an international release.[18]
Reception [ edit ]
As a tribute to the popularity of the series, Japanese champion cosplay kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima ("Jienotsu") crossplayed as the character Ranka Lee during one of his tournaments and also in a promotional event for the show.[19]
The first DVD volume that has been released in Japan by Bandai Visual sustained a third position in the sales chart for 2 consecutive weeks, prior to its release. Namely, from 21 July 2008 to 6 August 2008.[20] It is revealed that about 45,000 Blu-ray Discs and 55,000 DVDs are shipped by Bandai Visual for the first volume of the series. This marks the highest Blu-ray Disc pressing among all Bandai Visual releases. Macross Frontier is also reported to be the first anime television series to ship simultaneously on both disc formats in Japan.[21]
Music wise, the first opening single, "Triangular" performed by Maaya Sakamoto made the Oricon's weekly top 10 chart for all Japanese singles. "Triangular" debuted at #3 and sustained for 3 consecutive weeks before falling to #6. Similarly, the first ending single "Diamond Crevasse" performed by May'n also debuted at #3.[22] The Original Soundtrack for the series titled, "Macross Frontier O.S.T.1 Nyan FRO" made it to #3 on Oricon's next weekly chart of all albums sold in Japan. The album sold over 72,000 copies becoming the first anime album in 11 Years to rank in Japan's Top 3. The only anime album which managed to rivalled the sales of this is The End of Evangelion soundtrack, which was first released on 26 September 1997.[23] The second opening single "Lion", which also features the second ending theme "Northern Cross" has sold about 56,000 copies in its first week and thus reached #3 on Oricon's weekly chart for all CD singles. All four of the Macross Frontier singles that have been released have debuted at #5 or higher. This brings the total sales of the Macross Frontier CD singles to 500,000, marking the start of a "new anime song boom" in Japan.[24]The focus groups on both CNN and Fox News overwhelmingly agreed that Hillary Clinton won tonight’s debate.
Over on CNN, it was 18-2 for Clinton.
One of the people in the group ripped Trump for his awful temperament:
"His temperament is horrible." Florida focus group members tell @PamelaBrownCNN why #Trump's claims didn't resonate https://t.co/OuqXRYQ2ZJ — CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) September 27, 2016
RELATED: ‘Why Are You Doing This?’: CNN’s Tapper Stunned by How ‘Off-Message’ Trump Got
Meanwhile on Fox News, pollster and focus group guru Frank Luntz informed everyone the results aren’t good for Trump.
Even though he did highlight big advantages Trump had, he said Clinton clearly had the edge:
Trump needs to learn not to take the bait. All dials dropped when he defended his dad's "small loan." 📉 — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Trump's ratings plummet when he makes excuses for his taxes, but rebound when he calls out Hillary on her emails. #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/qCV98Eb5Up — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Even Trump-leaners agree with Hillary. They want to see his taxes. #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/HJv2s2yTnf — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Hillary Clinton has learned how to bait Trump. He doesn't know how to not take it. Her attacks work. His defenses don't. pic.twitter.com/6GktBxBwiq — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Trump is tanking when trying to explain why he questioned Obama's birthplace for so long.#DebateNight pic.twitter.com/WRXVShI1AC — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Trump could be crushing Hillary right now if he wasn't so thin-skinned.#DebateNight — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 27, 2016
Hillary's response to the birther issue scored better with Trump-leaners than Donald Trump's answer to the birther issue.#DebateNight pic.twitter.com/hB5FMnbChq — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz |
Boettcher, for their help in editing this article.Human beings have been battling cancer for at least 1.7 million years, according to a fossilised human toe bone that's just been unearthed in South Africa.
The specimen shows signs of an aggressive type of cancer called osteosarcoma, and could help us figure out how the disease affects us even today, suggesting that some cancer triggers are buried deep within our evolutionary past, and aren't all related to our modern lifestyle.
"Modern medicine tends to assume that cancers and tumours in humans are diseases caused by modern lifestyles and environments," says one of the researchers, Edward Odes from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. "Our studies show the origins of these diseases occurred in our ancient relatives millions of years before modern industrial societies existed."
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand and South African Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences say they don't yet know if the foot bone belonged to an adult or a child, or if the cancer resulted in the person's death, but suggest that it would have affected their ability to move, and likely caused them a lot of pain.
An accompanying paper, written by several of the same experts, outlines the discovery of a bony tumour from the same site, and this one's even older - approximately 1.98 million years old. But unlike the toe bone, this cancer appears to have been benign.
Until now, the earliest sighting of a benign bone tumour was in a fossil some 120,000 years old, so thanks to this new finds, that record has been well and truly smashed.
What's interesting about this benign, but abnormal, growth (identified as osteoid osteoma) is that it was found in the vertebrae of a 12- or 13-year-old. We've never seen fossilised evidence of this type of disease in a child before, and in modern times, it rarely occurs in the spine, making this a very valuable find.
Both bones were dug from caves in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa - a World Heritage site, and a rich source of fossils, stretching back through the history of humankind. Advanced 3D-imaging techniques were used to scan the bony fossils and find evidence of tumour growth.
The idea of cancers as a relatively recent health hazard is based largely on studies of Egyptian mummies, where no tumours have been detected, reports James Gallagher for the BBC.
But even if cancers are as ancient as humans themselves, there's no doubt that parts of the modern lifestyle (like smoking) can increase the risk of the disease.
Researchers will now need to reassess the balance between how many cancers are caused by unhealthy living, and how many are simply the 'bad luck' of gene mutations, a topic that has caused some debate in the past.
"You can opt for the Paleo diet, you can have as clean a living environment as you want, but the capacity for these diseases is ancient, and it's within us regardless of what you do to yourselves," Odes told Mark Strauss at National Geographic.
At least now we know that our distant ancestors suffered from some of the same problems we do, and if we can figure out how this form of cancer started, we might be better placed to stop it.
The findings have been published in the journal South African Journal of Science.
Child vertebra affected by a benign tumour. Credit: Paul Tafforeau (ESRF)This week we are pleased to present a guest post by Talon Windwalker, a freelance writer traveling the world with his son. Talon is an expert in longterm family travel and LGBTQ travel. His website, 1Dad1Kid, chronicles their journey, and his food blog Travels4Yum will make you drool.
I’ve been traveling full time, as a queer single dad, with my son for 5 years so far. I’m often asked: “Where’s his mom?” I usually just respond with the safest explanation that there is no mom. However, that, understandably, generally leads to some confusion and more questions.
So many times I’m tempted to just respond “I’m gay.”
Unfortunately, that isn’t always the safest thing to announce.
People in the LGBTQ travel community have some unique challenges the average person doesn’t have to consider. While there has been a surprising increase in rights for the community over the last decade, that is only the truth in a relatively small part of the world. One country removes the last legal vestiges of inequality and another promotes a bill to “kill the gays.”
A queer couple, especially a gay one, has to wonder if asking for a hotel room with one bed will get them into trouble.
Can they walk down the street while holding hands without fear of being the next headline?
Do they feel like they need to “act more straight” in a locale?
If something happens to part of a married couple, will that relationship be legally recognized?
The recent case of the married British gay couple who were on their honeymoon in Australia reaffirmed this as a valid concern. One of them, tragically, died, and because Australia does not recognize same-sex marriage the death certificate listed his husband as “never married.” Imagine the nightmare of not only losing your spouse, especially as a newlywed, but not being able to navigate the various legal obstacles because your marriage is not recognized.
In order to list the best and worst places for LGBTQ travel, I considered various factors including:
Existing laws and recent court decisions
Experiences of fellow queer travelers
Reliable travel alerts specifically focused on the LGTBQ community
Results of social experiments
Travel resources indicating “welcoming” countries.
It is important to note that even in queer-friendly regions, there may be areas that are less welcoming and open-minded. For example, large cities tend to be more accepting of diversity than small rural communities. In addition, some cities have “gay villages” which are LGBTQ-majority neighborhoods that are much safer than other areas of the city.
Gay males tend to experience more problems than lesbians. Some laws explicitly target males while saying nothing about lesbian-related acts. In many cultures, it isn’t considered odd for two women to share a bed or to be affectionate in public. Generally speaking, women will have fewer concerns as a same-sex couple. Of course, they can have other issues to deal with.
Best Places for LGBTQ Travel
Spain
This was, at first, a bit of a surprise for me; considering how heavily Catholic the country is. However, equality is a big concern for Spaniards, and in 2005 the government legalized same-sex marriage against the strong protestations of the Vatican. This move was supported by at least 66% of the population.
Spain is home to some well-known queer hotspots such as Sitges and Ibiza. However, Barcelona and Madrid also have thriving LGBTQ communities and activities.
In 2012, the European Union conducted a survey across all of its member states regarding attitudes toward LGBTQ issues. Spain ranked very well. Last year, a social experiment was conducted in Madrid with encouraging results.
Queer couples should feel comfortable being like any other couple while visiting most of Spain.
Iceland
This country is often rated as the most egalitarian nation on the planet. The capital’s annual Pride events are attended by a large number of the straight community. In at least one year, the mayor (who is heterosexual) even dressed in drag to open the festival.
At least one prime minister was an “out” lesbian who married her partner shortly after the law changing the definition of marriage to gender neutral went into effect.
Violent crime is a rarity in Iceland, and hate crimes are even more rare.
South Africa
Once a place known for horrendous racism and intolerance, South Africa has adopted a very liberal constitution and was the 5th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage (and the 2nd country outside of Europe).
LGBTQ travelers routinely speak of feeling safe in the country, and Cape Town has become a popular destination for same-sex weddings.
Mexico City and Oaxaca, Mexico
The Mexican culture has a strong “live and let live” attitude; however, Mexico City and Oaxaca are known for being welcoming cities. Recently, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutionally protected right which helps to show that things are changing in this wonderful country.
While smaller cities/less-known destinations may not offer many legal protections, generally speaking LGBQT people are pretty safe. Public displays of affection (PDA) are often frowned upon, but that applies to heterosexuals as well. Hate crimes toward members of the queer community are quite unusual.
Canada
This North American country was among the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. While there are some areas that are more conservative, generally speaking LGBTQ people can feel safe traveling throughout this large nation. Many large cities have gay villages, and Canadians are famous for being kind and welcoming.
Toronto and Vancouver in particular are noted as being extremely queer friendly.
New Zealand
Kiwis are some of the friendliest and most welcoming people in the world, but they were a bit slow to join the other nations recognizing same-sex marriage. When their parliament passed the law, though, they collectively began singing a Maori love song to commemorate the moment.
As if people needed more reasons to love New Zealand!
It is one of the safest countries to visit for everyone, including LGBTQ people. A queer couple walking while holding hands might encounter some people congratulating them but generally won’t have to deal with homophobia.
Portugal
This wonderful country doesn’t often receive the attention it deserves, and that is especially true for LGBTQ travelers. The Portuguese people are fairly friendly and welcoming, and it warmed my heart to see people actually encouraging a gay couple during another recent social experiment.
Personally, I would love to see more people include Portugal in their travels.
Worst Places for LGBTQ Travel
This list could be really long, unfortunately. Instead of listing all the countries that could pose potential problems for the queer traveler, I’ve focused on the most unsafe ones.
Russia
This country has taken homophobia to extremes. After enacting a law labeled as an “antipropaganda” measure against promoting homosexualty as a “normal” lifestyle, the Russian LGBTQ community experienced a drastic upswing in violent hate crimes.
For the most part, police have seemed to be supportive of these crimes, rarely intervening even during attacks. Not satisfied with their level of overt hatred, the legislature recently tried to pass laws against same-sex couples showing any public displays of affection and/or “coming out” publicly.
Surprisingly, those attempts (which specifically excluded females) failed, but it would be almost stunning if the law isn’t revisited at a later date.
People have also been attacked for merely “appearing gay.”
Uganda
This African country is excessively homophobic. An attempt to pass a law calling for members of the LGBTQ community to be executed was changed from “kill the gays” to “jail the gays.” Fortunately, that was annulled by the courts; however, lawmakers haven’t given up trying to pass legislation that would provide punishments for “unnatural acts” which would include homosexuality.
Nigeria
Nigeria seems to be in an unspoken battle with Uganda as to which country can be more homophobic. There are multiple news stories covering mob attacks on suspected queers, even pulling them from their homes and beating them in the streets. On many of these occasions, the police have joined in on the attacks.
Jamaica
This island is well known for being laid back and enjoying a party lifestyle. However, when it comes to LGBTQ people, all bets are off; particularly if you’re male. Sex between men is illegal in this country, and the laws are often firmly enforced.
The government is known for supporting violence against gays, so if you’re a victim of a violent hate crime don’t expect to receive any assistance from local officials.
Lithuania
As part of their European Union membership, this Baltic nation had to entrench some protections in their laws. However, the general attitude toward LGTBQ people remains poor. Any type of public event, such as Pride, is often accompanied by violent protests.
Legal protections here shouldn’t be considered as encouraging to queer travelers. While those protections may be “on the books,” it doesn’t mean they are enforced, and police are generally known for being very lackadaisical and uncaring in their response to victims.
Egypt
Gay sex is not specifically outlawed in Egypt; however, people are often arrested and convicted under morality laws which provide for up to 17 years of imprisonment (with, or without, hard labor and fines).
It is not uncommon for people of the same gender to hold hands or walk arm-in-arm, so many same-sex couples find these types of PDA to be relatively safe. However, as a foreigner you might draw unwanted attention, so caution would be advised.
Arrests at suspected gay gatherings are not uncommon. While Muslim males are more likely to receive harsher treatment, all visitors can be subjected to the same laws and punishments.
Should I Avoid These Countries?
This is a common question with no, solid, one-size-fits-all answer. It really comes down to individual choice. One has to consider the potential risk factors, as well as personal ethics. Some of us feel that giving our mighty tourist dollar to a country that encourages violence towards us is a rather foolish, or unethical, decision. However, there is also a valid argument to be made that, by visiting and spending time in these places, we help “normalize” being LGBTQ.
The best advice I can give is to be well informed about the place you’re considering for travel and to honestly evaluate the risks versus benefits. Also consider the mood you want for your trip. For example, is this a romantic getaway? Well, perhaps focus on one of the best places to visit where you can relax and be yourselves.
TL;DR
When it comes to travel, like many things in life, only you know what works best for you. When considering LGBTQ travel, the following countries stand out:
Safest & most welcoming:
Spain
Iceland
South Africa
Mexico
Canada
New Zealand
Portugal
Most dangerous & unwelcoming:
Russia
Uganda
Nigeria
Jamaica
Lithuania
Egypt
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Sahar Nowrouzzadeh's yearlong assignment to the secretary of State's policy planning team was cut short earlier this month following critical stories from the Conservative Review and Breitbart News, Politico reported Friday.
A State Department official told Politico that Nowrouzzadeh did not want to be reassigned, and multiple officials in the State Department believe the media attacks were to blame.
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“It puts people on edge,” an unnamed State Department official told Politico.
The State Department said in a statement that Nowrouzzadeh has returned to the Office of Iranian Affairs, but did not specify her new role or tell the publication why she was moved.
Another official said that the conservative media attacks were of concern to those high up in Trump's administration.
Nowrouzzadeh is a U.S.-born American citizen of Iranian descent and first joined the federal government under George W. Bush in 2005.
Politico noted that critical stories on conservative websites had called her a loyalist to former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE and questioned whether the official should remain in her position.
She declined to comment for the report.A new series of EX Raid field tests is taking place worldwide, with trainers from USA, Japan and Taiwan reporting that new locations and cities have been chosen.
USA Japan/Taiwan Date 15/09 16/09 Starts 18:00 10:00 Ends 19:00 11:00
In addition, we’ve got confirmation that not only sponsored Gyms are included in this test – Taiwanese EX Raids are taking place at normal gyms.
The EX Raid is taking place on 15th September in the US (18:00 – 19:00) and on 16th September (10:00 – 11:00) in Japan and Taiwan. All of the US based reports show that the EX Raid is taking place at Sprint sponsored stores.
The following US cities are confirmed as raid locations:
Portland, Oregon
Chicago, Illinois
San Diego, California
Los Angeles, California
Oxnard, California
Orange, California
Burbank, California
Arlington, Texas
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Tulsa, Oklahoma
A fan run japanese Pokémon GO website managed to record almost all of the EX Raid locations in Japan. Apparently, all of them are sponsored!Humans have played a key role in moving species to new locations, resulting in an exponential spread of species over the last century. Many of these nonnative species never become invasive – that is, damaging – and a few may even have positive effects on ecology or human economy. However, many, such as Asian carp in North American rivers and Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, cause enormous ecological and economic damage.
Damage caused by invasive species has been estimated to cost the United States nearly US$120 billion per year. But even this figure may be low because it quantifies only direct costs associated with invasive species – for example, crops lost to invasive pests, or the expenses and potential ecological impacts associated with invasive population control.
Invasive species also cause other kinds of harm that are difficult to quantify. In a recent study, we sought to capture the full scope of this damage by quantifying the impact of an invasive species on ecosystem services – the benefits humans derive from nature, largely for free.
Our findings were staggering. We estimated that a single invasive species in Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota had caused $140 million in damage (present-day value of a multi-year estimate) to a single ecosystem service – clear water. We calculated the cost of recovering that service to be between $80 million and $160 million ($430-$810 per household in Dane County, Wisconsin). These results provide a strong economic case for investing more in controlling or preventing invasions in order to protect ecosystem services.
The value of clear water
The widely recognized concept of ecosystem services captures the value we receive from nature. By estimating these benefits in dollars, we can quantify the true worth of natural resources that we often describe as “invaluable.”
Surprisingly, however, little attention has been paid to how invasive species harm ecosystem services. We tackled this challenge by designing a case study of the invasive spiny water flea in Lake Mendota, which covers 15 square miles in southeastern Wisconsin adjacent to Madison, the state capital.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens swim, fish and boat on Lake Mendota and care deeply about the lake’s water quality. But few of them know about a tiny, unsung hero called Daphnia pulicaria. Like many U.S. lakes, Lake Mendota is eutrophic, meaning it has been polluted with nutrients that cause large blooms of algae, mainly during warm weather. Daphnia are microscopic aquatic organisms that eat huge amounts of algae – so much algae that their grazing until recently created a “clear water phase” in the lake from mid-April to mid-June each year.
Jake R. Walsh, Author provided
The invasive spiny water flea is a tiny aquatic predator introduced through recreational boating that feeds voraciously on Daphnia. Since the spiny water flea was detected in 2009, Lake Mendota has lost 60 percent of its little grazers. As a result, now algae thrive and Lake Mendota has lost nearly a full meter of visibility. This means that when we lower a Secchi disk (a device used to measure water clarity) into the water, it disappears a meter sooner. In other words, the water is beyond murky.
A murky lake is unattractive. It also costs us money. We wanted to measure the financial impact of losing one meter of clarity in the lake – in essence, the economic “damage” caused by the spiny water flea invasion.
In a 2001 survey, University of Wisconsin researchers asked 500 randomly selected citizens of Dane County, where Madison and Lake Mendota are located, how much they would be willing to pay for a project that would improve water quality in Lake Mendota sufficiently to gain one meter of water clarity. We took their average response, which was an impressive $350 per household (present-day value of a multi-year project), adjusted for inflation to $640 per household, and multiplied it by the current number of households in Dane County (217,000). We found that Dane County values the water clarity lost with the spiny water flea invasion at $140 million (present-day value).
There are no known methods to control or eradicate the spiny water flea, so we looked for a different strategy to fix the damage it has caused and make Lake Mendota clear again.
Much of the land in Lake Mendota’s watershed is farmed. Water that flows off of fields and into the lake contains phosphorus fertilizer. In the lake this phosphorus fertilizes algae growth, just as it fertilizes crops on land. Reducing phosphorus runoff into Lake Mendota would offset the spiny water flea’s impact on water quality.
We built a statistical model that confirmed the effects of these two drivers of water clarity in Lake Mendota: Daphnia are good and phosphorus runoff is bad. Using the model, we predicted how much phosphorus runoff would have to decrease to offset the loss of losing 60 percent of Daphnia in the lake. We found that restoring the water clarity that has been lost due to the spiny water flea invasion would require reducing phosphorus runoff by 71 percent – an enormous challenge.
To see how much this would cost, we used a 2013 report prepared for the Clean Lakes Alliance, a local nonprofit group, that calculated the costs and benefits of best management practices to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Mendota. Based on these numbers, we estimated that achieving a 71 percent reduction would cost anywhere from $80 million to $160 million over a 20-year period – a steep price tag, but comparable to our estimate that 1 meter of water clarity was worth $140 million to Dane County residents.
A wider lens
Researchers have estimated that ecosystem services are worth over $100 trillion per year globally. Our study demonstrates that Americans also value these services highly, and are willing to pay to protect them. Understanding how damage from invasive species harms those services can spur us to do more to control invasions.
Invasive species affect ecosystems and the critical services they offer around the globe. Invasion ecologists have studied these impacts extensively in our Great Lakes fishery and found that invasive species damage this fishery alone on the order of $140 million per year. If we expanded this analysis to all ecosystem services in North America, we would likely find the cost of invasive species is much larger than the billions of dollars in direct costs that they generate.
Quantifying the value of ecosystem services like water quality is a huge challenge. Methods like willingness-to-pay surveys allow us to “ballpark” their value, and ecological research such as our model helps us to understand how these services are delivered. Understanding how invasive species affect ecosystem services calls for multi-disciplinary research that combines ecology with economics and sociology. As experts in ecosystem service science have pointed out, bringing this perspective into everyday policy decisions is critical for conservation in the 21st century.A Ohio Catholic school has forced its choir and band director to resign after telling schools officials he and his boyfriend recently became engaged.
Brian Panetta, who worked at Sandusky Central Catholic School for almost five years, was terminated Jan. 3 on the grounds that his engagement violated the religious teachings of the Catholic Church as it applies to marriage — just hours after he told school administrators about his engagement.
On Thursday, Panetta met with school officials and representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo, who agreed he could resign from his post instead of being terminated, according a report by the Sandusky Register.
Panetta and his fiancé, Nathan David, have been together for several years; David proposed on Christmas Day. They plan to marry in 2015. Their relationship was no secret to the school, his students and their families as David would attend events, according to the report.
Panetta issued a letter to the Sandusky Catholic community last Thursday, expressing gratitude for the support he has received and his hope for changes in the church under Pope Francis.
"As a proud and gay Catholic, I understand the Church's teachings on marriage and agree that my engagement is a public statement of my position for marriage equality, which the Catholic Church does not yet support," Panetta said. "I am hopeful to see change in the future, but until then I am praying for strength and understanding and encourage my students to do the same."
Panetta's forced resignation is the latest in a series of dismissals of out LGBT teachers from Catholic schools across the country -- many of whom were fired for becoming engaged to marry.
BuzzFeed has reached out to Panetta and Sandusky Central Catholic School President Melody Curtis and will update this post if they respond.Egg War: Why India's Vegetarian Elite Are Accused Of Keeping Kids Hungry
India is in the midst of a war of sorts — a war over eggs. To eat them, or not to eat them. Actually, it's more about whether the government should give free eggs to poor, malnourished children.
It all began in late May, when Shivraj Chouhan, the chief minister of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, shot down a proposal to serve eggs in government-run day care centers (anganwadis) in some tribal areas.
These communities have high rates of malnutrition, says Sachin Jain, a local food-rights activist in the state. "The idea behind the proposal was to address the gap in protein deficiency through... eggs," he says.
But Chouhan wasn't convinced. As Indian newspapers reported, he publicly vowed not to allow eggs to be served as long as he was minister.
Why this vehement opposition to eggs? Well, the local community of Jains, which is strictly vegetarian and also powerful in the state, has previously thwarted efforts to introduce eggs in day care centers and schools. Chouhan is an upper caste Hindu man who recently became a vegetarian.
And the state of Madhya Pradesh is mostly vegetarian, as are some other states, like Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat. For years, the more politically vocal vegetarians in these states have kept eggs out of school lunches and anganwadis.
But here's the thing: While these states as a whole may be mostly vegetarian, the poorest — and most malnourished — Indians generally are not. They would eat eggs, if only they could afford them, says Dipa Sinha, an economist at the Center for Equity Studies in New Delhi and an expert on India's preschool and school feeding programs.
India's free school lunch program alone reaches about 120 million of India's poorest children, and the anganwadis reach millions of younger children. So, the egg war isn't trivial.
Chouhan's office has said the chief minister is "sentimental" about keeping anganwadis egg-free. "This is a very upper caste Hindu sentiment," says Sinha.
Hindu scriptures prescribe notions of purity for people belonging to upper castes, Sinha explains. "You can't use the same spoon as someone else. You can't sit next to someone eating meat. You can't eat food cooked by someone who eats meat. And they think this is a dominant culture and that they can impose it on anyone."
The recent ban on the slaughter of bulls and bullocks in the neighboring state of Maharashtra also reflects this sentiment.
While most Hindus today don't eat beef, Hindus belonging to lower castes, including Dalits (considered the lowest in India's caste hierarchy), do rely on this meat as a regular source of protein, as do Christians and Muslims. Dalit scholars have called this ban an effort to impose upper-caste Hindu values on the lower caste minorities.
We often assume Indians are largely vegetarian, but that assumption doesn't hold up against data. A 2006 survey by the Delhi-based Center for the Study of Developing Societies found that more than 50 percent of Indians are in fact non-vegetarian. They eat fish, chicken, beef and, yes, eggs, too. Vegetarianism is often limited to privileged, upper caste Hindu communities and a couple of other religions, like Jainism.
Most underprivileged Indians, on the other hand, including Dalits and tribal communities, are non-vegetarians, says Sinha. Their children make up the majority of India's most malnourished.
That is why public health policy experts and right-to-food activists all over the country are trying to introduce eggs into government schools and day cares.
Some states already serve eggs, and they are popular among the children. Sinha recalls an incident from several years ago, when she was visiting schools in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh to see how well the school lunch program was working. The state had recently begun to provide eggs in school lunches. One school had a box where students submitted their complaints and feedback about the school meal.
"We opened it, and one of the letters in that box was from a girl in [fourth grade]," says Sinha. "It was a Dalit girl, who said, 'Thank you very much. I got to eat an egg in my life for the first time.' "
"Wherever eggs are introduced, attendance goes up," says Sinha. "It's very popular, because children don't get it at home."
Eggs are also an easy way to provide much-needed protein and fat to malnourished children, says Sachin Jain, the food rights activist. They are easy to procure locally, and storage and transportation aren't a problem. "No... vegetarian food item is that good a source of protein," he says.
Milk, which comes close and is often touted as a good alternative by vegetarians like Chouhan, comes with many complications. It is often diluted by suppliers and is easy to contaminate, says Jain. It also requires more infrastructure to store and transport to remote rural areas.
"I am a vegetarian," adds Jain. "I have never touched an egg. But I have other sources of fat and protein, like ghee (clarified butter) and milk. Tribals, Dalits and other poor people don't have these options. They can't afford these things. Then, eggs become a very good option for them."
"We still have very high malnutrition," says Dipa Sinha. "Every third Indian child is malnourished."
This context is crucial in this discussion, she says, "because the best interest of the child is what should be driving policy. I think this (ban on eggs) is a big setback."
Rhitu Chatterjee is a multimedia journalist based in New Delhi. See the related animation, "Power Lunch: India's Mid-Day Meal Program," produced by Mathilde Dratwa for the Pulitzer Center and based on Chatterjee's reporting.Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF.
Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a greater squeeze on the planet's resources then ever before. Particularly hard hit is the diversity of animals and plants, upon which many natural resources such as clean water are based.
"The Rio+20 conference next month is an opportunity for the world to get serious about the need for development to become sustainable. Our report indicates that we haven't yet done that since the last Rio summit," said David Nussbaum, WWF-UK chief executive.
The latest Living Planet report, published on Tuesday, estimates that global demand for natural resources has doubled since 1996 and that it now takes 1.5 years to regenerate the renewable resources used in one year by humans. By 2030, the report predicts it will take the equivalent of two planets to meet the current demand for resources.
Most alarming, says the report, is that many of these changes have accelerated in the past decade, despite the plethora of international conventions signed since the initial Rio Summit in 1992. Climate-warming carbon emissions have increased 40% in the past 20 years, but two-thirds of that rise occurred in the past decade.
The report, compiled by WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, compiles data from around the world on the ecological footprints of each country and the status of resources like water and forests. It also examines changes in populations of 2,688 animal species, with the latest available data coming from 2008.
The eighth report of its kind, the new Living Planet document, comes five weeks before Rio+20, the latest United Nations conference on sustainable development.
Nussbaum said: "We have taken some important steps forward: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an important step, a way in which the world is seeking to come to agreement about [cutting] greenhouse gases. The Convention on Biological Diversity is an important way of the world identifying steps that can be taken in protecting biodiversity. But the pace in both cases is rather glacial. And unfortunately our lifestyles and the consequences of those are having an impact more quickly than the acts we are taking to protect the planet."
Wealthy countries have seen some improvement, with the Living Planet biodiversity index, rising 7% since 1970, as nature reserves and protections were introduced. But the biodiversity index has dropped by 60% in developing countries, where people depend more on nature. Demographic shifts have had a significant impact. The world's cities have seen a 45% increase in population since 1992, according to the Global Footprint Network, and urban residents typically have a much larger carbon footprint than their rural counterparts. The average Beijinger, says WWF, has a footprint three times the Chinese average, due to factors including private car use.
Water security is a growing concern in many parts of the world as population and agriculture drives demand, placing enormous stress on freshwater ecosystems and fishing zones, according to data from WWF.
"The Living Planet report shows that the biggest single drop in the living planet index is for freshwater species in tropical areas, which have shown a decline of 70% since 1970," said David Tickner, head of freshwater at WWF-UK.
A note of hope for the future, said the authors, is that the world could see peak population sometime this century. Though the population hit 7 billion in 2011, the UNEP reports the population growth rate has fallen from 1.65% to 1.2% since 1992, with women now having an average of 2.5 children.In 1978, the CIA was caught up in a BDSM Cold War affair. A potential Soviet asset had fallen for a professional dominatrix who made decent money peeing on entertainment lawyers. Also in play was Mary Tyler Moore’s landscaper, merely because he was sweet on the dominatrix and her record collection.
The most actionable intelligence from these black leather ops would not be obtained by the Agency, but by the landscaper himself, Stuart Argabright. Under the alias Dominatrix, Argabright recorded “The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight,” a New York club hit released in 1984.
Subversively called “pleasant,” the 12-inch single was only awimbawe by association, nominally speaking. There were no lions to be found, just a reference to animals watching “beyond the fire,” happy to leave the taxonomic fetish to the critics. Whether it was synth pop, freestyle or electro, gay or straight, the song couldn’t be bothered.
“The women beat their men/The men beat on their drums.” Whip it jokes abound. Dominatrix would get so much airplay that Argabright got sick of it, but not sick enough to turn down shows opening for Run-DMC at Paradise Garage. The Limelight gig with Herbie Hancock’s robot pants legs, also memorable.
This all started like so many high-school dreams: with no wheels and dumb luck. In 1977, Argabright was picked up while hitchhiking back home on the Key Bridge crossing the Potomac from Washington, D.C. He was 18, wearing a Tubes T-shirt and had just won tickets to see the Stooges. He was six years away from borrowing Iggy Pop’s swim trunks in West Berlin, and seven from Dominatrix turning Iggy and Bowie’s “Play It Safe” into a post-punk seizure.
The woman driving was older, and her red Corvette Stingray smelled of spy perfume. In Argabright’s words, he was “like boing.” She could’ve thumped him in the head with a tire iron and he wouldn’t have felt it. Nothing happened during the ride back to his parents’ house in Vienna, Virginia, but everything seemed to have changed. High school suddenly became incredibly dull.
Argabright would bump into the mysterious stranger again a year later at Max’s Kansas City above Union Square. They began seeing each other, spending nights at her East Side apartment, getting high and listening to Bowie records. After Argabright noticed the bull whips and manacles hanging in the closet, it became apparent that his friend’s occupation entailed visiting all manner of welt and contusion upon the no-account hides of wealthy degenerates.
Dominatrix live | Courtesy Get On Down
They soon compared clientele: He had Dylan, Paul Simon and Rock Hudson. She had music executives and a Russian official in D.C., who apparently had been beaten senseless enough to fall in love, with ambitions of defection and marriage. (“But a dominatrix doesn’t often entertain marriage thoughts,” says Argabright.) Always game for defection, the CIA contacted the dominatrix and encouraged her to “play ball.” She reluctantly agreed while continuing to make the landscaper late for his mulching appointments on the Upper West Side.
The CIA’s interest in Argabright’s personal life only made this Venus in Furs situation even hotter, against formidable odds. (Argabright’s father did pre-internet “Mo-net” work in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War; his neighbors in northern Virginia were ex-NSA.) Instead of being returned to D.C. in a white van with a redacted brain, he stuck around New York and continued planting trees in celebrity houses while hungover. Shrubs to the stars. Gardens thrived. Mary Tyler Moore entered syndication while Argabright dabbled in New Wave vaudeville.
The punk arborist with a drum machine would form the band Ike Yard, pulling its name from the shelf of the record store in A Clockwork Orange. Ike Yard cut one album for Factory Records, the Manchester-based label that housed artists like New Order, A Certain Ratio and 52nd Street. Madonna would loiter outside the studio during recording sessions, bumming smokes off the bass player while Jean-Michel Basquiat materialized at odd hours, offering his services with a sawed-off coronet. (Downtown |
101 cheese.”
Scottie’s rolled out a specialty slice topped with 100 different types of cheese for The Portland Mercury’s annual Pizza Week.
The parlor typically makes stuffed crust pizzas on Sundays, giving them the perfect reason to push the already outrageously cheesy pie over the 100 mark.
Why make the 101 cheese pizza, you may ask?
Shop owners say they are really big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, and found this would be a great homage through fromage.
Also, they said, another pizza place had laid claim to the 99-cheese pizza.
Plenty of Portlanders are stopping in through the day to try the slice and join in the celebration while the Guinness World Records representative issues them the title.
You can stop by their location at 2128 SE Division Street through the day on Sunday, they will only be offering the Centouno Formaggio, limit 2 slices per person, on a first-come first-served basis. They will also have t-shirts available to commemorate the historic day in Portland's pizza scene.Keith Schlosser, SNY.TV Twitter | Archive
Year after year, young prospects head to the D-League following NBA training camp in an effort to develop notoriety for themselves. In turn, their minor league progress over the course of a basketball season adds tremendous credibility to their resume. With that in mind, players don't stick around for very long, even if an NBA deal doesn't come their way. The likes of Jimmer Fredette, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Travis Trice, Darion Atkins, and others have all flocked overseas this year following positive campaigns in Westchester.
Out with the old, and in with the new.
One way for the Knicks to replenish its D-League talent pool is through its training camp cuts. Both Cleanthony Early and Damien Ingles are set to be become full-time minor leaguers following time as D-League assignees last season. If the Knicks have their way, Chasson Randle will also forgo any international offers and head to Westchester as he heals from an orbital injury. Given the type of prowess he showed in training camp, he figures not to be there very long.
The Knicks' efforts to build up its minor league squad continued Sunday with five new selections in the D-League Draft. While some figure to simply be training camp bodies, there are still a few intriguing names to recognize.
The team's first round selection, Max Hooper, is sure to receive a lot of fanfare. As a collegiate senior, Hooper neglected to shoot anything from inside the three-point line while at Oakland. Talk about an eye-opening statistic: the sharpshooter connected on 45%, all from long range. Hooper also boasts a Big Apple connection after spending the 2013-14 at St. Johns. Much like Fredette did last season, Hooper is sure to excite the home crowd with his own respective prowess. It'll be interesting to see if his style of play could potentially fit in the NBA. As the Knicks' organization (NBA and minor league) embraces Jeff Hornacek's run and gun mentality, Hooper could thrive.
Next up is Lasan Kromah, the team's third-round selection out of UConn. The guard served as a role player for the Huskies back in 2013-14, but much like Lance Thomas and Duke, just being part of a high-level winning program says a lot about a player's character. Glue-guys are worth exploring.
Also worth mentioning in Dane Miller, arguably the steal of the entire draft after Westchester plucked him up in the fifth round. An athletic freak, Miller already boasts two years of D-League experience. A former Rutgers product with New York ties, Miller averaged 15.2 points on 53% shooting when given 20+ minutes last season. At 26, however, his time to contribute is now.
To round out the bunch, the Knicks picked up Bobby Ray Parks Jr., the Filipino product that played in the D-League last season. This spunky guard has plenty of bounce and proved last season that he could contribute if given proper opportunities. He plays with a boatload of energy.
While these names won't necessarily be beating down the NBA door on day one, the Knicks have proven to invest and believe in their minor league team. There's a strategy in place, and Westchester has absolutely helped develop and explore different prospects for the big league team. As Langston Galloway and others have shown, the pathway is possible. On Sunday, they gave a new crop of names that very same opportunity.Tennessee lawmakers are pushing forward with legislation drafted to combat property rights infringement and the United Nations Agenda 21 plan. Tennessee HB185 and SB459 will prohibit the federal government from implementing any of the Agenda 21 dictates in the state, if passed.
Tennessee has joined a growing number of states proposing and passing anti-UN Agenda 21 legislation. Tennessee House Bill 185 (HB185) has to gain passage in the State Government Subcommittee before moving forward. Tennessee Senate Bill 459 (SB459) has to gain approval via the Senate Judiciary Committee before moving forward for a vote by the full legislative body.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, in the United States, more than 500 cities are members of an international sustainability organization that reportedly supports the implementation of the United Nations biodiversity program. Agenda 21 is a voluntary, non-binding UN action plan which is allegedly focused solely on sustainable development. Adopted by 178 countries in 1992, the plan is based on a program to abolish poverty and protect “fragile environments” by “properly” managing cities. Some charge the program wants to push all citizens into cities. America is a “signatory” country to Agenda 21. Because the United Nations Agenda 21 plan is a non-binding statement and not a treaty, a vote on the matter was deemed unnecessary by the federal government.
The Tennessee General Assembly website details HB185 and SB459 this way.
“Personal Property – As introduced, prohibits the state or any political subdivision from adopting or implementing any policy recommendation that intentionally or inadvertently infringes upon or restricts private property rights without due process of law; repeals any law in conflict with the Act and prohibits contracts that are in conflict with the Act from being entered into or renewed on or after the effective date of the Act. – Amends TCA Title 12, Chapter 1, Part 2 and Title 66.”
The Oklahoma House of Representatives Agenda 21 bill garnered significant support in the stated effort to preserve property rights for citizens. Members voted overwhelmingly in support of a measure designed to protect the unalienable rights of property owners and due process procedures earlier this month in order to curtail Agenda 21 plans in the state. The Oklahoma Community Protection Act would nullify any Agenda 21 or related assaults on individual property rights in the state. The HB 2807 bill has now moved on to the Oklahoma Senate for review.
The Missouri Agenda 21 and property rights legislation proposal reads as follows.
“Neither the state of Missouri nor any political subdivision shall adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process, as may be required by policy recommendations originating in, or traceable to Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations in 1992 at its Conference on Environment and Development.”
How do you feel about Agenda 21 and concerns over property rights infringement?
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Occasionally, sexism presents as overtly as a billboard that reads “You Are Not Welcome Here.”
Much more frequently, however, sexism has an additionally subtle way of excluding people. Microaggressions are an example of these indirect forms of discrimination that make individuals feel unwelcome based on aspects of their identity.
Catcalling and street harassment, unwanted sexual touch, and gendered spaces are all examples of sexist microaggressions. They are reflected in the things we say, the things we do, and the way we situate our environments.
They exist on structural levels and personal levels, and they are a part of people’s everyday experiences.
The hard thing about microaggressions is that, in many cases, they are entrenched in our culture and society. That means they sneak into our minds and out our mouths without us being completely aware.
That also means that anyone — from your fellow activist to your kind aunt — is capable of engaging in microaggressions.
A few years ago, I got into a heated argument with a partner about privilege. At one point, they said, “Women can just have sex with their boss to get a promotion. That’s privilege.”
I remember feeling shocked that someone I was close to could not only understand how that very assumption was damaging to women in the workplace, but how that assumption was damaging to me.
When faced with microaggressions, it can be difficult to know what to do or say, let alone when it comes from someone you love and care about. Although a heated argument is one way to respond, it is definitely not the one I would recommend.
Here are some other suggestions for what you can do when a sexist microaggression sneaks into your conversation.
1. Present Another Way of Viewing the Situation
Confrontation does not always mean saying “You’re wrong.” A more subtle form of confrontation can be saying “That’s not always right.”
When a sexist microaggression sneaks into your everyday conversation, a gentle redirection regarding why a given statement is not altogether true or factual can be helpful.
I was chatting with a group of friends the other day when one of them expressed their surprise to hear that I never wanted children.
“I feel like it’s human nature to want to produce something,” he said. “At the end of your life, you know you made an impact.” The impact he was referring to was a baby.
I could have chosen to respond in a number of ways. For that conversation, however, I felt comfortable presenting another way of conceptualizing “production.”
I calmly talked about other ways in which I could “produce” something, through meaningful work, fostering positive relationships and friendships, and by cultivating a life of meaning for myself.
The concept of “production” as human nature and “reproduction” as the achievement of life satisfaction is laced with capitalistic and patriarchal undertones.
Those bigger conversations do not have to happen right away. Sometimes it feels safer and more productive to shift and open the conversation ever so slightly, making more room for those bigger conversations.
Some examples of how you can start that conversation include:
I experience that like…
I’ve heard it explained like…
That could also mean…
That could also be experienced through…
2. Challenge the Microaggression
A similar way of approaching microaggressions is by challenging the validity of them. In the same conversation discussed above, I also challenged how accurate the idea of parenthood was in relation to life satisfaction.
It can sometimes be helpful to have facts or statistics on hand, but certainly not necessary. Microaggressions are rarely grounded in reality — they are often a product of hardwired feelings justified through culture and social norms.
A challenge can simply be saying “That’s not my experience, and it’s not the experience of many other people.”
In that conversation, I felt comfortable saying, “For a woman who wants to be a mother, maybe she would be disappointed by not having that chance. But I don’t want to be a mother, so that’s not something I am looking for in my life.”
That was my way of challenging the idea that all women want to be mothers.
Other language you can use to challenge microaggressions includes:
I’ve heard/experienced the opposite…
Some people would tell you…
I’m not sure that reflects my experiences…
I have felt differently when…
Another good way of challenging microaggessions is to ask questions:
Where have you heard that?
Who have you talked to about that?
Do you think there are other opinions about that?
How might someone disagree with that?
3. Express Your Disagreement
Sometimes you may feel more comfortable or compelled to simply say, “That’s not right.” I am a firm believer that no further explanation is necessary. You are a person navigating complicated relationships, dinner dates, happy hours, work, and social environments. You are probably faced with an endless number of microaggressions — not just sexist ones, but ones that challenge a multitude of your own identities and the identities of people you know and care about. You are not a full-time educator. You can express your disagreement and simply say, “I am not interested in having this conversation right now, but it’s important for you to know that I am not okay with what you just said.” You have taken time and effort to do your homework. So can they. 4. Explain to Them Why You Disagree Having said that, you may want to explain and engage in a dialogue about why something is a sexist microaggression. This can open up opportunities for growth and compassion. I engage in microaggressions every day, and I am grateful when I am given the opportunity to talk about why what I am doing is harmful and how I can rectify it. Messages like that often come from culture and society, and do not always reflect what is actually happening for people.
I identify as _____, and that has not been my experience. I have experienced…
I have studied and talked to people who identify as _____, and my understanding is that that is not their experience. They have experienced…
I have read and learned about that, and what you are saying is not only untrue, but it is also harmful. Comments like that contribute to… Conversations about why sexist microaggressions are, in fact, sexist, can be exhausting. Keep in mind that you probably will not reverse years of social conditioning in one conversation. (Although if you are able to, share your secrets below!) You are planting a seed of dissent; over the years, that seed can grow as more information is provided to counteract the sexist messages we receive daily. Disagreeing with a stranger at a bar can feel safer, in some ways, than disagreeing with a friend or a loved one. Emotions surrounding an already personal topic can feel heightened. It is important to remember: Good people can (and do) engage in microaggressions. People you love can (and do) engage in microaggressions. That doesn’t make it hurt any less. It also doesn’t make these conversations any easier. But challenging them can help create more honest communication with those around you. At the very least, it can help them understand where you’re coming from and establish boundaries around certain topics. 5. Change or Redirect the Conversation I understand that you may not always feel comfortable directly challenging microaggressions. You may not be in a space where you feel like it would be helpful, either for the person you are confronting or for yourself. If you hear a sexist microaggression, you always have the option to indirectly confront it by simply changing the topic. This doesn’t have the same level of satisfaction or impact as intervening, but it can stop a sexist comment from turning into a sexist conversation. It can also be a subtle sign that you do not agree. Disengagement has always been a form of resistance when other options do not seem feasible. Let’s talk about…
Did you hear that story about…
What did you think when…
I’ve always wondered… You can redirect the conversation based on what was being discussed or present a completely different topic. It might feel awkward at first, but redirection can be effective when you feel like other conversations might simply escalate. 6. Nothing Just like you are not a full-time educator, you are not required to intervene at every microaggression you hear. There will be times when you will choose to do nothing. That might depend on the environment you are in, the power differentials in the conversation, your own level of comfort, and your own level of burnout. That’s okay. Sometimes you just love your grandmother and want to spend your holiday dinner talking about how to make the perfect mashed potatoes, not arguing about how the pressure to get married is part of a greater oppressive system. Our ability to challenge every day microaggressions is what helps create a shift in our culture. That shift will happen gradually, in our personal lives and on a grander scale. However, the weight of it does not fall solely on your shoulders. Do your part, but also know that we are creating this shift together. Sometimes we will succeed, sometimes we will falter, and always we will continue forward. What are other ways you have found helpful in responding to sexist microaggressions in every day conversations? 10.9K Shares Share Aliya Khan is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism and identifies as a feminist, activist, and life-long learner. She provided crisis support to survivors of abuse at the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh and is currently living, studying, and writing in the Pacific Northwest. Found this article helpful?
Help us keep publishing more like it by Help us keep publishing more like it by becoming a member!British PM David Cameron has conceded that the thousands of Syrian “moderate rebels” allegedly ready to fight Islamic State include “relatively hard line Islamist groups,” joking that they were not the people one meets at a “Liberal Democrat conference.”
Cameron was grilled by MPs on the UK’s role in the Syrian crisis, with questions raised concerning the background of the so-called moderate groups in Syria, which the British government is supporting on the ground and the PM has been claiming number in the tens of thousands.
Cameron admitted to a committee of senior MPs that there were not enough “moderate rebels” overall, adding that some of them actually were “relatively hardline Islamists.”
“Some of the opposition forces are Islamist. Some of them are relatively hardline Islamist,” Cameron told the Liaison committee. “They are not all the sort of people you would bump into at a Liberal Democrat party conference.”
West’s airstrikes cost ‘billions’ to Syria economy – Damascus’ UN envoy https://t.co/ggQkMiGO0upic.twitter.com/xPoGbvgWrv — RT (@RT_com) January 12, 2016
Cameron added that the “deep tensions” between Iran and Saudi Arabia are not helping the peace negotiations in Syria and making it “incredibly difficult” to end the civil war.
The UK will continue to persuade moderate opposition groups to attend the next round of talks on January 25 – the date set for rebels to sit down with representatives of Bashar Assad’s regime to discuss a ceasefire agreement.
RT’s Eisa Ali pointed out that Cameron is still refusing to identify which groups these supposedly moderate “70,000 rebels” belong to.
To the question: “Why won’t you or the Defense Secretary name the supposedly moderate groups in whose name these fighters are in the field?” Cameron responded: “We’ll be effectively giving President Assad a list of the groups and the people and potentially the areas he should be targeting.”
READ MORE: Russian air force provides support for 7,000 Syrian rebels advancing on ISIS – General Staff
In reality, however, these “moderate rebel groups” have their own social media accounts, where they name the areas where they are fighting, Ali reported.
Cameron also said that he cannot “envisage a situation in which Assad stays in power and Syria isn’t a threat to our national interest.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Germany’s Bild that Russia supports Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, but will back anti-Assad rebels as long as they are fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
“We support both Assad’s army and the armed opposition,” Putin said in a lengthy recent interview to the newspaper, now published in full. “Some of them have publicly declared this, others prefer to remain silent, but the work is ongoing.”
A report released in December by the Centre on Religion & Geopolitics, a think-tank run by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, warned that the West is making a strategic error in focusing its anti-terrorist efforts on IS, but overlooking other groups.
Sixty percent of the fighters in the country can be classified as Islamists that have similar goals to those of Islamic State, the report says. Those fighters belong to at least 15 other militant groups, which are mostly being ignored by the West.
READ MORE: 65,000 jihadists in Syria ready to replace ISIS if it’s defeated – reportIn Russia, Boris Grushenko is in love with his pseudo-intellectual cousin Sonja, who loves him since he too is a pseudo-intellectual, but she is not in love with him. Instead she is in love with his brother Ivan. But as Ivan doesn't seem to return her affections, she is determined to marry someone - anyone - except Boris. If that person isn't the perfect husband, then she has to find a suitable lover in addition. Boris' pursuit of Sonja has to take a back seat in his life when he, a pacifist and coward, is forced to join the Russian Army to battle Napoleon's forces which have just invaded Austria. Despite Sonja not being in the picture while he's away at war, Boris' thoughts do not stray totally from women. Although they take these two divergent paths in their lives, those paths cross once again as they, together, both try to find the perfect spouse and lover, and try to assassinate Napoleon. Written by HuggoThe RCMP have concluded their investigation into a massive pipeline explosion near Otterburne, Man., and say they don't believe the cause is suspicious.
The explosion, which happened about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg, has left thousands without gas to heat their homes as temperatures drop to -20 C, feeling more like -34 C with the wind chill.
The outage began after a natural gas pipeline blew up shortly after midnight on Saturday and burned for more than 12 hours. Officials said close to 4,000 people have now lost heat in several communities.
While RCMP said the cause of the explosion is not suspicious, officials from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are still looking into what caused it.
The Rural Municipality of Hanover declared a state of local emergency Saturday afternoon in a news release that said the natural gas outage was expected to last 24 to 72 hours.
Temperatures dipped to near -20 C overnight, and on Sunday, Environment Canada issued a blowing snow warning for the Winnipeg area. Winds made the temperature feel more like -34.
"We are in the midst of another temperature drop. A bit of an Arctic front is moving in here, and to the south of us, there is a blizzard system, so people in this area are going to get a nasty, cold, winter storm day," CBC's Katie Nicholson reported.
Emergency Measures spokesperson Nicki Albus on Saturday acknowledged cold weather is on the way.
"We know it's cold and people may be concerned about that but we are on the job here. Everyone here's communicating well. We have a great group of people at the site and in the communities who have set up their emergency operation centres to handle this dilemma."
Warming centres
Portable gas units could be seen outside Niverville warming stations on Sunday. (Katie Nicholson/CBC) arming centres W were quickly set up in the area to take in residents who had no heat.
The Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Grunthal opened its doors as a warming centre on Saturday.
“At this point, we’ve only had a few people coming, but we are definitely going to stay open for as long as we need to be running,” said Ester Reimer, who's with the church. “We have people in place to help with meals and any of those other things that are going to become necessary.”
The church’s pastor, David Neufeld, said they expect more people to come throughout the day.
Tanker trucks of natural gas were delivered to a number of places in the area on Sunday, including the De Salaberry Health Centre in St. Pierre-Joly and the Heritage Life Personal Care Home in Niverville.
The Menno Home in Grunthal, and Kleefeld School were scheduled to be connected to natural gas later on Sunday.
TransCanada and Manitoba Hydro set up a community information centre for residents on Sunday. It was slated to open at 3 p.m. local time at the John Henry Banquet Room in Niverville.
Officials from both companies said they would be on hand to answer questions about specific properties and the status of natural gas in the area.
The centre will have business hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Selinger visits explosion site
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger visited the site of the explosion on Sunday as well as Niverville, Man. (CBC) Premier Greg Selinger visited Niverville Sunday afternoon. He said officials are dedicated to getting the natural gas running as quickly as possible.
“No question it’s a surprise for all Manitobans to have this kind of a disaster in the province,” said Selinger. “The good news is everybody is working very closely together to return natural gas and heating to people’s homes.”
Selinger acknowledged, though, that the extreme weather was slowing things down.
“Weather’s horrible. It makes it very difficult for the people trying to fix the system to be outside. It’s extremely cold,” said Selinger. “They are prepared to work 24 hours a day with a variety of shifts to do that so there’s a lot of personnel being brought into the province.”
Selinger noted the site is now under federal jurisdiction, and multiple agencies are working to try and solve the problem.
“I did visit the area where the incident occurred and there is a strategy in place to secure a source of natural gas safely as soon as possible,” he said.
Blizzard will add to outage misery
“We’re expecting if these blizzard conditions continue that we’ll start to see more people come in because that will affect the heat in their houses,” he said.
The town of Niverville said it has lost gas service and that will continue for at least 24 hours and possibly "multiple days."
Manitoba Hydro said the following communities are affected:
New Bothwell.
Niverville.
Otterburne.
Kleefeld.
St-Pierre-Jolys.
Grunthal.
St. Malo.
Dufrost.
Ste. Agathe.
Hydro said it does not know when service will be restored but that people should "prepare for an extended outage."
The utility is reminding customers to use only approved space heaters indoors, and where possible to conserve use of electricity during the gas outage. It says people should not use barbecues or any unapproved heaters indoors because they may produce carbon monoxide. Anyone leaving home should shut off the water supply and turn down the thermostat.
Hydro officials said there has been an increased demand on the electrical system in the area because of the loss of natural gas, but contingencies are in place to manage the increased demand.
Officials are continuing to monitor the demands on the system in the area.
At least three schools had to cancel classes because of lack of power to their buildings. École St.Malo School, École Héritage Immersion and Institute Collegial St. Pierre all cancelled Monday's classes. Officials did not know when the schools would be able to reopen.
The New Bothwell cheese plant also had to shut down production because its sanitizer is dependent on gas to operate. The plant may try to switch its generator over to propane this week if the outage persists.
Investigators kept from scene by bad weather
Transportation and Safety Board investigators were unable to investigate the site of the explosion on Sunday because of extremely poor weather in the Otterburne area.
According to TSB investigators, the weather conditions were too hazardous for them to access the site.
Investigators planned to return to the site on Monday in order to review what kind of an investigation will be needed.
There are five classes of investigation, and officials believe the Otterburne explosion could merit a Class 3 investigation, which would involve a full investigation coupled with a public report.
'Loud explosion'
Trouble at the site of the pipeline was reported early Saturday when RCMP responded at around 1:05 a.m. to a "loud explosion."
Witnesses who live in the area said it was massive. Paul Rawluk lives nearby and drove to the site.
"As we got closer, we could see these massive 200 to 300 metre high flames just shooting out of the ground and it literally sounded like a jet plane," he said. "And that's the thing that really got us, was the sound of it."
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He said it was hard to describe the scale.
"Massive, like absolutely massive," he said. "The police were by [Highway] 59 and you could just see little cars out there and you could see in comparison how big the flame was. It was just literally two to 300 metres in the air. And bright, I mean lit up the sky."
Otterburne resident Marc Labossiere was forced from his home moments after shooting a video of the blast. He lost power a short time later, and police knocked on his door, telling him to get out.
He's back at home now, and said he could still see the flames late Saturday morning.
"It went from 500-600 feet in the air down to manageable," he said. "Like, something they're just waiting for it to snuff itself out and it's still burning right now."
Police said the burning gas was non-toxic.
Pipeline crews worked to vent gas
The pipeline, which is owned by TransCanada, has been temporarily shut down according to a statement from a company spokesman. The statement also said that nearby roads have been closed, and that the company is not aware of any reports of injuries.
Five houses within the vicinity of the fire were evacuated by RCMP and St-Pierre-Jolys Fire Department.
The residents of two of the homes have been allowed to return, but police were not letting residents return to the three homes closest to the site.
Crews spent most of the day venting the natural gas from the system to eliminate the fuel source for the fire.
The company said that process generated a loud noise but posed no risk to the public.
By Saturday afternoon, more than 12 hours after it started, TransCanada officials said the fire was out.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
No timeline for power restoration
Manitoba Hydro and TransCanada officials could not say when natural gas would be restored to the area.
TransCanada officials noted both the National Energy Board and the Transportation Safety Board had to assess the damage at the pipeline site and give approval to TransCanada before they could start repairing the break.
Hydro officials said customers in the area should prepare for an extended gas outage.US President Trump, who had initially backed the measures against Qatar in a tweet, called Sheik Tamim (L) on Wednesday with an offer "to help the parties resolve their differences" (AFP Photo/Mandel NGAN)
Doha (AFP) - The FBI is helping Qatar investigate the source of an alleged "hack" of state media which sparked diplomatic tensions in the Gulf, a source with knowledge of the probe said Friday.
An FBI team has been in Doha for the past week after the Qatari government asked for US help following the claim of an unprecedented security breach by hackers last month, the source told AFP.
"American support was requested and a team sent which has been in Doha since last Friday, working with Qatar's interior ministry," the source said.
Two other unnamed countries are also helping with the probe.
The results of the investigation could be released as early as next week.
Qatar has said it would publicly announce the results of the investigation.
Doha launched the probe after accusing hackers of publishing false and explosive remarks attributed to Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the Qatar News Agency website last month.
The stories quoted him questioning US hostility towards Iran, speaking of "tensions" between Doha and Washington, commenting on Hamas and speculating that President Donald Trump might not remain in power for long.
The alleged comments were made after Trump's visit to the region at the end of last month.
However, Doha has denied all the comments and said it had been the victim of a "shameful cybercrime".
At the same time, the tiny Gulf state said it had also been the victim of a hostile media campaign, particularly in the US over the issue of its supposed support for Islamist groups.
Qatar has so far given no indication of where the alleged cyber attack, which happened on May 24, originated.
But regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have used the comments to demonstrate that Qatar is out of line with Gulf foreign policy, especially regarding Iran.
Media organisations in several countries in the region reported the emir's comments as fact, despite an official denial by Qatar.
Qatari broadcasters and websites were blocked in several countries after the alleged comments were reported.
And in a sign that the rift in Qatar's relations with its near neighbours was deepening, one Saudi newspaper reported that members of a prominent Saudi family had demanded that Qatar's state mosque, the Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab Mosque, be renamed.
The demand came amid questions over the Qatari royal family's link to Abdul Wahhab, co-founder of the Saudi state.
Some experts fear the current situation could trigger a repeat of the crisis in 2014, when several Gulf countries recalled their ambassadors from Doha, ostensibly over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Earlier this week, the Qatari emir travelled to Kuwait to meet Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in what was widely seen as an attempt at mediation by the Kuwaitis.A victorious Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., walks past supporters as he heads up to the stage to speak after being declared the winner in the Arizona Republican primary Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, in Phoenix. The 80-year-old McCain defeated former state Sen. Kelli Ward and two other Republicans on the ballot. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
There’s no doubt that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been a longtime advocate for revamping the nation’s immigration laws and border security system. But his newly-published Spanish-language campaign website selectively highlights just part of his legislative record — while his English-language site emphasizes other parts.
The Spanish language site, for instance, lauds him as a member of the Gang of Eight that sought comprehensive immigration reform, and a supporter of a pathway to citizenship for the children of immigrants who came to the country illegally — a group known as the “Dreamers.” The English-language site makes no mention of either and portrays the senator as a champion of tougher border security.
McCain’s campaign launched his new Spanish-language website on Tuesday, a week after he won a heated Republican primary in hopes of scoring a sixth term. “Unidos con McCain,” or “United with McCain” is a condensed version of his English-language site, which features far more information on McCain’s biography as well as news clippings and special emphasis on military, veterans issues and health-care.
On the issue of immigration, there are stark differences between the two sites. McCain’s English-language site highlights his stance on “Homeland Security and Immigration Reform,” while the Spanish-language site features McCain’s position on “Inmigracion.”
Lorna Romero, a McCain campaign spokeswoman, said the sites were “never intended to be identical.”
On both pages, the message begins in a similar fashion, with minor translation adjustments:
In English: “John has led the efforts in Washington to ensure that the U.S. obtains control of its southwest border and to reform our broken immigration system. It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that the Arizona-Mexico border is secure and that Arizonans have an immigration system that works in preventing terrorists and others wishing to do us harm from entering the country – while maintaining a robust immigration system that welcomes the best and brightest in the world.”
But from there, the two sites deviate considerably.
In English, McCain touts his work to reform the U.S. Border Patrol and to pass laws that “would address the crisis of unaccompanied children coming across Arizona’s border with Mexico.” But in Spanish, there’s no reference to border security or dealing with unaccompanied minors.
Instead, the Spanish site touts McCain as “the central figure who has brought together at the negotiating table Republicans and Democrats to work on immigration reform that is humane and sensible to the needs of the immigrant community. More recently, McCain led the efforts of the Group of Eight, which resulted in passage in the Senate of an historic immigration reform project. John McCain has always said that one of the most important parts of any legislative package of the broken immigration system should be to provide a pathway to citizenship for those who were brought as children by their parents, with no say in the matter.”
But in English, there’s no reference to McCain’s work on the Gang of Eight or his support for a pathway to citizenship for “dreamers,” the children of undocumented immigrants.
Here’s a screengrab of McCain’s English and Spanish-language sites:
Screengrab from JohnMcCain.com
Screengrab from http://es.johnmccain.com
Romero added in an email that McCain has, in both languages, “consistently championed the need for a secure border and immigration reform.”
She added that the new site “focuses closely on policy issues commonly raised by Spanish-language and bilingual Arizonans, based on the campaign’s internal research.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what that research contained.
Differences in translation between English- and Spanish-language campaign websites are nothing new, but are usually subtle to deal with differences in vernacular. With the growth of the Hispanic electorate nationwide, political consultants in both parties have encouraged political candidates to exhibit a more inclusive tone when discussing immigration, an issue of importance to Hispanics, but not usually the top concern. The economy, jobs, health-care and national security often rank ahead of immigration, but how a politician discusses the emotionally fraught issue is often seen as a key measure of Latino support.
In the case of McCain, it’s not so much differences in translation, but instead of emphasis. The contrasts could spark accusations from Democrats that McCain is trying to be all things to different groups of people on the issue of immigration, an especially sensitive topic in Arizona. Democrats are hoping to unseat McCain, a five-term incumbent, who faces a well-funded challenge this year from Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.). She has emphasized McCain’s support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — an historically unpopular figure among Hispanics — in hopes of driving up her support. McCain has vowed to stand by Trump despite the presidential candidate’s previously critical comments about the senator.
McCain has straddled the issue of immigration throughout most of his modern political life. After pushing for a comprehensive immigration reform bill during the latter years of George W. Bush’s administration, he distanced himself from the work during his 2010 reelection campaign and ran ads that called on the federal government to “Complete the dang fence” along the Mexican border.
There are other, more subtle differences between the two websites. A Spanish section called “Empleos y Economia” — jobs and the economy — mentions the endorsement of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, but a similar section on the English site, dubbed “Government Spending, Taxes and the Economy,” instead calls out McCain’s high ratings from the American Conservative Union, Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union.
On the English site, the “Defense |
Fair Lady allowed Sam and Frodo to overcome the shadows and make it one step closer towards their goal.
As I said, this deck wants to quest. Two of the three Heroes, Frodo and Galadriel, belong to the Spirit Sphere. Filling the third Hero slot, Sam Gamgee represents the Leadership Sphere and will allow us to not only bring out allies but also provide resource management and additional questing power.
Let’s get started with some key allies:
As I said, this deck wants to quest, and so I have included a few allies in particular that either enhance the deck’s main role or to compliment it. Included are Gandalf 2.0, Faramir, and Ethir Swordsman. All three of these allies can provide a significant boost in questing power. To play around with the questing there is also a couple copies of Galadriel’s Handmaiden (who offsets Gandalf 2.0’s threat cost nicely) and Arwen Undomniel who can turn either Sam or Frodo into more reliable defenders.
Moving on to the attachments we have a variety of tools at our disposal to turn our hobbits into sturdy defenders. Key among these cards are Hobbit Cloak, Unexpected Courage, Fast Hitch, and Silver Lamp. With these four cards Sam and Frodo can be readied more often than not and continually defend while another player hopefully picks off the enemies from afar.
But what if we need to do some of our own dirty work? This deck is all about questing but it doesn’t mean that it can’t throw a few punches itself, though I’ll admit it should be few and far between. Trying to have a little fun, I’ve added 3 copies of Small Target, a 1-cost Spirit event that can turn our enemies against themselves. Combined with a card like Silver Lamp we can ensure that when we play Small Target it will actually fire as opposed to fizzle. While we are discussing events I’d like to point out a few more that are in the deck. A Test of Will of course makes an appearance here as does the leadership event A Very Good Tale. Should any of our Heroes be pressed for resources, A Very Good Tale can potentially get us out of a pinch and cheat in valuable allies like Faramir or Gandalf.
To wrap things up I’ll just go over a few cards that go along with Galadriel. Not very surprisingly we 2 copies of Mirror of Galadriel and 3 copies of Nenya. While Nenya provides Galadriel the ability to really push our questing power forward it grants her access to the Lore Sphere which then gives us the opportunity to play Fast Hitch. I have toyed around with having a third copy of the Mirror but had to cut one to keep the deck at 50 cards.
This deck is certainly not an offensive oriented one and like most of the decks I seem to be building these days will need a complimentary deck to pick where this deck slacks. I have thought about adding the card Ride Them Down. The issue is of course that it takes away from the one thing this deck wants to do but on the other hand can allow the deck to pick off a few more enemies here and there. Whether or not this deck even needs to worry about this is of course up to debate. As for now I have put Ride Them Down in this deck’s “sideboard.”
Check out the deck list below and let me know what you think.
We are nearing the end of February and so our time with Frodo will be drawing to a close. What are your thoughts on Frodo and what sorts of decks do you usually put him in?
-The Secondhand Took
Deck: To Be a Ring Bearer
Hero: (3)
1x Galadriel (Celebrimbor’s Secret)
1x Frodo Baggins (Conflict at the Carrock)
1x Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Ally: (19)
2x Bill the Pony (The Black Riders)
3x Arwen Undomiel (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Ethir Swordsman (The Steward’s Fear)
3x Galadriel’s Handmaiden (Celebrimbor’s Secret)
3x Errand-rider (Heirs of Numenor)
2x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill)
Attachment: (20)
2x Fast Hitch (The Dead Marshes)
2x Hobbit Cloak (The Black Riders)
2x Mirror of Galadriel (Celebrimbor’s Secret)
3x Silver Lamp (The Voice of Isengard)
3x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)
2x Celebrian’s Stone (Core Set)
3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
3x Nenya (Celebrimbor’s Secret)
Event: (11)
3x Small Target (Encounter at Amon Dîn)
3x A Test of Will (Core Set)
3x A Very Good Tale (Over Hill and Under Hill)
2x Tighten Our Belts (The Nin-in-Eilph)
AdvertisementsMatthew Stockman/Getty Images Change.org, a website that hosts public petitions, briefly crashed for some users Friday morning after a flood of people signed a petition to investigate a controversial Olympic figure skating result.
Russia's Adelina Sotnikova won the gold medal in an upset over South Korea's Yuna Kim.
After the event, a Change.org petition called "Open Investigation into Judging Decisions of Women's Figure Skating and Demand Rejudgement at the Sochi Olympics" was started by a user named "Justice Seeker."
It went viral in a way the website had never seen before.
"The petition gained 700,000-plus signatures in just six hours and is sending traffic to our site at five times the highest previously-recorded rate," a spokesperson told the AFP.
The petition was up to 1.7 million signatures as of 1 p.m. eastern on Friday. The spokesperson told AFP that 90% of the traffic was from South Korea — where Kim is the country's most famous athlete.
The website didn't go down completely, Change.org told us, though it was slowed at times as engineers worked through the night to make sure it could handle the extraordinary traffic.
NBC Olympics got the following error message at around 2 a.m. on Friday night, so there were some momentary outages for some users (via NBC Olympics):
via NBC Olympics
Sotnikova had a more difficult routine and she nailed every jump, which gave her a better technical score than Kim by about five points.
Below is the full text of the petition.
It ends, "This is NOT for Yuna Kim, this is for the FAIR SPORTSMANSHIP THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CENTRAL TO THE WORLD EVENT OF THE OLYMPICS."
Long read:
Open Investigation into Judging Decisions of Women's Figure Skating and Demand Rejudgement at the Sochi Olympics
The following public figures' twit will give you a good gist of what happened:
Katarina Witt (German Figure Skater) "Shame Gold Medal, Yuna Kim is a real queen"
Bill Plaschke (American Sports Journalist) "Kim didn't win...unbelievable...scandal written all over this...Russian Sotnikova wins, fans going crazy, Kim disappears, wrong, wrong"
Alex Goldberger (Olympics Researcher at NBC) "Adelina Sotnikova was excellent tonight, but Yuna Kim was robbed"
Terra Findlay (Canadian ice dancer) "I'm speechless. Yuna Kim, you are a queen"
NBC Olympics (Official Twitter) "Yuna Kim wins Silver. 17 year old Sotnikova wins Gold, and Kostner wins bronze. Do you agree with the results?"
ESPN Official Website News Article titled "Home Cooking", "Home-Ice Advantage"
CBC Commentary: "That's a shock...Did you see that coming" (of Sotnikova winning) "Well I think I saw a medal coming, I'm just not sure we thought it was going to be that one" "As caught up in the moment as I was... I'm still stuck on quality of skating that Yuna Kim has, and the moments where you see jarring images during Sotnikova that she's not ready yet...The judges have their job and I really look forward to looking at it again so I can see it with fresh eyes but yes I am sitting here a little stunned"
New York Times: "Comparing the Jumps of Sotnikova and Yu-na" included rating of Sotnikova's Triple Flip and Double axel as "Poor" in the free program and Yu-na's ratings consisted of Good only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As you can probably tell, the world was keeping an eye on Yuna Kim who has set a World Record for the history of Women's Figure Skating, to defend her gold medalist title this Sochi Olympic 2014. The free skating event took place this morning and nobody denies the fact the Sotnikova did present to her potential. She did an amazing job and showed amazing performance. The one mistake she made was the stumbling after one of her jumps which was - although small - quite visible even to the public who do not know professional knowledge of figure skating. Nevertheless, she achieved her best score of 149.95 which was 0.11 away from Yu-na Kim's world record of 150.06 at the Vancouver Olympics. This comparison illustrates the home advantage already although I do admit that rules have changed since then but we are talking of quality of programme here.
Next up was Yuna Kim, she skated and her performance can be shown through what the CBC commenters said "this woman has no equal". She did show tiny unstable landing in one of her jumps, but relative to the stumble shown by Sotnikova, it was not as visible and she carried on with superb acting performance. "If you were to write a textbook, that would be how to do it", "Nobody compares to the flow she takes as she jumps and on the landings, nobody" (CBC)
Even the night before in the short programme, an evaluation sheet from the judges were made public which showed 0 in one of Yuna's jumps - in the short program where she made no mistakes at all which already shocked the Korean people. As well as the fact that they put 4 Russian people as judges out of the 14, makes all the sense. But the score in the free program has added on to the unfairness of what's supposed to be the fairest of all competitions - the Olympics. The corruption needs to be made visible and needs to be corrected.
The above quotes are chosen because they are stated by well-known figures, however, the rest of the public is demanding justice. But of course, we, as just citizens, know that our voice is weak and we may not have a chance to change anything. But this is crucial. And this petition may help towards bringing fairness back into the Olympics that showed so much corruption ironically. Yuna does not care about the medal since Gold was not in her utmost desires but it is the unfairness being observed by EVERYONE in the world except Russia. They need to acknowledge that yes, Sotnikova wrote the history in Russia but HISTORY IS FULL OF BIAS THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. This is NOT for Yuna Kim, this is for the FAIR SPORTSMANSHIP THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CENTRAL TO THE WORLD EVENT OF THE OLYMPICS.
Note: This post has been updated. An earlier version stated that Change.org had crashed for all users.Restore the Safety and Privacy of Women in HUD-Funded Emergency Shelters!
The Hands Across the Aisle Coalition has decided that it’s time for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to restore the safety and privacy of homeless and abused women who seek refuge in HUD-funded emergency shelters.
Federally-funded women’s shelters are presently required to admit male clients who claim to feel female, or risk closing their doors to the women who desperately need them. Traumatized women who object to sharing sleeping and bathing quarters with men have been stripped of the right to complain, and could lose their place in a shelter for continuing to do so.
Our coalition believes that this is an injustice in need of immediate remedy.
Currently, the final Housing and Urban Development Rule, “Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual’s Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs,” 81 Fed. Reg. 64763 (Sept. 21, 2016,) requires placement of biological men in programs and shelters previously reserved as safe havens for women, in accordance with gender identity and without regard to the sex recorded at birth or other factors. Shelters funded by HUD’s office of Community Planning and Development must now house applicants according to the self-declared, undefined category of “actual or perceived gender identity.”
The implementation of this rule ended single-sex emergency shelters with the stroke of a pen and is the epitome of arbitrary and capricious agency action.
This Rule now forbids staff from excluding male clients, described as transgender or genderqueer, from shared shower and sleeping areas in formerly single-sex women’s shelters. It requires all complaints by women about sharing intimate quarters with the opposite sex to be treated as “opportunities to educate and refocus” shelter occupants, and for staff to evict women if they continue to object to the presence of men in the shelter.
We believe that HUD’s desire to ensure that transgender individuals not be wrongly denied shelter does not support the conclusion that transgender-identified persons must be placed in intimate single-sex facilities with members of the opposite sex. Instead, we believe that HUD can and should revise its rules to reaffirm the principle that shelters and related programs cannot discriminate based on sex-stereotypes, that single-sex facilities should not be forced to permit clients of the opposite biological sex, that men who identify as women or non-binary must be kept safe at men’s facilities, and that women who identify as men or non-binary should be kept safe at women’s facilities.
While we understand that not all shelters are single-sex facilities, we object to the elimination of single-sex facilities and the prior administration’s insistence on allowing access for men to women’s spaces. Eligibility for single-sex facilities and services must be determined solely by sex; both “gender identity” and “perceived gender identity” are irrelevant.
In conclusion, The Hands Across the Aisle Coalition respectfully requests that Secretary Carson rescind and revise the final rule and restore the ability of HUD grantees to maintain safe, sex-segregated emergency shelters.
sign our petition Pleaseto “Restore the Safety and Privacy of Women in Single-Sex Homeless and Domestic Violence Shelters.”
read our full letter Pleaseto Secretary Carson.
email us If you are the representative of an organization that would like to sign our letter, pleaseAn illegal cavity search for marijuana, conducted in broad daylight on a public roadway in Texas, has caused other victims to come forward with allegations of unlawful misconduct by the officers involved. All cases currently being reported have been vaginal-anal cavity searches conducted by female Texas state troopers on female suspects. None of the women subjected to the cavity searches were suspected of any crime stronger than the alleged use of marijuana, and no arrests as a result of the searches was made.
Troopers report that all searches conducted have been fully submitted to by all victims. However, in at least one video recording, the audio reveals clear audio of the victim screaming as the search was being conducted.
Victims continue to come forward with lawsuits alleging the violation of personal civil rights. The aunt and niece victims of one incident have confirmed that the female troopers conducting the cavity searches on them both without changing gloves.
“They didn’t even search my socks or my shoes,” Aunt Ashley Dobbs said. “I just couldn’t fathom how you could search someone’s butt and their vagina, and not search their socks or shoes.”
Their lawsuit against against the Texas Dept. of Public Safety was successfully settled for a $184,000 suit, but this past week, TDPS Director Steve McCraw chose to rehire the female officer at the heart of the incident.
“It was determined that the relatively inexperienced trooper was directed by a more senior trooper to conduct the inappropriate search,” McCraw said in a statement issued late Friday afternoon. “While the actions of Trooper Bui constitute misconduct, I believe her actions are mitigated such that she should not be terminated from the agency.”
It is unknown at this time whether any TDPS action has been taken against the senior officer who directed the illegal search, or what plans the Department has to modify standard policies that support the use of these procedures statewide.
Watch the police video of the Dobbs search below.Roda 2 – 1 Twente: Adriaanse’s first defeat in a tactically surprising match
Two tactically tuned formations played out an interesting match, where Roda countered their way towards beating their opponents in the second half. Twente manager Co Adriaanse deliberately left his right wing vacated and ultimately paid the price as Roda, one of only four teams that Twente failed to beat both home and away last year, exploited the opportunities that Twente’s unusual shape offered them.
Roda’s change of formation
One of only two Eredivisie teams to consequently play a two striker formation with a diamond midfield, Roda showed up rather differently for their home match against favorites Twente. Manager Van Veldhoven, always a guarantee for interesting tactical moves, sacrificed the second striker that generally plays off Mads Junker, a role played by Pluim in three of this season’s four matches so far, to install a five men midfield and go for a genuine 4-5-1 formation.
In addition to a different formation, Roda’s playing style was also quite different from what the home crowd will be used to. They sat very deep, particularly during the first twenty minutes, and absorbed the expected pressure their superior opponents gave them. Both wide midfielders mainly provided defensive contributions during that early phase and consequently Mitchell Donald, playing ‘in the hole’, intitially had a tough time connecting passes to lone striker Junker.
Twente’s unusual shape
One of the key questions in listing the starting names on the team sheet should be whether to adapt the names to a certain playing style and formation or the adapt the style and formation to the names available. And in this case, Adriaanse clearly went for the latter option. In the absence of the injured Chadli and Bajarami, and of course departed superstar Bryan Ruiz, he could have featured youngster Steven Berghuis on the right wing, but instead opted for a change of formation.
In an attempt to fit in new acquisition Fer in central midfield without forcing either top scorer Janko or the talented Luuk de Jong to the bench, Adriaanse vacated the right wing position. This move proved crucial in determining the fate of the game, as Roda took just over twenty minutes to figure out the countering options Twente provided them with.
The first phase
During the first twenty minutes of the match, Twente’s pressing, combined with their compact axis formation took Roda by surprise and the away side dominated the game. Roda sat too deep and invited pressure from their opponents, while allowing too much space in front of their defense even for the five men midfield to cover. Throughout the game Roda consequently played for offside, probably in an attempt to keep tall strikers Janko and De Jong away from the danger zone, but the lack of pressing exerted by the midfield still allowed the odd ball to come through for the overlapping runs of Fer and Janssen.
Roda’s deep wide midfielders added to the problem in that phase, inviting their opponents, Twente’s full-backs, to step into the midfield and provide some width in that department, further stretching the area to be covered here.
The second phase
Things changes a bit around the twenty minute mark. Roda took a less deep stance and thereby reduced the area in front of their defensive line. Suddenly the five men midfield proved more than capable of pressing the, now reduced, zone where Twente’s midfield had to operate and a reduction in the number of through balls was the result.
Twente’s game plan from that phase on consisted of mostly early left wing crosses through Ola John, launching high balls for Janko and De Jong to try and connect with. However, it was the odd through ball that seemingly settled the case in the 35th minute, as Roda’s midfield pressure slipped up just for a moment and Twente played Janssen in behind the, now slightly advanced, defensive line of Roda. Janssen’s shot was saved by Roda keeper Kieszek, but he gave up a rather cheap rebound for Janko to finish. With that, the tall Austrian striker scored his sixth goal of the season, now having scored in each of the first five matches.
As quickly as it was unexpected, Roda replied instantly. With his first arrival in the opposing box, holding midfielder Ruud Vormer finished after a nice one-two with Donald.
The second half
Only two minutes into the second half, Roda scored a second goal. It seems like Van Veldhoven instructed his team to exploit the defensive weakness that Twente imposed on themselves by vacating the right wing spot. The ball was quickly circulated to that area, where left full back Jimmy Hempte made an unopposed run forward. His pass found Donald in glaring space in Twente’s central defense and Donald, who played such a tough opening phase of the match when support was lacking, fired home from the edge of the area.
Adriaanse replied by correcting his formation, finally introducing a right winger, Steven Berghuis. Remarkably, it was captain and central defender Wisgerhof who was sacrificed. This led to a 3-3-4 formation, and with that to a clear picture for the remaining half hour to be played. Twente desperately fired ball forward while Roda was provided more and more space for their quick counters.
Twente’s midfield still consisted of three central midfielder that do not share the highest amount of creativity among them: Brama, Willem Janssen and Fer. It was in this difficult phase for them that the absence of Bryan Ruiz was most visible. On top of that, Roda’s packed five men midfield made things difficult for the away side, who found themselves with too many men in front of the ball.
The result was a closing phase where Roda’s counters provided more goal scoring threat than Twente’s attempts to find striker Janko and De Jong, but no more goals were scored.
In the end
This was a strange match in the sense that both teams played in a different shape than they usually do. But they did so with different incentives. Roda’s formation was defensively tuned from a 4-4-2 diamond to a genuine flat midfield 4-5-1 in order to deal with their opponent’s midfield strength. Furthermore, their defense, playing a medium high line and aiming for offside, was clearly aimed at reducing the threat of tall strikers Janko and De Jong.
Twente’s formation, on the contrary, was defensively tuned to fit in the presumed starting eleven names, rather than to beat the game plan of their opponent. Admittedly, Adriaanse missed the star qualities of Bryan Ruiz, who was sold to Fulham and the flair that could have been offered by the injured Nacer Chadli. But in this match he seemed to have based his vacated right winger formation around the preference to both add new acquisition Leroy Fer to the central midfield, and leave the Janko – De Jong striker partnership intact.
In the end, the team that adapted it’s starting eleven to their game plan beat the team that adapted their game plan to their starting eleven.
AdvertisementsOXFORD, Ohio – The tattoos sprawl up Riley Barber’s right arm, each offering a reminder of home. His grandmother. His brothers. A ribbon for his mother, Stacy, a figure skating coach and survivor of breast cancer. The skyline of Pittsburgh.
“Personal stuff,” Barber said. “Stuff like that.”
He was standing inside his new home now, near the Miami University RedHawks’ home locker room at Goggin Ice Center, deep into his junior season of college, with a professional career still dangling ahead. He decided to return to school after his sophomore season, and soon he will reach another crossroads. Leave Oxford and sign with the Washington Capitals, who swiped him in the sixth round (167th overall) in 2012, or come back for one last go.
“School’s important for me, and we’ll talk about that when the year ends,” he said. “But that’s a long time away. I’m trying not to think about that.”
Maybe recency bias of Friday night’s disappointing 3-1 loss to Denver had taken over, but Barber genuinely seemed content deferring the decision until after the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs, or the NCAA regionals, or maybe even the Frozen Four.
He is a leader here, not sporting the captain’s “C” like he did for the United States during world juniors, but still announced last during pregame introductions and at the center of Miami’s pregame routine, when everyone crowded the crease and circled around Barber.
Barber set this standard during his rookie season in college, when his 39 points led all freshmen in the nation, and buttressed it in 2013-14, when he scored 44 points in 38 games. He’s still a point-a-game player, registering 23 in 23 after Friday, but an inconsistent season hasn’t quite gone as planned for Barber and the RedHawks, who dropped their third straight game and fifth of eight. Barber scored Miami’s lone goal, a shorthanded breakaway during the first period, but his team labored after that.
“I think we need to finish games away,” said Barber, the son of former NHLer and fellow sixth-round pick Don Barber. “Sometimes we start with a good start, but we need to keep it for the full 60 minutes. Until we do that, it’s going to be hard to win in this league.”
“He’s a work in progress, obviously,” Coach Enrico Blasi said. “He’s a young guy learning the game. He’s one of the guys who’s out there a lot, logs a lot of minutes. I think he’s starting to understand how to play at a high level and be on the ice a lot.”
The allure of obtaining his degree – Barber majors in business entrepreneurship, because “I like to be my own boss, more creative” – might factor into the decision, but Barber said he hasn’t had much contact with the Capitals, aside the occasional call from director of player development Steve Richmond.
“Steve checks in, sees how I’m doing,” he said. “Other than that, really not a lot of communication. Nothing wrong with that.”
Still, Barber has kept tabs on the Capitals, checking their progress under first-year Coach Barry Trotz. He liked what he saw.
“I think Barry Trotz is doing a great job there, getting them to buy into a team game and they look great, on a great roll here,” he said. “Follow them pretty closely. It looks fun there at the Verizon Center for sure, but I’ve got to focus on here and now, get my game to where I want to be.”
So, one more time: Any thoughts about the future?
“Not at all right now,” Barber said. “Just focusing on putting some strings of wins together, getting deep into the playoffs here. That’s really our only focus right now.”
’A legend around here’
Among the first sights for Goggin Ice Center visitors, inside the entrance hallway, is a trophy case honoring longtime employee Mitch Korn, now the goaltending coach for the Capitals. At various times during his three decades at Miami (Ohio), Korn was the rink’s night manager, an assistant coach for the varsity hockey team, an assistant director of the ice hockey development program and the overseer of the school’s intramural hockey and broomball leagues.
“Oh yeah, he’s a legend around here,” Barber said. “He’s got a picture up in the hallway up there, he’s definitely a big part of this program and was definitely back in the day. It’s a whole shrine up there. He meant a lot to the program.”
Korn continued to work for the RedHawks even after joining the Buffalo Sabres as their goaltending coach, routinely shuttling between his NHL destinations – later Nashville – and the campus, located roughly two hours from Columbus.
He also wore these glasses:
But mostly these two pictures. pic.twitter.com/bwpO2V2aEs — Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) January 23, 2015
And Korn’s not the only one. Hershey Bears defenseman Cam Schilling attended Miami (Ohio) and his jersey hangs inside the main lobby. So did Capitals radio broadcaster John Walton, who once got suspended by Korn from the intramural hockey league. (More on this at a different time).
“There’s a lot of ties back to Miami,” Barber said. “Small world. Awesome university. Glad they shaped it the way they did.’Federal police in the western city of Saarbrücken said the woman reported the highly rare instrument missing after she left it in the luggage compartment of a train coming from the city of Mannheim, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) away.
Quick checks with the railway company revealed that the car in which she had been sitting had been attached to a train returning to Mannheim.
"One minute before the train's departure, the violin case was found in the last compartment and the musician, who was more than relieved, was able to reclaim it after verification it was her property," police said in a statement.
"Her relief was well founded as the violin was a General Dupont Grumiaux Stradivarius dating from 1727 and worth €2.4 million", the statement added.
Around 550 of the highly coveted violins handcrafted by Antonio Stradivari still exist, experts say, out of a total 1,100 by the 17th century Italian master craftsman.
They are highly prized for their incredible - and inimitable – sound. Many have experienced some remarkable adventures over the centuries.
In January 2014, a Stradivarius was snatched from the concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin by muggers armed with a stun gun. It was recovered in a matter of days.
In July 2012, a Stradivarius was turned in to a Swiss railway lost-and-found counter after an acclaimed violinist forgot it on a commuter train.
And in 2008, an American violinist left a $4 million Stradivarius in the back seat of a New York taxi. The driver returned it to its owner.A large German bank has come under fire for creating psychological profiles of more than a million of its customers, German media report.
Customers of Haspa, a division of Sparkasse, were labeled as "adventurers," "conservationists," "hedonists" and other categories based on interactions with bank personnel, German public broadcaster NDR reported.
Bank financial advisers were trained in how to persuade each personality type to invest in financial products, NDR reported.
For example, the "adventurer" is "motivated by risk, conquest and struggle," so "arguments should be strongly emotional, to trigger their sense of impulsive decision making," NDR reported.
"Hamburger Sparkasse are doing the opposite of helping their customers make responsible choices, by getting into their heads to manipulate them into make choices that are not really in their interest," consumer advocate Edda Castello told NDR.
The bank said it would halt the practice, German news service The Local reported.It was a carefully coordinated campaign. Criminal investigators from the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg all struck at the same time, at 9 a.m. on Feb. 19 of this year. The investigators, driving civilian vehicles, drove up to residences in 12 locations and presented the suspects with search warrants. The officials had previously determined whether their targets had firearm or explosives licenses.
The suspects, of course, were not expected to put up any resistance. The youngest was 88 and the oldest almost 100. Nevertheless, three of the accused -- in Wiernsheim, Gerlingen and Freiburg -- were temporarily taken into custody.
The next day, prosecutors in each locality issued a press release titled: "Searches conducted of presumed former SS members at the Auschwitz concentration camp."
The sentence contained three key phrases: "search," "SS members" and "Auschwitz." The impact was immense. From the Los Angeles Times to Le Figaro and El País, media organizations worldwide reported on what the German newspaper Die Welt called the "biggest concerted campaign against presumed Nazi criminals in decades."
Almost 70 years after its liberation, Auschwitz continues to trigger strong emotions, more so even than the other sites that played a key role in the Nazis' machinery of death. Among the six million victims of the Holocaust, at least 1.1 million Jews were killed in the largest extermination camp of the Third Reich, along with tens of thousands of non-Jewish Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and Sinti and Roma. The victims came from almost all European countries, and most were sent to the gas chambers immediately after their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The SS ground up the bones of the corpses and sold the meal to a fertilizer company in the vicinity. The ashes of the incinerated bodies were used in road construction, the hair of the women was spun into yarn and processed into felt, and gold tooth fillings were removed and melted, formed into bars and turned over to the Reichsbank, Germany's central bank during the Nazi era.
Low on the Chain of Command
The police raid on Feb. 19 was part of a bigger operation in 11 German states, initially directed against 30 former members of the SS who had worked at this human extermination factory. The cumbersomely named Central Office of State Judiciary Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, in the southwestern city of Ludwigsburg, had identified the cases.
The list included 24 men and six women, all low-ranking former SS privates and lance corporals. They had worked in Auschwitz as bookkeepers, medics, teletypewriters and -- the majority -- as guards. Many of them were serving at the concentration camp when a transport that included 15-year-old Anne Frank, perhaps the most famous Holocaust victim, arrived in 1944.
The fact that the accused were low on the chain of command in no way diminishes the importance of the new proceedings. As part of the Nazi machinery of murder, they were all suspected of complicity in many thousands of cases.
The concerted operation that began in Ludwigsburg did not miss its mark. The public noted with respect that the German judiciary had tried, once again, to amend what is probably the most shameful record in its history.
The judiciary's pursuit of those involved in the Holocaust stood in sharp contrast to the scope of the crime. According to historian Andreas Eichmüller, of the 6,500 members of the SS who served in Auschwitz and survived the war, only 29 were convicted in West Germany and reunified Germany, while about 20 were convicted in East Germany.
The failure of the German judiciary has long been viewed as part of the "second guilt" for which writer and Holocaust survivor Ralph Giordano reproached the Germans in 1987. It stems, he wrote, from the fact that Germans repressed the Hitler years for too long and denied their own guilt.
More than half a year has now passed since the February police raids. And it has become clear that the assumption was erroneous that German prosecutors could at least partially atone for Auschwitz with a last attempt to bring some of the perpetrators to justice. The new cases are being abandoned almost weekly and the reasons are varied. A few of the former SS members have died in the meantime and many are too frail to stand trial. In one case, the suspect had already been punished by a Polish court in the postwar years.
A History of Failure
The former SS members arrested in Baden-Württemberg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have since returned home. So were the actions of the public prosecutor's office "completely excessive," as Peter-Michael Diestel says critically? Diestel, who served as the last East German interior minister and now works as a criminal defense attorney, represents Hubert Z., a former SS Unterscharführer, or sergeant.
Prosecutors are only seriously pursuing charges in eight cases today, suggesting that an especially ignoble chapter in German postwar history is coming to a fitting end. Some suspect that the prosecutors were merely trying to collect PR points by booking a few gray-hairs with a Nazi past.
Either way, the episode seems as though it will do nothing to improve the history of failure that has characterized the German judiciary's approach to Auschwitz. Many explanations for that failure have been offered over the years.
Can the failings be found primarily in the era of Konrad Adenauer, the first postwar chancellor of West Germany, as Christoph Safferling claims? Safferling, a law professor, is a member of a committee of historians who have been commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Justice to examine its treatment of the Nazi era. Safferling says it was later no longer possible to correct the failings of lawmakers and judges in the initial postwar years.
Or did the German judiciary lack an overall strategy, as his Cologne colleague Cornelius Nestler puts it?
Did it have something to do with the many Nazis who continued their careers in the judicial service after the war had ended? But in that case, why wasn't there a wave of new trials after this generation had gone into retirement in the 1980s? The last summary trial of an Auschwitz-related case ended more than 20 years ago.
Lack of Interest
Perhaps German criminal law is fundamentally unsuited to "render judgment on systematic, bureaucratically organized, state-sponsored mass murder," as US historian Devin O. Pendas writes. Or perhaps the answer can be found at Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse 20 in Frankfurt, the location of the public prosecutor's office that conducted -- and, in most cases, suspended -- the majority of Auschwitz-related prosecutions.
In reporting this piece, SPIEGEL examined numerous archived documents from judicial inquiries. The magazine spoke with historians and legal scholars along with prosecutors and judges involved in Auschwitz cases. We also interviewed defense attorneys of former SS members and spoke to one Auschwitz survivor.
The punishment of crimes committed at Auschwitz did not fail because a few politicians or judges tried to thwart such efforts. It failed because too few people were interested in decisively convicting and punishing the perpetrators. Many Germans were indifferent to the mass murder at Auschwitz after 1945 -- and thereafter.
Even before the war ended, the Allies suspected that it would be difficult to punish the misdeeds of the Nazis, because of the large number of perpetrators and the difficult legal terrain. Did the Allies have the right to prosecute what Hitler had done to Jewish and other Germans? That right was questionable under international law, as then British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden conceded during a |
huge step for us, for improv. So when we were doing Script Tease at Theatre Passe Muraille... Albert Schultz and Leslie Lester came to see a show and invited us to do some of their festivals; that worked into a longer residency. They are big thinkers and dreamers, so we had a meeting and Albert said, “Write down your top 10 things you want to do.” At the top of the list Matt wrote, “International Improv Festival.” We had been travelling all over the world with NTOW and met so many inspiring performers, we wanted to introduce them to the Toronto community. What’s it like planning this festival with your partner in life Matt Baram? Well, Matt has been filming in Halifax (Season 2 of Seed for City TV) so he has been working remotely for the last three months. A lot of our phone calls are about travel itineraries, festival organization and where does he keep the spare light bulbs. When this is over we’re going to look at each other and remind ourselves... oh yeah... we don’t just work together, we get to live life together too. That’s going to be great. But first we have to get through 55 hours of improv together; if we can handle that, we can handle anything. What is this 55hr marathon?
One word: Crazy. They have done 52 hours in Edmonton, 53 hours in the U.K., 54 hours in Australia... so we went one higher. Luckily we have veterans Mark Meer, Dana Andersen, Jacob Banigan and, from the U.K., Sean McCann, Adam Meggido.... Then we have some other core members from the community like Carolyn Taylor, Chris Gibbs, Herbie Barnes. We’ve got a great team of people and some great folks from the Toronto community coming down to support. It’s really a special community event and all money raised is going to Gilda’s Club... so it makes it even more special as she’s one of my heroes. Last words? Just come down to the Distillery. It’s a magical time around there and now it’s going to be magical inside too. I don’t know what to tell you to expect because it’s improv... but I’ll tell you this: expect anything, expect magic.Josh Malerman (Photo11: Doug Coombe)
Josh Malerman's debut Bird Box has a terrifying premise. There's something out there. Something lurking and waiting, something that will drive you mad if you catch even a glimpse, mad enough to kill. Survivor Malorie wants to escape with her children, but venturing into the outside world means donning a blindfold and hoping to make it out alive. In this interview, Malerman shares what sparked his interest in horror, the connection between his writing and his music, and what the future holds for Malorie. The bad news is...you'll have to open your eyes to read it.
Bookish: Your bio doesn't mention you as a writer, but as the leader of the rock band The High Strung. What made you decide to write a novel?
Josh Malerman: The writing is what got me into the band to begin with. I've been friends with Derek (drums) and Chad (bass) since we were 11 years old. They'd already been playing music by then. I was writing: poems, short stories, comic books. When we were around 19, Derek, Chad, and a few other friends were playing music together, but they didn't have a songwriter. So they asked me to give it a go, me being the only writer they knew.
In hindsight, what they asked is insane. You can't expect a fella to write songs just because he tries to write books! But, what can I say? It worked. I sat down at a Farfisa organ, Chad showed me a C chord, and I was bitten almost immediately. Fell madly in love. From that moment on, it's been books and songs, side by side.
Bookish:Bird Box is utterly creepy. Anyone who so much as opens their eyes is probably going to become a killer. Did some incident inspire this dark nightmare? Or something you read?
JM: Nothing in particular that I read inspired the book, but then again, every single thing I read before writing it was an inspiration.
I wrote the rough draft for Bird Box before The Road (and) The Happening came out. Bird Box's plot is similar to The Happening. In fact, I had a pair of mental breakdowns when I encountered both those works of art, thinking Bird Box would simply never see the light of day. At some point, I had to swallow it that Bird Box might get lost in the shuffle. Of course, it didn't. Instead, it's opened a door for me, one I happily stepped through.
So what did influence Bird Box? Well, I've had a crush on Medusa since about 1985. Maybe the book is an ode to her:
Dear Medusa,
Don't get upset, but the characters in my book can't look upon their "enemies" either.
I love you,
Josh
Bookish: What were the challenges of writing for characters who are essentially blind? Did you do any real life experiments to discover how your other senses pick up when you're blindfolded?
JM: A little. Though I wish I had done more, if only for the sake of giving you a better answer. I did walk around the apartment with my eyes closed and, more than once, one of my five finches brushed against my hand, my neck, my face. I'm sure that had something to do with something.
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Bookish: What sends humans into madness seems to be getting a glimpse of something that our minds cannot comprehend. That is truly out of Lovecraft. Who are your other favorite horror writers?
JM:The Mist by Stephen King was more or less my introduction to that Lovecraftian "overlapping of dimensions." I like Lovecraft, but I don't know if I know him well enough to consider him a "favorite." There are people who devote their lives to that guy. A whole shelf has grown in the bookstores based on his stuff.
Truth is, I love all the horror guys and girls: Gord Rollo, Shirley Jackson, Harlan Ellison, Ramsey Campbell, Dan Simmons, Thomas Ligotti. Each one of them brings something wonderfully different and, because I love the genre, I love those who love the genre too. And I hope the genre ends up loving me back. I think it will, but I understand I've got to earn that love.
After college I went on a real big classics kick. Read everything by Faulkner, Hemingway, Woolf, Proust, Dostoevsky. And that classics train dropped me off at Dracula. Halfway through it, I understood I'd never be going back, never "leaving" the genre again. Since then, I've been on a fairly strict horror diet.
Bookish: What are your five favorite scary movies? And why?
JM:Twilight Zone: The Movie because it was my first.
Creepshow because it brought E.C. Comics to life, and because the soundtrack is fantastic.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre because of everything about it.
Evil Dead because it completely represents horror as a dark "art."
Under the Skin because I just saw it.
But this is just five. I could list 500.
Bookish: Your protagonist Malorie seems at times very cruel to her young children, Boy and Girl. How did you balance her need to protect them at all costs while still keeping her a person the reader can like?
JM: It's possible that the alternating timelines did that for me. We're able to catch Malorie, simultaneously, in the before and after. Here she is innocent enough; here she is borderline abusive. If you notice, there aren't many scenes detailing the transformation, the four years she spent raising the kids alone. The timeline gave me a chance to show two very different sides of her, making something of a balancing act on its own.
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Bookish: You've created a crisis no one's ever seen, but it comes off as so real. Did you do research into breakdowns of civilization, or did you wing it?
JM: "Wing it" sounds a little too easy breezy. The only real research I did for the book was what happens to a woman's body during the trimesters of her pregnancy. The thing is... I'm not convinced it is end times in Bird Box. Most apocalyptic fiction makes it very clear that it's the end of the world. But Bird Box hasn't convinced me of that. Is Bird Box instead a suburban neurotic nightmare? I don't think so. But it's fun to consider.
Bookish: Will we find out what happens to the survivors of Bird Box?
JM: I'm 100% not opposed to writing a sequel. The only thing is, I've got a lot of ideas, a lot of rough drafts. It'd feel a little unlike me to stay in the same story for too long. But we don't have to wait 30 years either. How about we find out a little more about Malorie two or three books from now? I like that idea.
--
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Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1hQTqruZendesk is now 2-3 times faster thanks to our recent upgrade to Ruby 1.9.3!
As our application and traffic continues to grow, we here in Zendesk Engineering are continually identifying and removing performance bottlenecks.
Much to our dismay, we have reached a point where there are very few easy optimizations left within our codebase – the “win 90% from 10%” rule can be tricky with Rails apps due to its tendency towards many, many small methods.
Much of our performance cost was due to Ruby interpreter overhead, and plenty more was garbage collection – our “main app” is over 80,000 LOC, and contains 170 libraries. Even on REE, Ruby 1.8 made us pay a pretty heavy penalty for having a codebase of this size.
A line in the sand
Every once in awhile, one of us in engineering would get ambitious and take a stab at getting some part of our test suite running under 1.9. But we’re quite busy, you know, actually building stuff in engineering, and the attempts were spaced out over a few weeks. Which is enough time to allow the rest of the team to add shiny, new, incompatible code. The Sisyphean nature of this would cause us to wander away and get coffee.
When we officially launched the 1.9 upgrade project, we needed a way to prevent our team from introducing new 1.9 incompatibilities while we worked on the old ones.
Here’s what we came up with. We started with this simple patch in our test suite
and followed this process:
Run the test-suite under 1.9, collect failures, and add mark_19_incompat at the head of any test file that doesn’t pass under 1.9. Get a CI build passing under 1.9. Many parts of the code-base are still broken, but at least we know the entry points that cause failures, and can require the engineering team to keep both “legacy” (REE) and the 1.9 build green. The less glamorous but useful work begins: Start fixing and removing mark_19_incompat from tests.
Fixes and common problems
First off, we followed a bunch of the excellent advice from others who have been through the same ordeal, e.g. the Harvest 1.9.3 upgrade was very handy, and the mysql2 upgrade was absolutely crucial. We ended up sticking with syck as our YAML parser in order to remove YAML serialization from our critical path.
UTF-8 Encoding issues
Character encoding will definitely be the big line item when attempting a 1.9 upgrade. This class of errors ranged from simple one-liners, i.e. slapping # encoding: utf-8
at the top of the file, to more in-depth issues with Marshal.load and YAML-parsing – we’ll get to those later. Luckily, being of Danish origin, we had a decent amount of UTF-8 in our test suite already – we can’t recommend enough that you fill out your test fixtures with plenty of funky looking characters.
Array#to_s
This one bit us more times than we’d like to admit. There were quite a few places in our code-base where we called.to_s on a single-sized array, and expected the string back. These bugs often manifested themselves mysteriously. In retrospect, a better approach may have been to raise exceptions when calling incompatible methods.
Marshal compatibility
We ran some tests and found that Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 were bi-directionally compatible with regards to Marshal.dump/load, after adding this little monkey patch (utf-8, again!).
Deep, deep YAML oddness
In 99% of cases, the YAML serialized to the database was easily readable and writable from both 1.8 and 1.9. We came across one very deep nook, though, where certain strings coming back from YAML.parse with binary (known as ASCII-8BIT in ruby-land) encoding. Head scratching ensued. Eventually, we found this odd little nook in Ruby 1.8:
This caused certain UTF-8 heavy strings to be encoded as “BINARY” types in YAML. These types were then assigned incorrect encodings when read back in 1.9. The fix was simple enough, if obscure:
Forgive bad browsers
We were able to reduce encoding error noise quite a bit by falling back to encoding in Latin 1 (ISO-8859-1) when encountering invalid UTF-8 on the front-end. Since the majority of our problems are from users on older clients who are only attempting to browse pages, we have seen very few problems with this simple solution.
Productionizing the thing
Our test suite was passing. Our Soviet-block QA team said “da”. We still needed to battle-test the thing. There were a few routes we could have taken here. A smaller start-up might have simply thrown a hail-mary at the upgrade, cutting all the servers over to 1.9 and scrambling to fix the errors. A larger company could have probably dedicated a cluster of servers and mirrored traffic to it, collecting and fixing the errors located. We found ourselves in a somewhat unfortunate middle ground, so we upgraded a single app server and fed it traffic for 15 minutes, collecting all the errors returned.
Our rollout phase lasted roughly a week. Within a few days we were running half of our unicorns on 1.9. This allowed us to keep on top of the list of problems, and users were able to successfully retry requests that failed due to 1.9 issues.
We were surprised by the raw efficiency of 1.9 – our servers, running 1.8, ran pretty hot through the course of the day, with big spikes (likely due to garbage collection). The upgrade eased off our load troubles and gave us some scale-room on the frontend.
What’s next?
We’ve been in the process of splitting our main application into smaller components. We’re also working on upgrading to Rails 3, and hope this will allow us to accelerate the process. Additionally, we”ll be keeping on eye on projects like JRuby and Sidekiq for multi-threaded processing.Right-wing master propagandist-pimp Andrew
Breitbart (c) and his protégés, real-life "investigator"-
whores James O'Keefe III (l) and Hannah Giles (r)
GOP Apologizes for Anti-ACORN Smear Job
GOP pols and propagandists disown
dirty tricksters and their "evidence"
GOP Congress Members Move to Censure Themselves
Over Bogus, Fraud-Based Campaign Against ACORN
In the first video below, Breitbart asks me if I’m disturbed by what I saw in the videos.
If he had let me answer, I would have told him that I perceive ACORN’s mission to be helping the underserved. That I don’t understand how helping women out of sexual slavery is something that deserves to be condemned. That what I’m disturbed by is the behavior being demonstrated by those up on the stage that would demonize people trying to make a real difference in people’s lives.
In the end, I think I ruined their little press conference.
Evidently, it hadn’t occurred to them that they might face serious scrutiny. Why, for example, does O’Keefe dress up in the ridiculous pimp garb for the bumpers of the video when he didn’t wear that costume into the ACORN offices? Why is Breitbart attaching his name and credibility to someone that was kicked out of his Rutgers dorm for refusing to cease his use of racial slurs? Exactly why would Breitbart expect an ACORN staffer to call the police on a Congressional candidate trying to rescue a young prostitute from her vicious pimp?
Finally, in the second video, we learn all we need to know.
After hiding behind the lawsuit and using it as a shield to deflect questions they did not want to answer, they refuse to commit to releasing every full and unedited tape they have in exchange for ACORN dropping all of its lawsuits.
If they really wanted the truth out there, why do they need to edit these tapes in the first place? Why aren’t the unedited videos already in the public domain?
#
It's time for another edition -- by quick count roughly No. 1,835,856 -- of our favorite political parlor game, If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot.Here are some hissy-fit headline we can expect to seegenerated by GOP propagandists:Even as star GOP investigative fraudster-slimeball James O'Keefe III's evidence in his anti-ACORN scam unravels, the Rampaging Right's favorite juvenile delinquent of course has more immediate legal problems. It's possible the mental defectives of the Rampaging Right will be satisfied with his explanation for his little band of hoodlums' break-in and bugging of Lousiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office: "The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator." It seems likely, though, that law enforcement authorities will be less impressed. The little thug is apparently an even more inept liar than he is a crusading investigator.Meanwhile, though, left unresolved is the shitpile of his bogus ACORN "investigation." Interestingly, public attention was diverted from that matter about the time that (a) ACORN was officially cleared of any wrongdoing, and (b) the first people not on the payroll of the right-wing loons to take a proper look at O'Keefe's famous fake-prostitute video determined quickly and easily that it was obviously and crudely edited. You'll recall how quickly the entire right-wing establishment, including its junior wing, the Republican Party, joined in choral screeching denunciations of ACORN.Our pal Mike Stark has posted a great update ("All You Need to Know About the ACORN Scandal and Who Is Behind It" on Huffpost, "More on ACORN/O'Keefe" on his own Stark Reports ) on the GOP's lead crackerjack investigative fraudster-slimeball James O'Keefe, with video of emerging GOP master propagandist Andrew Breitbart.Of course it's easy to understand why ACORN drives right-wing mental defectives so crazy. After all, ACORN's mission is to help the economically disadvantaged, which is another way of saying "the poor," and since the RWMDs are all devout Crap Christians, they know that God simplythe poor, and only put them on earth to be savagely exploited by the rich and would-be rich. As the founder of Crap Christianity, Crap Christ, said, "The poor you will always have to exploit."And since the poor are by definition, well, poor, the exploitation really has to be ruthlessly savage if it's to yield more than chump change. (In some though not all of the XXXXXX Gospels, Crap Christ also said, "And you know, they really smell bad.")Some commentators feel that the Right-Wing Rage Against ACORN is actually driven by ACORN's ethics, recalling the voter-registration "scandals" in which not a single admittedly fake voter registration done by ACORN's hired hands led to a fraudulent vote, and that the fake registrations came to light precisely because ACORN fulfilled its legal obligation to report them when discovered to election officials. The theory is that the precedent could be fatal to the whole of Movement Conservatism. Could any Loony Right organization, including the Republican Party, survive the imposition of such a high legal and ethical standard? Certainly all of the GOP's vast network of genuinely fraudulent voter registrations and election riggings would have to be dismantled.Now, just to bring it all home: Imagine that a right-wing operation -- Andrew Breitbart's, just to throw out a randomly chosen name -- were being investigated for alleged improprieties on the basis of evidence no better than this. How swiftly would national outrage, congressional condemnation and other punishments like attempted defunding be likely to come?This is a trick question, I'm afraid. There wouldn't be any investigation. Well, why don't we sit back and watch the investigation into the activities of the New Plumbers, Mssrs O'Keefe and cronies. Already we can hear the mental defectives of the Right-Wing Noise Machine screeching about the rush to judgment against their hero, thug wannabe James O'Keefe III. Yawn.
Labels: Acorn, right-wing bulllies, Right-Wing Noise MachineACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell has released a proposed model for anti-consorting laws in the territory. Credit:Jay Cronan Mr Rattenbury last week wrote to the Attorney-General in protest at a raft of other new powers being made available to police and prosecutors, including tough new move-on provisions, and a law giving prosecutors an effective veto power over a court's decision to grant a detainee bail. The "bail review" powers would allow prosecutors to hold an inmate in custody until an appeal can be heard in the Supreme Court, despite a court's decision to release them. "I just simply don't accept the rationale there," Mr Rattenbury said. "It essentially says the court makes the decision and the DPP turns around, on the spot, and says 'We disagree'. As a matter of law, I can't see how the DPP can be given the ability to effectively overrule the court decision.
"I think this package does overreach, and that's why I won't be able to support it in the Assembly." The ACT government is forging ahead with the introduction of anti-consorting laws, following other jurisdictions down a path that has proved controversial. The laws are designed to dismantle and disrupt bikie gangs by preventing certain individuals from meeting or speaking with one another. But they have drawn criticism for their conflict with human rights, most notably the freedom to associate, and for being misused against individuals not related to bikie gangs in any way. Attorney-General Simon Corbell has released a proposed model for community consultation that would rely largely on the issuing of "consorting warnings" to individuals by either the police or magistrates.
Police would be able to unilaterally issue consorting warnings to individuals if they have criminal convictions, or if intelligence suggests they are about to commit a serious crime together. If the targets of the ban do not have criminal convictions, police would need to go to the courts, where they would be able to give evidence in secret. The Human Rights Commission published its submission against the proposal last week, arguing there was little evidence to support such a curtailment of human rights. Dr Watchirs said the ACT's 45 or so bikies appeared to account for just 1 per cent of Australia's total outlaw motorcycle gang membership, and said there appeared to be no explanation of why the existing suite of powers available to police was insufficient. "In my view, much more evidence is needed to justify the introduction of consorting offences in the ACT, particularly given the very broad proposals and the consequent risks of the powers being misused," she said.
Dr Watchirs said the laws were too broad and disproportionate, and asked the government to consider restricting the powers by requiring police to show consorting would lead to criminality, that the offence being planned related to organised crime, that the convictions of the subjects must be relevant and recent, and that, ideally, police would need to go to the courts in all instances. She also asked the government to consider safeguards for vulnerable groups, including Indigenous Australians, who have been targeted by consorting bans interstate. A NSW Ombudsman's report published in April found that between 2012 and 2015, 44 per cent of those subjected to consorting provisions by general duties police were Aboriginal. "In my view, consorting laws confer unacceptably broad discretionary powers to police," Dr Watchirs wrote. "They have been shown in other jurisdictions to operate in ways that depart from their stated legislative intention to focus on serious organised crime, and disproportionately impact on vulnerable people," she said.How is a minuscule, Prairie-based, fundamentally non-democratic special interest group that operates like some self-appointed secret society able to develop such traction in framing the current Metro discussion of public transit funding?
Judging from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, you'd think Metro residents were staggering under intolerable taxes and about to be crushed by yet another.
Yet competitiveness studies show that after Alberta we enjoy the second lowest provincial tax in Canada. Our sales tax is lower than all but two provinces - and would retain that rank even with the proposed transit increase. Corporate tax rates here are second lowest in Canada. Small corporations enjoy a tax rate 20 per cent lower than Alberta's. Residential taxes in Metro are lower than in Victoria.
No matter. The seven-member CTF, which claims to represent 84,000 Canadians, has effectively inserted its anti-tax agenda into a discussion that applies only to Metro residents.
Just to put that in perspective, even if you take CTF at its word regarding "supporters" - as opposed to "members" - it represents 0.2 per cent of Canada's population. Members represent 0.00002 per cent of Canada's population. If all CTF "supporters" lived in B.C., they'd represent only 2.6 per cent of the province's population and even if they all lived in Metro Vancouver they'd represent only 3.3 per cent. So this is a bit like the city council of Lethbridge - it represents about the same number of people - coming to town to harangue residents of Metro Vancouver over public transit planning.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, by comparison, tallied almost 84,000 supporters - proportionally that's 6,850 per cent more supporters than the CTF can claim - and they
live here and not in Hairy Hill, Alberta, Country Cat Pond, Labrador, or wherever CTF's undisclosed "supporters" reside. The CTF demands transparency for "donation disclosures" and "access to voters lists" in one broadside that recently arrived, thundering for "election rules" for the transit plebiscite.
However, CTF declines for "privacy" reasons to disclose exactly who its own supporters are or who provides its funds and in what specific amounts.
Why the secrecy? Because, its website says, vindictive bureaucrats, politicians, union activists "and other stalwarts of the entitlement state" might retaliate. "Over the years CTF staff members have been called in the middle of the night to be told off, received horrifically offensive letters and emails, been threatened with protests at their homes, bomb threats at our offices and even death threats."
Sorry if I'm unsympathetic.
Columnists put their names to opinions. Getting berated after work, reading nasty correspondence and experiencing all the other unpleasantness that generates CTF distaste for raucous hurly-burly just comes with the territory. That's the thing about free speech in a democracy - it doesn't have to be genteel.
Yet here is the CTF, this tiny, unaccountable, unidentifiable pressure group, spouting demands for transparency in the coming plebiscite and choosing language that suggests a lack of legitimacy in the process all while implying some onerous tax decision.
Well, it's not an election. It's not a referendum. It's a plebiscite. And it's not a vote authorizing a tax, because the results aren't binding. In fact, you're only voting because your cowardly provincial government seeks to evade difficult decisions which arise when its narrow ideology founders on the reefs of reality. So, it's simply a memorandum of advice to elected officials about what voters in specific municipalities think about a proposed regional policy for funding transit infrastructure that if left as is will be inadequate to service rapid population growth in a critical economic zone.
In a healthy democracy, any dog is entitled to yap about anything it likes. That doesn't mean every yap deserves equal consideration.
shume@islandnet.comManuel was the relative carried out of the Williams garage by his cousin when a fire broke out on the Sunday of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, just hours after the older Maldonado had won the race.
Teenager Maldonado stepped up to car racing last season and raced in Italian F4, contesting the Indian MRF Challenge, finishing 14th overall.
The Venezuelan will race for Fortec in British F3 and completes its line-up, the team having previously signed Ben Hingeley and British F4 graduate Nicolai Kjaergaard for the 2017 season.
Maldonado drove one of Fortec’s Tatuus F3 cars before completing the deal, having previously tested its F4 machinery.
"It's a great opportunity for me to have signed with Fortec, I have worked with them in the past and I am very happy to be here," Maldonado said.
"I know that we can develop well together. Now we keep preparing hard for the upcoming season and it's an honour for me to represent my country Venezuela in a British championship."
Fortec's team manager Russ Dixon added: "We are very pleased to welcome Manuel to the team for the season ahead, and also to have completed our line-up for 2017 BRDC British F3.
"Manuel is a talented young driver and we are looking forward to helping him progress throughout the year."
The 17-year-old is the second driver this week to confirm his participation in the 2017 championship, with South African Callan O’Keeffe having joined Douglas Motorsport.
O’Keeffe, a former Red Bull junior, will partner British F4 race winner Petru Florescu at Douglas at five of the championship’s eight rounds this year, the Romanian balancing his British F3 commitments with a Euroformula Open campaign.
Jamie Chadwick, the youngest winner of a British GT title, was confirmed as Double R’s first signing last Wednesday.Skywatcher Yuichi Takasaki took this photo of deep violet hues in an auroral display. Multiple exposures are made to collect enough light for an image that would otherwise not be evident to the eye.
This colorful photo of the northern lights was taken by skywatcher Yuichi Takasaka above British Columbia, Canada.
Auroral activity is connected to solar storms on the surface of the sun. The northern and southern lights — also known as the aurora — are mostly witnessed in polar latitudes. A clash of charged particles from Earth's magnetosphere with atoms and molecules of Earth's atmosphere (at altitudes above 50 miles, or 80 kilometers) cause these lights. Solar wind from the sun carries these particles to Earth.
Takasaka wrote on his website TWAN (The World at Night) the best way to shoot images of the auroras are from areas where there are view inhabitants. Statistically, March and October are the best months of the year to view auroral activity because of they have the most geomagnetically disturbed days.
The colors in an auroral display are caused by altitude of the particles when they collide in the Earth's atmosphere. Violet hues tinged with red and blue in this image occur below 60 miles (100 km).
"Usually I could barely see any color, just many vertical lines in white light," Takasaka wrote on the website TWAN. "I quickly pointed my camera toward the north and I was so surprised not only of the sudden aurora activity also of the colors captured in the camera!"
Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.The former Selecao star has signed for the Brazilian club on a free transfer after the club he spent over five-and-a-half years at decided to let him leave
Atletico Mineiro have signed up defensive midfielder Josue on a free transfer after Wolfsburg allowed him to terminate his contract ahead of its expiry in June.
The 33-year-old, who picked up 28 caps for Brazil between 2007 and 2010, will be landing in the country in the next couple of days to link up with his new team-mates, including former Barcelona star Ronaldinho.
Josue left South American shores in 2007, when he joined Wolfsburg from Sao Paulo having spent two years at the Brazilian giants after arriving from Goias.
The return to his native country comes after nearly six years with the Bundesliga giants, with a league title triumph in 2008-09 arguably the pinnacle of his time at die Wolfe.
Dieter Hecking’s side currently sit 13th in the top tier of German football and Josue has not been a regular, and with the player’s contract expiry looming, the club evidently decided to release him early.
Josue will be hoping he can help replicate the success he enjoyed in his spell at Sao Paulo, where he helped win two Brasilerao titles, a Copa Libertadores trophy and Club World Cup success.It may look like something designed by Iron Man’s Stark Industries, but this new touchscreen is for real. Developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, it’s an interface that essentially turns paper into a touchscreen, allowing for seamless data transfer between the real and virtual worlds.
Traditionally, hand gestures have been used to operate computer tablets and other devices. But Fujitsu’s new interface lets users touch analog mediums directly and manipulate them in tandem with image processing technology. And incredibly, it doesn’t require any special hardware — just an ordinary webcam and a commercial projector.
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The system can measure the shape of real-world objects and automatically adjust the coordinates for the camera, projector, and real world. It can also accommodate irregular surfaces like the curved surfaces of books.
From Fujitsu:
The system is designed not to react when you make ordinary motions on a table. It can be operated when you point with one finger. What this means is, the system serves as an interface combining analog operations and digital devices.
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The system can also adjust for color and brightness in consideration of the ambient light, and correct for individual differences in hand color.
We aim to develop a commercial version of this system by fiscal 2014. It's still at the demonstration level, so it's not been used in actual settings. Next, we'd like to get people to use it for actual tasks, see what issues arise, and evaluate usability. We want to reflect such feedback in this system.
Source: Diginfo, Fujitsu.AP For the last year, the North Korean government has been trying to convince anyone who'd listen that its tourism industry is booming.
With North Korea's long history of fibbing, those reports were a little suspect... until stories emerged about the country is having the same problem as many popular tourist destinations: dealing with crude Chinese tourists. "
Simon Cockerell, of Koryo Tours, which specialises in travel to the reclusive socialist state, cites as an example mainland tourists throwing sweets at North Korean children 'like they're feeding ducks'," reports The South China Morning Post's Kristine Servando. "If mainland tourists go to a school performance, they don't have any qualms about rushing to the stage and picking up a child for photos," Cockerell adds, pointing out another faux pas that is irking North Koreans.
We've noted in the past, that Chinese tourists have usurped Americans as the tourists everyone complains about—in Paris there's reportedly a Chinese language-only order that warns people not to defecate or urinate on the museum grounds and a hotel opening up that says Chinese tourists are not welcome; in Singapore, Chinese tourists are chastised for talking too loud; in Chiang Mai, Thailand buddhist monks have a hard time explaining rules to them; in Egypt there was the Chinese tourist who carved his name into the Luxor temple; and in China itself there are stories of zoo-goers abusing animals. You get the picture: There are many complaints about Chinese tourists all over the world. But those complaints are leavened by all of the money Chinese tourists spend.
In North Korea's case, these complaints about tourists may even be a signal of authenticity from a country that loves pumping positive stories out about itself. Servando reports:
The Chinese tourism office says 237,400 Chinese travelled to North Korea last year, 22.5 per cent more than in 2011, but a North Korean tourism official has claimed as many as 700,000 came in 2010-11.
But for a country like North Korea, with the several warnings and travel restrictions it carries, you could see how they want to overlook these transgressions. And apparently, Chinese tourists may be even less beloved than Americans. "I don't see tensions, but I would think that the Chinese are even less popular as individuals than the Americans. I think because the Chinese are close by, while the Americans are abstract - they're far away and there's a lot of propaganda about them," Cockerell said. Ouch.
More from The Atlantic Wire:He was an elephant and then a shark in China, but Fernando Alonso says he will need to be a "quick camel" in the desert on Sunday after more Honda engine woe in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Three days after the shock announcement he will contest this year's Indy 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Alonso was brought |
.0) have typically finished in 11 th place.
place. If a club wants a good chance staying away from relegation, they typically need to have a Sq£ of at least 20% of the average Sq£ for that season.
If a club wants a good chance at a Champions League spot, they typically need to have a Sq£ of at least 1.98 times the average Sq£ for that season.
To finish fifth and qualify automatically for the Europa League, a club typically need to have a Sq£ of at least 1.85 times the average Sq£ for that season.
Spending money certainly doesn’t mean success, and single seasons may present under- or over-performance versus the historical average. Part of that may have to do with how much of the squad’s cost makes it onto the field of play, but one must undoubtedly spend the money in the first place to have a shot at getting them on the field. The regression analysis above should leave no doubt that not only does it pay to spend, it pays to spend big relative to your competition.
Looking at teams that spent the league average or more over time leads to some interesting observations. The image below focuses on those clubs.
The following observations can be made:
Only twelve teams out of forty-four in the history of the Premier League have averaged an MSq£ greater than 1.0.
All seven of the teams that have never been relegated from the Premier League – Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United – have an average MSq£ of 1.0 or better. Five of the seven have an average MSq£ of 1.3 or better.
Aston Villa and Arsenal are the biggest overachievers, as represented by each of them having the biggest gap to the lower side of the regression line. Each has performed about six places better than their MSq£ would suggest.
Chelsea and Newcastle are the biggest underachievers. Chelsea suffers from a lower average finish due their performance in the league’s first decade and their consequent spend explosion in spending the second half.
There is also one common denominator of the top five spenders: DEBT. Much has been made of the Big Four’s debt woes via UEFA’s own reports and resultant fair play rules. I’ve done my own analysis using the annual Forbes rankings, using their 2006 through 2010 data to look at revenue-to-debt and profit margins before taxes for the Big Four (Newcastle have their own debt problems) to understand their ability to manage such debt. Each of them has different challenges before them:
While Arsenal has a healthy profit margin that has grown over each of the last four years, they carry the heaviest revenue-to-debt burden due to the recent construction of Emirates Stadium. Good debt indeed, but debt that must be serviced nonetheless.
Chelsea, through a forgiveness of debt by Roman Abramovich, has the best revenue-to-debt ratio of the four. However, they have yet to show a profit since 2006 and will be challenged by the fair play rules.
Liverpool may be the most challenged of the four. Their revenue-to-debt ratio and profit margins have been heading in the wrong direction since 2006. NESV’s purchase and effective dismissal of debt will undoubtedly help, but the ownership group’s cautious approach and the continued need for a new stadium will weigh heavily on the team’s ability to increase their MSq£.
Manchester United is a mixed bag like Arsenal, although likely not in as good a position. The Glazer debt is suffocating, providing them with the lowest revenue-to-debt ratio of the four even though they outstrip the next closest club’s revenue (Arsenal) by nearly 25%. However, they are the most profitable club at a 30% margin (before taxes).
All of this suggests that the Big Four, in attempting to maintain their dominance, have embarked on an unsustainable path. Each has taken different paths towards large debt loads – whether it is in players, stadiums, or overseas marketing. Whatever they have spent their (or others’) money on, it appears that such spending and the associated annual placement in the top four table positions is unsustainable given the debt load they carry today. Perhaps what we have witnessed over the last decade will be viewed years hence as not the natural order of things, but an aberration where funny money ruled the decade and led to the long term fiscal sickness of several clubs.
Indeed, the financial dominance of the Big Four has waned since its peak mid-decade. The plot below shows the MSq£ in the post-Abramovich era for the Big Four plus Tottenham and Manchester City.
By 2006 Tottenham had passed their rivals Arsenal in MSq£, while that year also represented the peak of Chelsea’s MSq£ advantage. Since then, Tottenham has steadied themselves around an MSq£ of 1.7 while Manchester City has increased their squad cost to the second highest MSq£ in the 2010-2011 season. Aston Villa’s sixth place finish last season notwithstanding, these are the six teams that battled over the four Champions League spots. What was a domination of four teams in 2003-2004 (no one was closer to them than Tottenham’s 57% of Liverpool’s MSq£) is now a six team race with two of the former Big Four relegated to the 5th and 6th positions. This is just further evidence that perhaps a decade or so of dominance by four teams is likely at an end, and also means risky bets of debt-loaded operations that count on continual Champions League income are not such a safe bet anymore.
The Usefulness of the MSq£ Regression Equation: A Case Study of Liverpool FC
In Pay as You Play, the authors pay close attention to each team’s rank in £XI and their associated finish, using the metric to understand the variability in pay-for-performance from season to season. With the creation of the MSq£ regression equation there is now an explicit numeric relationship between the relative cost to assemble a squad and their likely performance. Combining the two approaches allows us to understand whether a team or a manager under- or over performed versus the cost of their squad.
There are two ways to determine if a team has over- or underperformed versus expectations:
How they have finished versus their MSq£ rank. If the MSq£ rank is numerically higher than the table finish, they have overperformed. If the MSq£ rank is numerically lower than table finish, they have underperformed. The MSq£ rank will be the same as Pay as You Play’s Sq£ rank.
Translating their MSq£ value to a predicted finish, and comparing that predicted finish to the actual table finish. If the predicted finish is less than the actual table finish, the team has over performed. If the predicted finish is greater than the actual table finish, the team has underperformed.
The added benefit of using the regression equation is that it shows what teams with similar expenditures have achieved in the past. If several teams end up spending a similar MSq£, a close cluster of predicted finishes will be predicted and we will get a much clearer perspective of which teams have over- and underperformed than a traditional ranking of expenditures. Applying both metrics also gives us the ability to make a better determination of the team’s performance versus its expenditures. If both the rank and predicted place metrics break the same way, a more definite declaration that the team has exceeded or failed to meet expectations can be made. If a discrepancy exists between the two methods, a push is declared (also known as a tie to the non-gambling reader).
The first table below shows how Liverpool’s Premier League managers have fared against the rank and regression metrics. The “Total” column contains the average MSq£ of each manager, followed by the average number of teams that had a squad more costly then them. The fourth column of data shows how the manager’s average finish compared to the regression prediction from their average MSq£ – a negative score indicates better-than-predicted placement (over-performance), while a positive score indicates less-than-predicted placement (under-performance). The fifth column is self explanatory, while the final column combines the regression and rank performance to an overall judgment on the manager’s performance.
The second table displays the total count of season-by-season manager performance versus both metrics.
As was pointed out in Pay as You Play, Graeme Souness’ record at Liverpool was one of underachievement versus the financial resources expended. He had a MSq£ well into the twos for the one full season he was in the Premier League, while only being able to pull a sixth place finish in the table. His replacement, Roy Evans, had mixed results. He did well versus the regression predictions, but on average only a single team had a higher Sq£ only one team on average throughout his career at Liverpool. The strain of underachievement of the squad led him to quit the partnership with Gerard Houllier during the 1998-1999 season.
What becomes clear is that Gerard Houllier’s years seem to be the only managerial term where the team consistently outperformed expenditures. Houllier’s term also coincides with Liverpool’s Premier League era peak for youth players – see years six (’98-99) through eight (’00-’01) in the youth player chart earlier in this post. At that point Liverpool were running nearly double the league average with almost four homegrown players per match. Houllier leveraged players like Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, David Thompson, Dominic Matteo and Steve McManaman to outperform the MSq£ regression model (although some would point out Houllier inherited all of the homegrown talent). The later years of Houlier’s term represented a movement in the wrong direction both in terms of youth players and MSq£ – while still over performing versus expenditures, the club’s backwards slide in the table was not satisfying ownership or supporters’ expectations. Enter Rafael Benítez.
Rafa Benítez’s record is mixed. Overall, it’s a push with three seasons of over-performance, two as pushes, and one under-performance. The under-performance came in the first season, but the two pushes came in Rafa’s final three seasons with the club. Benítez didn’t inherit as many quality homegrown players and continued the steady downward trend in this metric, relying mainly on Carragher and Gerrard. This meant more of his team would be built on transfers, making success more challenging given Liverpool’s modest resources versus the competition (especially after a leveraged buyout).
His best over-performance was clearly the 2008-2009 campaign where Liverpool finished with 86 points. That year’s MSq£ was fourth highest, while the regression equation would have predicted a finish position of 6.62. Sadly, poor performance and low team morale resulted in the predicted seventh place finish in 2010. Rafa, who averaged 7 points a season more than Houllier (and who did far better in Europe) left soon afterward. [The analysis in Pay As You Play clearly shows how much better Benítez’s spending was in comparison with Houllier, particularly in terms of how their respective signings increased in value.]
Overall, Liverpool’s years in the Premier League have been a push. They have underperformed versus the MSq£ rank, but outperformed the regression equation. Until the ’06-’07 season they were also had the second highest utilization of youth players within the Big Four, nearly double Chelsea and Arsenal. These points are key, as history establishes realistic expectations going forward. While Liverpool has ranked high in MSq£ rank, they have consistently been number four within the Big Four.
They also seem to have occupied an interesting position in the Big Four. Chelsea has spent absurd amounts of money to compensate for the manager carousel they’ve experienced. Manchester United has been able to combine both high expenditures and management stability to set the standard for championships in the Premier League. Arsenal has relied on the genius of Arsene Wenger to keep them competitive with a modest MSq£. Liverpool seems to have had the worst of both worlds – a high turnover in managers and a very modest MSq£ compared to the big spenders they were chasing.
Liverpool’s MSq£ has steadily fallen by about 0.1 each season since 2003-2004, and is now the second lowest of the top six in the league (Arsenal is the only team with a lower MSq£). Liverpool has regressed to an MSq£ of 1.3 for the 2010-2011 season, leading to a predicted finish of 8.64. In the near term, Liverpool looks to be an upper mid-table club if they can get the right management and spend modest money. Longer term, they face a rebuilding task that needs a vision, a budget, and a manager to execute it.
The 2010-2011 Season So Far
So what does this all mean for this season?
The chart below summarizes each team’s performance to date versus their rank of MSq£ and the regression equation’s predicted finish. Chelsea’s, Manchester United’s, and Manchester City’s predicted finish from the regression equation had to be clipped to 1.0 as their MSq£ for 2010-2011 was so high that it lead to projected finishes of less than zero. Negative values versus the regression indicate over-performance, while positive values indicate under-performance.
Clearly, the two biggest over performers are Bolton and West Bromwich Albion – both of which are placing nearly nine spots higher than the regression would predict and 10 spots higher than their place in the MSq£ rankings. Arsenal, Blackburn, and Blackpool also deserve special mention – each is at least five places higher than both the regression analysis and MSq£ rankings would indicate.
Chelsea and Manchester City are penalized due to their large spend (ranking 1-2 in MSq£), while dropping points and expected table position. Nothing short of a top finish for either will match the expectations set by their expenditures. Spurs and Manchester United are right where they should be. All of this makes for a congested top six in the table, where at least two of the current Champions League participants have a real chance of not being able to find a seat when the music stops playing at the end of the season.
At the bottom end of the table, perennial Premier League members Aston Villa are disappointing their management given the cash they’ve outlayed for them. They are 10 spots below their MSq£ rank and more than four positions below their regression equation prediction. The biggest underperformer of all is West Ham United, whose mid-table MSq£ outlay has resulted in a disappointing run at the bottom and six places lower than the regression equation predicts. Fulham and Wigan are punching five spots below their MSq£ rank, but only two to three spots below what the regression equation predicts.
It’s a long season, and a lot can change between now and May 2011. As Graeme Riley has pointed out, this season has been far less predictable than those past. Perhaps we’re witnessing the beginning of a new age when money matters less, or maybe it’s just one where the disparity in squad cost, and resultant performance, is far less. Either way, it may leave some big spenders disappointed, some frugal clubs pleasantly surprised, and others just happy to not be relegated.
Conclusions
The quote at the outset of this post noted that the Soccernomics wage model accounted for 89% of the variation between wages and finish position, while the MSq£ model accounts for nearly 70% of the variation between MSq£ and finish position. A stronger relationship to wages makes sense. Players’ contracts can be renegotiated or extended to account for improvement or degradation in play since they initially arrived, while the CTPP data used to generate the MSq£ data is a static value that only changes based on overall transfer market conditions and not an individual player’s performance after the transfer. Nonetheless, a transfer must take place before anyone can negotiate wages or play a game for the new team and begin to generate data for “relative contribution” metrics. Paying for transfers is a pre-requisite for getting the talent a team hopes contributes to superior finishes on match day. Combine this with the uncertainty in obtaining reliable wage data versus more public transactions in the transfer market, and a compelling case can be made to look at transfers first and conclude they are the price-of-entry to having a shot at Premier League success. Once a player has been purchased, wages or utilization metrics are better suited to diagnosing actual performance versus expectations.
Understanding who’s spending money on transfers and how much more they are spending than the other teams in the league is critical to understanding their ability to compete for top finishing positions. At any moment in the 2010-2011 season, the average Premier League team is fielding a squad of ten transfers and one home grown player. The quality of those transfers as indicated by their current transfer purchase price and the team’s likely finish position seem to be highly correlated.
To understand a team’s relative expenditures is to begin to understand their potential table position. Doing so helps set realistic expectations for the squad, the team’s management, and its supporters. Ignoring this reality can lead to unrealistic expectations which in the end create a desire for quick solutions that can cause more organization and financial turmoil, setting the team further back from its goals for table finish.
*[Since the original publication of this blog entry I have been contacted by Soccernomics author Stefan Szymanski and this is what he had to say about the wage data used within Soccernomics:
“You question the quality of the wage data but I’m not sure that’s right- this is audited data from the company accounts published annually – not a guess like you see in Forbes. Its one weakness is that it is total payroll data, not just players- but players account for 90% plus of payroll normally. It must be much better quality than transfer fee data which is not audited and represents figures mentioned in the newspapers- the clubs never reveal the actual transaction value, and I’m told there are a lot of inaccuracies. Without getting confirmation directly from the clubs, there is no way to check this.”
Indeed, it appears the wage data used in Soccernomics is of the highest quality. I retract my earlier comment questioning its quality. At the same time, I would stand by the CTPP database being the most accurate of its kind for transfers. Stefan was quite complimentary of the overall post and its predecessor deconstructing his work at my blog, for which I am very grateful. Ultimately, he and I would agree on the wage data being a better predictor given its higher R2 value for the same reasons I gave at the conclusion of my post. I hope that Paul and I can engage Stefan in future analysis of the CTPP database and continue to shed light on the impact of finances on the result on the pitch.]
Zach Slaton is a mechanical engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt by day. At all other times, he is an Arsenal-loving, Seattle Sounders FC-supporting fan of soccer and the emerging field of soccer statistics (and Tomkins Times subscriber). You can find him on Twitter, as well his own blog which delves into deep statistical analysis of the English Premier League and Major League Soccer. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.May: $4814.94
April: $4623.70
March: $6777.02
February: $12586.51
January: $3689.27
Another month and it is hard to describe how generous you have been. As the weeks of bug fixing weigh on, it becomes important to ask: What is important in life? Where is the forward progress? But most of all, how can we make this game more fun? The Hero Role is the answer.The legends you will make for yourself will be universally themed. For example, you might find a group of tough guys hanging out at the well of your home village. They are harassing the locals and you pick a fight with them. Using the new non-lethal/submission system they tell you where the evil hideout is found.Back and forth, you sack the bad guys lairs and he sends his henchmen to attack you and your band. Eventually you will confront him and put an end to his reign. But that is just one enemy among many. Factions of wizards and warlords divide the worlds spoils and only you can stand in their way.Congratulations to the generous!The dev page has been reshuffled. The writeup for villains has been expanded, and I've added one for taverns and inns. I've removed the extended release schedule, since we don't think it's the right way to go now. The hero role basically contains the things I'd been wanting to move up in the caravan releases (living world, personality, etc.), and it should be a lively way to go about them that'll add to the game by itself and also naturally get us to taverns and inns. At that point, we'll have additional decisions to make about what to do. I plan to fix some more bugs before starting in on this. Thanks to everybody that helped out in May!Reward reminder: If you support us, you can pick either a Story Reward or a Crayon/Colored Pencil Art Reward. A Story Reward is basically a mini-Threetoe story ( examples ) and a Crayon Art Reward is a crudely drawn scene which we sketch, color in, and mail to you, anywhere in the world (assuming your contribution covers postage, which is about a dollar almost wherever you are). We take personal requests for either reward as well, he he he. You can also be listed among the Bay 12 ChampionsMost mispronounced Texas city names: Lesson 2 from readers
Spanish for “sweet water,” the name refers to a nearby creek. Spanish for “sweet water,” the name refers to a nearby creek. Photo: Ronnie Wiggin, Getty Images Photo: Ronnie Wiggin, Getty Images Image 1 of / 103 Caption Close Most mispronounced Texas city names: Lesson 2 from readers 1 / 103 Back to Gallery
Dozens of Texas city names defy conventional English phonics and trip the tongue of tourists and native Texans alike. A previous exercise of mispronunciations around the state elicited readers' chagrin and disbelief over such verbal idiosyncrasies.
The gallery above is a follow-up with contributions from readers who've heard their towns garbled from Jiba to Salinero, Bedias to Quiteque, as well as ones that should be simple and aren't, like Humble and Cross Plains.
This pronunciation guide is drawn from the Texas Almanac and the work of George Mitchel Stokes. A scholar at Baylor University, Stokes was a director of the speech division and developed a list of 2,300 pronunciations across the state in the 1940s.
Often, names rooted in Spanish, like Agua Dulce, maintain their original sounds, but once in a while an Anglicized version takes hold, and colloquial accents fluctuate from one generation to the next.
Some say "Lan-o;" others stick with "Yan-o." In the Hill Country, there are more than a few locals drawing ire for saying "New Brans – fels." And Manchaca will always be up for debate.
How many of these towns have you visited? Has a local corrected your pronunciation, or are you the one who straightens out the diction? Let us know in the comments whether Stokes' pronunciation holds true in your town, or if it's completely off base.
jmscott@mysa.comAs we dive headlong into the second full week of the regular season, so too must the rankings of the Top 150 hitters be adjusted to reflect the most viable and productive fantasy bats across the game. There was some moderate shakeup in the middle ranks of this sophomore edition of the Hitter List. Injury prognoses and recent DL entrants have been handicapped accordingly, and 11 new players who are generating buzz with their offense have debuted toward the bottom. For elaboration on some of the changes you’ll see, refer to the notes appended to this post below the list itself.
Without further ado, let’s review who the Top 150 hitters in fantasy baseball:
Rank Player Position 1. Mike Trout OF 2. Mookie Betts OF 3. Nolan Arenado 3B 4. Jose Altuve 2B 5. Manny Machado 3B, SS 6. Kris Bryant 1B, 3B, OF 7. Josh Donaldson 3B 8. Paul Goldschmidt 1B 9. Bryce Harper OF 10. Corey Seager SS 11. Carlos Correa SS 12. Anthony Rizzo 1B 13. Freddie Freeman 1B 14. Robinson Cano 2B 15. Miguel Cabrera 1B 16. Francisco Lindor SS 17. Joey Votto 1B 18. Charlie Blackmon OF 19. Rougned Odor 2B 20. Edwin Encarnacion 1B, DH 21. Starling Marte OF 22. Xander Bogaerts SS 23. A.J. Pollock OF 24. Nelson Cruz OF, DH 25. George Springer OF 26. Trea Turner 2B, OF 27. Daniel Murphy 1B, 2B 28. Giancarlo Stanton OF 29. Jose Abreu 1B 30. Trevor Story SS 31. Carlos Santana 1B, DH 32. Carlos Gonzalez OF 33. Chris Davis 1B 34. Ryan Braun OF 35. Jean Segura 2B, SS 36. Mark Trumbo OF, DH 37. Christian Yelich OF 38. Ian Kinsler 2B 39. Kyle Seager 3B 40. Andrew McCutchen OF 41. Jonathan Villar 2B, SS, 3B 42. Kyle Schwarber C, OF 43. Yoenis Cespedes OF 44. Buster Posey C, 1B 45. Khris Davis OF 46. Matt Carpenter 1B, 2B, 3B 47. Brian Dozier 2B 48. Hanley Ramirez 1B, DH 49. Ian Desmond OF 50. DJ LeMahieu 2B 51. Adrian Beltre 3B 52. J.D. Martinez OF 53. Adam Jones OF 54. Wil Myers 1B, OF 55. Justin Upton OF 56. Evan Longoria 3B 57. Maikel Franco 3B 58. Anthony Rendon 3B 59. Albert Pujols 1B 60. Miguel Sano 3B, OF 61. Billy Hamilton OF 62. Jose Bautista OF 63. Matt Kemp OF 64. Gregory Polanco OF 65. Justin Turner 3B 66. Dee Gordon 2B 67. Eric Hosmer 1B 68. Gary Sanchez C 69. Jose Ramirez 3B, OF 70. Alex Bregman 3B 71. Kole Calhoun OF 72. Marcell Ozuna OF 73. Todd Frazier 1B, 3B 74. Brandon Belt 1B 75. Jake Lamb 3B 76. Dustin Pedroia 2B 77. Mike Moustakas 3B 78. Andrew Benintendi OF 79. Victor Martinez 1B, DH 80. Jonathan Lucroy C 81. Aledmys Diaz SS 82. Adam Eaton OF 83. Willson Contreras C 84. Odubel Herrera OF 85. Nomar Mazara OF 86. Yasiel Puig OF 87. Adrian Gonzalez 1B 88. Stephen Piscotty OF 89. Jason Kipnis 2B 90. Addison Russell SS 91. Salvador Perez C 92. Eric Thames OF 93. Yasmani Grandal C 94. Brad Miller 1B, SS 95. Ben Zobrist 2B, OF 96. Hunter Pence OF 97. Jose Peraza 2B, SS, OF 98. Lorenzo Cain OF 99. Adam Duvall OF 100. Tommy Joseph 1B 101. Kendrys Morales 1B, OF, DH 102. Eduardo Nunez 3B, SS 103. Elvis Andrus SS 104. Jackie Bradley, Jr. OF 105. Matt Holliday 1B, OF 106. Marcus Semien SS 107. Travis Jankowski OF 108. Greg Bird 1B 109. Carlos Beltran OF 110. Melky Cabrera OF 111. David Dahl OF 112. Ryon Healy 3B 113. Kevin Kiermaier OF 114. Evan Gattis C 115. Stephen Vogt C 116. Troy Tulowitzki SS 117. Josh Reddick OF 118. Byron Buxton OF 119. Carlos Gomez OF 120. Jacoby Ellsbury OF 121. Jonathan Schoop 2B 122. Mike Napoli 1B 123. Eugenio Suarez 3B 124. Starlin Castro 2B 125. Tim Anderson SS 126. Logan Forsythe 2B 127. Neil Walker 2B 128. Jedd Gyorko 1B, 2B, 3B, SS 129. Javier Baez 2B, 3B, SS 130. Joc Pederson OF 131. David Peralta OF 132. J.T. Realmuto C 133. Lucas Duda 1B 134. C.J. Cron 1B 135. Yasmany Tomas OF 136. Cesar Hernandez 2B 137. Jay Bruce OF 138. Manuel Margot OF 139. Nick Castellanos 3B 140. Brian McCann C 141. Domingo Santana OF 142. Steven Souza, Jr. OF 143. Michael Brantley OF 144. Dansby Swanson SS 145. Yangervis Solarte 2B, 3B 146. Jason Heyward OF 147. Justin Bour 1B 148. Travis Shaw 1B, 3B 149. Brandon Phillips 2B 150. Mitch Haniger OF
NotesEmil Frey Racing marks ambitious start to 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
Emil Frey Racing is again competing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2016, this time with a new drivers’ squad and the tried-and-tested Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar. With the two new arrivals, Stephane Ortelli and Albert Costa, who are joining Lorenz Frey behind the wheel, Emil Frey Racing is venturing its move up to the Pro-category.
“We’re delighted to have recruited two drivers of Stephane Ortelli’s and Albert Costa’s caliber for our project,” says Emil Frey Racing driver and team manager, Lorenz Frey. “I’m greatly looking forward to working with them both inside and outside the car.”
For twenty years now, former Le Mans champion (1998) and triple FIA GT World Champion (2002, 2003, 2013), Stephane Ortelli, has been a force to be reckoned with on the international prototype and GT sports stage.
Albert Costa Balboa (Barcelona) started his career in kart racing at the turn of the century. 2009 he won the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and the Formula Renault WEC 2.0, and 2012 the World Series Eurocup Mégane Trophy. Since 2013, Albert Costa has been making a name for himself in GT racing.
As in the past, the trio will be rounded off by Lorenz Frey, who says “As the youngest team in the fiercely competitive Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup’s Pro-category, we’re clearly still outsiders. All the same, with the help of Stephane’s and Albert’s experience and performance, we hope to chalk up some more great results. That’s one of the reasons we’re venturing our move up from Pro-Am to the Pro-category.”
With a focus on the season’s highlight, the Total 24 Hours of Spa, and to double its chance of success, Emil Frey Racing will be deploying a second Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar starting at the Paul Ricard round (24-25 June 2016).Contracts of Steed [Changeling: The Lost]
Changeling: The Lost, Chronicles of Darkness, Open Development, Projects, Worlds
Hi, folks! As Changeling continues in the editing process, I’d like to preview the final version of Contracts, including the full text of the Contracts of Steed.
Arcadian Contracts are broken out into categories called Regalia: Sword for strength and aggression, Shield for defense and protection, Crown for leadership and rulership, Jewels for manipulation and temptation, Mirror for perception and self-transformation, and Steed for movement both seen and unseen. Every seeming has a favored Regalia, and the player chooses a second favored Regalia for their character.
Common Contracts are deals the True Fae originally negotiated for their servants. They focus on extending senses, and shaping what’s already there, whether it be emotions or physical phenomena.
Royal Contracts are agreements the Gentry originally forged for themselves, which changelings have been able to make themselves party to. They deal with creating people, places, and things out of whole cloth, directly tampering with minds, forcing people to do your bidding, and affecting destiny.
Finally, Contracts have special clauses for particular seemings. One of these is always the seeming that favors the Regalia, while the other is another seeming thematically appropriate to the Contract.
Below are the Contracts of Steed.
Contracts of Steed
Steed is always on the move, traversing both time and space. Where the stallion treads, his hooves punch holes in reality that let a changeling travel from one location to another. Embracing the freedom of the wild, Beasts favor Steed.
Boon of the Scuttling Spider (Common)
The changeling scuttles across a solid surface strong enough to support his weight.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The world flattens in the character’s eye, until all surfaces are equally horizontal and equally upside down. He can move along walls, ceilings, or slick surfaces normally too treacherous to cross, as long as they are strong enough to carry his weight. He can move at his normal Speed, and acts without hindrance while moving in this fashion.
• Beast: The Beast embraces all of the spider’s advantages, including its webbing. He may use the restrain move in a grapple as though he had rolled an exceptional success, even if he didn’t.
• Darkling: The Darkling instinctively sticks to the shadows, granting his player a two-die bonus on Stealth rolls while he scuttles on improbable surfaces.
Loophole: The changeling swallows a live spider.
Dreamsteps (Common)
The changeling steps into the dreams of a nearby sleeper, to travel from the mortal world into the dreamer’s Bastion. He touches a sleeping target, and synchronizes his breathing with hers until he can see her dreams. He then steps forward into them.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Wyrd vs. Bastion’s Fortification
Action: Contested
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling enters the target’s dream, but suffers the Flesh Too Solid Tilt, and the dreamer’s Bastion gains +1 Fortification until she wakes.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Success: The changeling enters the dreamer’s Bastion through the Gate of Ivory (p. XX), rather than entering his own.
Exceptional Success: The dreamer’s Bastion suffers a?1 to Fortification until she wakes.
• Beast: The Beast may take on the mien of any of the sleeper’s nightmares that he witnessed. Once during the current chapter, he can inflict the Spooked Condition on her while interacting with her in the waking world.
• Fairest: The Fairest sees a glimpse of the dreamer’s soul, granting him the Informed Condition regarding the sleeper.
Loophole: The changeling holds a teddy bear or other childhood comfort object that belongs either to him or to one of his Touchstones, while using this Contract.
Nevertread (Common)
The changeling leaves only scraps and emptiness in his wake.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling stops to cloak one of his footprints: he can drop leaves over it, erase it and leave a pebble in its stead, or sculpt the earth until it resembles a hoof track. He then continues on his way, and the Contract changes all his footprints accordingly for the duration. This makes him impossible to track save by supernatural means, triggering a Clash of Wills, and altered tracks remain so even after the Contract ends.
• Beast: The Beast lets people traveling with him benefit from this Contract, up to double his Stealth rating in companions. He still need only invoke the Contract once.
• Wizened: The Wizened’s footsteps leave traps in their wake, per the Safe Place Merit (p. XX) with effective dots equal to his Dexterity.
Loophole: The changeling leaves a note, bloody fingerprint, or other clue of his passing. This can be hidden, but must provide a clue to his identity if found.
Pathfinder (Common)
Combining practical navigation with omens and divination, the changeling finds his way in the Hedge to Hollows, trods, goblin fruit, and dreams.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling mingles some of his spit or blood with earth from the Hedge, and uses the mixture to draw a compass on his hand. He instinctively knows the distance and the direction of the nearest general Hedge feature of his choice — the nearest Goblin Market or Hollow, a patch of goblin fruit, or an entrance to the Gate of Horn, for instance. The Contract only reveals information about the Hedge itself, not about creatures lurking within.
• Beast: The Beast’s finely honed instincts also yield information about nearby creatures: how many creatures they are, and whether they mean ill. “Meaning ill” is not immutable — if the changeling pisses off a friendly goblin, it might then mean him ill.
• Wizened: The Wizened automatically knows whether goblin fruits that grow nearby are beneficial or detrimental, and gleans their types.
Loophole: The changeling plucks a thorn from the local Hedge and leaves a drop of blood while doing so when he invokes this Contract.
Seven-League Leap (Common)
The changeling leaps legendary distances, clearing chasms and obstacles in a single bound.
Cost: 1 |
more standard practice, if not the use of knives and forks.[183] Table manners Coffee is often served "with great ceremony", and it is customary to drink two or three cups to indicate your approval of the coffee. Cups are refilled unless a gesture—shaking your cup—is made to indicate you've had enough.[184] It is considered good manners for a guest to eat heartily, and burping appreciatively "verges on being considered good form".[183]
News media Edit
Main article: Media of Saudi Arabia Educated Saudis are well informed of issues of the Arab world, the Muslim world, and the world at large, but freedom of the press and public expression of opinion are not recognized by the government.[3] The "Basic Law" of the kingdom states that the media's role is to educate and inspire national unity, and are prohibited from acts that lead "to disorder and division".[185] News stories, public speeches and other acts of personal expression cannot conflict with traditional Islamic values, or dissent from government policy, insult government officials, especially the royal family, and cannot delve too deeply into certain sensitive and taboo subject matters that might embarrass the government or spread dissent, i.e. the role of women in Saudi society, the treatment of Shiite Muslims, damage caused by natural disasters, or social problems such as the AIDS-HIV pandemic and human trafficking.[3] Most Saudi Arabian newspapers are privately owned but subsidized and regulated by the government.[186] As of 2013, BBC news reported that criticism of the government and royal family and the questioning of Islamic tenets "are not generally tolerated. Self-censorship is pervasive."[187] As of 2014, Freedom House[188] rates the kingdom's press and internet "Not Free".
Civil society Edit
Labor unions and political parties are prohibited in the kingdom, although a few underground political parties do exist. The government has created a national "Consultative Council" (which is appointed not elected, and does not pass laws), and has given permission for certain "societies" to exist (though they have little ability to influence government policy).[189] Informal public discussion of public policy is not actively encouraged, although it is not expressly illegal per se, unless it is deemed to be promoting immorality, dissent or disloyalty. Limited non-partisan municipal elections were held in 2005.
Sport Edit
Arts and entertainment Edit
See also Edit
Notes EditFILE - In this file photo dated Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, an array of solar panels absorb the power of the sun, in northwestern China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region. A U.N.-backed report released Thursday March 24, 2016, says global investments in solar, wind and other sources of renewable energy reached a record $286 billion last year, and the developing world accounted for the majority of investment for the first time. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, FILE)
PARIS (AP) — A report shows that solar energy was the fastest-growing source of power last year, accounting for almost two-thirds of net new capacity globally.
The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that the rise was due to a boom in photovoltaic panel installations, particularly in China, thanks to a drop in costs and greater support from governments.
It is the first time that solar energy growth surpasses any other fuel as a source of power. Coal in particular had continued to grow in recent years despite global targets to reduce carbon emissions.
The IEA said solar panels capacity grew 50 percent last year, with China accounting for almost half the expansion. The country has become a leader in renewable energy production, with the United States the second-largest market.On December 15, 1982, over 7,000 employees, friends and the international media gathered at Delta’s Technical Operations Center, to present the airline with its first Boeing 767, Ship 102, christened “The Spirit of Delta.” Directly after the dedication ceremony, Spirit left Atlanta on its inaugural service flight to Tampa, Florida.
In Spring 1982, the airline industry was troubled by a weak economy, high fuel prices and deregulation. After 35 consecutively profitable years, Delta posted a net loss. As a way of expressing their appreciation for company support during this trying time, Delta employees spearheaded “Project 767” to raise money to pay for Delta’s first Boeing 767. Led by three flight attendants, the project was an inspiring effort to raise $30 million through the combined donations of employees, retirees and friends.
"This airplane and most of all, the spirit of Project 767, reflect that which makes Delta unique. The Delta people.” David C. Garrett, Jr., Delta president & CEO, 1982
Delta Spirit
Spirit flew as an ambassador of Delta pride and culture for over 23 years. Painted in special liveries to celebrate 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Delta's 75th Anniversary in 2004. Retired on February 12, 2006, after flying 70,697 hours and 34,389 trip cycles.
Farewell Tour
Repainted in its original 1982 Delta livery, Spirit took off on a two-week cross-country, 12-stop Farewell Tour. Delta employees, friends and charities shared in Spirit's final flying days from February 21-March 6, 2006.
Home to the Museum
Journeyed home on May 7, 2006, from Delta’s Technical Operations Center, off airport property, across two roads and to the Delta Museum. After a brief ceremony, 23 museum volunteers escorted the tug that pulled Spirit into Historic Hangar 2.
Opened six month later as exhibit sharing story of Project 767 and Delta’s Jet Age since 1959. Date was December 15, 2006—the 24th anniversary of its Delta service. This unique exhibit received Leadership in History Award from American Association for State and Local History in 2008.
Visitor Information
The Spirit of Delta is located in Historic Hangar 2 and is open to visitors during Museum hours. Inside, the first half of the plane was left intact from 2006 and the back half was turned into an exhibit area. Given this, please note that this plane is not accessible to normal wheelchairs. However, an aircraft aisle wheelchair is available upon request. For liability reasons, Museum staff is unable to assist with transferring a guest from their wheelchair to the aisle wheelchair, so please bring assistance if needed.
A 360-degree digital tour of the Spirit of Delta is available further down on this page as well as at the Delta Flight Museum on the “Take a Closer Look” video screen located in the Jet Age Hangar.
More Information
YouTube: Follow Ship 102 from 1982 dedication to museum exhibit in 2006.
Reader’s Digest: November 1983 article tells story of Project 767.
Flickr: Photos of transformation into award-winning exhibit, May-Dec. 2006
Flickr: Photos of exhibit opening, December 2006Star Louisiana State University cornerback Morris Claiborne either bombed the Wonderlic or didn’t give a shit about it. What can we learn from this?
Prior to the 2012 NFL Draft, Morris Claiborne determined he wasn’t going to waste his time with the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test. He proceeded to answer between 15 to 18 of the 50 questions on the test, four of which proved to be correct, then called it a day. When asked to explain his performance, he said the following:
All the talk that I was hearing about the Wonderlic is that it’s just not that important. Everybody I talked to, even coaches and all, they were like, “That test doesn’t mean nothing. That test is not going to declare where you go in the draft, or nothing like that.” So if they don’t have any football on there, I’m here for football, so what?
And it didn’t mean anything, at least not when it came to his draft position: Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys–a franchise that pioneered the use of the Wonderlic to evaluate players during the Tom Landry era–traded up to select him sixth overall.
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Quite predictably, the blogosphere exploded in outrage. In one particularly well-argued piece, Forbes blogger James Marshall Crotty had this to say:
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The Claiborne case is a prominent blemish to the state’s otherwise stellar education efforts. It needs to be investigated. What were Claiborne’s high school grades? What were his collegiate grades? What were his SAT scores? Let’s see those papers he had to write in high school and college. Let’s see that SAT essay. Let’s hear from student aides on whether Claiborne actually wrote his college papers or took his college exams. Because something is clearly awry with not only academics, but also football, in the state of Louisiana.
Crotty then concludes by stating that, although “Mr. Claiborne seems like a decent, good-natured, and hard-working young man…we should be concerned when athletes lack basic competency in any measure of intelligence.”
To which I respond, with all due respect, really? Really?
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What we should be more concerned about is how many people continue to be surprised by developments like these. Since its inception in the United States, big-time college athletics has been characterized by corruption and hypocrisy. Legendary Yale coach Walter Camp was paid out of a secret slush fund. Late Pittsburgh Steelers owner and tramp athlete nonpareil Art Rooney, Sr., played for several college football teams and was enrolled in several colleges, yet graduated from none of them. And the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, coached by upstanding Scotsman Dr. John “Jock” Sutherland went on strike for higher wages before the 1937 Rose Bowl (they got them, and then proceeded to defeat the Washington Huskies 7-6).
In his 1989 book The Hundred-Yard Lie, former Northwestern cornerback and then-Sports Illustrated football correspondent Rick Telander offered other disturbing examples of various players who had flouted the system:
At Temple, former all-American running back Paul Palmer flunked remedial reading four times, completed no classes in his major, and failed or withdrew from every course he took his senior year. Among the classes Palmer, [who played briefly] for the Kansas City Chiefs, did complete were Bowling, Racquetball, Human Sexuality, Adjusting to a University, and Leisure. Earlier at Temple, president Peter J. Liacouras had angrily stated that he was going to strike Palmer’s many football records from the school record book because the young man had taken money [from an agent] before his amateur career was over. The president did not mention Palmer’s academic record, however, apparently being satisfied with the young man’s work in that area.
I defended John Calipari’s recruiting practices here on the Good Men Project, arguing that Coach Cal, sleazy or no, refuses to perpetuate the fraud that his players are anything but students of the game they’re playing. Claiborne, by refusing to give a shit about the Wonderlic, has done likewise. He’s a businessman, and college football…well, that’s just a business, man. He knew he’d wind up getting paid no matter what he did. His body of work spoke for itself.
At the end of The Hundred-Yard Lie, Telander offers a proposal to reform college football by turning a handful of the major programs into members of a semi-professional feeder league for the NFL. These programs would remain associated with the universities where they were based, enabling them to continue using the trademark uniforms and fight songs and mascots that their fans love so much. Their players would be entitled to a year of scholarship at the school for each year that they played on the team, paid a competitive salary, and forbidden from taking classes until they left the league (they’d need to focus on their work, after all, and when they’re done–provided an NFL career isn’t in the cards–they’d probably take their scholarships more seriously). All of the remaining college programs would revert to a model similar to that currently in place in Division III: no athletic scholarships, no redshirting except for legitimate medical reasons, and so forth. It’s a perfectly reasonable plan, and it’ll never happen.
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Of course, all of this will be moot in a few years, at least as far as college football is concerned. The entire sport is one or two major lawsuits away from ceasing to exist, something that’s certain to break the hearts of diehard NFL Draft fans and their year-round mock drafts. At least they’ll always have their lists of old Wonderlic scores to keep memorizing.
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Photo–Associated PressAndrew Younger’s temporary leave from the Nova Scotia cabinet is the result of an alleged assault he suffered at the hands of a former female Liberal staffer, sources have told CBC News.
According to those sources, it happened at a celebration to mark the Liberals being sworn into office in October 2013.
The incident was not reported to police at the time, but came to light during a recent investigation into threats made against Younger.
Laurel Munroe, the premier's communications adviser, refused to confirm the reason behind Younger's temporary leave.
She would only repeat the official line released just after noon on Dec. 23, that Younger needed time away from his duties to deal with "personal matters that require his full attention."
Munroe said Younger first approached the premier's chief of staff Kirby McVicar on Dec. 19 to talk about possibly requesting a leave of absence.
She says the formal request came through on Dec. 23.
As for the reasons behind the request, Munroe said it was up to Younger to provide any further detail.
"He hasn't been told not to speak," she said. "It's totally up to him."
Younger continues to draw his cabinet minister’s salary, despite the fact his cabinet colleague Michel Samson has official responsibility for his portfolios — energy, Communications Nova Scotia and part of the Gaming Control Act.
Younger said he can't comment on the situation.30-year-old man agrees to full head transplant
Valery Spiridinov, a 30-year-old Russian man with the severely debilitating Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, intends to undergo the world's first human head transplant. The doctor who plans to perform the surgery – which would take place in 2017 – is Dr. Sergio Canavero, a confident neurosurgeon from Italy who claims the procedure can be done in one day and will have a 90 percent chance of success. Other doctors are highly skeptical, both of its possible success as well as the ethics of such a procedure.
The surgery, which was unsuccessfully performed on monkeys in the 1970s, is divided into three stages, as explained in the Telegraph. In the first stage the body must be chilled to 10-20 degrees. The second stage involves cutting the spinal cord. And in the third stage the nerves and blood vessels must all be woven back together before putting the patient into a coma for a few weeks. The biggest concern doctors have is whether or not Spiridinov's brain will still function after the surgery, but for Spiridinov, who is bound to a wheel chair with very little control over his body, it's a risk worth taking.This essay is the seventh in a series from the book Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy, edited by AEI’s Michael R. Strain and Stan A. Veuger. Check back in every Tuesday for additional essays in the series.
Of Alexis de Tocqueville's many deserved claims to renown, his penetrating, prescient critique of socialism surely ranks right at the top. The prospect of socialism is so troubling to Tocqueville for two main reasons. First, the promise of socialism is pitched at precisely the level to entice the peoples of democratic modernity. Given the desires, values, and self-image of the modern human being—the being who has lost faith in aristocracy and believes in the self-evidence of equality—the socialist utopia may prove too seductive to resist. Second, for Tocqueville socialism constitutes the primary threat to—the very antithesis of—human flourishing. The dispirited souls of socialism would be incapable of perceiving, much less acting on, the freedom, responsibility and dignity unique to the human condition.
So how does Tocqueville understand human flourishing? In his view, the good life—the fully human life, characterized by the excellences and happiness appropriate to the human being—is the life of liberty. Without getting too far lost in the labyrinth of meanings Tocqueville ascribes to liberty, we can sketch out two basic notions he develops: the first he views as proper to the common man of democratic times, and the second is characteristic of the superior element of any age. We can call these, respectively, the liberty of the good citizen and the liberty of the noble personality.
The liberty of the citizen is comprised in no small part of the formal rights of conscience, speech, association, and property. But for Tocqueville these civil liberties—the right to be left alone, in the silence of the laws, within a legal framework that secures property and persons—are at most half the picture. At least as important is political liberty—political participation and the use of one's civil liberties in the exercise of political power—inscribed within a culture of robust political participation that reinforces the experience of real self-government. To enjoy the privacy rights—the "negative liberties"—of non-interference absent the opportunity, developed capacity, and habituated disposition for political association and action is to in effect suffer the experience of being free but powerless. For all of his newfound rights and liberties, the modern, apolitical individual can see and aspire only so far as to be "the king of his own castle." This is why, beyond the public life of voluntary associations in civil society—whether bowling leagues or mass interest groups—the specifically political public life of participation in local self-government is paramount for Tocqueville. In modern times, what Tocqueville calls the "art of freedom" is the "art of association"—and of political association in particular. Everyday political associations constitute the infrastructure of the good society and the good life for the citizens of democracy. It is where the individual becomes a citizen—achieves the station of citizen—by moderating and elevating his view out of narrow, unfettered partiality and developing his capacity for practical judgment through collective deliberation over practical political issues. Through political association the citizen at once exercises power and learns prudence. Thus for Tocqueville, we can say that liberty is realized through political public activity, just as for Aristotle virtue is realized through the practice of politics.
Tocqueville's second notion of liberty—that of the noble personality—subsumes but transcends the liberty of the good citizen. This liberty too implies a capacity for action, but one born of the virile force of one's inner resources rather than through the cooperation of the many. It is an aristocratic rather than a democratic liberty. In democratic times it takes shape in the romantic heroism of the principled, spirited, and above all passionate few. Where the exercise of good citizenship is driven by what Tocqueville calls "self-interest well understood"—the enlightened recognition that one's own good is always bound up with and contingent on the common good—this second notion of liberty follows upon immoderate self-transcendence and reckless self-sacrifice. Where Tocqueville found the liberty of the citizen in the energetic bustle and noise of American public life (at least in the North), he depicts the liberty of the noble soul as in full bloom in France, among the revolutionary "men of '89"—those who in a grand, sublime, tragic act of imagination attempted to remake the world in the name of the rights of man.
Socialism signifies the abolition of liberty in both of these iterations. In a famous debate before the Constituent Assembly in France on September 12, 1848, Tocqueville argued that "socialism stands for the community of property, the right to be provided with work, absolute equality, State control of all activities of individuals, despotic legislation, and the total submerging of each citizen's personality in the group mind." In a now-familiar argument that he pioneered, Tocqueville analyzes the advance of socialism in terms of the creep of "administrative centralization"—what Max Weber would later describe as the rationalization and bureaucratization of human life. Here, power concentrates in the organs of the state, and the state projects this power to plan, oversee, and regulate most every sphere of human activity. All the world is, in turn, represented as a system, a mechanical organization of complex but quantifiable materials and forces, which operates, if properly managed, predictably and efficiently according to design. Indeed, once we think and talk in terms of "systems"—"the economic system," for instance—we are well down the road to centralization and managerial administration. Human culture is abstracted into a "society" of homogeneous, disconnected but interdependent individuals. Human action is channeled into a productive workforce. Human judgment becomes, in turns, a matter of professional or scientific expertise, utilitarian calculation, and unmoored speculation. And in the consequent empire of bureaucracy, individual initiative and the human spirit whither. A totalizing network of uniform rules and regulations enables the centralized administration of the demographied nation and simultaneously suffocates personal responsibility and self-government.
The prospect of socialism is all the more troubling, in Tocqueville's eyes, because its promise is so tempting to modern democratic peoples. In the egalitarian mass of anonymous mediocrity, where the experience of individual insignificance—of being "lost in the crowd," as Tocqueville often writes, of innumerable similar others—is all but inevitable, we the people abdicate our newfound sovereignty, forsake our rights and responsibilities, and invite our own superintendence. The individual comes to feel powerless, unable not only to make a difference in the world but moreover to influence or even understand the societal tides that buffet his own existence. Adrift and submerged, he casts off all things demanding or higher and turns his attention toward his own most immediate material needs and desires. The inhabitants of democratic society end up in the terrible position of being wholly self-centered without the resources for self-respect. In their "excessive humility," as Tocqueville puts it, such a prostrate, infantilized people fall happily into the arms of the paternal (or better, maternal) state—the vast, impersonal power that relieves people of the burdens of thinking or acting for themselves and promises to take care of them. The outcome is the soul's degradation and the spirit's enervation. Along these lines, socialism strikes at the very roots of human pride and dignity, culminating in no less than a brave new world dystopia of humanity domesticated.
Tocqueville sketches this portrait of centralization, regulation, and servility most indelibly toward the end of Democracy in America, where he offers his vision of the rise of an "immense tutelary power" and its "mild despotism." In a chapter entitled "What Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear," Tocqueville writes,
I am trying to imagine what new features despotism might have in today's world: I see an innumerable host of men, all alike and equal, endlessly hastening after petty and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls. Each of them drawn into himself, is virtually a stranger to the fate of all the others.... Over these men stands an immense tutelary power, which assumes sole responsibility for securing their pleasure and watching over their fate. It is absolute, meticulous, regular, provident, and mild. It would resemble paternal authority if only its purpose were the same, namely, to prepare men for manhood. But on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them in childhood irrevocably. It likes citizens to rejoice, provided they think only of rejoicing.... It provides for their security, foresees and takes care of their needs, facilitates their pleasures, manages their most important affairs, directs their industry, regulates their successions, and divides their inheritances.... Equality paved the way for all these things by preparing men to put up with them and even look upon them as a boon. The sovereign, after taking individuals one by one in his powerful hands and kneading them to his liking, reaches out to embrace society as a whole. Over it he spreads a fine mesh of uniform, minute, and complex rules, through which not even the most original minds and most vigorous souls can poke their heads above the crowd. He does not break men's wills but softens, bends, and guides them. He seldom forces anyone to act but consistently opposes action.... Rather than tyrannize, he inhibits, represses, saps, stifles, and stultifies, and in the end he reduces each nation to nothing but a flock of timid and industrious animals, with the government as its shepherd.1
This extraordinarily rich passage is surely the most famous and often quoted in Tocqueville's writings, and it has become the touchstone critique of Big Government, the "nanny" welfare state, and creeping socialism. F. A. Hayek, for instance, quotes this passage prominently and at length in The Road to Serfdom and notes that the title of his book is a reworded homage to Tocqueville's phrase "the road to servitude."
A page from the original working manuscript of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Against this image of centralization one might assume that Tocqueville would be the strongest of advocates for economic liberty and what would come to be called free-market capitalism. In a number of passages of Democracy in America Tocqueville does indeed celebrate the prudence, practicality, do-it-yourself attitude, and work-ethic virtues of the American businessman. He famously contrasts the vibrant energy of the free-labor North with the ethical lethargy of the slave-owning South. And he marvels at the reckless passions and chance-taking initiative of the American entrepreneur, who seems to love the gamble more than the gain. There is a sort of honor and even heroism to be found in the American trader, Tocqueville writes, who risks his life on the wild frontier or the open ocean in his incalculable passion to make a few pennies more than his competitor. The American applies the maxims of war
to business, and he finds great pride in his commercial ventures and conquests.
But for Tocqueville this is only part of the picture of the rising bourgeois way of life. As with most multidimensional phenomena—above all the rise of democratic modernity itself—Tocqueville is deeply ambivalent about the new socio-economy. There is an underside to every appearance, and an underside to the underside. Even as he admires the business-minded American, he expresses nothing but contempt in his private correspondence for "the little bourgeois pot of soup" of his native French politics and society—the shameless, spineless class that serially courted Napoleonic despotism. He writes in Democracy of his concern that industrialization may give rise to a new, cruel, and exploitative faux-aristocracy comprised of the owners of the means of production, alongside a debased, stultified, cog-in-the-assembly-line working class. Ultimately, he worries that the bourgeois ethos of commercial society may exacerbate the worst pathologies of democratic modernity—its vulgar materialism and dissociative individualism—thereby paving the way for administrative centralization, socialism, and mild despotism. Capitalism itself may be a road to serfdom.
In this context, let's look at four elements of economic liberty: private property rights, freedom of contract, free enterprise, and the free market. In Tocqueville's view, property rights are an essential component of liberty and check upon government expansion. Property ownership—and landownership in particular—serve to decentralize power and buttress the independence and sense of self-worth of the individual, introducing a semblance of the aristocratic disposition into democratic times. Moreover, private property and the sense that one has something to lose generate a conservative ethic that counterbalances the revolutionary flights of innovation to which democratic peoples are prone.
At the same time, widespread property ownership and the preoccupation with material wealth may make a people excessively conservative, even to the point of illiberality. Afraid to lose what they have, people may come to value the stability of the established order above all. The security of the self and its possessions may become paramount. Such peoples would fear anarchy more than tyranny, and popular unrest more than authoritarianism. They would be peaceful and tranquil, orderly and mild, like a flock of timid and industrious animals. Further, the passion for acquisition may give way to an imbecilic need for material well-being—for comfort and pleasure in addition to security—and an idiotic privatism that saps the civic and manly virtues and blinds citizens to the very preconditions of their well-being. Consumed by the desires of the body, the individual comes to neglect the public good and the goods of the soul. Ambition becomes constant and pressing but petty, happiness translates to pleasure, and flourishing reduces to success at getting whatever one desires. When "commercial mores" come to reign, constant superficial flux and motion will mask a deep, dispirited inertia, and great revolutions (first political, then intellectual) will become rare in a sort of stagnant, bourgeois end of history.
"When I see... love of property [become] so restless and ardent" and "citizens continue to confine themselves ever more narrowly within the sphere of petty domestic interests,... becoming all but invulnerable to those great and powerful public emotions that roil nations but also develop and renew them," Tocqueville writes, "I tremble, I confess, that they might eventually allow themselves to become so entranced by a contemptible love of present pleasures that their interest in their own future and the future of their offspring might disappear."
Tocqueville continues:
I am afraid [the new societies] will end up all too invariably attached to the same institutions, the same prejudices, and the same mores, so that the human race will stop progressing and narrow its horizons. I fear that... man will exhaust his energies in petty, solitary, and sterile changes, and that humanity, though constantly on the move, will cease to advance."2
As with property rights, freedom of contract is, in Tocqueville's view, a valuable check on government centralization and expansion. Moreover, it imbues the relationships between individuals with a sense of formal dignity and mutual respect. But the notion of the contracting individual as an autonomous chooser of his own goods and ends—his own way of life—may also inflame the obsessive, self-subverting pursuit of independence that Tocqueville calls individualism. Where self-interest well understood leads citizens to understand that, particularly in democratic times, they can only do well together, individualism is the erroneous judgment that I can stand alone—indeed that I must, in the name of freedom, sever myself from the influence, aid, and support of others. To be free, I must be self-sufficient and provide—financially, but also intellectually and spiritually—for myself. The aspiration to, and even routine expectation of, such radical independence leads ultimately to intellectual disorientation and spiritual exhaustion, and so to ever deeper and more ashamed forms of dependence. Citizens increasingly come to need the support from others that they ethically cannot accept. And so they seek out impersonal sources of patronage, dependence upon which will degrade to a lesser degree their egalitarian principles and self-conception.
The mistake here is again one of excess: that human beings can be, beyond self-governing, actually self-sufficient—the sovereign individual of liberal contract theory and the self-made man of capitalist fantasy. Tocqueville never pays much attention to social contract theory and its foundational image of atomistic individuals in a state of nature. The prepolitical, presocial, free-standing individual is, for Tocqueville, largely unimaginable and irrelevant to questions of human nature, justice, and rule. His political sociology refers rather to history. It is oriented by reflection upon the cultures and constitutions—the regime forms—from which the human being develops its particular intellectual and ethical character. His analysis of freedom and authority in human association focuses not on voluntary consent but rather on the mores—the sociocultural prejudices—that frame a people's goods and ends. His concern is not the formal legitimacy of contract theory, but rather the frameworks of authority—both secular and transcendent—that orient and elevate judgment. For Tocqueville, a free society coheres less around voluntarism—a preoccupation with which leads to an exclusive adoration of the human will—than around the ingrained habit of voluntarism.
A front view of Château de Tocqueville, the home of Alexis de Tocqueville
Indeed, many of the forms of association Tocqueville most fully affirms—such as juries and townships—are not immediately constituted via contractual agreement or voluntary membership. Rather, citizens are in a sense drafted and put into a company of those among whom there is no particular shared interest. Unlike voluntary associations—professional associations, interest groups, and so on—such institutions educate citizens by compelling them to consider the good from a less partial, common, and public perspective.
As we have seen, Tocqueville celebrates the free-enterprise economic (and political) activity characteristic of the American North. Here too, though, the danger arises that economic vibrancy and socioeconomic mobility may themselves worsen the individualism and materialism of modern democratic societies. The constant hope of rising and fear of falling breeds an agitated restiveness in the American way of life. Americans pursue ever more even as they are unsure of their own purposes. Appetite becomes insatiable, and desire endless. Progress comes to be defined in exclusively secular, materialistic terms, which in turn produces a sort of moral nearsightedness and ethical anxiety. The body's mortality rather than the soul's salvation comes to define human time, turning existence into a feverish rush to nowhere. The spirit of competition undermines the habits of cooperation and association upon which a healthy democratic society depends. Money, as the sole remaining medium of power, influence, and efficacy for the vast majority of people, becomes of far more than pecuniary importance. And the rewards of economic life draw people away from politics and civic life. "It is not necessary," Tocqueville writes, "to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy, they themselves willingly loosen their hold. The discharge of political duties appears to them to be a troublesome impediment which diverts them from their occupation and business."3
To speak of "the free market" in the context of Tocqueville's thought is a bit anachronistic, but he clearly rejects the centralized administration and regulation of any sphere of society, including that of economic activity. But he just as clearly questions the sort of Scottish Enlightenment vision of a self-regulating—spontaneous as opposed to planned—society that coheres primarily around the motive of self-interest, the division of labor, and free trade.
First, the free play of self-interest in commercial society would likely yield the lowest-common-denominator pursuit of material well-being. In the free market, the vulgar always costs less and sells more than things of virtue. Left to the guidance of the invisible hand, modern nations would move spontaneously toward consumerism, privatism, and mass-market uniformity. Thus is Democracy in America addressed precisely to the planners of society—not its bureaucrats but its statesmen and educators.
Second, the very idea of "the market"—wherein impersonal forces and immutable laws operate within an incomprehensibly complex and self-regulating system that provides for our wants and meets our needs—may well contribute to the sense of fatalism Tocqueville so fears. Above all, Tocqueville despises the degrading resignation born of a belief in determinism—whether rooted in the vast, overawing abstractions of history, genetic nature, society, or the bureaucratic state. If individuals come to view the market as natural or even sacrosanct, or to live in silent awe of market forces as one might before the forces of nature, the free market will end up as one more aspect of modern life that seems to steer the individual's fate beyond his understanding and without his say.
Third, while Tocqueville believes that human beings do have a natural desire and capacity for freedom, he argues that modern democratic peoples are prone to misunderstand political liberty's cultural and ethical preconditions—the habits of heart and mind that dispose citizens to embrace civic and political association along with the burdens of collective self-government. And they are prone to miscalculate freedom's necessary and proper limits in the pursuit of radical independence. In their egalitarian hostility to every semblance of external authority, democratic peoples develop an aversion to the very concepts of judgment, virtue, and education—all those concepts that take shape around hierarchies of higher and lower, superior and inferior, noble and base. "Freedom" thus becomes synonymous with choice (the liberty of conscience, for instance, reduces to the right to choose one's religion), but absent all frameworks of authority that orient and elevate one's choices and make something worth choosing, the result is choice without reason or judgment—simply the subjective expression of will.
Freedom, in turn, is taken to either licentious or transcendent excesses—freedom as debauchery or autonomy. The sole remaining ethical points of reference lie at the immoderate extremes of human potentiality—sovereign self-rule or the instant gratification of the desire for material well-being. The human being comes to imagine himself as paradoxically at once more and less than a political animal. Recall Aristotle's reasoning that "the man who is isolated, who is unable to share in the benefits of political association, or has no need to share because he is already self-sufficient, in no part of the city, and must therefore be either a beast or a god."4 In his newfound freedom, democratic man considers himself both beast and god.
Tocqueville concludes that the realization of the freedom promised by the rise of democracy cannot be spontaneous, the product of a laissez-faire absence or the silence of the laws. Freedom becomes an art—not something natural but rather to be learned and practiced—precisely because political association has become an art. At bottom Tocqueville is closer to Aristotle than Adam Smith in his view of liberty and human flourishing, looking less to the invisible hand of free-market society than to the deliberative practices of political society.
Ultimately, Tocqueville remains too much of a small "r" republican to wholeheartedly embrace the economic liberty of commercial society. He is too aware of the corrupting influence of luxury, the corrosive effects |
mistaking herself as the recipient of a dozen red roses actually sent to her secretary Shirley (“an honest mistake,” Dawn allows, but one that will be hard to fix), a semi-comic tone links a collection of frustrating events that conclude with Peggy’s outburst declaring the entire day an unproductive waste. After a brief moment of delight (“Look at you, every inch a girl,” Stan notes), Peggy decides in disgust that the flowers are from the spurned Ted in California, and she sends a message through Ted’s secretary rejecting what she thinks are his unwanted advances in the coded language of a failed business deal: “I relayed his message to the client … the business is gone.” Another comic sequence cuts smoothly between Pete and Ted in California and the executive board in New York even as their own telecommunications technology falters and breaks their link apart. New York and California are out of synch: California can hear New York but New York thinks it can’t. A follow-up communication, avoiding the troublesome “gizmo,” between Pete and Roger on the phone leads to Roger hanging up as Pete rambles on before his secretary informs him he has been “disconnected.” Pete’s frustration about being undermined regarding the contract he is signing in Los Angeles results in him petulantly declaring to Ted that “we’re not talking anymore; from now on, we’ll both pretend that I’m in New York.” Further extending the day’s confusion of business and romance, Bonnie Whiteside, Pete’s real estate agent girlfriend, informs him that her business trumps his desire: the houses she attempts to sell are her work spaces, not the spots for sexual assignations that Pete takes them for, a point she emphasizes by telling Pete to return the sign he took off the front lawn of one of her properties to dissuade customers, who ring the doorbell and receive her attention anyway.
Despite this comic tone, the eventual result of these mishaps is visible, painful frustration and self-awareness of the limits of control for many of the main characters. Pete wonders if he is in some sort of heaven, hell, or limbo since it seems “no one feels my existence.” Peggy’s day (which begins with a cruel joke, that this Valentine’s Day includes her scheduled plans to “masturbate gloomily”) descends from a comic misunderstanding to an outburst that baldy exposes her petty jealously over her secretary’s engagement (an event that seems to continue the intensifying degradation of the character from the previous episode, surely to the dismay of her many fans). A brief shot of Peggy grimacing in private embarrassment at her own outburst is almost too painful to watch. Even Don, often seemingly the master of his (self-created) identity, acknowledges to Sally that his unclear status, which he hopes to somehow fix, “is kind of up to them.” Only Pete’s girlfriend Bonnie finds a “thrill” in the fact that “our fortunes are in other people’s hands.” The entire episode is an ironically, tightly organized demonstration of the feeling of the increased loss of control.
These more existential displacements of identity (always central to the story of Don Draper, of course), and especially the undermining of agency and control, are extended via an absurd sequence of inefficient, unproductive reorganization within the work place on this single work day: Joan is asked three times, by Lou (in sexist terms), Bert Cooper (for pointedly racist reasons), and Peggy (selfishly), to “shuffle” the secretarial staff, including the two African American secretaries Dawn and Shirley, who clearly recognize their own semi-invisibility and racialized interchangeability in the white-dominated office by playfully calling one another each other’s names when they meet in the break room. Eventually, it seems, Joan herself, after rearranging the staff, will relocate after Jim Cutler, recognizing that she holds two jobs, invites her to move upstairs as an “account man.” (Dawn lands in Joan’s private office, to her apparent satisfaction, concluding her day of unnecessary relocations: she will also continue to work for Don.) Even if a few of these shifts lead to happy results, most again simply underline a structural instability and hierarchy in the business (or in capitalism more broadly) that is beyond almost everyone’s control. Even Roger Sterling, when asked by Joan if he disagrees with her literal elevation to a higher position, affirms that his view “doesn’t matter.”Since both Xbox One and PS4 launched in November 2013, the main sticking point between the two consoles has been the price difference. However the Xbox One is getting closer to matching Sony’s console in price. Yesterday Microsoft revealed the Xbox One Titanfall bundle which would be available for £399.99. The bundle includes the console, wireless controller, Kinect sensor, 1 month Xbox Live Gold and a copy of upcoming shooter Titanfall.
If the bundle seemed like a good deal and signaled the start of Xbox One’s price reduction, GameStop has taken it a step further by knocking off an extra £30 from the bundle, making it available to purchase for just £369. Not only is this good news for those who will be purchasing from GameStop, but it also means it is likely that other retailers may follow suit, helping bring down the cost even further.
However the price for a standard Xbox One package from GameStop still costs £409.97, considerably more than the Titanfall bundle. That price however will be reduced to at least £399.99. Along with revealing the Titanfall bundle yesterday, Microsoft also announced that it is to permanently reduce the price of Xbox One this Friday, reducing the console from £429.99 to £399.99.
Due to the Titanfall bundle being great value for money, especially when compared to the standard bundle, it remains unclear if this is a one-off promotion in the lead up to Titanfall or if this will also see GameStop reducing the price of the standard Xbox One bundle once the game launches in March.
Either way, if your looking at buying an Xbox One and want to grab Titanfall, now is a good time to do so.
Source: GameStopI recently caught up with a group of friends, and one of my conversations was about the stock market. The friend I was talking to is an experienced investor, and to the best of my knowledge has been successfully making a living from day trading for the past 4 years.
We talked about leverage, the benefits of derivatives and had a brief debate about the direction of a certain forex pair we both trade. The conversation caught the attention of some of our friends, who either quietly listened, or threw in occasional questions and opinions.
The group came to life when the topic of stock brokers came up. As a DIY investor, I want online access, with lowest possible brokerage. Fees impact the break even point of investments, so my goal is to keep them to a minimum.
I am happy with my online broker for shares, options and a margin loan, and an online CFD provider for my other activities (forex included). My agreed with my logic, but added, 'you also need a full service broker', and mentioned that he is currently looking for one who will 'give him good tips'. He is happy to pay extra fees on the portion he invests with this broker.
My opinion is that brokers should be viewed as over the phone sales people. They only make money when you trade. They make a slice of the commission on every trade, whether or not the investor is making money, has no baring on this.
My theory is that brokers will only recommend that you buy shares which have a buy rating within theirr company. If you ask for information on companies outside of this list, they will simply convince you to disregard that company and buy one on the list. Most of the major brokerages make their ratings publicly available, so why pay a broker when you can read the list yourself, and for a small fee, gain access to the full recommendation reports.
At this point we had divided the room into two teams. My team believed that brokers were not worth their fees. The other team believed, that they could provide added value, but you need to find the right one.
My friend sees brokers as qualified professionals. He feels it is their job to find sound investments and share this information with their clients. I see them as sales people closing enough deals to pay the bills. There is no incentive to help you make money, the only motivating factor, is generating trades, every phone call needs to be a buy or a sell trade. Who cares what stock, and who cares if the investor has won or lost.
If you had the ability to generate ongoing profits trading the stock market, would you quit your job and trade the market for a living, or would you get a job sitting on the phone convincing others to follow your ideas?
Want to know just how accurate stock recommendations are? A US based firm, CXO Advisory Group, has already looked into this for you. They studied the accuracy of predictions made by'market gurus'. The results of their report are here.
If you wanted to'share the wealth', would you launch a website and work freely from anywhere in the world, or would you find a desk in a loud office surrounded by sales people hungry for the next deal, while limiting your recommendations to 'the company list'.Image copyright Getty Images
The German government and financial authorities are working on a rescue plan for Deutsche Bank in case it cannot pay fines in the US, according to Die Zeit newspaper.
Germany's biggest lender is facing a $14bn (£10.8bn; €12.5bn) bill for mis-selling mortgage-backed bonds before the financial crisis of 2008.
In the worst-case scenario, the government would even take a 25% stake in the bank, according to the article.
Deutsche Bank has denied the report.
In a statement, the German finance ministry stressed: "This report is false. The federal government is preparing no rescue plans. There is no reason for such speculation. The bank has said that clearly."
Die Zeit wrote that "despite earlier denials", the rescue plans were being prepared and would come into force if the bank needed additional capital to pay the fine and could not raise the money from the markets.
The record fine was imposed by the US Department of Justice earlier this month and is nearly triple the amount Deutsche had put aside to cover the payout.
Image copyright Getty Images
The level of the fine is seen as an opening gambit and it is not expected that the bank will have to actually pay $14bn. Chief executive John Cryan told the Bild newspaper that it had been clear from the beginning that the bank would not pay that amount.
Under the rescue plan, Die Zeit said, if the bank really could not pay the fine by itself, then it would be able to sell parts of its business to other financial institutions at prices set at such a level that the burden on Deutsche was eased and it would not make any significant losses.
That could happen, said the newspaper, if the businesses were going to have to be sold at clearly less than their value. In an emergency, those transactions could be supported by state guarantees, it added.
Separately, on Wednesday, Phoenix Group Holdings, the UK's biggest owner of life assurance funds closed to new customers, announced it would buy Deutsche Bank's UK insurance business Abbey Life Assurance for £935m ($1.22bn).
Die Zeit also made clear that the government still hoped the bank would be able to manage without state backing.
Shares in Deutsche are down by more than 50% this year. On Monday and Tuesday, they fell to new lows as a result of concerns about how it will manage the fine. But in Wednesday trading, they rose by more than 2.5%.Exurb1a was a writer for 10 years before he became a YouTube star; but ‘star,’ he says, may be too strong of a word.
He hustled like a writer, sending his work to publishers who would rarely respond. He spoke like a writer, saying creativity was a fundamental human quality, not unique to someone like himself. And he took jabs at himself like an artist, saying he’d never be so grandiose as to call himself an educator.
But it was his online presence that catapulted him into a successful creative career. Today, Exurb1a’s followers number in the hundreds of thousands, and his views per video, in the millions.
He attributed his YouTube success to a post on Reddit that placed one of his videos on the front page, a surprise he found waiting for him one evening when returning from a walk with his dog. From there he mutated from book author to new media creator; much like Wolverine, minus the claws, and with the mania that comes with being only as good as the last thing you made.
Exurb1a’s face has been replaced online with the image of a cosmic turtle. He has published two books using his online persona, both of which he says have been well-received.
And yet, he struggles to explain his preference for secrecy. “I think it allows people to generate a story more interesting than the incredibly boring life I lead,” he said.
There are some ways in which his rising YouTube fame has tugged at his artistic reigns. He finds himself avoiding certain subject areas, such as politics. The second, especially back when few were paying attention to him, is the occasional negative comment. Though he describes these things as “inevitable.”
Overwhelmingly, however, Exurb1a is grateful to be living on the patronage of his fans, who fund his work and housing. He lives life as a creator full-time, an experience he likens to the artist-patron relationship of the European Renaissance.
Though he does go back and forth on whether what he does is art.
“I wonder if our descendants will be looking back on what we did as the 21st century version of the novel,” he muses.
Mark Twain himself enjoyed a life of secrecy. And Banksy may very well be a woman. J.D. Salinger lived a secret, reclusive life. Even more, if we look at music, the artists behind Daft Punk and Gorillaz continue to remain unknown.
Is Exurb1a on to the secret of their success?
“Hardly,” he says, answering with a blush.When a local promoter rang Karin Hobbs, the sales director of the Fort Smith Convention Centre in Arkansas, asking her if she would be happy for the facility to host a cage fight - a no-holds barred extreme wrestling event - nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She had no idea that she was agreeing to stage a scene for the Brüno movie. She had heard of the promoter and the Blue Collar Brawlin’ team who had commissioned him had a convincing website.
‘They were clever. They first contacted us via an intermediary company called Ring Rulers. In this area cage fighting is popular. They told me that they would be doing videotaping for a reality show. We’ve dealt with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie when they were here filming The Simple Life so it wasn’t too unusual.
‘What was unusual was at the last minute they started changing the set up. They originally contracted to use our chairs. Then, barely an hour before opening the doors, they brought in their own. These were all literally roped together with wire so you couldn’t untie them.
‘Then they brought in a metal tube from the back doors to the ring which the fighters were meant to walk along. Later on we were to find out why that was there. It was an escape route.
‘Then as I was leaving at 5pm on the Friday six guys in suits - obviously from Hollywood - marched into my office with a bundle of legal paperwork wanting me to sign a waiver. It would have stopped us saying anything about what happened. I told them that they could give it to my lawyer and he’d have a look on Monday but we’re not signing anything before. They weren’t happy with that.
‘Beer here is normally four bucks. That night it was a dollar a cup. The production company had paid the difference. And there were between 750 to 1200 people there so that was a lot of people they were buying drinks for. They gave most of the tickets away plus it cost $13,000 to rent the venue. They just kept throwing money around. It was crazy.
‘As people were waiting in lines to go in through the doors everybody signed a waiver stating that they knew they would be videotaped. It was incredible the number of police officers we had here. There were 20 or 30. They had all been requested by the production company. Everyone was patted down to check for weapons.
‘It started out like a normal cage fight. They had this guy in the ring called Straight Dave. He was all dressed up in camouflage with a beard and looked like Ted Nugent. He had these t-shirts he was throwing into the crowd that were vulgar and very anti-gay. Anyway this Straight Dave, who was really getting the crowd going, was Sacha; not that anyone knew that. Then Straight Dave said, when the crowd were really worked up: ‘If there’s any gay person out there I’ll fight you right now’. He had a plant in the crowd who at this point climbed into the ring. They pretended to fight for a few moments. Then they started to make out in the cage.
‘At that point the crowd went totally ape. Probably 1200 cups of beer go straight into the cage, the t-shirts too. Someone managed to get a chair free and threw that in. Luckily no one was injured.
‘They had escalated the gay bashing throughout the whole thing and then at the end, when they [started to kiss], wow. The police hit the house lights and shut the whole thing down. Within minutes the room was cleared. The police had to escort them out.
‘People were really pissed [off], to put it mildly. They felt duped, but of course we didn’t know what was going to happen. It was so frustrating for everyone who had come along to see a cage fight.
‘The guy who organised it for them, Will Broyles from Ring Rulers, was the person who was really damaged by what happened. He has a legitimate cage fighting company.’
Boxer Stacy ‘Goodnight’ Goodson of Slugout Promotions, helped organise the security at the event: ‘I was right at the front but I didn’t know what was going on. I spoke to the promoter from Blue Collar Brawlin’ and said that I thought that this was pretty cool what he was doing as I promote blue collar boxing. He said to me: ‘Believe me you’ve never seen anything like this.’
‘As soon as I saw Sacha Cohen walk by I knew who he was instantly. When [Cohen and the plant from the crowd] stopped fighting and started tearing each other’s clothes off I could just hear this roar behind me of my redneck brothers screaming and I thought: ‘Here we go.’
‘There was this woman who was screaming bloody murder right in my face. I told her that there was a camera right on her but she kept going nuts.
‘People were asking me: “Why are you bringing this s--- here? Why are you doing this?” And I was like: “I’m working security. I’m not part of this. But here are cameras behind me and they’re watching you make a right idiot out of yourself, especially if you signed something when you walked in this building like I did.”
‘Sacha Cohen has got a real good taste for rednecks. We’re obviously really funny to him.’It's no secret that we love giving stuff away! It's time for a new contest for our readers, and this time the winner will receive a brand new Lumia 640 XL. Keep reading for details on how to enter! Also worth noting, this particular device just got a pretty hefty price cut, so if you're looking for an inexpensive Windows Phone that can be upgraded to the new OS, and you're not interested in trying your luck at winning this giveaway, this is an excellent option to consider.
Also, we'd like to say congratulations to the winner of our Lumia 650 contest, Prasanna J!
THE PRIZE
The winner will receive a brand new Lumia 640 XL, which does not include service.
THE RULES
There are several ways to enter using the widget below. Each method has a different point value, and you can complete them all for maximum entries!
Normal contest rules apply here. One entry per method per person, and entries will be verified — so don't enter if you're not actually completing the required actions. This one's open to everyone, everywhere such contests are legal, but we can't guarantee the phone will work on your network.
In the event the winner resides outside of the US the prize may be subject to customs fees during shipping, which is the responsibility of the winner. (You know how these things go.) The contest ends on May 11th. We'll announce the winner here on Windows Central shortly after the closing date.
That's it! Good luck, everyone!
Enter Windows Central's contest for a free Lumia 640 XL!
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details.World of Warcraft: Legion launches in Europe at 00:01 CEST on August 30. To help you keep track of all of the events that surround the launch, we’ve put together some additional times and dates you’ll want to note down.
Legion Launch in Europe, the Americas and Australia/New Zealand:
Europe 00:01 CEST North America 12:00 am PDT (09:00 CEST) Latin America 4:00 am BRT (09:00 CEST) Australia/New Zealand 5:00 pm AEST (09:00 CEST)
Legion PvP Season 1
The new PvP season begins September 21, but you'll be able to begin earning Honor right away with the launch of Legion. Learn more about the new PvP Honor and Prestige system here.
Dungeons and Raids
Once the expansion is live, you’ll also want to mark your calendar for some additional dates of note:
Tuesday, August 30 at 00:01 (CEST) –When Legion is live, dungeons will immediately be available on Normal and Heroic difficulties. Mythic dungeon difficulty will become available at 8am PDT in alignment with the weekly dungeon reset time.
–When Legion is live, dungeons will immediately be available on Normal and Heroic difficulties. Mythic dungeon difficulty will become available at 8am PDT in alignment with the weekly dungeon reset time. Wednesday, September 21 –The Emerald Nightmare Raid dungeon opens on Normal and Heroic difficulties. Mythic Keystones will begin dropping which will allow increased challenge and rewards from Mythic dungeons.
–The Emerald Nightmare Raid dungeon opens on Normal and Heroic difficulties. Mythic Keystones will begin dropping which will allow increased challenge and rewards from Mythic dungeons. Wednesday, September 28 –Mythic difficulty for the Emerald Nightmare Raid dungeon opens. The first wing of Raid Finder difficulty for Emerald Nightmare opens.
–Mythic difficulty for the Emerald Nightmare Raid dungeon opens. The first wing of Raid Finder difficulty for Emerald Nightmare opens. Wednesday, October 12 –Raid Finder Wing 2 of Emerald Nightmare opens.
–Raid Finder Wing 2 of Emerald Nightmare opens. Wednesday, October 26–Raid Finder Wing 3 of Emerald Nightmare opens.
We look forward to seeing you in the Broken Isles!In the current study, participants reported their endorsement of the idea that males and females could be platonic friends (i.e., no member of the dyad secretly desires a romantic connection). Unlike past work on the topic, we used multiple items and a continuous scale to index beliefs, thus ensuring a more precise measure of beliefs. Also, unlike past work on the issue, participants indicated how uncomfortable they would feel if their own relationship partner became involved in a cross-sex friendship. It is one thing to say that cross-sex platonic friendships are possible, but it could be another thing to feel comfortable about one’s own girlfriend/boyfriend entering into one. Hence, we could address whether sex differences (or the lack of sex differences) were consistent across these two different measures. Participants also indicated the percentage of ostensibly platonic cross-sex friendships that they thought contained concealed sexual interest (i.e., at least one member of the dyad has sexual interests) and provided separate estimates for the percentage of cross-sex friendships that contained secret male-on-female concealed sexual interest and secret female-on-male concealed sexual interest. For all the reasons we just highlighted, we did not have clear expectations for how a person’s sex might relate to the variables we measured in this study—in fact, the authors of this article did not always share similar predictions.
A third possibility is suggested by the idea that males’ and females’ perceptions might align with definitive information that comes to mind easily. For example, frequency estimates are often disproportionately influenced by the availability of relevant examples in memory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973 Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5 (2), 207–232. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9). People assume: “If I can easily think of instances of the event, the event occurs frequently.” Consider how this reasoning strategy might influence males’ and females’ estimates of the percentage of cross-sex friendships containing male-on-female and female-on-male hidden sexual interest. Examples of one’s own hidden sexual interest are definitive instances, whereas examples of others’ hidden sexual interest are often speculative instances. Furthermore, one’s own hidden sexual interests on the opposite sex probably involve a great deal more thought and strategizing. For these reasons, one’s own secret sexual interest should be more available in memory, so males should estimate a larger percentage of cross-sex friendships containing male-on-female hidden sexual interest relative to females. At the same time, females should estimate a larger percentage of cross-sex friendships containing female-on-male hidden sexual interest relative to males. Similar to a motivated bias in estimation, biases arising from availability are also bound by reality. Hence, males and females may estimate that male-on-female concealed sexual interest is indeed more frequent than female-on-male concealed sexual interest in cross-sex friendships, but females should downplay this difference relative to males.
Another possibility is suggested by the idea that males’ and females’ perceptions may align with what they would like to believe (i.e., a flattering conclusion). There is an abundance of evidence suggesting that people are quite capable of convincing themselves of desirable beliefs, so long as they can muster enough evidence to support these beliefs (Hart et al., 2009 Hart, W., Albarracín, D., Eagly, A. H., Brechan, I., Lindberg, M. J., & Merrill, L. (2009). Feeling validated versus being correct: A meta-analysis of selective exposure to information. Psychological Bulletin, 135 (4), 555–588. doi:10.1037/a0015701; Kunda, 1990 Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 480–498. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480; Molden & Higgins, 2005 Molden, D. C., & Higgins, E. T. (2005). Motivated thinking. In K. J. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 295–320). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.). Because males should perceive female-on-male sexual interest as flattering, males, relative to females, might estimate a larger percentage of cross-sex friendships contain female-on-male concealed sexual interest. And, because females should perceive male-on-female sexual interest as flattering, females, relative to males, might estimate a larger percentage of cross-sex friendships contain male-on-female concealed sexual interest. But, males and females are not simply free to believe whatever they would like to believe about the percentages of this sexual interest. One reality constraint on this motivated reasoning is that male-on-female (vs. female-on-male) sexual interest is more prevalent in cross-sex friendships (e.g., Bleske & Buss, 2000 Bleske, A. L., & Buss, D. M. (2000). Can men and women be just friends? Personal Relationships, 7 (2), 131–151. doi:10.1111/pere.2000.7.issue-2; Kaplan & Keys, 1997 Kaplan, D. L., & Keys, C. B. (1997). Sex and relationship variables as predictors of sexual attraction in cross-sex platonic friendships between young heterosexual adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14 (2), 191–206. doi:10.1177/0265407597142003; Koenig et al., 2007 Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. E., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411–429. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00163.x). Hence, males may acknowledge this reality but downplay its extent relative to females.
Perhaps the most straightforward hypothesis is that men might estimate more concealed sexual interest in these friendships than women. To this point, numerous studies reveal that men experience more sexual attraction in cross-sex friendships (Kaplan & Keys, 1997 Kaplan, D. L., & Keys, C. B. (1997). Sex and relationship variables as predictors of sexual attraction in cross-sex platonic friendships between young heterosexual adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14 (2), 191–206. doi:10.1177/0265407597142003; Koenig et al., 2007 Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. E., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411–429. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00163.x) and tend to overperceive sexual interest in their female friends (Koenig et al., 2007 Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. E., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411–429. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00163.x). Although males’ overperception of sexual interest may sometimes be due to their lower threshold for perceiving sexual interest (Kowalski, 1993 Kowalski, R. M. (1993). Inferring sexual interest from behavioral cues: Effects of gender and sexually relevant attitudes. Sex Roles, 29, 13–36. doi:10.1007/BF00289994), Koenig et al. ( 2007 Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. E., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411–429. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00163.x) provided evidence that males projected their own interests onto their female friend (e.g., “If I am interested, I bet she is interested.”). These ideas and findings would suggest that men, relative to women, might provide higher estimates of secret male-on-female sexual interest because they have firsthand experience with this interest. Furthermore, due to projection, men might provide similarly higher estimates of secret female-on-male sexual interest too. Although this possibility seems consistent with past research and appears theoretically compelling (Koenig et al., 2007 Koenig, B. L., Kirkpatrick, L. E., & Ketelaar, T. (2007). Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite-sex friendships: Four hypotheses. Personal Relationships, 14, 411–429. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2007.00163.x), alternative possibilities exist.
Apart from people’s beliefs about whether cross-sex friendships are plausible, another central issue posed by prior theorists concerns people’s beliefs about the frequency of hidden sexual interest in apparently platonic cross-sex friendships. One idea that has been proposed is that observers might frequently assume that apparently platonic cross-sex friendships are fraught with secret sexual interest (Monsour et al., 1994 Monsour, M., Harris, B., Kurzweil, N., & Beard, C. (1994). Challenges confronting cross-sex friendships: “Much ado about nothing?” Sex Roles, 31, 55–77. doi:10.1007/BF01560277; O’Meara, 1989 O’Meara, J. D. (1989). Cross-sex friendship: Four basic challenges of an ignored relationship. Sex Roles, 21, 525–543. doi:10.1007/BF00289102; Reeder, 2000 Reeder, H. M. (2000). ‘I like you … as a friend’: The role of attraction in cross-sex friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17 (3), 329–348. doi:10.1177/0265407500173002). Indeed, popular sitcoms and romantic movies often tell the story of seemingly platonic cross-sex friends experiencing secret sexual attraction and romantic interest. Furthermore, it seems likely that a person’s sex might relate to estimating concealed sexual interest in cross-sex friendships, but the nature of this relation seems open to speculation.
Further complicating matters, research that has directly asked males and females about the possibility of purely platonic cross-sex friendships has yielded mixed results. In one study (Felmlee et al., 2012 Felmlee, D., Sweet, E., & Sinclair, H. C. (2012). Gender rules: Same- and cross-gender friendships norms. Sex Roles, 66, 518–529. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0109-z), males and females expressed similar levels of optimism; however, in another study (Halatsis & Christakis, 2009 Halatsis, P., & Christakis, N. (2009). The challenge of sexual attraction within heterosexuals’ cross-sex friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26 (6–7), 919–937. doi:10.1177/0265407509345650), males expressed less optimism than females. In each study, researchers used a single-item measure with categorical response options (e.g., yes, maybe, no) to assess beliefs. Perhaps the inconsistent results could reflect the unreliable nature of the measures and/or the presence of a weak or null effect. One way to limit measurement error is to allow participants to express their beliefs using multiple items (worded slightly differently) and to indicate their responses on a continuous scale (Krosnick, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2005 Krosnick, J. A., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2005). The measurement of attitudes. In D. Albarracin, B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 21–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.).
On the other hand, a case can be made that the two sexes might express similarly optimistic beliefs about the possibility of platonic cross-sex friendships. For one, although males more often struggle with sexual desire in cross-sex relationships, it could be the case that women are quite aware of this desire and would not discount this knowledge when reporting their own levels of optimism. As we will discuss shortly, the effect of sex on the estimation of sexual interest in cross-sex friendships is difficult to anticipate, and it is plausible that both sexes could arrive at approximately similar estimates. This calls into question the hypothesis that males ought to be more pessimistic because they are more wary of hidden sexual interest. Second, because men seem to truly enjoy various platonic aspects of cross-sex relationships, these benefits might overshadow sexual motives. Research suggests that cross-sex relationships are often experienced positively by both sexes and are typically prized because they support companionship and intimacy needs (Bell, 1981; Bleske & Buss, 2000 Bleske, A. L., & Buss, D. M. (2000). Can men and women be just friends? Personal Relationships, 7 (2), 131–151. doi:10.1111/pere.2000.7.issue-2; Sapadin, 1988 Sapadin, L. (1988). Friendships and gender: Perspectives of professional men and women. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5, 387–403. doi:10.1177/0265407588054001). Indeed, men in one study (Bleske & Buss, 2000 Bleske, A. L., & Buss, D. M. (2000). Can men and women be just friends? Personal Relationships, 7 (2), 131–151. doi:10.1111/pere.2000.7.issue-2) ranked “talking openly” as the top benefit of their opposite sex relationships—“mate potential” was listed as a distant sixth. Furthermore, although men did indicate that sex with their opposite-sex friend was more beneficial than women, men rated this feature as less than a 2 on a 6-point scale (1 = not at all important to 6 = very important ), suggesting that men consider this feature to be rather trivial. It seems that both sexes recognize the undeniable fact that men and women make good companions, which might imply that they may both express optimism over the idea that men and women can be just friends. Based on this work and theorizing, it might seem reasonable to assume that the sexes might express similar beliefs on the possibility of cross-sex friendships.
On the one hand, a case can be made that a person’s sex should relate to these beliefs. For example, men might be more skeptical about the possibility of a platonic (i.e., nonsexual) friendship than women. Indeed, it seems to be the case that males struggle more than females with sexual attraction and agendas in cross-sex friendships (e.g., Bleske & Buss, 2000 Bleske, A. L., & Buss, D. M. (2000). Can men and women be just friends? Personal Relationships, 7 (2), 131–151. doi:10.1111/pere.2000.7.issue-2; Bleske-Rechek & Buss, 2001 Bleske-Rechek, A. L., & Buss, D. M. (2001). Opposite-sex friendship: Sex differences and similarities in initiation, selection, and dissolution |
kom recently made "experiencing" its marketing claim ("Erleben, was verbindet"). The companion website promises to be a place for sharing memorable and unique experiences. But a close look reveals hardly more than the occasional sponsored live event interspersed with badly disguised attempts to sell standard products and services. Experience is considered a vehicle for marketing, but not understood as the very product that is sold. The transition from an economy of products and services to one of experience and transformation certainly requires more (Pine and Gilmore 1999). This is the challenge we face: Experience or User Experience is not about technology, industrial design, or interfaces. It is about creating a meaningful experience through a device.
3.3 The evasive beast called User Experience
Experience is an almost overwhelmingly rich concept, with a long history of debate and many attempts to "define" it (Jay 2004). I primarily focus on experiences as meaningful, personally encountered events (in German: "Erlebnis") and not so much on the knowledge gained through these events (in German: "Erfahrung"). These experiences are memorized stories of use and consumption and distinct from the immediate moment-by-moment experience (e.g., Forlizzi and Battarbee 2004; Kahneman 1999). While the immediate moment-by-moment experience is certainly interesting, memorized experience is of more practical relevance. This is simply because most of our waking time, we are feasting on vivid memories of the past (or anticipations) rather than on immediate pleasures.
The construction of experiences as stories from moment-by-moment experience is not straightforward. For example, experiences tend to improve over time. As van Boven (2005, p. 137) puts it: "As one forgets the incidental annoyances and distractions that detract from the online, momentary enjoyment of an experience, one's memory of an experience can be sharpened, levelled, and'spun' so that the experience seems better in retrospect than it actually was." Who doesn't fall victim to a "rosy view" now and then. We are spinning - not necessarily consciously - our own experiences.
But what is in an experience? Psychologically, an experience emerges from the integration of perception, action, motivation, and cognition into an inseparable, meaningful whole. The intimate relation between those single concepts is reflected by, for example, Russell's (2003) model of emotions, which stresses the importance of cognitive processes, such as self-observation, attribution, and categorization, for the experience of emotions. And most action theories (e.g., Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006; Carver & Scheier, 1989) assume close links between actions, thoughts and emotions. In sum, I argue for understanding experience as "an episode, a chunk of time that one went through [...] sights and sounds, feelings and thoughts, motives and actions [...] closely knitted together, stored in memory, labelled, relived and communicated to others. An experience is a story, emerging from the dialogue of a person with her or his world through action" (Hassenzahl 2010, pp. 8). An experience is subjective, holistic, situated, dynamic, and worthwhile.
While an experience is a complex fabric of feelings, thoughts, and actions, I believe emotions and fulfilment of universal psychological needs to have an accentuated role. Although emotions are certainly complex, they all share an inherent evaluation, pleasure and pain, which provide "the yardstick on which qualitatively different possibilities can be compared" (Russell 2003, p. 153). This evaluation is important in shaping future behaviour and - if positive - one source of happiness. But where does the pleasure come from? Sheldon and others (2001) demonstrated the intimate link between the pleasantness of an experience and the fulfilment of universal psychological needs in that experience, such as the need for autonomy or stimulation. A specific look at technology-mediated positive experiences revealed stimulation, relatedness, competence, and popularity as the salient sources of pleasure (Hassenzahl et al. 2010). Being asked for a recent positive experience with technology, a young woman provided the following example: "I was on a short trip to Dublin. In the early hours, my mobile phone woke me up. My boyfriend, who stayed at home, had just texted a sweet 'I love you'(Figure 3). This is an example of a relatedness experience, which gets its positive meaning through fulfilling a need for social relationship and intimacy.
Author/Copyright holder: Mallory Bwman. Copyright terms and licence: All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission. See section "Exceptions" in the copyright terms below.
Figure 3.3: A sweet 'I love you'
The mobile phone is instrumental to creating this experience, but the positive emotions and the meaning are evoked through the fulfilment of a universal psychological need. Need-fulfilment is what makes an experience pleasurable.
Usage and consumption always translate into an experience, a story of use, a story of consumption: just like a rollercoaster becomes embedded into a (hopefully) meaningful, emotion-laden story of a rollercoaster ride, full-blown with stimulation, excitement and enjoyment. Seemingly different products and situations are represented in a similar format - that of experience. Thus, as long as we focus on the experiences created and shaped by interactive products, we may not distinguish User Experience from Experience in general. User Experience is just a sub-category of experience, focusing on a particular mediator - namely interactive products. If it comes to actual Experience Design, that is the question of how to deliberately create and shape experiences, a distinction between interactive products and other mediators of experiences may be helpful, but does not seem crucial.
The perspective on Experience and User Experience developed here should not be understood as definite. It is a starting point for debate, an attempt to advance a concept of Experience and User Experience that will change the way interactive products are - hopefully to the better.
3.4 Experience Design: Designing the post-materialistic
With the sharp distinction between the experiential and the material suggested by many authors (e.g., Boven and Gilovich 2003), an "experiential interactive product" appears like a contradiction in terms. While experience is intangible, volatile, an interactive product is tangible, a mass-produced piece of technology. The "electronic gadget" is the very prototype of a material purchase. The seasoned post-materialist, though, ceases to strive for yet another novel communication device. She will rather enjoy writing a letter (Figure 4).
Author/Copyright holder: Penelope Fewster. Copyright terms and licence: All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission. See section "Exceptions" in the copyright terms below.
Figure 3.4: Letters to an English schoolgirl
But even the post-materialist's experience is most of the time mediated. Writing a letter requires a pen, paper, and a messenger, who in turn needs a carriage, a zeppelin, or a plane. This holds for all the typical examples of experiential purchases provided by van Boven (2003): travel requires transportation, dining requires a good kitchen, and a concert requires instruments and amplification. Things are not the opposite of experiences, but create and substantially shape them. The combination of a pen and a piece of paper, and the resulting activity of writing with one's own hand, has certain features which in turn shape the resulting experience. It is, for example, relatively slow and, thus, offers time for reflection, not provided by more efficient technologies (Lindley et al 2009). Thus, the post-materialist is not necessarily a "green luddite" (Kozinets 2007) who shuns technology in general. But she is more interested in the experience created than taking pride in the ownership of the product or technology that created it. Once created, the experience is what is owned - an immaterial, personal story. The product is only of interest as it is identified as being crucial in creating the experience (Hassenzahl et al 2010).
The challenge of designing interactive products for the post-materialist is to bring the resulting experience to the fore - to design the experience before the product. Or as Buxton (2007, p. 127) puts it: "Despite the technocratic and materialistic bias of our [US-American] culture, it is ultimately experiences we are designing, not things." But what does that mean, to design an experience? For Buxton it seems a matter of how it feels to act through a product, in the moment it is used - the moment-by-moment experience. He used different orange squeezers to highlight how different usage can "feel" even if the function remains the same. This addresses the How of product use, the Aesthetics of Interaction. This notion of Experience - as focusing on how something is done - was notably sparked by the success of Apple's iPhone, featuring a so far unique aesthetic of interaction, but basically fulfilling the same tasks as any other mobile phone.
While certainly important, reducing experience to the mere "pleasure due to the feel of the action" (Buxton 2007, p. 129) is not doing justice to its multifaceted nature. Conceptually, the broad view of Experience as meaningful stories has much more to offer than a narrow view as pleasurable, moment-by-moment feeling. Take the story of the young woman on a trip to Dublin from the preceding section. The experience gets its positive feel and meaning through the fulfilment of a need for relatedness, a need for feeling close to relevant others. The story speaks of intimacy, expressed, for example, by the liberty to send the message very early in the morning. The man was confident that his girlfriend would not be annoyed by the message. And while receiving love messages is always a wonderful thing, being in a foreign place, far away from home, certainly intensified this experience. In this example, the mobile phone was used as a tool for creating a relatedness experience. But the mobile phone is neither especially adapted to this, nor does it in any way imply the creation of this experience. It is nothing more than an awkward piece of infrastructure: even with the most elegant shell or navigational structure, it does not reflect the love put into the message. To give another example: While a telephone is certainly able to connect distant lovers, it embodies a strictly conversational model. However, feeling close is not about good conversations only, it is a about a feeling of presence and emotional expression. The telephone is not exceptionally good at this - as Peter Robinson observed in All the Colours of Darkness after a late night telephone conversation between Inspector Banks and his Sophia:
'Goodnight' said Banks. And the last thing he heard was her laughter as she puts down the phone. Banks felt more alone and further away for having just talked to Sophia than he had before the call. But it was always like that - the telephone might bring you together for a few moments, but there's nothing like it for emphasising distance.
We have all experienced the awkward silence when we have run out of stories to tell while not wanting to hang up on our loved one. This is the result of a misfit between the conversational model embodied by a telephone and the psychological requirements of a relatedness experience.
This must not necessarily be so, as the prevalent research on technology-mediated intimacy demonstrates (e.g., Vetere et al 2005). An unpublished review (Heidecker et al 2010) counted 144 published concepts of alternative communication devices, most of them much better adapted to the requirements of "feeling close" than any commercially available mobile phone. In many cases, the technological innovation embedded in those novel devices is negligible - they neither feature elaborated new algorithms nor future materials or fancy interface concepts. Their superiority is due to the intimate understanding of certain experiences, feelings, situations, boundary conditions, and how those experiences can be created and shaped through a thing.
The post-materialistic interactive product is, thus, not so much a tangible object, but a story transported or told through an object - a "material tale" or "psychosocial narrative". Dunne (2006, p. 69) explains: "[... B]ehavior is a narrative experience arising from the interaction between our desire to act through products and the social and behavioural limitations imposed [...] through [their] conceptual models. " We will inevitably act through products, a story will be told, but the product itself creates and shapes it. The designer becomes an "author" creating rather than representing experiences.
So far, there are not many commercially available products, which reflect the notion of Experience Design as the creation of meaningful stories through a product. An exception is FM3's Buddha Machine, dubbed the Anti-iPod by the Wall Street Journal in 2007 (Wagstaff 2007) - see Figure 5.
Author/Copyright holder: Zhang Jian. Copyright terms and licence: All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission. See section "Exceptions" in the copyright terms below.
Figure 3.5: The Buddha Machine II
The Buddha Machine is an electronic device loaded with nine ambient loops (Version 2.0) produced by FM3, an experimental music duo from China. It plays back one of those loops in 8-bit quality through an inbuilt speaker, has a button to skip through the loops, a knob to change the pitch of the playback and its volume. That's it. The Buddha Machine is a meditative experience. It tells a story of contemplation rather than restless consumption and suggests a way of doing so.
In 2007, the Buddha Machine was an unexpected commercial success with over 50.000 units sold. Joshua wrote on Resident Advisor: "With the Buddha Machine, FM3 have unwittingly unleashed a real phenomenon: [...] a personal stereo, a musical toy, a Buddhist souvenir, and a conceptual commodity offering valuable lessons for our consumption-obsessed times." He quotes Christiaan Virant, one of the creators of the Buddha Machine: "That's the beauty of the Buddha Machine, it's really... serendipity." And Rob Walker (2007) noted for the New York Times Magazine:
And of course there's the anti-iPod factor: the relief of not having to make a choice in a world awash with entertainment and self-expression options. Moreover, at a moment when the unused abilities of feature-loaded computers, cellphones and even microwave ovens pile up faster than we can keep track of them, it's satisfying to know that once you've turned the Buddha Machine on, you are using it to its full capacity.
The Buddha Machine is an example of a device, which "manages to transcend the cheap plastic frame in which it's encased" (Heater 2008). It is a technology that offers a meaningful, valuable, and aesthetic experience and not just a bunch of functions, leaving it to the users to figure out how to incorporate them into their daily lives.
The Buddha Machine is an excellent example of a full-blown post-materialistic device. However, one may easily view it a representative of a novel product genre, which coexists with more "practical" genres, but does not affect the design of those more practical products. I disagree. A post-materialistic, experiential orientation can potentially be loaded into every product. An example is Swantje Krauß' diploma design project, which I supervised together with Olaf Barski. Krauß set out to design a new type of improved "bucket" for the grape harvest. Typically, grapes are picked by hand, gathered in a bucket, which is then emptied into a larger container. This bucket is clearly a tool; its design a tough exercise in practicality and classical ergonomics. However, Krauß added an interesting feature beyond the obvious: The bucket can be transformed into a seat (see Figure 6) which allows the vintager to take a rest from her physically demanding work.
Author/Copyright holder: Swantje Krauss. Copyright terms and licence: All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission. See section "Exceptions" in the copyright terms below.
Figure 3.6: From a tool to a place to rest
This seemingly small detail is interesting for at least three reasons. First, the bucket embeds both activities - gathering grapes and taking a rest - on an equal level, making clear that a rest is accepted as an integral part of the overall activity. Second, the bucket has to be empty to be transformed into a seat. This reflects upon the admittedly puritan ideal of "business before pleasure" and functions as a clear signal for the "appropriate" moment for taking a rest. Krauß' design makes sure that its users either pick grapes or rest, but resting and still doing a little bit of cleaning or sorting the grapes is impossible. This implies a clear separation between work and rest - an important psychological requirement for having a truly re-creative break. Third, the bucket suggests a particular way of taking that rest, namely in the vineyard, contemplating and enjoying the views or having a chat with colleagues.
Admittedly, a bucket is not a typical exemplar of an interactive product. Nevertheless, Krauß' example shows that understanding grape picking as more than a mere task, as an experience packed with psychological needs, emotions and meaning enables the designer to become an author of stories conveyed through the product.
3.5 Why, What and How
Let me summarize my thoughts on Experience in a simple conceptual model. I distinguish three different levels, when designing an experience through the interaction with an object: The Why, What and How level.
The What addresses the things people can do through an interactive product, such as "making a telephone call," "buying a book," or "listening to a song." Reflected by a products' functionality, the What is often intimately tied to the technology itself or a certain product genre. The How in turn addresses acting through an object on an operational, sensory-motor level: Buttons pressed, knobs turned, menus navigated, touch screens stroked, or remotes waggled. The How is even more tied to the actual object to be designed and its context of use.
The How is the typical realm of the interaction designer: to make given functionality accessible in an aesthetically pleasing way. To give an example: "Making a telephone call" (a What) requires an action to select a conversional partner, as well as to initiate and to end the call. How this is done with - let's say - a mobile phone is specified by the interaction designer. The example of the different orange squeezers, Bill Buxton (2007) provided, addresses possible differences in the quality of the interaction design, the How. Even given the same functionality (i.e., squeezing oranges), performing the action "feels" better with some products. Nowadays, the bundle of What and How is typically considered the product, and an especially sensual, aesthetic, novel, or stimulating arrangement of interaction makes this product "experiential."
This view ignores peoples' actual motivation to use a product. For the couple being separated, the SMS was not primarily an SMS, it was a love message, a way to fulfil their need for relatedness. This is the Why of product use. Telephone calls are not only - technologically speaking - telephone calls. In reality, they are the glorious beginning or the sad end of a close relationship, a surrogate good-night kiss, an act of support, a way to kill time, or a pizza order. People engage in these activities out of a need to be related, to help, to be stimulated, or to ease their appetites. The telephone just happens to be instrumental, but it does not necessarily reflect upon the underlying needs, emotions, and associated practices.
Experience Design is a remedy to this. It starts from the Why, tries to clarify the needs and emotions involved in an activity, the meaning, the experience. Only then, it determines functionality that is able to provide the experience (the What) and an appropriate way of putting the functionality to action (the How). Experience Design wants the Why, What and How to chime together, but with the Why, the needs and emotions, setting the tone (see Figure 7). This leads to products which are sensitive to the particularities of human experience. It leads to products able to tell enjoyable stories through their use or consumption.
Author/Copyright holder: Unknown (pending investigation). Copyright terms and licence: Unknown (pending investigation). See section "Exceptions" in the copyright terms below.
Figure 3.7: From the Why to the What and the How: Three levels to consider when designing technology-mediated experiences
3.6 Conclusion and future directions
The notion of (User) Experience as stories told through products has a potential to change the way we think and design. At the moment, the majority of commercially available interactive devices is either too practical or too open-ended. The practical view results in very obvious and uninspiring stories: how exciting is keeping a calendar on a mobile phone? The open-ended view on the other hand just provides functionality, such as texting, and leaves it to the user to come up with meaningful and inspiring usage scenarios, such as sending "love messages." In this case, the creation of meaningful experiences through appropriating a technology remains the responsibility of the "user". In contrast, Experience Design stands for technology, which suggests meaningful, engaging, valuable, and aesthetically pleasing experiences in itself. Thinking "communication experiences" rather than "mobile devices" opens up a huge design space for possible devices - even slippers (Chen et al 2006) or pillows (Laschke et al 2010).
Don't get me wrong, we still need all the wonderful technologies, dreamt up by engineers and computer scientists all over the world. But they are only materials - canvas, colours, and brushes - for the Experience Designer. From a business perspective, shifting attention from technological to experiential advancement makes sense, as long as the invention of new technologies and their marketing becomes increasingly difficult. Just take 3D television as an example: It is an innovation born out of a frantic need for re-inventing television to ensure future sales. The result is an expensive, hard to sell technology, without much power to impact our lives "The new movie by Darren Aronofsky now in 3D! So what?" Indeed, other technology-mediated innovations, such as improving the social experience of watching television as a family or over a distance, require less effort in terms of resources (both on the vendor and the consumer end), but at the same time offer a profound improvement of current practices and according experiences. We should definitely shift attention (and resources) from the development of new technologies to the conscious design of resulting experiences, from technology-driven innovations to human-driven innovations.
3.7 References
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For years, I have struggled to understand the difference between "user experience" and "experience". I couldn't help but smile as Marc struggled with this same problem. In fact, by the penultimate paragraph, Marc had decided to place the word "user" in parenthesis. This supports the viewpoint that both Marc and I seem to share, that both of these terms mean essentially the same thing, despite the semantic bickering in the professional community. Listen to the first few minutes of Marc's first video for some very succinct remarks on this matter. Of course, if one really feels a need to differentiate between "user experience" and "experience", Marc has some interesting comments and observations. In the introduction, he suggests that "It is about creating an experience through a device." "It" is the elusive beast in the current debate. Later on, Marc states, "Experience or User Experience is not about technology, industrial design, or interfaces. It is about creating a meaningful experience through a device." I agree 100% with the first statement, but I question the second part; I don't think that experience is necessarily related to a device. Certainly, Charlie's experience with the chocolate factory didn't involve "experience through a device" unless you pedantically define the golden ticket as a "device". (The presence of a device or lack thereof often lies at the heart of the "user experience vs. experience" debate.) But let's take things a step further. If I go out to greet the sunrise - not courtesy of Philips, but standing in my garden on a glorious spring day - my experience does not depend on technology, industrial design, or interfaces. Since I like sunrises, my limbic system is busy distributing dopamine - a reward chemical that affects my mood. And my body is soaking up Vitamin D, which improves my health. There are no devices involved in this interaction between me and the sun (accompanied by soft dew on the grass between my toes, birds chirping, and that undefinable smell released by vegetation as it, too, awakes and greets the sun). As a designer, I see user experience (UX) as the perception left in someone's mind following a series of interactions between people, devices, and events - or any combination thereof. "Series" is the operative word. Some interactions are active - clicking a button on a website, giving a waiter your order at a restaurant, getting out of the rain at a picnic. Some interactions are passive - viewing a beautiful sunrise will trigger the release of reward chemicals in our brain. This applies to any and all of our five senses. Some interactions are secondary to the ultimate experience - the food tastes good because the chef chose quality ingredients and prepared them well. The ingredients are good quality because the farmer tended his fields. The crop interacted well with the rain that year. Of course, all interactions are open to subjective interpretation - some people don't like celery or sunrises. Remember, a perception is always true in the mind of the perceiver; if you think sunrises are depressing, there's little I can say or do to convince you otherwise. However, this is why designers often fall back on "best practice" - most people react favorably to sunrises.
For these reasons, I think that designing a "user experience," represents the conscious act of: coordinating interactions that are controllable (choosing food ingredients, training waiters, designing and programming buttons)
acknowledging interactions that are beyond our control (uncomfortable seats in a 100-year-old theater, lack of fresh produce in winter, low-hanging clouds that hide the sky)
reducing negative interactions (providing tents as emergency shelters at outdoor events in case of rain; making sure restaurant seating next to the noisy kitchen door is the last to be filled, putting in an extra intermission so folks can stretch their legs) A good user-experience designer needs to be able to see both the forest and the trees. That means user experience has implications that go far beyond usability, visual design, and physical affordances. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions and the emotional responses and/or physical responses that these interactions generate. To look at "experience" in terms of individual service or product touchpoints is ultimately too limiting. It is the total sum of that counts. Another interesting point is contained in Marc's example of the "I love you" SMS. Here, the phone's designer merely facilitated an interaction between two individuals. Facilitating an experience and creating one are two very different things - designers should always consider which role they being asked to play at any given time in the design process. Finally, the value of an experience is exceptionally subjective. I was delighted to see Marc's reference to the van Boven and Gilovich work from 2003. This ties in directly to the work of Akerlof, Spence, and Stiglitz on asymmetric information, which won them the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001. Let me share some thoughts. Despite any theoretical shift from a materialistic society that covets things, to a post-materialistic culture that nurtures experience, the value of physical items has always increased if they are accompanied by a good story. A vintage watch is worth more if it comes with all its original paperwork, receipts, etc. An antique chair's value can change dramatically depending on its provenance. (A chair previously owned by Winston Churchill is going to be worth more than a chair from my house). Yet neither watches nor wing chairs physically change because they come with a piece of paper. As designers, dealing with the subjective nature of experience could well be our greatest challenge. This may also explain why experience is so difficult to define - which brings us back full circle to the beginning of this commentary.
Technologies migrate as they mature. In early childhood, their very existence is a marvel, even as people wonder what can be made of it. In early adolescence, they become more and more able to perform useful functions for us, and for a while, they are judged primarily on their ability to do more and more, better and better. Finally, in maturity, it is the quality of the experience provided by these technologies that matter. Adolescents thrust their technological underpinnings into our consciousness, even as we resisted. But once the technology becomes mature, it recedes into the background, supportive of the total experience it provides. Design, it has been said (Krippendorff, 1989) is the creation of meaning, and as Hassenzahl points out, the essence of meaning to us people is our experiences. The chapter by Marc Hassenzahl ought to be required reading in courses of design, and perhaps even more importantly, in engineering and computer science. Do the devices we design and produce work well? Do they do marvelous, mysterious operations, working invisibly across space and time? Yes, they do, but doing that is a means, not the end. The end is the experiences they engender, the stories we tell, and the way that they enriched our lives. But this creates a problem. We know how to design things that accomplish particular, concrete actions. But how can experiences be designed? As Hassenzahl points out they can’t be: they can only be supported. To use another design term: we can design in the affordances of experiences, but in the end it is up to the people who use our products to have the experiences. The product provides the "How" part of an experience. It is up to people to provide the "What" and the "Why." But designers can help here as well, setting the framework, providing the initiative, providing examples. Design has moved from its origins of making things look attractive (styling), to making things that fulfill true needs in an effective understandable way (design studies and interactive design) to the enabling of experiences (experience design). Each step is more difficult than the one before each requires and builds upon what was learned before. The first step toward experiences was to learn about and embrace emotion and products that were pleasurable. This step has just been taken, with an increasing number of books, journal articles, and conferences attesting to the interest in this topic. But these steps too were in their infancy, addressing primarily the need and desirability along with the technical difficulties of measuring the resulting emotions or pleasure. Marc Hassenzahl throws down the gauntlet for future designs: to produce products that deliver the Why, What, and How. References Krippendorff, Klaus (1989). On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or on the Proposition That "Design Is Making Sense (Of Things)". Design Issues, 5(2), pp. 9-39. About the Author Don Norman is the author of numerous books including "Emotional Design," and more recently, "Living with Complexity." He is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group, a professor at KAIST (in Korea), and IDEO fellow, and a design theorist, studying the fundamentals of modern design. Although he invented the term "User experience" while an executive at Apple, he is pleased that people like Marc Hassenzhal have moved beyond the phrase to deep substance. Although Norman travels an inordinate amount, he can always be found at www.jnd.org
The Hitch H |
’t believe it’s that long.
Monday, May 26, 1980
4 PM on a sunny, cool Memorial Day. All in all, this has been a pleasant weekend; I’m surprised how well it turned out.
Last evening I wrote letters to Crad and Bill-Dale and I made a few phone calls. Elihu told me his father is having prostate surgery tomorrow. I didn’t ask whether it was cancer; hopefully it’s just routine. I worry about my own parents getting cancer – they’re at that dangerous age.
Well, I keep looking at myself in the mirror to watch the slow progress of my beard. Surprisingly, I think it looks very good. It’s grown in faster than I thought it would, and it’s a nice mixture of blond and brown.
If I can keep the itching from driving me crazy, I just may have something by the time I go to New Hampshire. It covers my weak chin and makes my face thinn er and less round.
Mikey came over this morning, bringing an affidavit I have to fill out which attests to his moral character. I’ll get it notarized and send it to the Bar Association.
We walked to 116th Street to get some orange juice and soda, and then I went back with him to his mother’s block. After spending about an hour on the beach, we decided to walk over to Larry’s.
Larry and his father were working on the sun deck he’s building in th e backyard. We hung around for a while and then went back to 128th Street via the beach.
On the way we saw Anna, who was quite friendly; she kissed both of us like we were her long-lost brothers. She hasn’t gotten a positive response from any of the literary agents I recommended, but I told her to keep trying and to call on me for further help.
She introduced Mikey and me to Colin, the guy she’s living with, and his young daughter, who’s spending the week with them. Anna said she’s looking forward to writing this summer and said I should come by whenever I want.
At Beach 131st Street we looked for Carl, who lives there with a woman in their own house. Back at Mikey’s mother’s place, we got the splinters from the boardwalk out of our feet and had juice.
Mikey has a cold but he seemed pretty cheerful. He’s still waiting to hear about the pool job at the Supreme Court before he goes on an extensive job search. I walked home via the streets, but Mikey will be picking me up in another hour.
He and his mother were invited to a holiday barbecue at Larry’s and I was also included. I’m glad to have the chance to be with people. This wasn’t a lonely, isolated weekend after all.
This coming week, however, is going to be very hectic. I have to take the car in tomorrow, and I have to sign over those checks to Grandpa Herb. (Luckily I didn’t spend much money this weekend.)
I need a haircut and I have to hand in my SVA grades. I’ve got to teach on Wednesday night and also get my CAPS grant forms ready to be sent out. I have to buy stationery supplies for MacDowell.
And there’ll be the usual shopping, cleaning, and running around. There’ll be no time to lie on the beach, but at this point I don’t think I can get much more tan. I suppose it will work out.
The car is what worries me the most – I just hope it doesn’t run me any more money. I have to pay Dr. Pasquale $40 for two sessions on Friday.
I don’t know when I’ll get time to do The People’s Almanac article, and I must have that completed before I go away. I feel a lot of pressure now, and of course I’m a little apprehensive about MacDowell – though I’m more receptive to change now than I’ve ever been before.
Wednesday, May 28, 1980
10 PM. Last night I went over to Josh’s. He had just come back from his last class at computer school. Simon, Audrey and the other students were going out for a drink to celebrate, but Josh was disgusted and didn’t want to go along.
We played the campaign record someone sent us – it was awful – and then Josh drove us to the Village, where we had dinner at The Bagel and afterwards ran into Alice, who invited us up to her apartment.
She and Peter had a great holiday weekend in Montreal, all expenses paid, and Alice was looking forward to being sent to Washington next weekend to cover an abortion conference.
She’s staying at the Hyatt, and while she’s in D.C., Alice hopes to see her brother, who’s about to take on a new State Department assignment: heading the Norway/Denmark/Iceland desk.
Peter was away in Maryland, judging a high school talent contest for boys; the students had read his columns in Seventeen and asked him to come down.
I am so proud of Alice and Peter that I felt like a stage mother showing off her kids’ accomplishments to Josh. Alice had a brochure from the University of Wisconsin Writers’ Conference, where she’ll be teaching next month; she’ll also be doing a weeklong conference in Minneapolis.
Alice was working on the cancer booklet today, but she took time out to show us some hospitality: we had iced tea and chatted for quite a while. Josh was very impressed with Alice’s apartment and her lifestyle.
Alice, in turn, gave Josh one of her lectures, a combination pep talk à la Dale Carnegie and a little bit of psychological advice. She showed us a book filled with clippings of every want ad she’d answered in the last few years, and Alice kept telling Josh (and me) that a person can’t give up, that action is the cure for depression, and that believing in yourself is the most important thing.
Unfortunately, none of this took on Josh. Walking around the Village afterwards – God, this time of year everyone looks so beautiful there – I spoke with Josh about his future. Nothing makes him happy. Women love him, yet after a few weeks he feels nothing but boredom and contempt for them.
Josh feels that computers are the ultimate sellout and that if he gets a job in the field, he’ll be a miserable hypocrite. He said his faith in his writing ability was destroyed by the MFA program.
When I tell Josh his attitude has always been negative, he agrees and says, “That’s how I am.” His parents’ unhappy marriage, his sister’s death, the way his brother turned out, all influenced him to the point where he is now: he can see no reason to go on living.
Compared to Josh, I am a raving optimist looking at life through rose-colored glasses. When I left him, I felt bad for Josh and wish there was something I could do for him besides get his name in the papers.
It was a nice drive home, and I felt very happy to be alive. It was one of those times when my life seemed to be working, to be making sense. (Was Josh’s despair part of what made me happy? No, it was the realization of how much I have – internally and externally – by comparison.)
Before going to bed last night, I read Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”: it’s the piece of writing which speaks to me louder than any other.
The Times printed my letter about the resignation of Ronald Reagan’s field direction Anderson Carter: I said with a name like that, he could only prove an embarrassment to the GOP in the fall campaign.
Boy, I’ve been getting tons of publicity lately. I will put the xeroxes I made of this letter in my file with all my other political stuff. Maybe someday I can show off this stuff to someone who wants to hire a satire columnist, an Art Buchwald or Russell Baker type.
This morning Marc woke me up; he and Rikki got in last night. I called Mom to wish her and Dad a happy anniversary and to tell her to buy the Times. She said they miss me. I miss them too, but it’s almost a sweet kind of pain. I’m not desperate to see my parents; I know they’re there.
Avis called this afternoon. She registered for an anatomy course for the first summer session at LIU, her first step toward her vague goal of becoming a nurse/midwife.
Today I went to Kings Plaza to go to the bank, xeroxed the Times letter at the Junction, got my CAPS application out, and sent out some stories to new little magazines.
At 6 PM I taught at Touro, a pretty good next-to-last class. There were moments back in February when I didn’t think I’d ever get through this term. But I did it, and I’m a stronger person for it.
I realize that I may have to struggle on for years. I think I’m willing to do that, that the end result will be worth it.
After coming back from teaching an hour ago, I called Vito at the hotel newsstand, and as always, the months we weren’t in contact just melted away as if they never existed. Vito has decided to give up his acting career – not that it was ever started – and apply to law school like everyone else.
Life is funny. In a week I will be 29 years old and on my way to MacDowell. It’s weird how life ends up neater than any novel. Next Wednesday I end a phase of my life, as the Touro class meets for the last time, and on Thursday I begin a retreat in New Hampshire. I can’t wait.
Or I can wait. See, now I accept life and what it has to offer. I’m feeling good about myself, having recovered a lot of my self-confidence.
My beard is growing in brown and blond and red, and I love it. I keep looking at myself in the mirror, watching new developments on my face and chin. I feel older, sexier, more worldly.
I think seeing myself fat-faced on TV a week ago made me want to change my appearance, just as seeing myself in photos of Wendy’s Sweet Sixteen made me decide to get contact lenses.
Having a beard is not as traumatic as I’d imagined; I have no desire to shave and return to the way I used to look. I think growing a beard is a healthy sign for me.
Go to bed, Grayson.
Thursday, May 29, 1980
7:30 PM. I slept well and woke up late. Today I took care of most of the things I had to do: I got my prescriptions for the next month, bought stationery supplies, took a haircut, and got Mikey’s affidavit notarized.
I went to visit Marc and Rikki, who were busy wallpapering the apartment. They offered me orange juice and cocaine – I sniffed a little and had little reaction, as far as I could tell – and showed me all the objects they’d bought in Florida: anklets, jewelry boxes, pill boxes, expensive knickknacks.
Marc can’t put all his money in the bank because it will look suspicious, so he has to buy all these geegaws. Rikki said that she liked Florida – they both got tan and gained weight – and that she liked Mom and Dad. Mom called while I was there.
Marc was unnerved when I told him a police car was parked across the street watching me go into the house. I hope Rikki is a good influence on Marc, but she seems much too confused to exert much influence over anyone.
Rikki confessed that she’d like to move to a larger apartment, and I told Marc that I’d take his place in Sheepshead Bay if and when they move out.
Marc said he’d drive me to the Port Authority next week.
Saturday, May 31, 1980
5 PM on a cloudy and humid Saturday. Last night I ended up staying home.
Josh had wanted to see Wise Blood at the Quad, but I wasn’t up to going into Manhattan, even though I had wanted to hear Dennis Cooper read at The Glines at midnight. Dennis is a fine poet; I read some of his latest in the new Beyond Baroque, which arrived yesterday.
I spent much of last evening looking through my twelve-year-old AIA Architectural Guide to New York City. It reminded me of incidents from my childhood.
There are places that I used to go to which no longer exist like Ebbets Field and Freedomland.
Co-op City is now on the land where Freedomland was. I remember the day Grandpa Herb and Grandma Ethel took me, Marc, Michael and Edward there and we rode on the rides and saw Chubby Checker perform.
The AIA Guide also reminded me of the day in December 1960 when that plane crashed on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Mom had fallen down the stairs that day, in her seventh month of pregnancy, so we went to Dr. Levine’s office on Plaza Street and people kept coming in with news of people’s injuries and of the fire that the crash had caused. I remember being devastated when that one little boy my age who survived the crash died in the hospital a day or two later.
The Myrtle Avenue el is gone. So are all the trolleys. I remember riding the Church Avenue line with Bubbe Ita between our house on East 54th Street and hers on East 42nd Street; she let me ring the bell to get off.
I remember “mountain climbing” with Dad in Prospect Park and how, when Mom was in the hospital for her varicose vein operation, we lost the keys and were unable to get into the house.
The New Yo rk of 1960 doesn’t exist any longer. Hell, when I used to walk home from the Ralph Avenue bus, the sidewalks on Avenue O weren’t even paved; there were just wooden planks.
A woman named Barbara ran a shack-like general store on our corner; it even had a potbellied stove which we’d run in to warm ourselves after playing in the snow.
Planes took off every day at Floyd Bennett Field and we could hear them. There was no Kings Plaza mall, and on narrow Flatbush Avenue from the Airport Lounge to Ben Maksik’s Town and Country restaurant a nd the Floyd Bennett farmers’ market, there were cobblestones.
Gee, this sounds like one of those “I Remember Old Brooklyn” letters that they used to have in the Daily News. Were the good old days really that good?
I stayed in bed till noon, when Mikey called and asked if I wanted to go for a ride to Inwood with him. I hurriedly showered and dressed.
Mikey’s car, like Grandpa Nat’s once did, has become very rusted because of the salt air by the ocean, so he wanted to see if he could get an estimate on a complete body job.
We drove in the rain, went to the place, and got an estimate; then we had franks at Nathan’s in Woodmere, shopped at TSS there, and talked a blue streak.
Back home, I got my mail from the P.O. box. Iron arrived from England with my two stories illustrated with terrific drawings by Tim Thackeray, who thanked me for encouraging him.
George wrote that “like Erma Bombeck says, the grass is always greener.” Of course he wishes he had “a real book” like mine. But George pointed out an important contradiction: I say I don’t want to get locked into the role of writer, yet I complain that I don’t get asked to read my work in New York. He’s right.
George sometimes feels trapped at the Patriot-News, in the boondocks, with his magazine continuing to lose money year after year. He said he couldn’t live like Rick, off others, with no home or work of his own: “I could forgive him if he wrote the Great American Novel, but he’s too comfortable to do that yet.”
Count your blasphemies, Grayson.The Tiny Desk has moved, and OK Go has helped make it so.
Earlier this year, we needed to figure out the best possible way to move my Tiny Desk from NPR's old headquarters to our new facility just north of the U.S. Capitol. We wanted to go out with a bang and arrive at our new space in style, so our thoughts naturally turned to a catchy pop band we love: OK Go, whose unforgettable videos have been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube.
Bandleader Damian Kulash used to be an engineer at an NPR member station in Chicago, so we figured he'd be up for helping us execute a simple idea: Have OK Go start performing a Tiny Desk Concert at our old location, continue playing the same song while the furniture and shelving is loaded onto a truck, and finish the performance at our new home. In addition to cameos by many of our NPR colleagues — Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, David Greene, Guy Raz, Scott Simon, Alix Spiegel, Susan Stamberg and more — this required a few ingredients:
Number of video takes: 223
Percent used in final version: 50
Number of raw audio channels: 2,007
Percent used in final version: 50
Number of microphones: 5
Number of hard-boiled eggs consumed: 8, mostly by bassist Tim Nordwind
Number of seconds Carl Kasell spent in the elevator with OK Go: 98
Number of times Ari Shapiro played the tubular bells: 15
Number of pounds the tubular bells weighed: 300
Number of times the shelves were taken down and put back up: 6
Number of days it took to shoot: 2
Number of cameras: 1
OK Go played "All Is Not Lost" from Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, with words tweaked by the All Songs Considered team. And so begins a new era for the Tiny Desk, after 277 concerts (counting this one) in our old home.
Featuring
Dan Konopka, Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Andy Ross
Credits
Producers: Bob Boilen, Mito Habe-Evans; Directors: Mito Habe-Evans, Todd Sullivan; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Assistant Producer: Denise DeBelius; Camera Operator: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; Supervising Producer: Jessica Goldstein; Editor: Mito Habe-Evans; Assistant Editor: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; Production Assistants: Lorie Liebig, Lizzie Chen, Gabriella Demczuk, Marie McGrory, Andrew Prince; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann, Keith Jenkins; Special Thanks: OK Go and our cast and crew of volunteers.Usually in 5 To Watch, five writers from The A.V. Club each make the case for a favored episode of a particular show. For this very special edition of 5 To Watch, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, we bring you seven episodes of Buffy perfectly suited to an all-night binge.
Late last year, the Sydney Opera House invited three A.V. Club staffers to participate in its inaugural BingeFest. Our task: Curate and host a Buffy binge that would start at 10:30 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. We fought for weeks over not just the episodes, but the order: What episode would play well 2 a.m.? Could anybody really watch “The Body” at 4 in the morning? (No.) How much would people hate us for including an episode from season seven? Although the seven episodes below are indeed some of our favorites from across the show, we also picked ones that highlight a variety of characters, that showcase Joss Whedon’s playfulness with storytelling as well as his embrace of searing heartbreak, and that feature some of the greatest (and creepiest) villains on television.
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"School Hard," (season 2, episode 3)
When introducing someone to Buffy, it’s hard to know where to start. Season one can be a tough sell. Aside from the novelty of the concept, the show is spending most of those first 12 episodes just finding its affordable-but-stylishly-clad feet. Which is why “School Hard” isn’t just a great introduction to Buffy, but one of the great episodes, because it’s a distillation of everything the show does right in those first couple of seasons. It’s explicitly about the difficult balancing act Buffy Summers has to maintain between being the slayer and being a high school student, as the backdrop of parent-teacher conference night shows her struggling to both keep her mom happy and also in the dark about her staking-related activities. Plus, it’s got one of the all-time intros to one of the all-time characters: Spike’s arrival in Sunnydale, his undead love Drusilla at his side, opens a tone new for the show, one that embraced a nihilistic and fun-loving punk-rock ethos on the part of one of season two’s three Big Bads. By the time Buffy and Spike engage in their first rough n’ tumble throwdown, the show’s signature mix of humor, horror, heart, and action has gelled into an addictive treat.
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[Alex McLevy]
"Becoming Part 2," (season 2, episode 22)
“School Hard” sets up a figure who’s both terrifying and hilarious—one that was perhaps done with unintended consequences, since Spike was never meant to become a permanent character. “Becoming Part 2” pushes at those twin narratives, edging Spike toward a relationship with the slayer that later becomes affectionate but also violent. This episode features some of the show’s funniest deadpan dialogue, between Spike and Buffy’s mom, Joyce (Joyce: Have we met? Spike: You hit me with an ax one time), without loosening the grip of terror that Spike could hold. This mix of humor and terror was something that Joss Whedon and the other writers perfected over seven seasons (see our next pick, ”Hush”), and they surface in a single moment near the end, when Spike sees Buffy fighting to her presumed death, and then shrugs and leaves.
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“Becoming Part 2” is also one of the most soul-shattering episodes of the earlier seasons, and one of the most pivotal. In a single episode, a hospitalized Willow finds the strength to do her first real spell, giving Angelus his soul back; Buffy tells her mom that she’s the slayer; we see the roots of Spike and Buffy’s affection, as they strike a deal to keep Angelus from turning the world into an actual demonscape; and Buffy is forced to shove her one true love into the depths of hell. It’s also a rare episode in which, during a seemingly dire moment, Buffy has only herself to rely on, instead of the Scoobies.
[Laura M. Browning]
"Hush," (season 4, episode 10)
“Hush” isn’t merely one of the great Buffy stand-alones. It’s one of the best episodes of the show, period, and proof that, yes, you could do spine-tingling horror and hilariously lewd mime on a broadcast network in the 1990s.
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A slight detour in the fourth season’s Initiative subplot—in which it’s revealed that a branch of the military devoted to paranormal research has set up shop beneath the University of California-Sunnydale—“Hush” introduces The Gentlemen, grim, grinning fairytale demons who steal the whole town’s voices to as part of a mass organ-harvesting scheme.
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Played in part by future Pale Man Doug Jones, The Gentlemen are uniquely fearsome adversaries, combining elements of two modern-day boogeymen: the fashion sense and anatomy of The Slender Man meets the unnerving risus sardonicus of a creepy clown. Whedon was reportedly inspired to write “Hush” because he felt he was becoming too reliant on witty dialogue; in an irony greater than The Gentlemen’s one weakness, “Hush” wound up being the first and only Buffy script nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
[Erik Adams]
"The Storyteller," (season 7, episode 16)
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Apologies for the time jump—we’re treating momentum as seriously as continuity here. From The Big Bag Of Buffy High Concepts comes “Storyteller,” a Jane Espenson-penned installment from the show’s divisive seventh season. Buffy was always exceedingly kind to its second bananas (more on that in a moment), and here reformed wannabe supervillain Andrew (Tom Lenk) takes the spotlight, hosting a camcorder documentary melodramatically titled Buffy, The Slayer Of The Vampyres. In a series suffused with mythology, temporarily switching to Andrew’s POV is a clever comment on self-mythologizing, as seen through Andrew’s unreliably narrated flashbacks and Spike’s attempts to appear more menacing for the camera. But it’s also a sign of how Buffy could invest emotion and stakes in even the most insignificant of characters, as Andrew’s time as a fly on the wall yields some difficult truths about the wrongs he’s committed, and his role (and fate) in the big, apocalyptic battle to come.
[Erik Adams]
"The Zeppo," (season 3, episode 13)
Xander Harris is generally the most hapless of the Scoobies. He’s easily flustered, uncoordinated, and as Cordelia cruelly points out at the beginning of “The Zeppo,” not at all supernaturally gifted. So when he’s cut out of the gang’s battle with the doomsday cult the Sisterhood of Jhe, he’s disappointed—but he shouldn’t be that surprised. The supposedly exciting stuff is all happening offscreen in “The Zeppo,” but the main action counts as the funniest Buffy’s ever been, as Xander’s separation from his friends leads him to fall in with a bad crowd—and “bad” here means “dead.” Things often go wrong for Xander, but it’s the ways in which his night goes pear-shaped that make “The Zeppo.” An episode about the least-exciting, least-essential member of the main ensemble ought to abide by those characteristics, and “The Zeppo” gets its laughs by cutting things short, interrupting dramatic beats, and straight up not showing things. And in proving Xander’s true worth to his friends and the show, the Xander of episodes turns out to be an indispensable hour of Buffy.
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[Erik Adams]
"Once More With Feeling," (season 6, episode 7)
Leave it to Joss Whedon to write a sing-along musical that’s also utterly heartbreaking. “Once More With Feeling” has been much-chronicled and imitated since it first aired 15-plus years ago, but Whedon knew that its success turned on it actually advancing the plot–it couldn’t just be a songbook. And so it does, from the gang’s realization that it must be a singing, dancing demon, to the irreparable tears in Tara and Willow’s relationship, to Giles realizing that he has to let Buffy go it alone in the midst of a training montage from an ’80s movie. The episode provides some nice cameos for the trained singers who were usually behind the camera, with writer David Fury singing about mustard stains and producer Marti Noxon about parking tickets. The demon, played by the inimitable Hinton Battle, forces Sunnydale residents to sing their deepest fears and secrets (and sometimes tap dance to their deaths). By the end of the episode, not only have you sung along to a nice retro pastiche, but Xander and Anya have revealed their fears about marriage, Buffy told her friends that they had ripped her out of heaven, and Buffy and Spike share their first kiss.
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[Laura M. Browning]
"Graduation Day Part 2" (season 3, episode 21)
A strong contender for the greatest villain the show ever had, season three’s Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins, isn’t the usual bad guy. A stickler for manners and a fan of Family Circus, the man balanced his kindly sensibilities with an insatiable bloodlust for immortality and power. As such, he was the ideal nemesis for a season that was all about confronting the end of high school. The back half of this two-part finale foregrounds all of our characters confronting their impending graduation while prepping for a massive battle to stop the Mayor from becoming a super-powered monster hell-bent on devouring everyone in school. The show draws on three seasons’ worth of backstory pathos to make all of the drama feel as significant to the viewer as it does to our heroes. The series can be divided cleanly between seasons three and four, as Buffy The Vampire Slayer became a somewhat different show, about the pressures of growing into adulthood, during its second half. But “Graduation Day” is a fitting conclusion to the first part of an epic, ongoing story. Consider it a richly fulfilling diploma for those who attended to classes at Sunnydale High.
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[Alex McLevy](Reuters) - Roger Federer did not know what to expect when he touched down in Australia in 2017.
Tennis - ATP World Tour Finals - The O2 Arena, London, Britain - November 18, 2017 Switzerland's Roger Federer salutes the fans as he leaves the court after losing his semi final match against Belgium's David Goffin REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
The then 17-times grand slam champion was 35 and coming back from a first surgery-enforced absence to the sport he dominated for more than a decade from his maiden Wimbledon title in 2003.
The six months off, however, appeared to be positively cathartic as he provided arguably the major talking point of the tennis circuit by reviving a career that pundits thought could be over with the injury.
He beat Rafa Nadal in an epic final to win his fifth Australian Open crown and then clinched his eighth on the grass courts of southwest London to finish the year with seven titles and the world number two ranking.
However, Federer, who begins his 2018 campaign at the combined teams Hopman Cup tournament in Perth, recognises that while expectations this year might be a little higher, he was trying to ensure they did not get out of control.
“Expectations are higher but at the same time I try to remind myself just don’t think its normal and realistic to aim for the same things I did this year in 2017,” he told reporters after he arrived in Australia.
“I’ve got to try and keep it cool. Try my best and see what happens but the preparation has been good so far.
“We’ll see how things go.”
Federer previously used the Kooyong invitational tournament to warm up for the Australian Open but returned to the Hopman Cup last year to team up with compatriot Belinda Bencic, where the pair finished second in their group.
“Obviously looking ahead to Melbourne, I really hope that Hopman Cup’s going to give me everything I need here,” Federer said of starting the season in Perth, where he and his 20-year-old partner will face Japan, Russia and the U.S. in group play.
“It worked out perfectly this year, (winning) at the Australian Open.
“Of course, that’s a good omen.”You called down the thunder. Well, now you’ve got it!
The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, may have bitten off more than she can chew in politicizing the Trump administration’s relief efforts following Hurricane Maria now that Geraldo Rivera is on the case.
#SanJuanMayor says residents are "dying," & somehow @realDonaldTrump is to blame. I'm here. Who is dying? Why? Where? Let me help save them. — Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 30, 2017
When not busy cranking out nifty custom T-shirts and hats by candlelight, Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has made a name for herself complaining about the people who have come to her island to help with recovery efforts.
And while Cruz has been throwing President Donald Trump under the bus at every opportunity, other mayors are confused about her reasoning.
Rivera too saw things differently.
“On the ground I see the suffering-but feel deeply that attacking @realDonaldTrump for the ravages of nature &neglect is politicizing tragedy,” he tweeted.
On the ground I see the suffering-but feel deeply that attacking @realDonaldTrump for the ravages of nature &neglect is politicizing tragedy — Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 30, 2017
The Fox News correspondent-at-large did find a “bankrupt criminally incompetent” culprit closer to home:
Don't blame @realDonaldTrump Blame 2 historic storms back to back & blame #PREPA the bankrupt criminally incompetent ElectricPowerAuthority — Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 29, 2017
Rivera caught up with Mayor Cruz, sans her custom-made T-shirt, and said she was “being partisan in her sharp unfair attacks,” although he did not agree with President Trump’s most recent assessment of her criticism.
“I’ve been traveling around, I don’t see people dying,” Rivera informed the mayor.
#SanJuanMayor is being partisan in her sharp unfair attacks on @realDonaldTrump But calling her 'politically motivated ingrate' is too harsh — Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) October 1, 2017
As for the president’s assessment, he pushed back hard early Sunday while detailing some of the progress being made in Puerto Rico:
We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico. Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates,… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017
…people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by FEMA and our great Military. All buildings now inspected….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017
…for safety. Thank you to the Governor of P.R. and to all of those who are working so closely with our First Responders. Fantastic job! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017
In light of all the animosity between Trump and the mayor, “Geraldo the Peacemaker” offered to “help broker peace” between the two parties in a tweet.
“We are all on the same team to help get storm-stricken PR on its feet,” he added in the post.
I want to help broker peace between #SanJuanMayor & @realDonaldTrump We are all on the same team to help get storm-stricken PR on its feet — Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) October 1, 2017If you are a Christian and want to serve Christendom well, you can start by not going out to eat—unless you're willing to love your neighbor the restaurant server as yourself.
Last week's story of pastor who instead of a tip left a snarky note for her waitress—"I give God 10 percent why do you get 18?"—made news because of what followed the otherwise commonplace event: a photo of the receipt was posted online and went viral, the server was then fired, and finally, after her stinginess found her out, the pastor issued a public apology.
But the initial incident? Ah, that's just the daily special, as anyone working as a restaurant server knows full well.
I experienced this dark underside of Christian culture while working my way through college as a waitress. My earliest waitressing years were at the kind of pancake joints where Christians love to congregate after Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services. The other servers...
1One Democratic senator, two House Democrats and one House Republican have been accused of sexual harassment or assault and are under pressure to resign.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers is accused of consistently sexually harassing his female staffers and demanding sexual favors from them. Conyers secretly settled with one accuser for more than $27,000 in taxpayer funding, in exchange for her silence. The 88-year-old Conyers has denied all wrongdoing. After a public backlash initially for defending Conyers as an “icon,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on him to resign. As of yet, Conyers has given no indication that he plans to resign. (RELATED: The Other Conyers Bombshell That Was An Open Secret: A Top Congressman’s Deteriorating Mental Health)
Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-NV)
Democratic Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen may not make it through his first term in Congress. Kihuen is accused of sexually harassing his campaign finance director, who quit during the primary after Kihuen allegedly demanded sex from her on multiple occasions and touched her thighs. Pelosi has said that Kihuen should resign, but it remains unclear if he will do so.
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX)
Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold used $84,000 of taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with a female staffer in 2014 after she complained about a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Farenthold and his current chief of staff, Bob Haueter, reportedly directed a constant stream of lewd and explicit comments at former spokeswoman Lauren Greene. Farenthold fired Greene in retaliation after she complained about the alleged harassment, according to her lawsuit. Some Republicans, although not Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, have called on Farenthold to resign. When asked by Politico, Ryan’s office pointed to a ruling from the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which had dismissed the claim, as a reason for Farenthold to stay.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)
Six different women have accused Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct. Five of the women have said that Franken groped their butts or breasts without their consent. Two of the women have accused Franken of forcibly kissing them. Franken, a former actor, has publicly apologized for his alleged groping but has consistently claimed to have no memory of the gropes. Franken’s poll numbers have plummeted and three House Democrats have called on him to reisgn, but the Democratic senator has indicated that he plans to remain in office. (RELATED: Al Franken’s Newest Excuse For Groping Allegations: ‘I Hug People’)
The four congressmen appear to make up the tip of the iceberg when it comes to alleged sexual harassment in Congress.
The Congressional Office Of Compliance (OOC) secretly paid out harassment settlements using taxpayer dollars for decades. In the last decade, the office paid out $17 million in taxpayer funding to victims of harassment — including sexual harassment — in Congress.Sony has begun briefing developers on plans to release a new version of the PS4 with increased graphical capabilities, according to a report from Kotaku.
The PS4.5 (as at least one overheard developer is apparently calling it) would sport a more powerful GPU than the current console, according to the report. That new hardware would allow the system to |
if (lii->left)
+ __lanyfs_readdir(lii->left, fp, dirent, filldir);
+ /* right entry */
+ if (lii->right)
+ __lanyfs_readdir(lii->right, fp, dirent, filldir);
+exit_err:
+ iput(inode);
+ return err;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_readdir() - Lists directory contents.
+ * @fp: file pointer
+ * @dirent: pointer to directory entry
+ * @filldir: function pointer, provides function 'filldir'
+ */
+static int lanyfs_readdir(struct file *fp, void *dirent, filldir_t filldir)
+{
+ ino_t ino;
+ lanyfs_blk_t subtree;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ switch (fp->f_pos) {
+ case 0:
+ /* this dir */
+ ino = fp->f_dentry->d_inode->i_ino;
+ err = filldir(dirent, ".", 1, fp->f_pos, ino, DT_DIR);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+ fp->f_pos++;
+ /* fall through */
+ case 1:
+ /* parent dir */
+ ino = parent_ino(fp->f_dentry);
+ err = filldir(dirent, "..", 2, fp->f_pos, ino, DT_DIR);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+ fp->f_pos++;
+ /* fall through */
+ case 2:
+ /* this dir's entries */
+ subtree = LANYFS_I(fp->f_dentry->d_inode)->subtree;
+ if (subtree)
+ __lanyfs_readdir(subtree, fp, dirent, filldir);
+ break;
+ default:
+ return -ENOENT;
+ break;
+ }
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_mkdir() - Creates a new directory.
+ * @pdir: current directory
+ * @dentry: directory to create
+ * @mode: requested mode of new directory
+ */
+static int lanyfs_mkdir(struct inode *pdir, struct dentry *dentry, umode_t mode)
+{
+ struct super_block *sb;
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_dir *dir;
+ struct inode *inode;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ /* length check */
+ if (dentry->d_name.len >= LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH)
+ return -ENAMETOOLONG;
+
+ sb = pdir->i_sb;
+ /* get free block */
+ addr = lanyfs_enslave(sb);
+ if (!addr)
+ return -ENOSPC;
+
+ /* create directory block */
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+
+ if (!bh) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "error reading block #%llu", (u64) addr);
+ err = -EIO;
+ goto exit_release;
+ }
+ dir = (struct lanyfs_dir *) bh->b_data;
+
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ memset(bh->b_data, 0x00, 1 << LANYFS_SB(sb)->blocksize);
+ dir->type = LANYFS_TYPE_DIR;
+ lanyfs_time_lts_now(&dir->meta.created);
+ dir->meta.modified = dir->meta.created;
+ dir->meta.attr = lanyfs_mode_to_attr(mode, 0);
+ strncpy(dir->meta.name, dentry->d_name.name, LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH - 1);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ if (LANYFS_SB(sb)->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+
+ inode = lanyfs_iget(sb, addr);
+ if (!inode) {
+ err = -ENOMEM;
+ goto exit_release;
+ }
+ err = lanyfs_btree_add_inode(pdir, inode);
+ if (err)
+ goto exit_ino;
+ inc_nlink(inode);
+ d_instantiate(dentry, inode);
+ mark_inode_dirty(inode);
+ return 0;
+
+exit_ino:
+ drop_nlink(inode);
+ iput(inode);
+exit_release:
+ lanyfs_release(sb, addr);
+ return err;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_rmdir() - Deletes a directory.
+ * @dir: parent directory
+ * @dentry: directory to remove
+ */
+static int lanyfs_rmdir(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry)
+{
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ /* length check */
+ if (dentry->d_name.len >= LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH)
+ return -ENAMETOOLONG;
+
+ /* empty check */
+ if (!lanyfs_empty(dentry->d_inode))
+ return -ENOTEMPTY;
+
+ addr = dentry->d_inode->i_ino;
+
+ /* remove block from binary tree */
+ err = lanyfs_btree_del_inode(dir, dentry->d_name.name);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+ drop_nlink(dir);
+ clear_nlink(dentry->d_inode);
+ d_delete(dentry);
+
+ /* set block free */
+ lanyfs_release(dir->i_sb, addr);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_unlink() - Deletes a file.
+ * @dir: containing directory
+ * @dentry: directory entry to remove
+ */
+static int lanyfs_unlink(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry)
+{
+ struct super_block *sb;
+ struct inode *inode;
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ sb = dir->i_sb;
+ inode = dentry->d_inode;
+ addr = inode->i_ino;
+
+ /* free space used by inode */
+ err = vmtruncate(inode, 0);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+
+ err = lanyfs_btree_del_inode(dir, dentry->d_name.name);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+
+ drop_nlink(inode);
+ lanyfs_inode_poke(dir);
+ lanyfs_release(sb, addr);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_rename() - Renames and/or moves a directory or file.
+ * @old_dir: old directory
+ * @old_dentry: old directory entry
+ * @new_dir: new directory
+ * @new_dentry: new directory entry
+ *
+ * Case I:
+ * Just rename a/foo to a/bar.
+ *
+ * Case II:
+ * Just move a/foo to b/foo.
+ *
+ * Case III:
+ * Rename and move a/foo to b/bar.
+ *
+ * Caution:
+ * Operations may overwrite existing objects!
+ */
+static int lanyfs_rename(struct inode *old_dir, struct dentry *old_dentry,
+ struct inode *new_dir, struct dentry *new_dentry)
+{
+ struct super_block *sb;
+ const char *old_name;
+ const char *new_name;
+ struct inode *old_inode;
+ struct inode *new_inode;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ sb = old_dir->i_sb;
+ old_name = old_dentry->d_name.name;
+ new_name = new_dentry->d_name.name;
+ old_inode = old_dentry->d_inode;
+ new_inode = new_dentry->d_inode;
+
+ /* remove target if it exists */
+ if (new_inode) {
+ if (S_ISDIR(old_inode->i_mode)) {
+ if (!lanyfs_empty(new_inode))
+ return -ENOTEMPTY;
+ lanyfs_rmdir(new_dir, new_dentry);
+ } else {
+ lanyfs_unlink(new_dir, new_dentry);
+ }
+ }
+
+ /* remove node from old binary tree */
+ lanyfs_btree_del_inode(old_dir, old_name);
+ lanyfs_btree_clear_inode(old_inode);
+
+ /* change name */
+ lanyfs_inode_rename(old_inode, new_name);
+
+ /* add node to new binary tree */
+ err = lanyfs_btree_add_inode(new_dir, old_inode);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+ lanyfs_inode_poke(old_inode);
+ lanyfs_inode_poke(old_dir);
+ lanyfs_inode_poke(new_dir);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_create() - Creates a new file.
+ * @dir: parent directory
+ * @dentry: directory entry of file to create
+ * @mode: file mode
+ * @excl: exclusive flag
+ *
+ * Creates a new file in @dir with mode @mode and the name requested in @dentry.
+ * @excl is ignored by LanyFS. There are not many filesystems
+ * using the flag at all. This was nameidata before 3.5 which LanyFS
+ * did not use either.
+ */
+static int lanyfs_create(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry,
+ umode_t mode, bool excl)
+{
+ struct super_block *sb;
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct inode *inode;
+ struct lanyfs_file *file;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ sb = dir->i_sb;
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+
+ /* length check */
+ if (dentry->d_name.len >= LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH)
+ return -ENAMETOOLONG;
+
+ /* get free block */
+ addr = lanyfs_enslave(sb);
+ if (!addr)
+ return -ENOSPC;
+
+ /* create file block */
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+ if (!bh) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "error reading block #%llu", (u64) addr);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ file = (struct lanyfs_file *) bh->b_data;
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ memset(bh->b_data, 0x00, 1 << fsi->blocksize);
+ file->type = LANYFS_TYPE_FILE;
+ lanyfs_time_lts_now(&file->meta.created);
+ file->meta.modified = file->meta.created;
+ file->meta.attr = lanyfs_mode_to_attr(mode, 0);
+ strncpy(file->meta.name, dentry->d_name.name, LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH - 1);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ if (fsi->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+
+ /* VFS */
+ inode = lanyfs_iget(sb, addr);
+ if (!inode) {
+ dput(dentry);
+ drop_nlink(inode);
+ iput(inode);
+ lanyfs_release(sb, addr);
+ return -ENOMEM;
+ }
+ lanyfs_btree_add_inode(dir, inode);
+ d_instantiate(dentry, inode);
+ mark_inode_dirty(inode);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/* lanyfs dir operations */
+const struct file_operations lanyfs_dir_operations = {
+.readdir = lanyfs_readdir,
+};
+
+/* lanyfs dir inode operations */
+const struct inode_operations lanyfs_dir_inode_operations = {
+.lookup = lanyfs_lookup,
+.create = lanyfs_create,
+.mkdir = lanyfs_mkdir,
+.rmdir = lanyfs_rmdir,
+.rename = lanyfs_rename,
+.unlink = lanyfs_unlink,
+};
+
diff --git a/fs/lanyfs/extender.c b/fs/lanyfs/extender.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dcd378
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fs/lanyfs/extender.c
@@ -0,0 +1,352 @@
+/*
+ * extender.c - Lanyard Filesystem Extender Operations
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 Dan Luedtke <mail@danrl.de>
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ */
+
+#include "lanyfs_km.h"
+
+/**
+ * intpow() - Simple exponentiation function.
+ * @b: base
+ * @n: exponent
+ *
+ * This function does not cover special cases where @n equals zero and @b does
+ * not equal zero.
+ */
+static inline int intpow(int b, int n)
+{
+ if (!n)
+ return 1;
+ while (n--)
+ b *= b;
+ return b;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_get_slot() - Returns the address stored in an extender block slot.
+ * @ext: extender block to read from
+ * @addrlen: address length
+ * @slot: number of slot to read
+ */
+static inline lanyfs_blk_t lanyfs_ext_get_slot(struct lanyfs_ext *ext,
+ unsigned int addrlen,
+ unsigned int slot)
+{
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ addr = 0;
+ memcpy(&addr, &ext->stream + (slot * addrlen), addrlen);
+ return le64_to_cpu(addr);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_set_slot() - Stores an address in an extender block slot.
+ * @ext: extender block to write to
+ * @addrlen: address length
+ * @slot: number of slot to write
+ * @addr: address to store
+ */
+static inline void lanyfs_ext_set_slot(struct lanyfs_ext *ext,
+ unsigned int addrlen,
+ unsigned int slot, lanyfs_blk_t addr)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ addr = cpu_to_le64(addr);
+ memcpy(&ext->stream + (slot * addrlen), &addr, addrlen);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_kill_slot() - Resets the slot of an extender block to zero.
+ * @ext: extender block to write to
+ * @addrlen: address length
+ * @slot: number of slot to kill
+ */
+static inline void lanyfs_ext_kill_slot(struct lanyfs_ext *ext,
+ unsigned int addrlen,
+ unsigned int slot)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ memset(&ext->stream + (slot * addrlen), 0x00, addrlen);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_iblock() - Gets the address of data block in a file.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ * @addr: address of extender block to read
+ * @iblock: file-internal block number
+ * @res: pointer to result storage
+ *
+ * Mapping a file-internal block (called iblock) to the correct on-disk block
+ * requires reading its address from an extender block. Larger files use
+ * multiple levels of extender blocks, so this function sometimes calls itselfs
+ * when going down extender blocks level by level. On-disk addresses are always
+ * stored in extender blocks of level 0. Once the on-disk address is found it is
+ * saved to @res.
+ */
+int lanyfs_ext_iblock(struct super_block *sb, lanyfs_blk_t addr,
+ lanyfs_blk_t iblock, lanyfs_blk_t *res)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_ext *ext;
+ unsigned int slot;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ if (unlikely(!addr))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) addr);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ if (ext->level) {
+ slot = (iblock / intpow(fsi->extmax, ext->level)) % fsi->extmax;
+ addr = lanyfs_ext_get_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot);
+ brelse(bh);
+ if (addr)
+ return lanyfs_ext_iblock(sb, addr, iblock, res);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+ *res = lanyfs_ext_get_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, (iblock % fsi->extmax));
+ brelse(bh);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_truncate() - Sets the on-disk size of a file.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ * @addr: address of extender block to read
+ * @iblock: new size in file-internal blocks
+ *
+ * Once again recursion is used to walk through all levels of extender blocks.
+ * Blocks that are not needed anymore are returned to the free blocks pool by
+ * this function. This is the lowest level of file size changes and usually
+ * happens after VFS has already truncated the file's in-memory representation.
+ */
+int lanyfs_ext_truncate(struct super_block *sb, lanyfs_blk_t addr,
+ lanyfs_blk_t iblock)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_ext *ext;
+ unsigned int slot;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ if (unlikely(!addr))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) addr);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ slot = (iblock / intpow(fsi->extmax, ext->level)) % fsi->extmax;
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ while (slot < fsi->extmax) {
+ addr = lanyfs_ext_get_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot);
+ if (addr) {
+ if (ext->level) {
+ /* barrier below this slot */
+ lanyfs_ext_truncate(sb, addr, iblock);
+ iblock = 0;
+ } else {
+ lanyfs_ext_kill_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot);
+ lanyfs_release(sb, addr);
+ }
+ }
+ slot++;
+ }
+ le16_add_cpu(&ext->wrcnt, 1);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ if (fsi->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_create() - Creates a new extender block.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ * @level: level of new extender block
+ */
+lanyfs_blk_t lanyfs_ext_create(struct super_block *sb, unsigned short level)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_ext *ext;
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+
+ addr = lanyfs_enslave(sb);
+ if (!addr)
+ return 0;
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) addr);
+ return 0;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ memset(ext, 0x00, 1 << fsi->blocksize);
+ ext->type = LANYFS_TYPE_EXT;
+ ext->level = level;
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ if (fsi->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+ return addr;
+}
+
+/**
+ * __lanyfs_ext_grow() - Increases the on-disk size of a file.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ * @addr: address of extender block to start at
+ *
+ * This function is internal and is best be called by its wrapper function.
+ */
+static int __lanyfs_ext_grow(struct super_block *sb, lanyfs_blk_t addr)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_ext *ext;
+ unsigned int slot;
+ lanyfs_blk_t new;
+ lanyfs_blk_t tmp;
+ int ret;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+
+ if (unlikely(!addr))
+ return -LANYFS_EPROTECTED;
+
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+ ret = -LANYFS_ENOTAKEN;
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, addr);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) addr);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ if (ext->level) {
+ for (slot = fsi->extmax; slot; slot--) {
+ tmp = lanyfs_ext_get_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot - 1);
+ if (!tmp && slot > 1)
+ continue;
+ ret = __lanyfs_ext_grow(sb, tmp);
+ if (ret!= -LANYFS_ENOEMPTY)
+ goto exit_ret;
+ if (slot >= fsi->extmax) {
+ ret = -LANYFS_ENOEMPTY;
+ goto exit_ret;
+ }
+ new = lanyfs_ext_create(sb, ext->level - 1);
+ if (!new) {
+ ret = -ENOSPC;
+ goto exit_ret;
+ }
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ lanyfs_ext_set_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot, new);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ slot++;
+ }
+ } else {
+ for (slot = 0; slot < fsi->extmax; slot++) {
+ tmp = lanyfs_ext_get_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot);
+ if (tmp)
+ continue;
+ new = lanyfs_enslave(sb);
+ if (!new) {
+ ret = -ENOSPC;
+ goto exit_ret;
+ }
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ lanyfs_ext_set_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, slot, new);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ ret = 0;
+ goto exit_ret;
+ }
+ ret = -LANYFS_ENOEMPTY;
+ }
+exit_ret:
+ if (fsi->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+ return ret;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_ext_grow() - Increases the on-disk size of a file by one block.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ * @addr: address of top-level extender block
+ *
+ * If all slots of all extender blocks of a file are occupied, a new level of
+ * extender blocks has to be introduced. The new level extender block becomes
+ * the new entry point thus changing the corresponding inodes private data. If
+ * a new entry point is created, its address is stored in @addr. Upper layer
+ * functions must update inode private data accordingly.
+ */
+int lanyfs_ext_grow(struct super_block *sb, lanyfs_blk_t *addr)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ struct lanyfs_ext *ext;
+ lanyfs_blk_t new;
+ int ret;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ if (unlikely(!*addr))
+ return -LANYFS_EPROTECTED;
+
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+ ret = __lanyfs_ext_grow(sb, *addr);
+
+ if (ret == -LANYFS_ENOEMPTY) {
+ /* all extender blocks are occupied, go one level up */
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, *addr);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) *addr);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ brelse(bh);
+
+ new = lanyfs_ext_create(sb, ext->level + 1);
+ if (!new)
+ return -ENOSPC;
+ bh = sb_bread(sb, new);
+ if (unlikely(!bh)) {
+ lanyfs_err(sb, "block #%llu read error", (u64) new);
+ return -EIO;
+ }
+ ext = (struct lanyfs_ext *) bh->b_data;
+ lock_buffer(bh);
+ lanyfs_ext_set_slot(ext, fsi->addrlen, 0, *addr);
+ unlock_buffer(bh);
+ mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
+ if (fsi->opts.flush)
+ sync_dirty_buffer(bh);
+ brelse(bh);
+ *addr = new;
+ }
+ return ret;
+}
diff --git a/fs/lanyfs/file.c b/fs/lanyfs/file.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..236f4fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fs/lanyfs/file.c
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+/*
+ * file.c - Lanyard Filesystem File Operations
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 Dan Luedtke <mail@danrl.de>
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ */
+
+#include "lanyfs_km.h"
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_getblk() - Maps a file-internal block to a on-disk block.
+ * @inode: file inode
+ * @iblock: file-internal block
+ * @bh_result: buffer head for result
+ * @create: create the requested block
+ */
+static int lanyfs_getblk(struct inode *inode, sector_t iblock,
+ struct buffer_head *bh_result, int create)
+{
+ struct super_block *sb;
+ struct lanyfs_fsi *fsi;
+ struct lanyfs_lii *lii;
+ lanyfs_blk_t addr;
+ int err;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ sb = inode->i_sb;
+ fsi = LANYFS_SB(sb);
+ lii = LANYFS_I(inode);
+
+ if (!lii->data) {
+ spin_lock(&lii->lock);
+ lii->data = lanyfs_ext_create(sb, 0);
+ spin_unlock(&lii->lock);
+ if (!lii->data)
+ return -ENOSPC;
+ }
+ if (create) {
+ spin_lock(&lii->lock);
+ lanyfs_ext_grow(sb, &lii->data);
+ spin_unlock(&lii->lock);
+ set_buffer_new(bh_result);
+ inode_add_bytes(inode, sb->s_blocksize);
+ mark_inode_dirty(inode);
+ }
+ err = lanyfs_ext_iblock(sb, lii->data, iblock, &addr);
+ if (err)
+ return err;
+ map_bh(bh_result, sb, addr);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_writepage() - Writes a full page to disk.
+ * @page: page to write
+ * @wbc: writeback control
+ */
+static int lanyfs_writepage(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ return block_write_full_page(page, lanyfs_getblk, wbc);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_readpage() - Reads a full page from disk.
+ * @fp: file pointer
+ * @page: page to read
+ */
+static int lanyfs_readpage(struct file *fp, struct page *page)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ return block_read_full_page(page, lanyfs_getblk);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_bmap() - Maps an on-disk block to a page.
+ * @mapping: address space mapping information
+ * @block: block to map
+ */
+static sector_t lanyfs_bmap(struct address_space *mapping, sector_t block)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ return generic_block_bmap(mapping, block, lanyfs_getblk);
+}
+
+/* lanyfs address space operations */
+const struct address_space_operations lanyfs_address_space_operations = {
+.readpage = lanyfs_readpage,
+.writepage = lanyfs_writepage,
+.write_begin = simple_write_begin,
+.write_end = simple_write_end,
+.bmap = lanyfs_bmap,
+};
+
+/* lanyfs file operations */
+const struct file_operations lanyfs_file_operations = {
+.open = generic_file_open,
+.read = do_sync_read,
+.write = do_sync_write,
+.aio_read = generic_file_aio_read,
+.aio_write = generic_file_aio_write,
+.mmap = generic_file_mmap,
+.fsync = generic_file_fsync,
+.splice_read = generic_file_splice_read,
+/*.release = generic_file_release, */
+.llseek = generic_file_llseek,
+};
diff --git a/fs/lanyfs/icache.c b/fs/lanyfs/icache.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25641bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fs/lanyfs/icache.c
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+/*
+ * icache.c - Lanyard Filesystem Inode Cache
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 Dan Luedtke <mail@danrl.de>
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ */
+
+#include "lanyfs_km.h"
+
+/**
+ * DOC: LanyFS Inode Cache
+ *
+ * LanyFS uses the Kernel's slab cache API for maintaining a common cache for
+ * VFS inodes and LanyFS inode private data.
+ */
+
+/* inode cache pointer */
+static struct kmem_cache *lanyfs_inode_cachep;
+
+/**
+ * LANYFS_I() - Returns pointer to inode's private data.
+ * @inode: vfs inode
+ */
+struct lanyfs_lii *LANYFS_I(struct inode *inode)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ return list_entry(inode, struct lanyfs_lii, vfs_inode);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_inodecache_kcminit() - Initializes an inode cache element.
+ *
+ * This function has to take care of initializing the inode pointed to by
+ * vfs_inode! Also, this is not the inodecache initialization function, only
+ * single elements are initialzed here.
+ *
+ * @ptr: pointer to inode private data
+ */
+static void lanyfs_inodecache_kmcinit(void *ptr)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ inode_init_once(&((struct lanyfs_lii *) ptr)->vfs_inode);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_inodecache_init() - Initializes the inode cache.
+ *
+ * If compiled with debug enabled, the cache is initialized with special flags
+ * set. Mostly to catch references to uninitialized memory and to check for
+ * buffer overruns.
+ */
+int lanyfs_inodecache_init(void)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ lanyfs_inode_cachep = kmem_cache_create("lanyfs_inode_cache",
+ sizeof(struct lanyfs_lii),
+ 0,
+#ifdef LANYFS_DEBUG
+ (SLAB_RED_ZONE | SLAB_POISON),
+#else
+ 0,
+#endif /* LANYFS_DEBUG */
+ lanyfs_inodecache_kmcinit);
+ if (!lanyfs_inode_cachep)
+ return -ENOMEM;
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_inodecache_destroy() - Destroys the inode cache.
+ */
+void lanyfs_inodecache_destroy(void)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ kmem_cache_destroy(lanyfs_inode_cachep);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_alloc_inode() - Allocates an inode using the inode cache.
+ * @sb: superblock
+ */
+struct inode *lanyfs_alloc_inode(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_lii *lii;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ lii = kmem_cache_alloc(lanyfs_inode_cachep, GFP_NOFS);
+ if (!lii)
+ return NULL;
+ spin_lock_init(&lii->lock);
+ return &lii->vfs_inode;
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_destroy_inode() - Removes an inode from inode cache.
+ * @inode: inode
+ */
+void lanyfs_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_lii *lii;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ lii = LANYFS_I(inode);
+ kmem_cache_free(lanyfs_inode_cachep, lii);
+}
diff --git a/fs/lanyfs/inode.c b/fs/lanyfs/inode.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5bb8f9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fs/lanyfs/inode.c
@@ -0,0 +1,357 @@
+/*
+ * inode.c - Lanyard Filesystem Inode Operations
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 Dan Luedtke <mail@danrl.de>
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ */
+
+#include "lanyfs_km.h"
+
+static const struct inode_operations lanyfs_file_inode_operations;
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_inode_poke() - Updates all timestamps of an inode.
+ * @inode: inode to update
+ *
+ * Don't do this to unhashed inodes.
+ */
+void lanyfs_inode_poke(struct inode *inode)
+{
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ if (inode) {
+ spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
+ inode->i_atime = inode->i_mtime = inode->i_ctime = CURRENT_TIME;
+ spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
+ mark_inode_dirty(inode);
+ }
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_inode_rename() - Sets name of a directory or file.
+ * @inode: inode to rename
+ * @name: new name
+ *
+ * Attention! Callers must remove the inode from any binary tree *before*
+ * setting a new name otherwise the tree will break.
+ */
+void lanyfs_inode_rename(struct inode *inode, const char *name)
+{
+ struct lanyfs_lii *lii;
+ lanyfs_debug_function(__FILE__, __func__);
+
+ lii = LANYFS_I(inode);
+ spin_lock(&lii->lock);
+ spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
+ memset(lii->name, 0x00, LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH);
+ strncpy(lii->name, name, LANYFS_NAME_LENGTH - 1);
+ lii->len = strlen(lii->name);
+ spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
+ spin_unlock(&lii->lock);
+}
+
+/**
+ * lanyfs_iget() - Turns a file or directory block into an |
— impossible. Al Qaeda would return, possibly to the place it had before the 9/11 attacks, and Pakistan would be likely to follow.
When I pitched McChrystal’s counterargument to Haass, he said he was glad that he wasn’t in Obama’s shoes. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” he said. “We’re not going to find some wonderful thing that’s going to deliver large positive results at modest costs. It’s not going to happen.”
Haass went on to say: “I keep going back to Yogi Berra. You know: ‘When you reach a fork in the road, take it.’ I bet there are days when Obama wakes up and sees the fork in the road and decides he’s not going to take it. Because both choices are so bad.”
X.
DURING HIS TRIP to Garmsir, Stanley McChrystal took a moment to meet with Abdullah Jan, the governor. The two sat down in the same council chambers where Jan had met with Captain Caskey.
“Tell me how we can do better,” McChrystal said.
Jan thought for a second, then offered an unusual answer.
“You need to live in a building, not a bunch of tents,” he said.
McChrystal gave him a quizzical look.
“Everyone in Garmsir sees that you are living in tents, and they know that you are going to be leaving soon,” Jan told McChrystal. “You need to build something permanent — a building. Because your job here is going to take years. Only then will people be persuaded that you are going to stay.”
McChrystal nodded.
“We’ll stay as long as we have to until our Afghan partners are completely secure,” he said. “Even if that means years.”
McChrystal started to get up, but Jan wasn’t finished yet.
“The Afghan people are impatient,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for 30 years! We don’t want to wait any longer. We’re impatient!”
McChrystal held back a smile.
“Believe me,” he told Jan. “I work for a lot of impatient people, too.”We're in golden age of cookbook design. Which is not to say there is an abundance of useful cookbooks. Simply, that there are very good-looking cookbooks, many of which have a similar format: a cleanly laid-out recipe facing an artful image of salad or toast, all on uncoated paper. "Good-looking" often translates to "novel" or "coffee table," but rarely to "necessary" or "reference." Salt Fat Acid Heat is a refreshing break from this contemporary formula. Instantly recognizable as a reference book, Samin Nosrat's definitive technique-driven tome defies convention. This is partly because Nosrat's method of teaching via the book's four main pillars (salt, fat, acid, and heat) is a rarity. Few cooks dare to break cooking into such elemental categories, and then deliver on their promise of demystifying the process. But what makes Nosrat's method so effective was her insistence that the book be illustrated.
Few cooks dare to break cooking into such elemental categories, and then deliver on their promise of demystifying the process. But what makes Nosrat's method so effective was her insistence that the book be illustrated.
Enter Wendy MacNaughton, illustration journalist, artist, author, and former social worker. A modern legend in the field of American illustration, MacNaughton translated Nosrat's vision into lush watercolors that toe a line between artful and practical, while remaining undeniably "MacNaughton." Which is to say, alive. MacNaughton's illustrations skitter across the page with delicate intensity, like fresh fuzzy roots meeting soil. Her hand-lettering often has the look of a tropical leaf on the verge of unfurling. And her adaptation of Nosrat's methods—from peeling beets to making mayonnaise—explodes into a dynamic universe of color. Here, the two talk about how their collaboration came to be, how making Salt Fat Acid Heat worked, and all the inside art nerd jokes scattered throughout its pages.
MacNaughton's illustrations give life to Samin Nosrat's cooking methods. Wendy MacNaughton
How did this collaboration come to be and how did you decide that this should be an illustrated book rather than a photographed book?
Samin Nosrat: I was working with Michael Pollan, teaching him to cook, and once he heard about my system he really encouraged me to pursue this book. That was 2009, 2010. And what did you do?
SN: When he said that, I had this feeling in my gut. I knew from the beginning this book couldn't be photographed because it was about concepts, and about teaching people looseness in the kitchen. Photos are so precise and representational. I wanted to give you a way to use whatever you had on hand and not feel tied to a recipe. It would have been disingenuous to use perfectly styled beautiful photos by my favorite photographers, and tell you, "You can do anything!" Michael advised me to turn my material into a curriculum and just teach it. So I taught classes over and over and over again. I noticed that some concepts were easier for me to convey visually and so I started making these very crude butcher paper drawings. I would copy science concepts out of Harold McGee.
Each "sources" illustration was informed by old botanical and species charts. Wendy MacNaughton
Wendy MacNaughton: You were doing diagrams. SN: Yeah. I was okay. In the meantime I was also like deeply stalking WendyMacnaughton.com. WM: That's actually my full name. SN: We didn't know each other but we had a lot of friends in common, which I knew because I deeply stalked her. I drew a Venn diagram of the people in our lives and things that overlapped. WM: If I was wooing Samine, I would have like baked her cookies or something. I was making a lot of Venn diagrams at the time. SN: We just found the email the other day and the subject line was, "You might think I'm stalking you." Or, "If you think I'm stalking you, you'd be right." I wrote to her and said, “You are the Maira Kalman of my generation. I want to make this book that’s different than other cookbooks.” I wooed her with all my powers. WM: I responded, “There is no Maira Kalman but Maira Kalman, but if you want to make my heart melt, that is the right thing to say. And: “Yes I will, do your thing, yes!” SN: We met up and I don't think I understood that you didn't know anything about cooking. WM: I probably didn't make that quite clear.
The Powers of Pie is a reference to Charles and Ray Eames' film "Powers of Ten." Wendy MacNaughton
Did you learn to cook by illustrating this?
WM: Yes. I had private lessons where I got to ask Samin to do things again and again so I could draw them and ask a ton of questions. I draw from life. I can draw from a photograph, but drawing from life gives a live quality that is very alive. Drawing from a photograph is very flat. SN: We did a big braise the first time I went to Wendy’s. WM: She shows up with all this amazing produce and groceries all from the farmer’s market. Colors I haven't really seen before in food. It was so beautiful. As she started cooking, I was over her shoulder with a sketchbook the whole time. SN: And she doesn't have to look. I can cut vegetables without looking, and she can draw without looking. How did you actually execute the relationship between the illustration and the technical instruction?
SN: To me, this [illustration of braising] is a good example. I was like, “Now you’ve seen me do it. Just turn it into one of those things that you do. She was like, "That's not how it's going to work." WM: There are somethings that are beautiful to paint—like this slab of raw meat—and you come out with like a gorgeous, very realistic, lush drawing. There are other things that are not necessarily the most beautiful things to paint, like brown cooked meat. SN: I have a relationship to food styling in photos, but this was a completely new thing. I had to learn things that we just could not represent. There were a few we threw away.
The first time Nosrat and MacNaughton cooked together, they braised. Wendy MacNaughton
What couldn't you represent?
WM: Browned meat. Getting a sense of how delicious this meat is, that's really hard to execute in watercolor. So it became much more about the idea of the meat. It's less about the beauty of it; it's more about communicating the concept. We also had to go back and forth to get all of these steps down, and arrange it all on the page so that it was digestible. SN: For this one I remember I had whittled down the basic steps of the braise to a mere 15. I think we squeezed it into six. WM: We negotiated. SN: This was before we had our brilliant book designer. Alvaro Villanueva. He designed The Believer. WM: We found him, targeted him. Something like this braising image, how many drafts would you have to go through to get here?
WM: I don't know, six, eight? Something like that. Let’s talk about the Sources diagrams. What was the inspiration?
WM: I've always been a huge fan of those old botanical charts. They do them for all different species too. This is clearly riffing off that. There's four: the sources of acid, fat, salt, and umami. I looked at a ton of old vintage botanical charts. This font is my lettering, but I tried to actually find the original engraving, to replicate the 18th-century lettering. The color—the watercolor wash of the page—is meant to mimic the unbleached cotton rag they used back then. Okay, what about these beautiful wheels? The World of Acid and so on?
WM: The colors were chosen based on master painters. The Flavor Wheel is based on Vermeer. The Acid Wheel is Caravaggio, and the fat one is Clara Peeters. I found paintings that had tableaux—table top, still lives. And they had a lot of fats, acids, and spices in them. I drew colors from that and moved them around a little bit.
The color palettes for MacNaughton's wheels were inspired by old master painters. This one was pulled from Caravaggio. Wendy MacNaughton
During the collaboration, was there anything, Samin, that you didn't realize needed to be illustrated that Wendy helped to clarify?
SN: I think a really fun one to talk about is the Powers of Pie. Wendy has a background in social work and I didn't understand what that meant. WM: People think about social work as being therapy, but it’s actually how people and society—how different systems work together and how they influence each other. You use mapping and diagramming to understand the interactions between people. Also, I have a background in art and design. This one is taken more from that area of interest. Do you know the Charles and Ray Eames film, “The Power of Ten?” SN: It's so incredible. WM: It’s a film where they start with a couple who are lying on a blue check blanket in Chicago. And it zooms out by powers of ten all the way into the universe, and then it comes back and it zooms all the way into their skin. When Samin said that she wanted to go into the structure of the flour, we did it that way. We start on that same blanket, except we made ours red. If you get it, great. You're a design geek. If you don't get it, it doesn't matter. We figured it out. I love that. Is there anything else like this?
SN: What about the kale? WM: That's my dorky little art joke to myself. Nobody gets it. Are you referencing Duchamp?
SN: Girl! You're the first one! (Psst, reader: Marcel Duchamp created a piece between 1915 and 1923 called The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. It’s two panels of glass lined with paint and wire, and it resides in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection.) WM: Samin was stripping kale bare, and I had the idea. We snuck our little jokes in. Samin's writing is the same. The soups are a reference to Wayne Thiebaud, his pies, and his little blue shadows.
An art nerd joke, this kale drawing refers to Marcel Duchamp's "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even." Wendy MacNaughton
How long did this whole process take?
SN: Too long. WM: You've been working on it for 17 years. SN: I had the idea a long time ago, and then it took me a good three years to write the proposal, and another year to create it with Wendy. We felt it had to be fully illustrated and designed. I knew I was going to try to break so many rules that the only way to convince them was to give them the experience of what reading the book would feel like. I knew we had to illustrate the proposal and I knew we just had to knock 'em dead. It took a lot of time. WM: Then we sold it in 2013. Did they get it when they saw it?
SN: Yeah. People went crazy. My agent turned it in and five minutes later, she started getting phone calls. WM: It went to auction. SM: It’s been so cool. This week other editors and publishers, they've all remembered it. A lot of them are coming out and congratulating us. We're getting emails from other publishers just saying, "You did it, congrats."
These soups were painted in the style of Wayne Thiebaud. Wendy MacNaughtonMUNCIE - Officials in a central Indiana county have cut off electrical outlets that anti-Wall Street protesters had been using during their weeklong encampment outside the county government building.
Occupy Muncie protesters found the outlets cut off Wednesday evening. The dozen-or-so protesters had been plugging in an extension cord to power coffee makers and a webcam used to livestream video during the overnight hours.
Delaware County commissioner Larry Bledsoe tells The Star Press that taxpayers shouldn't be providing power for the protesters and that there are fire concerns if protesters were to run a heater inside a tent.
The encampment started with an Oct. 19 march of about 100 people from Ball State University to downtown Muncie.
Protester Ari Brown says members had been cautious about their power use.
(Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)The Dallas Cowboys’ dream season came to an end last night thanks to the arm of Aaron Rodgers and the foot of Mason Crosby. One Packers fan’s night was also impacted by an arm-foot combo:
Cowboys fans didn't take the Packers loss very wellpic.twitter.com/5Nu9fMwE2O — NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) January 16, 2017
It’s easy to laugh at Dallas fans and say they can’t take a loss, but this is very obviously happening while the game is still going on. You’d think fans in that nightmare arena would be used to out-of-towners taking up a third of their seats, but at least one Dallas fan wasn’t into sharing.
My favorite part is the Event Staff who looks like they walked up to the fight and started asking people if they need directions to their seats:Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller has enjoyed a fairly speedy recovery after tearing his ACL against the Houston Texans in week 16 of the 2013 season, but I don’t know how many people could have guessed it would go this well.
According to Jeff Legwold of ESPN, there is a chance Miller could not only play but start the Broncos’ third preseason game against the Houston Texans next week. Miller has been working in more in team drills (11-on-11) and appears on track to play at least a bit in the preseason.
This is humongous news for the Broncos, and there’s no other way to put it. Many figured Miller might be ready to play week one when the Broncos take on the Colts. Perhaps not even the most optimistic viewed the preseason as an option for the star linebacker in his recovery from major surgery.
It really is a testament to how hard Miller has worked this offseason. His ACL surgery recovery has been remarkable, and his dedication to getting back out on the field and setting the example off of it has obviously paid off in a big way.
According to Legwold, the plan is for Miller to get some extensive snaps with the starters in the game against the Texans in which the top unit will play at least a half, maybe more. Legwold also reported that Miller is set to be a full participant in padded practices when Houston comes to Denver for their joint practices next week.
It’s almost too exciting to type a clear sentence.
With Miller back in the fold, the Broncos will be able to put out one of the best pass rush duos in the NFL at the same time on the same field for the first time in a couple of years. Since Elvis Dumervil left Denver, it was just Von Miller, and then when Miller was suspended, it was just…no one.
Now, with DeMarcus Ware and Miller at the same time, teams will have something to really fear when they go up against this Broncos defense. They will get a dose of the new, talented duo in Houston next week of J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney, but Ware and Miller have their sights set on being the best pass rush duo in league history.
And it all starts next week. Apologies in advance to Ryan Fitzpatrick, Case Keenum, and Tom Savage.Samsung Electronics, a global leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, semiconductors and telecommunications, today announced that it won 38 prestigious International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 Innovation Awards. The Consumer Technology Association™ (CTA), the producer of CES 2016 – the global gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies, who has been recognizing achievements in product design and engineering since 1976, has honored Samsung with one more Best of Innovation Award this year than last year.
Among Samsung’s 38 CES 2016 Innovation Awards are three Best of Innovation Awards. Products entered in the CES Innovation program are judged by a pre-eminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the trade media to honor outstanding design and engineering in cutting-edge consumer electronics products across 27 categories.
“Samsung continues to deliver unique experiences for our consumers worldwide through the many products that help people lead more connected lives,” said Gregory Lee, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America. “We are honored that CTA and the industry recognizes our ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence in consumer experience as we look forward to demonstrating our latest achievements at the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show.”
Samsung’s award-winning products span 18 categories including, TV, Monitor, Mobile, Tablet, Digital Imaging, Wearable, Home Appliance and Memory. Many of Samsung’s award-winning products will be on display at CES 2016, which runs January 6-9, 2016, in Samsung booth #11906 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some of the winning products will be showcased at Samsung’s CES press conference, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Tuesday January 5, 2016.
Following are details on some of Samsung’s award-winning products:
Samsung Gear S2 – A completely re-designed smartwatch that centers on an intuitive circular design with a rotating bezel that allows users to easily and precisely navigate the UI with the turn of a dial. The Gear S2 provides at-a-glance notifications to check calendars, e-mails, send texts and more.
Galaxy S6 edge+ – With an immersive, 5.7-inch dual-edge display, the Galaxy S6 edge+ breaks conventional smartphone design and delivers industry leading features, including Samsung’s most advanced camera for high quality photos and videos, fast wireless and wired charging, powerful processor and Samsung Pay.
Samsung Galaxy View – Re-imagining mobile entertainment, the Galaxy View provides a movable, touchable, immersive TV experience. With a unique, video-centric user interface, the Galaxy View makes it easy to access and enjoy streaming content, interactive video games, books and other digital content.
Samsung Gear VR – Powered by Oculus, the Gear VR is compatible the Samsung Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, leveraging each device’s Quad HD Super AMOLED display to provide the color, clarity and performance needed for an amazing virtual reality experience.
ATIV Book 9 Pro – Offering a stunning 4K display, cutting-edge performance from its Intel Core i7® processor, and magnificent quad speakers, this laptop is ideal for professionals and multimedia enthusiasts alike.
Samsung 950 PRO 512GB – This solid state drive (SSD), the first Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology, is designed to meet the demands of high-performance consumer and business PCs and laptops. Ideal for projects such as computer-aided design, data analysis and engineering simulation, the 950 PRO provides users with cutting-edge performance, higher bandwidth and lower latency from their workstations, even under intensive workloads.
Samsung 850 PRO 2TB – As the world’s first 2 terabyte consumer SSD, the Samsung 850 PRO 2TB is a high-performance, high-density storage device that delivers rapid data access times and program load times, as well as industry-leading power efficiency. With V-NAND technology at its core, the 850 PRO 2TB yields excellent reliability and superior performance throughout its lifetime.
Samsung SleepSense Sleep Monitor – The Bluetooth and IoT-enabled Samsung SleepSense device uses a complex set of sensors in a smart, innovative, and simple way to track and provide information on your sleep habits and deliver personalized expert tips directly to consumers’ smartphones to help you take control of the most important aspects of health and wellness: how well we sleep.
Samsung 128GB UFS – As the first mobile memory based on the much-anticipated Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard, this ultra-fast package is the highest capacity, highest performing, thinnest and smallest embedded storage memory for mobile devices. It allows for quick access to pictures from 20MP+ cameras and to 4K video files, as well as embracing 5G connectivity and delivering shorter application loading and response times.
Samsung 12Gb LPDDR4 – The world’s highest density mobile DRAM chip allows for packages of up to 6GB, delivering 34.1GB/s bandwidth – three times as fast as the industry’s previous highest performing mobile DRAM. The chip can accommodate the real-time multitasking scenarios of today’s flagship smartphones and tablets having UHD displays, while providing 50% greater power efficiency and the optimal density for new high-end 64bit-system smartphones.Michael T. Flynn resigned as national security adviser on Monday night following the revelation that he had misled White House officials about conversations he had had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Here’s a timeline of his tenure.
Nov. 18
President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Mr. Flynn the post of national security adviser, elevating the retired general and intelligence officer who saw Islamist militancy as a global existential threat.
“I am pleased that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will be by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home and abroad,” Mr. Trump said at the time.
Dec. 29
Former President Barack Obama ejected dozens of suspected Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposed sanctions on Russia after American intelligence officials concluded that the nation had ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to tip the election to Mr. Trump.141 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit
Early-adopters of VR headsets turned to Live For Speed and Project CARS for their VR-enabled sim racing fix, which both have solid support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but we’re finally seeing movement elsewhere. Assetto Corsa’s pre-alpha support for the Rift in the recent 1.6 update was very well received (with Vive users also finding some success using the Revive injector), and VR sim racers will soon have another title to enjoy; iRacing begins its Rift support next week.
Kevin Bobbitt, Director of Marketing at iRacing, confirmed the news to Road to VR.
“We are excited to continue our support of VR hardware. We were one of the first titles to support the Oculus Rift DK1 so it’s natural that we would continue with support for the CV1. We are in the final stages of testing and plan to add support when we release our quarterly update next week. Once we finish this project we’ll be evaluating other VR hardware as well.”
iRacing’s subscription-based online service is designed to be active 24 hours a day, with most championships operating on a 12-week schedule. The major software updates roll out four times a year, during the infamous ‘Week 13’ which next begins on June 7th. This is typically a week-long shakedown of the new build; a chance to test new content and to address any last-minute issues before a new season of racing gets underway. ‘Week 13’ can be a confusing introduction for new members, as the typical racing schedules aren’t active, and there can be more downtime than usual (note: Rift support is therefore due June 7th at the earliest, but could slip a day or two). However, it’s a good time to become acquainted with the sim; newcomers will want to spend time in private testing to ensure their hardware is configured correctly, and to familiarise themselves with some of the cars and tracks.
It will be interesting to see iRacing’s first VR implementation on consumer hardware, as their support for the Rift development kits was one of the more polished integrations at the time. The Rift’s ‘asynchronous time warp’—a rendering technique which maintains smooth visuals during slowdowns in rendering—should help to mitigate the performance issues commonly seen on the DK2, while the improvements in fidelity and comfort on the consumer Rift has made frequent racing in VR a more viable and appealing proposition.
Further VR sim racing entertainment is due this year: Gran Turismo Sport’s showcase event in London last month confirmed that the title will be PSVR-ready at its launch in November. Considering how demanding driving sims can be on a high-end PC, it will be a remarkable achievement if developer Polyphony Digital can deliver the full GT Sport experience at decent quality in VR using the PS4. Fingers crossed we’ll have news about DiRT Rally’s VR support before then too, but that still leaves a number of PC sims (most notably RaceRoom, rFactor 2, and Automobilista) yet to show their hand.WELCOME: TO THE NEW NEW
Thank you for checking out OLLO’s Zero S and Sapien S Models! This is a next generation Parkour and Freerunning shoe built for performance and comfort. We have spent the last year listening to our users and the community to learn how to improve OLLO footwear. You asked for it and now we have it. Please welcome the OLLO S Editions.
Zero S and Sapien S Edition. The highest performance Parkour and Freerunning shoes available today!
"I put my trust in OLLO shoes." -Yoann 'Zephyr' Leroux.
"APK loves the grip and flexibility of OLLO shoes". - Mark Toorock, Founder / American Parkour
Check out these awesome videos of people running their OLLO's -
PROVEN DESIGN, ADVANCED MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION.
The new design is a natural evolution of the Sapien and Zero, based on the feedback of many athletes around the world. We maintain our proven and legendary OLLO0110 HighGrip outsole and the flexible and highly tactile fit. However, we were able to strengthen our construction and durability in high stress areas to ensure the highest level of performance.
FACTORY TUNING: HOLISTIC DESIGN PHILOSOPHY.
The shoes may look similar on the outside, but under the hood, the OLLO S has been completely reengineered to deliver best in class performance. We have moved our production facility to a smaller and higher quality factory, have increased our quality control team, and focused on design elements and capabilities to push our shoes further. Together, we have readdressed our construction, upgraded materials, added processes and fine-tuned elements to create a whole new shoe. The OLLO S is optimized performance that meets and exceeds our user demands.
TOE STITCH: SECURING THE LEADING EDGE.
Toe stitch
Most running shoes have a narrow toe wrap for traction, and most of them delaminate under the stresses of Parkour and Freerunning. Originally, we widened our toe wrap and molded it into shape for added traction, protection and durability. Now, we take it another step forward and are adding a toe stitch to permanently attach the toe wrap and eliminate delamination.
BONDING: STAYING TOGETHER UNDER STRESS.
Outsole Bonding
Continuing with our outsole development, we revisited our bonding agents and processes. Using more advanced bonding techniques and rigorous wear testing; we have achieved a high level of adhesion for a secure and lasting bond between the outsole, midsole and the upper. This has become another major success for us in developing a more durable shoe without compromising the feel and flexibility.
LASTING BOARD: A SOLID FOUNDATION.
OLLO S Lasting board
The lasting board is at the heart of this die-cut trainer style of construction. It holds the shoe together, influences the comfort and tactility and how the shoe feels. We knew, in the beginning with our first round of shoes, that we had to deviate from the traditional materials used in this construction and go with a more pliable material. So, we used a thinner more flexible woven material, to improve comfort, feel, and create a connection between the foot and the environment. That was a great success, however, we wanted to upgrade this for the OLLO S. This time we are using a stronger and more durable material that can stand up to the environmental rigors of Parkour and Freerunning. Once this piece is broken in, this material offers great flexibility and responsiveness that is similar to our previous lasting board, only stronger. Enabling you to have a stable launching and landing platform that seamlessly allows feeling through the shoe.
INSOLE: SUSPENSION.
INSOLE
The 0110 / TACTICAL insole is made from a compound that we have developed and tested to absorb over 90% of impact force.The insole delivers comfort and suspension. Our new insole has leveled up in material compound and functionality giving user's softer landings and a precise fit. The dampening and rebound properties work together to create that tactile feel and sensitivity for precision, while smoothing out impact. Our shoes are known to be comfortable and they just got even better.
OUTSOLE: GET A GRIP
0110 High Grip Outsole
The OLLO0110 High Grip outsole is perhaps the most important component of the OLLO S. This is where the rubber hits the road, or rail. We've designed a multi-traction pattern that is based on how you move and a custom rubber blend for grip and durability.
SHOE LACES: RIGHT LENGTH, IMPROVED DESIGN.
After laborious tests and massive user input we have finally arrived at the ideal length for our shoe laces which, undoubtedly, will excite seasoned users. We have also upgraded the laces to a tighter weave and a more durable knot retaining design for a strong and secure fit.
GET IT NOW!
OLLO’s Parkour and Freerunning shoes combine high-level functionality with great design. Based on a decade of athletic footwear experience, extensive Parkour and Freerunning research, user involvement and years of worldwide testing, OLLO shoes are designed and built from the ground up with the highest quality materials in order for them to meet the heavy demands of our sport. In order to make the OLLO S available to everyone, we need your support and pledge to launch this amazing shoe. We have done the work and proven ourselves to the community. Join us! Please support our Kickstarter, take advantage of these special deals and help the youth of the world as they develop this new sport. All of our products are backed with a warranty and our customer service guarantee.
So, no worries! Get some and have fun!
IN EVERY BOX:
Every pair of the OLLO S will come with our signature Run Everything wristband included. This is a small gift to you for your incredible support. Thank you for making OLLO possible!
#RunEverything
Size Chart
International Backers
We will ship OLLO S worldwide, with the exception of Argentina, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar/Burma, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Please note that you may be responsible for duties, fees and taxes applicable to your region.
Estimated Delivery
The OLLO S is estimated to ship in July to North America and Europe.
Need help? We're here for you.
If you have questions at any time, during or after the campaign has closed, you can always reach us at question@OLLOpk.comM-1 Global returned to Finland on August 5th after a nine year absence. The second show for the Russian promotion M-1 Challenge 82 went down at the Hartwall Arena, the first MMA event ever at the huge arena. “We have many fighters from Finland and next year we are going to hold another event there.” says M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelchtein as he reflected upon the 20th year of the promotion.
“The event in Finland was really successful. Many fans came to watch our promotion and it became one of the biggest MMA events in Finland history. Scandinavia is a very interesting region for us.”
No date has been set for the Finland show, but it is included in an ambitious international plan that also includes Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China,, Germany and the USA.About
Short Pitch
What do you and Sam Raimi have in common?... Nothing, YET!
But allow us to change that by asking you to participate in our short independent thriller called A Zombie for Charlie.
It's not really about zombies. It's about 3 Zombie Bounty hunters living 2 decades after the initial apocalypse. The story is about 3 different people fighting the same struggles together. Not only do they have to contend the real world monsters they face daily, but they must also fight with the monsters that live inside all of us.
This is about 3 zombie Bounty Hunters living decades after the Initial Outbreak. Their names are Charlie, Stanley and Brock.
We first meet Charlie who is on her maiden voyage with veterans Stanley and Brock. She is a feisty hunter with dreams of discovering fortune and glory somewhere in this unforgiving world. She carries heavy but she still has a lot to learn from her seasoned counterparts.
Stanley is the veteran who recruited Charlie. His sharpshooter skills keep him safe from the monsters, but he's not sure what's kept him safe from people all these years.
Brock is the leader of the group. His journey to survive has left him scratching and clawing his way out of countless encounters with monsters. He doesn't take well to newcomers like Charlie.
When the 3 of them come together for their first call, they venture into new territory that Brock may not even be prepared for.
Click THIS LINK to read the First 8 pages of the script.
Click THIS LINK to check get a sneak peak of Behind The Scenes footage
Click THIS LINK to see a Demo of some of the past projects Jose, our Director, worked on prior to starting this project.
Why We're Making It
This is a Passion Project for the Filmmakers. The goal is to create a short film eligible for the numerous, prestigious festivals that occur around the nation throughout the year, i.e. Fantastic Fest, AFI Fest, SXSW and many more.
The success of this film will help us and other Texas Filmmakers continue producing quality independent work locally.
Plus, who wouldn't want to shoot a Zombie movie in Galveston?
Key Location
What You're Supporting
Every dollar raised is going towards production of A Zombie for Charlie (scheduled filming dates are Jan 30 - Feb 2). The expectation is that we will exceed our $5000 Goal and be able to increase the visual appeal of the film accordingly.
As of right now, the film can be produced for $5000 with a skeleton crew and DSLR Cameras. We will have:
HD 1080p video
Professionally recorded sound.
Minimal costume/makeup props
A talented Makeup artist
A professionally lit image.
1 quite large and gorgeous location in Galveston.
Several Volunteer Production Assistants
Volunteer Zombie Extras.
The film will use a combination of Computer-Generated Animation and In-Camera effects to create the zombie encounters.
Exceeding the Goal by $1000 will allow us to add more set pieces to create the World of the Infected as well as rent professional camera rigs, which will add flexibility to our cinematography and boost the film's visual appeal.
Exceeding the Goal by $2000 will allow us to shoot with professional quality film cameras that records in 4k Resolution (higher than 1080p)
Who You're Supporting
Jose Guzman, Director
A graduate of the University of Texas Film program. Currently employed at the Johnson Space Center for NASA Mission Video Support. A loyal fan of Sci-Fi and Bruce Lee Films. Jose has over 7 years of Video Production experience with numerous achievements in Editing. His goal is to become a major contributor to the Independent Film Scene around the Known World, and one day, around the Unknown Worlds.
Brett Redden, Writer/Producer
Illustrator, writer, producer Brett Redden has traveled the world and seen some pretty amazing things; Paris at midnight, The Great Wall in the morning mists, and Hong Kong's sea of city lights from the highest point, Victoria Peak. His love of travel is matched only for his love of film. As a producer/editor/narrator Brett created the documentary "Defying The River" a film that follows a team of canoers as they compete in one of the worlds most grueling races. Brett has written several short films across multiple genre and has penned multiple feature length films that he is looking forward to producing. He's also written a children's book called "Looy Cucuy: A Southwestern Monsters Tale" Also I'm pretty sure he's a superhero or an alien with super human powers.
Thomas Meek, |
of demands, including those for a higher pixel count, better image quality, and a smaller and lighter camera, the D800 is a digital SLR camera developed to capture still images with the superior resolution and record movies with the true high-definition picture quality demanded not only by advanced amateur photographers but also by professionals.
Nikon is responding to the needs of users who demand more from photographs and movies with the recently announced D4, a flagship model that combines excellent definition and image quality with superior high-speed performance, and the D800, a model that offers the ultimate in resolution demanded for nature and studio photography.
D800 Primary Features
1. New Nikon FX-format CMOS image sensor
The D800 is equipped with a new Nikon FX-format CMOS image sensor and the new EXPEED 3 image-processing engine for Nikon digital SLR cameras. This new image-processing engine is faster and offers greater performance. The camera also offers the world's highest* effective pixel count of 36.3-million pixels. When combined with the sharp rendering of NIKKOR lenses, images exhibiting resolution equal to that achieved with medium-format digital cameras are possible.
The D800 also responds to the demands of professional photographers with a standard sensitivity range of ISO 100–6400, and additional support for equivalents of ISO 50 (Lo 1) and up to ISO 25600 (Hi 2), for superior image and picture quality in dimly lit situations, such as just before sunrise and just after sunset, with shooting of still images as well as movie recording.
* Among interchangeable lens digital SLR cameras equipped with image sensors conforming to the 35-mm film size as of February 7, 2012
2. New 91K-pixel RGB sensor for the more accurate Advanced Scene Recognition System
The D800 is equipped with a new 91K-pixel (approximately 91,000 pixels) RGB sensor. When a human face is detected in the frame, 3D Color Matrix Metering III bases exposure control on the brightness of that face so that the face is optimally exposed even with backlighting. In addition, the superior resolution of the metering sensor, which makes full use of an incredible 91,000 pixels, enables extremely precise analysis of the scene for more accurate control over autofocusing, auto exposure, i-TTL flash control, and auto white balance.
* There is no display in the viewfinder that shows when a face or faces have been recognized.
3. Multi-area mode Full HD D-Movie for movie recording using one of two movie formats
The D800 records movies exhibiting superior resolution with optimal processing of information acquired from the 36.3-million pixel image sensor. Recording of 1920 x 1080p/30-fps full-HD movies is supported, and users can choose to record using the FX-based movie format or the DX-based movie format according to recording conditions. The FX-based movie format offers a shallow depth-of-field with an emphasis on blur characteristics while the DX-based movie format enables recording of movies that bring subjects closer when lenses with short focal lengths are used. The D800 is also equipped with a headphone jack and supports precise adjustment of microphone sensitivity. In addition, it supports simultaneous display of movies or the movie live view display in the camera monitor and on an external monitor. Further, the D800 responds to the needs of professionals who require uncompressed movie files with the ability to record movies directly to an external HDMI recorder in movie live view mode. The D800 also offers a time-lapse photography function that captures images at a selected interval and then combines the images to create a time-lapse movie that shows the changes in a particular scene that occur over time.
4. Viewfinder frame coverage of approximately 100%*1 and a lightweight and durable water- and dust-resistant body
The viewfinder built into the D800 supports a frame coverage of approximately 100%*1 and magnification of approximately 0.7x*2. Adoption of a magnesium alloy for the body gives the camera the same level of durability as the D700 with a weight approximately 10% less.
*1 With FX-format image area
With FX-format image area *2 With 50-mm f/1.4 lens at infinity, -1.0 m-1
5. Support for high-speed continuous shooting and a variety of battery types with the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D12 (optional)
The MB-D12 supports the Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries EN-EL15 and EN-EL18, common AA batteries, and the AC Adapter EH-5a/b (with Power Connector EP-5B). When the MB-D12 is mounted on the D800, high-speed continuous shooting at approximately 6 fps* using the DX-format image area is possible. The MB-D12 also offers the added convenience of controls, including shutter-release button, AF-ON button and multi-selector, for vertical shooting. What's more, the same seals as those used for the D800 with its magnesium body offer superior resistance to dust and water.
* When powered by the AC adapter, or AA batteries or Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL18 with the MB-D12. Measured according to CIPA guidelines.
6. Other D800 Functions and Features
A 51-point AF system for improved subject acquisition and focus performance under dim lighting. In addition, 11 focus points (five at center with an addition three to each side) are fully functional when lenses with a maximum aperture of f/8 are used.
A 3.2-inch, approximately 921k-dot LCD monitor with reinforced glass, automatic monitor brightness control, and wide viewing angle
A virtual horizon that shows the degree to which the camera is tilted sideways (roll), or forward or backward (pitch) with display in the monitor and viewfinder
A new shutter unit that has passed testing for 200,000 cycles and supports a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 s and flash sync speed of 1/250 s
Continuous shooting at 4 (FX-format/5 : 4 image area) or 5 (DX-format/1.2x image area) fps* * When powered by a Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL15
CompactFlash and SD dual memory card slots
Support for SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0)
The D800E with specifications for even greater resolution with an effective pixel count of 36.3-million pixels
In-camera disabling of the aliasing and moiré pattern reduction operation performed by the optical low-pass filter built into the D800E allows light passing through a NIKKOR lens to strike photodiodes directly for even greater resolution. This makes this model optimal for landscape and artistic photography with which higher resolution and clear definition is demanded. With the exception of the modification indicated above, all other functions and characteristics are the same as with the D800.
Aliasing and moiré patterns may be more noticeable in images captured with the D800E with some subjects, scenes or shooting conditions.
Optical low-pass filter IR coating and anti-reflection coating performance is the same with both the D800 and the D800E.Statistics New Zealand take a leaf out of Facebook, which lobbied for its users to freely self-identify their gender earlier this year.
A new gender option will be available in the collection and sharing of public information, and New Zealand is the first country to introduce it.
The 'gender diverse' classification will be available when Statistics New Zealand collects and shares information. It represents those who see themselves as different from'male' or 'female'.
READ MORE: New diverse gender category 'affirming' for Nelson activist
Statistics NZ's classifications manager Jo-anne Allan said that over time the term would become more widely used and accepted.
"It's a complex issue as gender identity is about how a person feels and experiences their gender, which can change over their lifetime," she said. "We've worked with a wide range of government and community groups to finalise this standard and the terminology.
"We believe the gender diverse population see it as a step towards being seen, counted, and understood."
Human Rights Commissioner Richard Tankersley welcomed the introduction. He wanted to see questions based upon this standard included in the next census.
"This gender diverse standard paves the way for the New Zealand Government to collect data on people with diverse gender identities in a way that has never been possible, leading to a better understanding of the need for recognition and inclusion of the range of trans people in New Zealand, and to advancing the full realisation of their human rights."
While the term has been set as a gender standard for government organisations collecting and sharing information, it is not mandatory and is only recommended.We are in the "Public" phase of a Capital Campaign to raise the funds required to operate the Ted Taylor Vocational Ag Center. Architectural and engineering plans are completed; campus infrastructure has been upgraded to accommodate the new structure (electrical, water and sewage); our EIR is completed, and approved; construction is expected to begin in 2017. We are excited to announce we officially broke ground on April 8, 2017. Once completed, the Ted Taylor Vocational Ag Center will offer training in support of Monterey County's largest industry, agriculture. The four wings of the structure will include:
Automotive and tractor repair
Metal fabrication and welding, irrigation, and water solutions
Agricultural value added services, refrigeration, and food safety
Sustainable ag and construction solutions
Thank you to those that have supported our campaign so far:Snoop Dogg thinks Hollywood has played out slavery.
The rapper called for a boycott against History's revival of the iconic TV show, "Roots."
He said in an explicit video on Instagram, ""How the f*** they gonna put 'Roots' on Memorial Day? They gonna just keep beating that s*** in our heads of how they did us, huh? I don't understand America. They just want to keep showing the abuse that we took hundreds and hundreds of years ago. But, guess what? We taking the same abuse [now]. Think about that part."
He continued and said he'd like to see more positive portrayals of black people instead.
"When y'all gonna make one f***ing series about the success that black folks is having? The only success we have is 'Roots' and '12 Years a Slave' and s*** like that, huh? F*** y'all. I ain't watchin that s***. F*** them television shows. Let's create our own s*** based on today, how we live and how we inspire people today. Black is what's real."
You can watch the explicit video here.
The "Roots" reboot, a revisit to the 1977 series, features Malachi Kirby, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Anika Noni Rose, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anna Paquin, Matthew William Goode and T.I. It airs on History at 9 p.m. Monday.Armless Archer Matt Stutzman Describes How He Shoots A Bow — And Wins Medals
Enlarge this image toggle caption Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
American Paralympian Matt Stutzman won the silver medal in archery this week, a feat he accomplished despite being born without arms. In the men's compound open final, he was narrowly beaten by Finland's Jere Forsberg, who has the use of both arms.
In the gold medal match, Forsberg fired a perfect 10 on his final arrow to avoid a shoot-off with Stutzman.
The Paralympics have helped Stutzman, who is from Fairfield, Iowa, become something of a celebrity, thanks to his competitive spirit and his refusal to let his talents go to waste.
And despite many reports to the contrary, Stutzman tells All Things Considered co-host Melissa Block, "I actually don't use my teeth at all." Instead, he uses his mouth only to guide the release onto the string.
Like many of his wheelchair-using rivals, Stutzman shoots from a seated position. He uses his left foot to put the arrow in place, then he pushes the compound bow away with his right foot and pulls the arrow back with a release aid that's strapped to his body.
"There is a gentleman on the team, he actually bites onto the bow string and pulls back with his teeth to shoot the bow," Stutzman says. "And I like my teeth a lot. So that's why I came up with the idea of using a release."
Here's how he describes the process, after picking up an arrow with his left foot and putting it on the bow's string:
"After I get the arrow onto the string, I kind of cross my legs, almost 'gentleman-style,' as you can say it," Stutzman tells Melissa. "And what that allow me to do is, it brings the string close enough that I can actually kind of bend down, and hook my release aid, which is on my right shoulder, onto the string."
The release is on a belt that wraps around his body and over his shoulder. Stutzman says the belt was modified from a tree stand that a hunter would use. The release aid, which is one any other archer might use, has a trigger that rests against his jaw.
"Once I get anchored, and I'm looking down the sights... when I'm ready to fire, I just kind of move my jaw slightly backwards," he says. "The release is set really light, it's almost like the pressure it takes you to click on a mouse."
Still, that doesn't mean it's an easy process. "When I push that away from my chest, that's 60 pounds," he says. "That's a lot of weight."
This is the first Paralympics for Stutzman, whose unique shooting style — and skill — gave him something of an air of hype as he traveled to London. He is also the Guinness World Record-holder for the longest accurate shot, a mark of 230 yards that he set in 2011.
In London, Stutzman wasted no time in living up to expectations, as he dominated the qualifying round to finish first by 12 points. And he says he was excited to compete in the tournament.
"When I actually got out there, I just kind of tell myself that this is the one tournament in the world that you're not out there shooting for yourself anymore. You're shooting for your country, all your friends, your family," Stutzman says.
After winning his silver medal, Stutzman said that he "loved" his highly competitive match against Forsberg. And he told reporters he hoped his performance might inspire others.
"If I can inspire just one person then my job's done. Really, watching me people can only say, 'I haven't got an excuse. I can't say my back's hurting or I got a sore finger, this guy's shooting arrows with no arms,'" Stutzman said in The Telegraph. "I kinda hope I make everyone realize you can do whatever you want in this life if you just try."
Stutzman says that he wanted to try archery after seeing his father and brother going out hunting with their bows. It didn't seem fair to him that he was left out. So he made a deal with his father.
"I did odd jobs around the farm to pay for that bow," Stutzman says. And once he got it, there was just one more hurdle: figuring out how to shoot it with his feet.
"If you Google 'how to teach a guy without arms how to shoot,' you will not find that," Stutzman says. "I mean, you can find anything on Google. But you just can't find that.
"That's the one thing on Google that does not exist?" Melissa asks.
"That's right," Stutzman says — before adding, "Well, it does now."This is THE night... Sunday night, when TV presents some of its very best shows. An abundance of riches, some viewers might say; an OVER-abundance in the opinion of others who ask, how on Earth can one person watch it all? Our Cover Story is reported by Tracy Smith:
So it's Fall... the start of a new television season, which ought to put a TV critic like Alan Sepinwall in a pretty good mood... except for the workload he faces on one particular night of the week.
"Ah, Sunday is the worst. It is my nightmare," he laughed. "I mean, it's the best and the worst. Because on the one hand, you have the very best shows in all of television, many of them the very best shows in the history of television, all airing on Sunday. But, they're all airing on Sunday!"
Sepinwall specializes at hitfix.com in the art of the online recap -- those nearly-instant reviews that his readers expect nearly instantly.
"This Sunday in the Fall alone there's going to be the final season of 'Boardwalk Empire.' 'The Walking Dead' is coming back. Then 'Homeland' is gonna come back. There's gonna be more 'Good Wife.'"
The problem? These shows, all popular, all critically-acclaimed, will ALL air at the exact same time: Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
And it doesn't stop when the year ends. In January, the servants and snobs of "Downton Abbey" will join the fray. And come Spring, there will be blood, no doubt, when "Game of Thrones" returns.
"I look at Sunday and I cry," he said. "Because I want to write about all these shows. And I can't. It's too much."
What to watch now and what to record for later: that's the debate in the 50 percent of American homes that have digital video recorders, or DVRs.
According to TiVo, eight of the 20 most time-shifted programs last season aired on Sunday, with AMC's "Mad Men" topping the list.
But if we can watch these shows whenever we want, why do programmers jam so many of them into Sunday night? In part, it's a numbers game. As we ease out of the weekend, it's where the eyeballs are.
Sunday is the most popular TV night of the week, and has been for most of the past 25 years. Last season, on average 122 million viewers -- a third of the country -- tuned in on Sunday.
"I think Sunday night means to the audience, 'This show matters. This is a show that's worthy of paying attention to,'" says Showtime president David Nevins, the architect of edgy Sunday successes like "Homeland" and "Masters of Sex."
And, he says, it's become an expectation for viewers. "It doesn't matter to us when people watch it. But the new stuff is out Sunday night. And I think if a show doesn't appear on Sunday night, people start to wonder, 'Is this less important than the other stuff?'"
Truth is, Sunday's long been a "good evening" for television. By the time "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" debuted on Sunday nights in 1955, Ed Sullivan's variety show was already seven years into a two-decade ride. Along the way, he was joined by shows of all shapes and species, says Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media.
"Almost every genre is reflected," he said. "You wanna go into great children's programming? You have 'Lassie' and 'Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.' Very significant shows. But the show that was the number one show on Sunday night was 'Bonanza.'"The music industry is a tough place to start a company right now. No online music start-up has managed to turn a profit and most artists make pennies off streams of their content. (Just ask Spotify's CEO.) Meanwhile, no one has yet to crack the royalty code, not even Pandora.
But lately, a new crop of start-ups are emerging that offer a glimmer of hope. Not only do they have fresh business models, they have plenty of capital and the support of big names like Fred Wilson and MTV.
Here are five music start-ups worth watching and why:
Splice, a GitHub for musicians
Anything with Fred Wilson’s money behind it has got to be interesting, right? Funded to the tune of $2.75 million by Union Square Ventures, Lerer Ventures, and Turntable.fm’s Seth Goldstein, Splice has more going for it than a clever name. It’s a platform for editing, annotating, and sharing works in progress, which, for the bedroom artists, is a pretty big deal. Musicians can post tracks for fans or share them with a network of collaborators. The service is the creation of Steve Martocci of GroupMe and Matt Aimonetti, formerly of LivingSocial and PlayStation. Splice unveiled its community site last week, along with a waitlist for its beta site.
DeliRadio, local performers on demand
DeliRadio made raising $9.4 million look easy. What started as a way to stream bands with upcoming shows quickly evolved into a “community radio” that features venue-based radio stations with links to concert tickets and info. For bands, concert sales are a large source of income. For DeliRadio, it's a way to gin up uber-local advertising. DeliRadio is also harnessing the potential of location-based stations in a way other start-ups aren’t. While Spotify is bent on promoting the biggest acts out there, DeliRadio ensures the little guy gets heard.
This Is My Jam, music of the moment
This Is My Jam is where you go to share your favorite song at any given moment. Users only follow other users whose taste they like, “not people you went to high school with who happen to be also be on the streaming music service,” said co-founder Matthew Ogle. With one click, you can play all of that person's favorite songs. Each time you post your own favorite song, that “jam” is available for a week. It’s unclear how this service benefits artists and whether it’s a viable business, but as long as The Echo Nest--the music intelligence company behind MTV, Twitter Music, and Foursquare--retains an undisclosed equity stake, This Is My Jam could have a long shelf life.
Earbits, a Bitcoin for music
While most music start-ups charge listeners for the privilege of streaming music, Earbits charges artists for listener data and promotions. Bands tell fans to find their music on Earbits. Customers need 10 “Groovies” to hear a song. Groovies can be earned in a number of ways, including opening an account (500) and sharing music on Facebook or Twitter (100). The start-up calls Groovies the first “currency” for streaming music. “Over 70 percent of the people on Spotify are not paying, said Earbits’ CEO Joey Flores. "I think there’s a lot of evidence that the ad- and commercial-supported experience not only doesn’t generate enough value for the industry, but it makes the experience worse for the consumer.”
Soundrop, the best financed Spotify appUnearthed by an ivory carver from a Siberian riverbank, a man's 45,000-year-old thigh bone reveals when people first mated with Neanderthals, an international genetics team reports Wednesday.
The Ust'-Ishim man's thigh bone is the oldest human bone found so far outside of Africa and the Middle East, according to the report in the journal Nature. It's nearly twice as old as the next oldest from a modern human, which comes from a boy who died elsewhere in Siberia some 24,000 years ago.
Scientists collected DNA from the bone and analyzed the ancient man's complete genetic map, or genome. The DNA narrows down the time when mating first brought Neanderthal genes into the human gene pool: from 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
"It's really exciting that we now have a really high-quality genome sequence of an early modern human that is this old," says study author and genetics expert Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Recent DNA studies led by Max Planck's Svante Pääbo, another author of the new study, have found traces of Neanderthal in modern people. Typically about 1.6 to 2.1 percent of the genes in people of Eurasian descent are Neanderthal in origin. (Related: "Neanderthals Died Out 10,000 Years Earlier Than Thought, With Help From Modern Humans.")
Early Liaisons
Archaeological finds show that Neanderthals and modern humans overlapped in the Middle East as long as 100,000 years ago, says paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. But the new DNA findings seem to rule out mating taking place until much later.
Previous studies put the timing of the earliest human-Neanderthal mating anywhere from 86,000 to 37,000 years ago.
The researchers narrowed that range to 50,000 to 60,000 years ago by calculating the loss of Neanderthal genes over time since the gene swapping occurred. The Ust'-Ishim man had about 2.3 percent Neanderthal genes, but modern people typically have less than 2.1 percent.
Using the mutation rate as a genetic "clock," the researchers extrapolated back to determine the era when modern humans picked up genes from Neanderthals.
"I think the paper is pretty convincing on this," Hawks says. But he cautions that the idea of a single time of human mating with Neanderthals "almost certainly is an oversimplification. The contacts could have extended over a longer period."
A possible second, more recent, episode may explain slightly higher numbers of Neanderthal genes common today in East Asians, according to the study.
Asian Migration
The femur shaft turned up on the banks of the Irtysh River near Ust'-Ishim, Russia, in 2008. A Russian ivory carver and historian named Nikolay Peristov collected the bone after it eroded from a bluff above the river in western Siberia. It was identified as human, based on its teardrop-shaped cross section, in 2010.
Photograph by Bence Viola, MPI EVA
View Images Ust'-Ishim man's thigh bone. Photograph by Bence Viola, MPI EVA
The age of the femur confirms the timing suggested by artifacts of the "first foragers" in Siberia, early hunter-gatherers who spread into Europe and Asia within the past 60,000 years, Kelso says.
"We now show that there were indeed modern humans in the area," she says. A slightly warmer climate in Siberia more than 45,000 years ago may have enticed modern people to migrate to the region.
Genetically, the thigh bone's owner appears equally related to modern-day Asians and Native Americans. Surprisingly, he appears to be about as closely related to them as to the 24,000-year-old Siberian boy or Stone Age European hunter-gatherers dated in other ancient DNA studies, notes paleoanthropologist Henry Harpending of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who was not part of the study.
Of modern groups, the Ust'-Ishim man is less closely related to Europeans, perhaps because today's Europeans owe some of their ancestry to farmers who migrated there from the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago.
The ancient man's DNA does not appear to make him a direct ancestor of any modern people. He may have belonged to a branch of Stone Age people who migrated into Europe and Central Asia long ago, only to die out in an ice age.Confirming the worst-kept secret in college football, Texas A&M University formally notified officials of the Big 12 this morning that it's applying to join another athletic conference. Should the application be accepted, the Aggies will sever their 16-year Big 12 affiliation on June 30, 2012.
"After much thought and consideration, and pursuant to the action of the (Texas A&M University System) Board of Regents authorizing me to take action related to Texas A&M University's athletic conference alignment, I have determined it is in the best interest of Texas A&M to make application to join another athletic conference," A&M President R. Bowen Loftin wrote in a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe.
As the basis for the university's departure, Loftin cited a desire for greater visibility for A&M and its athletes as well as the opportunity to "secure the necessary and stable financial resources to support our athletic and academic programs."
The letter does not mention rival University of Texas' lucrative deal with ESPN to launch the Longhorn Network — reportedly an impetus for A&M's decision.
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In a news release announcing their plans (see below), A&M officials don't specify which conference they're applying to join. A spokesman would say only that the application is being made "to a conference, singular" — which is to say, not more than one. That conference is widely believed to be the Southeastern Conference.
NEWS RELEASE - August 31, 2011
TEXAS A&M TO SEEK AFFILIATION WITH ANOTHER ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M University today officially notified the Big 12 Conference that the institution will submit an application to join another athletic conference. Should this application be accepted, Texas will end its membership in the Big 12 Conference effective June 30, 2012.
"After much thought and consideration, and pursuant to the action of the (Texas A&M University System) Board of Regents authorizing me to take action related to Texas A&M University's athletic conference alignment, I have determined it is in the best interest of Texas A&M to make application to join another athletic conference," President R. Bowen Loftin wrote to Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe in the letter dated August 31, 2011.
"We appreciate the Big 12's willingness to engage in a dialogue to end our relationship through a mutually agreeable settlement," Loftin added. "We, too, desire that this process be as amicable and prompt as possible and result in a resolution of all outstanding issues, including mutual waivers by Texas and the conference on behalf of all the remaining members."
Texas A&M has participated in intercollegiate athletics as a member of the Big 12 since the conference's founding 16 years ago. Last season, the Aggies claimed nine Big 12 championships and four national team titles, both of which were school-bests. Since joining the Big 12 prior to the 1996-97 athletic season, Texas A&M has won 55 conference championships, including 32 in the last five years.
Texas A&M finished eighth in the prestigious Director's Cup all-sport rankings a year ago, tallying its most points ever and leading all Big 12 schools. In the inaugural Capital One Cup, which rates teams' final rankings, the Aggies were the top-ranking university from the Big 12. The Aggie women finished second with five top-10 finishes, while the Aggie men finished tied for third with five top-10 finishes.
"As I have indicated throughout this process, we are seeking to generate greater visibility nationwide for Texas A&M and our championship-caliber student-athletes, as well as secure the necessary and stable financial resources to support our athletic and academic programs," Loftin said. "This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically. Texas is an extraordinary institution, and we look forward to what the future may hold for Aggies worldwide."
While Loftin did not specify an application timeline in his letter to the Big 12, he previously indicated that he does not intend to prolong the application process for an extended period of time.
Texas A&M at a glance:
- Located in College Station, Texas.
- Home to more than 49,000 students, ranking as the sixth-largest university in the country, with more than 360,000 former students worldwide.
- Holds membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, one of only 63 institutions with this distinction.
- Has an endowment valued at more than $5 billion, which ranks fourth among U.S. public universities and 10th overall.
- Conducts research valued at more than $630 million annually, placing it among the top 20 universities nationally and third behind only MIT and the University of California at Berkeley for universities without medical schools.
- Recognized as Home of the 12th Man, where students stand during football games to show support for the team - and for fellow Aggies - a personification of the Aggie Spirit.
- Corps of Cadets is recognized among the nation's largest uniformed student bodies at more than 2,000 strong. Texas A&M commissions more officers than any other institution outside of the nation's service academies.
- Named second in the nation by The Wall Street Journal among all universities, public and private, in a survey of top U.S. corporations, non-profits and government agencies, based on graduates that recruiters prefer to hire.
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Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.1 / 12 Jennie Runk
Runk is the star of a May 2013 H&M swimwear campaign that gained widespread media attention for not relegating the gorgeous size 12 model to the "plus-size" pages of their website. In an interview with activist group <a href="http://www.sparksummit.com/2013/07/29/role-model-an-interview-with-jennie-runk/" target="_hplink">SPARK</a>, Runk told a young blogger: "I remember often feeling like I should be unhappy with my body, but it was confusing, because I never thought there was anything wrong with it until people started talking about it." In a piece for the BBC, Runk wrote of her newfound media attention: "This is exactly the kind of thing I've always wanted to accomplish, showing women that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22508670" target="_hplink">it's OK to be confident</a> even if you're not the popular notion of 'perfect.'... There's no need to glamorise one body type and slam another."
H&MThe 2 wheelchairs slowly moved to a distance of less than 5 meters from us, and stopped. Even though I can’t see the enemies’ name and figure, I knew that the monsters were prowling beside the wheelchairs.
【Ice Meteor】!
After confirming the distance, I aimed at the enemies and threw my strongest magic at them.
In Dale’s laboratory earlier, I had already grinded the magic skill up to level 2. It’s strength had raised quite a bit, but the burden from using it was still obvious. After only unleashing the magic skill once, my MP bar was already down by a third.
A blue magic circle speedily appeared on the ceiling of the hallway, and blue crystals could be seen falling at an incredible speed from the circle, and they were directed at the wheelchairs!
The blue crystals were like bullets piercing the enemies’ bodies, and even the wheelchairs were demolished from the attack.
Oh my god, is this a magical machine gun? This much power is definitely enough to turn anyone into mashed potatoes.
The enemies’ names appeared in front of me.
Gloomy Prowler LV 14 47,000/47,000
Gloomy Prowler LV 13 45,000/45,000
The blue crystals were still embedded in their bodies, and their figure could be distinguished. From their looks, they could be compared to people that have starved for a long time, to the extent that their bones are showing.
However…
The actual strength of the magic was not how it felt like it should be. Even if the magic was of a high grade, there were barely any effects on their bodies. A chain of -233, -433, -213 were seen above their heads, but they had more than 40,000 HP to begin with! It was useless!
And in this moment, the enemies already made their moves. After shaking off their frozen bodies, the surrounding ice blocks dropped onto the ground, and the figures disappeared in the hallway.
【Ice Castle】!
My next magic was already prepared, and the ice walls sealed the path before us.
“Let’s go! Wake up already!”
After knocking Dale in the head with my summoned Ice Sword, I pulled him as we started running to the back of the hallway.
“Oh? What’s going on?”
“What’s going on!? Enemies are behind us!”
“Is that so…”
Dale turned and look, and the ice wall collapsed at the same time, and I immediately twisted his head back.
“Aaaaaah! Are you trying to break my neck?”
Dale held onto his neck as he protested loudly.
“It’s better than seeing you faint! You instantly blacked out earlier, you know!?”
“Alright, alright, it’s my fault, okay!? Eat my 【Lightning Mines】!”
A purple light gathered in his hands, and he pressed it onto the wall beside us.
A chain of purple magic circles appeared on the walls, ground and the ceiling. The complicated symbols transformed into chirping lightning sparks, and in an instant, they covered the entire hallway!
Numbers such as -2134, -2324, -2345 appeared on top of the monsters’ heads, and their HP immediately plummeted into the red.
“【Ice Meteor】!”
The ice magical machine gun aided in the attack, and under the all-rounded attack, the two monsters groaned as they dissipated in the air.
Gloomy Prowler LV 13 defeated.
Party EXP Received: 5,000
Money Received: 0
Item(s) Received: Gloomy Soul
Gloomy Prowler LV 14 defeated.
EXP Received: 30,000
Money Received: 0
Item(s) Received: 3x Gloomy Soul
You leveled up. Current LV: 11
Unlocked 1 Skill Point. Please choose a skill.
“Skill Point? What is that?”
“Ah, so you’re already above level 10… After level 10, you will gain 1 Skill Point for every level up. You can now choose and upgrade special skills that do not exist in this world.”
“Is that so?”
The moment he finished his explanation, a new screen popped out in front of me. A list of skills with weird names was on it.
The Forgotten Wednesday
Every Wednesday, your body will turn invisible, from 12 AM in the midnight to the next 12 AM the following day, a period of 24 hours. After using the skill 3 times, your sense of presence will decrease by 50%. There will be a possibility of disappearing.
What is this? A legendary peeping skill? So what if it’s for entire day! It feels horrible by simply imagining it! And what’s with this ‘possibility of disappearing’? Will I actually disappear from this world completely?
Ruined Moon
During a full moon, your strength will be 0. As the moon phases progress, your strength will exponentially increase, and your damage will cap during the |
our fingers).
While there's two extra fields in the "painful" version above, the primary difference between these two flight booking forms is how they ask questions. One makes use of dropdown menus for nearly every question asked, the other uses the most appropriate input control for each question.
Interacting with dropdown menus on mobile and the desktop is a multi-step process often requiring more effort than necessary. First tap the control, then scroll (usually more than once), find & select your target, and finally move on. We can do better.
Steppers
Stepper controls increase or decrease value by a constant amount and are great for making small adjustments. When testing mobile flight booking forms, we found people preferred steppers for selecting the number of passengers. No dropdown menu required, especially since there's a maximum of 8 travelers allowed and the vast majority select 1-2 travelers.
When working with steppers, generally simpler is better. Changing the basic design of a stepper control too much makes its function less clear. That's true of any input control, really.
Radio Groups
Radio groups, or segmented controls, are a set of closely related, but mutually exclusive choices. When comparing mobile flight booking forms, we found radio groups worked really well for selecting class of travel.
Additional Controls
Steppers and radio groups aren't the only controls that can used in place of dropdown menus. Switches support two simple, diametrically opposed choices. Sliders allow you to select fine-grained values from an allowed range. When starting with a dropdown heavy form, look at each question and consider if any of these controls is a more appropriate way of getting an answer.
Button inputs expose the options that would otherwise be hidden in a dropdown and make selecting them a single-tap v.s multi-tap action.
In some cases multiple dropdown menus can be condensed into one input control. The flight booking example I labeled "painful" above made use of six dropdowns to collect travel dates.
In our mobile flight booking research, we found a single input control for travel dates worked much better. From six drop-downs to a single date picker. Now that's progress.
As a Last Resort
All these alternatives to dropdown menus don't mean you should never use them in a user interface design. Well-designed forms make use of the most appropriate input control for each question they ask. Sometimes that's a stepper, a radio group, or even a dropdown menu.
But because they are hard to navigate, hide options by default, don't support hierarchies, and only enable selection not editing, dropdowns shouldn't be the first UI control you reach for. In today's software designs, they often are.
So instead consider other input controls first and save the dropdown as a last resort.
For More...
For a deeper look at this topic and lots more about mobile form design, check out my video presentation on Mobile Inputs.Dozens of ISIS militants of ISIS killed during clashes with Peshmerga in Yezidi area
ARA News
Erbil, Kurdistan Region – On Friday the so-called Sharia Court of the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) reportedly executed 600 hostages from the Yezidi community of Shingal (Sinjar) in the Talafar district in northern Iraq.
The group piled the bodies into the well of Alo Antar on al-Ayyadiya highway, local sources reported.
Shahin Shingali, a fighter in the ranks of the Peshmerga forces, stated to ARA News that since Friday the IS radicals transferred nearly 700 Yezidi hostages to Talafar.
“Without a direct intervention by the international community, Iraq will be witnessing more genocides against innocent people at the hands of the IS terrorists,” Shingali said.
Aseel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province in Iraq, confirmed on Friday that the IS terrorists executed hundreds of Yezidi captives.
“A new crime was committed by Daesh (Islamic State) against our Yezidi people on Friday,” al-Nujaifi said in a statement.
“IS gangs executed hundreds of innocent Yezidi prisoners.”
“These terrorists are degrading Islamic religion. Muslim clerics should bear their responsibility to show the public the reality of this terrorist group, demonstrating how it is diametrically opposed to the correct, tolerant teachings of the Islamic religion,” al-Nujaifi added.
Commenting on the incident, the Yezidi writer and researcher Salem Rashidani told ARA News: “We have received reports saying that IS militants executed the Yezidi men in the district of Talafar in Nineveh province, after isolating them from their families, throwing their corpses in the valley near the city.
Reporting by: Sarbaz Yousef and Ali Isso
Source: ARA News
For the latest on Syria and the Kurdish region, follow us on Twitter: @AraNewsEnglishTwo Google developers, Reilly Grant and Ken Rockot, have uploaded an unofficial (for now) draft to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Incubator Community Group (W3C WICG) that describes a method of interconnecting USB-capable devices to Web pages.
The WebUSB API draft, published on March 21, describes an API (Application Program Interface) that will provide a safe way to expose USB-capable devices to Web services.
This API doesn't address USB thumb drives as some of you might think, but all devices that connect to PCs through USB ports, and can vary from USB keyboards to complex Internet of Things (IoT) equipment.
WebUSB wants to connect hardware to the Web
But don't get your hopes too high. As the two Googlers explain, "WebUSB does not attempt to provide a general mechanism for any web page to connect to any USB device." Its role is to make this process simple, not universal.
The two developers explain that the train of thought behind this API is to provide a standard technology that browser vendors will adopt inside their products and to provide hardware manufacturers with a base on which to build devices with Web capabilities out of the box.
"With this, API hardware manufacturers will have the ability to build cross-platform JavaScript SDKs for their devices," the two developers explained. "This will be good for the web because, instead of waiting for a new kind of device to be popular enough for browsers to provide a specific API, new and innovative hardware can be built for the web from day one."
Security and privacy are a big concern
The concept is simple, but as the developers explain, the biggest concern regarding the new WebUSB API is not the actual code that powers this functionality, but the security and privacy issues.
Because USB devices and computers automatically trust each other, developers plan to build a system that resembles CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing), employed by browsers to prevent page resources (fonts, JS scripts) from requesting data from other domains except the one from where they originate.
Because an attacker could write malicious code that uses the WebUSB API to scans the user's computer for all available peripherals and their serial numbers, this allows third-parties to abuse the API and collect data on all site visitors to identify and fingerprint users. This CORS-like system for the WebUSB API aims to limit direct access to (all) peripherals.
WebUSB's security protocols will treat each USB device as a different origin source, just like CORS treats domains. The API will require developers to specify what device to access, what parts, and then prompt the user for authorization to allow a site to detect the presence of a device and connect to it.
A simple example of how to use WebUSB
To better understand it, let's explore an example. Let's say site owner A wants to support 3D printing whenever users press CTRL+ALT+P.
All he has to do is include a hidden iframe with setup code from the 3D printer's manufacturer.
With the WebUSB API already supported inside browsers, plain ol' JavaScript code from inside the iframe will prompt the user for access to his 3D printer. Because JavaScript commands can be exchanged between site A and the 3D printer manufacturer's iframe, instructions can be sent to the 3D printer from site A via the iframe.
Site A can ask (via the iframe) the user to approve access to his computer, and even specify which commands he wants to run, just like the permissions on an Android phone.
Once commands reach the vendor's iframe, loaded on site A, the WebUSB API takes that JavaScript code, checks user permissions, relays it to the computer's underlying USB drivers, which will then send it to the device.
WebUSB is backward compatible
The way in which the two Google engineers designed the API allows even previously manufactured USB-capable devices to work without needing special firmware.
"For devices manufactured before this specification is adopted information about allowed origins and landing pages can also be provided out of band by being published in a public registry," the two wrote.
The WebUSB API is available online on WICG's website, and it's still considered unofficial. Developers and vendors who want to make suggestions can do so by visiting its GitHub repository.Several dozen pro-marijuana protesters swarmed U.C. Berkeley's campus Saturday to protest the visit of Attorney General Eric Holder, on hand to address the graduating law school class.
Meanwhile, an airplane circled above the school's Greek Theater for more than two hours, flying a banner that read, "Holder: End Rx Cannabis War #Peace4Patients." As Holder's limousine turned toward the ceremony, demonstrators waved signs declaring, "Fight Crime, Not Cannabis."
"There's no doubt we got the A.G.'s attention," Dale Gieringer, president of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told The Huffington Post. "He can't come to Berkeley and not be reminded of his department's bad faith with respect to medical marijuana."
In recent years, marijuana advocates have harshly criticized Holder and the Obama administration for the increased federal crackdown on the state's flourishing medical cannabis industry.
Though California legalized pot for medicinal purposes when voters passed the landmark Proposition 215 in 1996, the plant remains illegal on a federal level. Though Holder specifically stated he would not go after states that supported medical marijuana, in late 2011, the Justice Department reversed course, forcing dispensaries across California to close. Since then, hundreds of businesses have shuttered, leaving thousands without jobs.
Just days before Holder's appearance in Berkeley, federal prosecutors began proceedings to shut down the nearby Berkeley Patients Group, one of the oldest and most respected medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area.RALEIGH, N.C. -- Brandon Sutter scored his second goal 1:06 into overtime, and Carolina beat the Atlanta Thrashers 2-1 Friday in the Hurricanes' stateside preseason finale.
Cam Ward stopped 30 shots for the Hurricanes (3-2) and claimed his second one-goal win over Atlanta in seven days.
Sutter's game-winner came after he got behind Bryan Little, took a back-door feed from Erik Cole and buried the puck past Ondrej Pavelec. Sutter, Carolina's newest alternate captain, also scored a deflected power-play goal midway through the second.
Nik Antropov sent it into OT with 1:03 left, when he scored on a hard snap shot from the right circle after the Thrashers (0-5) pulled Pavalec for an extra attacker.
Sutter's first goal came with about 5 minutes left in the second when he redirected Joe Corvo's slap shot past Pavelec.
It made for a successful getaway day for the Hurricanes, who played a rare weekday matinee because they were leaving for Europe after the game. They wrap up the preseason Monday in Russia against SKA St. Petersburg before opening the regular season against Minnesota next week in Helsinki, Finland.
Pavelec made 28 saves for the Thrashers, who entered as one of only three winless teams this preseason. They've been outscored 14-7.In its outward details, the orderly transfer of American presidential power accomplished in the inauguration-day scene on Capitol Hill today felt time-honoured. The ceremonial essentials of the occasion – the stars and stripes banners, the dignitaries and the prescribed rituals of the swearings-in – were familiar and traditional. Political rivals took their places on the podium as they do every four years, shook hands and applauded one another, offering gracious compliments and providing a show of national dignity.
Yet all this was in fact a sham. Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a declaration of war on everything represented by these choreographed civilities. President Trump – it’s time to begin to get used to those jarringly ill-fitting words – did not conjure a deathless phrase for the day. His words will not lodge in the brain in any of the various uplifting ways that the likes of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy or Reagan once achieved. But the new president’s message could not have been clearer. He came to shatter the veneer of unity and continuity represented by the peaceful handover. And he may have succeeded. In 1933, Roosevelt challenged the world to overcome fear. In 2017, Mr Trump told the world to be very afraid.
Mr Trump’s speech was by turns bitter, blowhard and banal. It boiled with resentment and contempt for politics, and the checks and balances of the US system. It was aimed at those who voted for him, not at those, the majority, who did not. It said barely a word about race. Its America First nationalism was crude and shameless. The speech seethed with scorn for everything about the capital city that he now seeks to bend to his will. It was, though, almost wholly empty of detail or of clarity about how its goals would be achieved. Even before he opened his mouth, Washington was on edge about what a Trump presidency might mean and the world was on edge about what is happening to America. Everything Mr Trump said confirmed that those instincts were correct. Presidents have often come into office promising to take the nation on a new path. But if Mr Trump can be believed, his election and his speech signal the biggest shake-up in Washington in living memory.
The vital question for the future is whether Mr Trump can be believed. In his speech he mocked those who have been all talk and no action. But there is a risk he could be a victim of that too. He raised the bar for his own presidency to a very high level by insisting that everything would change “right here, right now”. But will it? The power of the presidency has grown over the decades, and the 2016 election has now put the Republicans in charge of all the arms of government. But Mr Trump is not, at least not yet, a dictator. He has to govern with a Congress that does not share all his priorities – in some cases, Mr Trump’s priorities may even be preferable – and according to law that is interpreted by the courts. The states have a lot of power to defy him, as California seems determined to do in the case of the planned wall with Mexico.
It has been argued that voters chose Mr Trump knowing that he would challenge the system, but confident that the system would protect the voters from the worst consequences. That may prove right. But Mr Trump should not be underestimated. He is a proud disrupter not a diffident conformist. He is – and intends to be – different from the presidents of the past: in his personality, his working style, his ways of communicating and, most important of all, in his political aims. Those who support him and those who fear him are agreed on that. Yet he has arrived in the White House with low ratings and amid a deep sense of division. His inauguration was boycotted by several leaders and will be protested against by tens of thousands. His attempts to overturn America’s political hierarchy and culture will enthuse some – the stock market is thrumming – but terrify others.
The realities of Mr Trump’s disruptive intentions will be revealed in the weeks and months ahead. The first downpayments on his turbulent agenda can be found on the White House website. Domestically, the biggest programme will be the infrastructure projects that formed the only detailed pledge of the inaugural address. Beyond America’s shores, much is still guesswork: the probable clash with China poses the biggest threat of all; whether Mr Trump gets his way on Russia may depend on his more sceptical cabinet.
“The time for empty talk is over,” said President Trump today. “Now arrives the hour of action.” At home and abroad, and in the light of today’s speech, that is a truly terrifying prospect.Mexico’s addiction to sugary drinks and fast food has led to a public health crisis, prompting the government to take action against the companies and products that feed the nation’s cravings
Photo: Bénédicte Desrus
Sitting in the waiting room of the Ángeles hospital in Mexico City’s up-and-coming Escandón neighbourhood, Alejandra Olivo cannot help dozing off, regularly jolted awake as her body slips from side to side in her small red chair.
The 35-year-old mother of one is about to have her first consultation with a dietician — at 145cm (4’ 9’’) tall, she weighs about 105kg (16.5st). Sleep woes, headaches and joint pains have become a constant feature of daily life. Once an avid salsa dancer, she stopped going to the local salón years ago, as she couldn’t cope looking at her reflection. Even walking short distances has become onerous.
It’s not the first time she has tried to lose weight. “My father is worried about me,” Olivo tells the nutritionist, before pausing for a moment, “and my daughter needs me.” In the course of the 90-minute session, she finds out her weight is twice what it should be. The path to a healthier life will be long and some blood tests must be done to check for any complications, such as diabetes.
Alejandra is the youngest of 22 brothers and sisters – same father, different mothers. All of the children have weight problems. Both her parents are clinically obese and diabetic, with the string of typical complications, including hypertension and poor circulation. This is hardly unique. Mexico is experiencing an obesity epidemic. Last year, it snatched the title of the world’s fattest country from its neighbour to the north.
Like the Olivos, more than 70 per cent of Mexicans are either obese or overweight. Kids are particularly at risk, with a third of two- to eighteen-year-olds affected, some 5.6 million people.
The problem is only getting worse. Between 1988 and 2012, obesity rates skyrocketed from 9 per cent to 35 per cent. Recent studies suggest that as much as 15 per cent of the population has type 2 diabetes, the highest in any of the 34 countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development. Four million Mexicans are thought to be unaware they are living with diabetes — healthcare professionals call it the “silent killer”.
“Having a sick population can have a direct impact on the economy and the productivity of the country,” says Juan Rivera Dommarco, founder of the nutrition and health investigating unit at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health. The government estimated that in 2017 obesity would cost the country between £7.3 billion and £9.7 billion if no action was taken. “But it’s not just the economic cost, it’s all the human tragedy, all the cases of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, amputations, that keep growing,” Dommarco says.
A leader in the prevention of obesity in the country, the Cornell University graduate says he worries for the younger generation. “We already have a third of our youth population either obese or overweight, which will bring illnesses at very early and productive stages of their lives.”
24-hour eating
From dawn to dark, Mexico’s signature street food carts provide a quick and easy option for a meal or a snack. Classic antojitos, “little cravings”, include esquites, a little corn-cup filled with lime juice, chilli and mayonnaise — beef and bone marrow-infused versions also exist — crisps in a bag filled with hot sauce and mayonnaise, known as “dorilocos” and meat consommés.
Among the wide range of tacos on show, the most popular include carnitas, or “little meats”, where the pork is simmered in lard until tender; the slow-cooked mutton barbacoa; the al pastor, a not-so-distant cousin of the shawarma and Turkish doner kebabs; and the tacos de cabeza, or head parts, such as beef or sheep’s tongue, eyes, ears and brain. Quesadillas, a soft corn tortilla with melted cheese, usually include filings of mushrooms, courgette flowers, huitlacoche — corn fungus — or meats. Beans and rice are also central to Mexican cuisine.
Mexico is by far the world’s number-one consumer of Coca-Cola, on average drinking 728 Coke beverages per person, per year
What better than to wash it down with than a fizzy drink? Mexico is by far the world’s number-one consumer of Coca-Cola, on average drinking 728 Coke beverages per person, per year — almost twice as much as the second-place USA.
People often have their first sugar fix early in the morning with breakfast, drinking steadily throughout the day until bedtime. Alejandra Olivo is no different. When she worked with her mother at a burger joint in the Mixcoac neighbourhood of Mexico City, she would wake up around 7am, get to work, and start drinking her daily 600ml or litre bottle of Coca-Cola from around 9am.
“It’s like a drug, it’s an addiction,” says her father, Faustino Olivo, who runs the family’s restaurant, El Mesón de Olivo.
In Mexico, Coca-Cola is more than just a drink. It is iconic. At the village of San Juan Chamula, in the southern state of Chiapas, it is even part of religious rituals. In the white and blue church, Christian worshippers, inspired by their Mayan ancestors’ traditions, use candles for incantations and prayers, spoken in tongues, sacrifice chickens to keep death at bay, and use Coca-Cola to burp and cleanse the body of evil spirits.
When US researcher Susan Bridle-Fitzpatrick arrived at Mazatlán, in the north-western state of Sinaloa, in 2011 to begin her study on food access, the “domestic creativity” of street food is what grabbed her attention first. “What absolutely struck me was the inundation of sugary soft drinks and packaged snacks,” she recalls.
An adjunct faculty at the University of Denver, she spent 11 months in Mexico studying people’s access to food. Fresh fruit and vegetables are usually easy to come by in numerous local and itinerant markets, even for low-income families. But although access is relatively good, the over-exposure to unhealthy products outweighs by far the benefits of traditional Mexican healthy food, she says.
For Gonzalo Alemán Ortiz, a specialist in internal medicine, it is not just about the food. “First you have the bad product, then the excessive quantity and what follows is physical inactivity,” he says. “It’s a fatal combination.”
Studies have shown that a sedentary lifestyle is widespread across the country. In 2013, a government report showed that nearly 60 per cent of children aged 10 to 14 years-old had not participated in any organised sporting activity in the 12 months prior to the survey. In the 25 to 29 year-old range, only 15 per cent had exercised.
Treatment is also a major problem, as most patients tend to wait a long time before seeking medical help and find out that they suffer from diabetes late in the process. “At the beginning it doesn’t hurt, so they let things be,” Alemán says. “By the time they get here, the damage already done is very hard to reverse.”
The industry fights back
Coca-Cola was first introduced to Mexico in 1926, as the country was reeling from a bloody revolution that killed or injured about a tenth of its population. Over its 90 years in Mexico, the company has built a remarkable distribution network.
In a country that spans over 1.9 million square kilometres, about eight times the size of the UK, with dense mountainous regions and inhospitable deserts that spread from one border to another, the famous red trucks are able to fill up stocks of fizzy drinks in even the most forgotten areas. A trip down the sinuous roads of Chiapas state, one of the most cut-off areas in the country, provides one of the many testimonies to Coca-Cola’s hegemony.
On the side of the roads, colourful paintings of the brand often cover the walls of small shops. For a long time, a bottle of Coke was often cheaper than water, in a country where tap water is largely undrinkable.
The system is so good that it has attracted the attention of the Mexican government, which on various occasions has teamed up with the company to take advantage of its distribution network. In 2007, the forestry commission partnered with Coca-Cola to plant 30 million trees in deforested areas. The company provided funds, and Coca-Cola trucks transported trees throughout the country.
As with any business, Coca-Cola has interests to protect. In Mexico, its biggest market after the US, the stakes are high. Teaming up with government agencies on environmental, educational or health projects has its perks. The ties are deep: Coca-Cola’s former chief executive for Mexico, Vicente Fox, was elected president in 2000.
However, the government has begun pushing back. In 2013, Congress passed a 10 per cent tax on sugary drinks, and a further 8 per cent tax on junk food. Early results show that the levy is proving to be efficient and could inspire other countries to follow suit.
In only a year, purchases of taxed beverages had gone down 6 per cent, reaching 12 per cent in December 2014, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Like others, Coca-Cola has reported slightly reduced profits from its operations in Mexico.
The drinks giant has vowed to fight these changes. In July 2014, seven months after its implementation, the company responded with a colossal £5.6 billion investment plan for Mexico to promote physical activity and “continue expanding [its] beverage portfolio”.
Coca-Cola is also moving behind the scenes. Far from being set in stone, the sugar tax is at risk of being cut down every year, when Congress votes on the fiscal package it is part of. In Mexico, big companies often go through powerful industrial chambers to carry out their most strategic lobbying with the government, says Luis Manuel Encarnación, director of the Mídete Foundation, a lobbying watchdog in the industry.
“We know that they [the chambers] approached the finance ministry directly to negotiate a tax decrease,” he says, “they met with lawmakers and several political parties, so they wouldn’t interfere with efforts to lower the tax.” Last year, in its first year of existence, the same lower chamber that had passed the tax a few months before voted in favour of a reduction. The motion was blocked Sin the senate, but Encarnación has no doubt that the lobbyists will keep the pressure on into the next cycle of negotiations, and beyond.
In the USA, Coca-Cola spent $21.8 million (£15.4 million) on research and $96.8 million on partnerships with health organisations between 2010 and 2015
The food and beverage industry is known to work with a wide range of health experts, from academics to journalists, and to finance its own studies, which are then presented in medical conferences and sent to lawmakers. In a recent forum about obesity and the sugar tax in Mexico, economists presented studies to the national medical academy portraying the tax as “counter-productive” and harmful to the economy. The data their studies were based on were provided by the industry itself.
In the USA alone, Coca-Cola spent $21.8 million (£15.4 million) on research and $96.8 million on partnerships with health organisations between 2010 and 2015, the firm says. In August 2015, The New York Times revealed that a further $2.1 million was spent on travel grants, related expenses and professional fees for health experts the company works with. Those same experts would then go on to publicly promote Coca-Cola’s mini-cans as healthy snack food.
The industry has consistently tried to undermine the validity of the link between obesity and sugar consumption. A 2011 study funded by The Coca-Cola Company and published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that the quality of scientific reviews on sugar-sweetened beverages and health problems, such as obesity, were poorly researched. Documents from Coca-Cola show the firm spent $319,500 between 2010 and 2014 on research led by one of the study’s authors, Dr Michelle Althuis.
Joan Prats, vice-president for corporate affairs and communications at Coca-Cola Mexico, declined to comment on payments to health experts. In an emailed response to questions, he said: “The excise tax on sugar-sweetened drinks in Mexico has been ineffective in terms of combating the nation’s overweight and obesity rates. Obesity is a complex issue, and no one food product or beverage can be blamed as the sole contributor to the problem… The country does not need to engage in populism on an important matter, such as people’s health. We need to work on concrete and explicit actions, making people’s wellness a real priority.”
In the meantime, the human cost of Mexico’s addiction to sugar and fat continues to grow. Back at the Ángeles hospital, Alejandra Olivo met with her nutritionist for the second time. She brought her medical results with her. Diabetes is the only word she remembers from the doctor’s speech.
She knows it is not a death sentence, but she also understands carnitas, barbacoa, and full-sugar Coca-Cola are out. “It’s very hard but I’ve asked them not to let me let go of the programme,” she says, “because within the next six months, I’m going dancing.”
Osborne’s sugar tax
One of the surprise additions to chancellor George Osborne’s 2016 budget was the announcement that drinks with a high sugar content would be taxed at between 18-24p per litre.
It is a good start, says Graham MacGregor, chairman of the pressure group Action on Sugar and professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London. Such a tax can have an impact, he says, but it is not as effective as regulating the amount of sugar in food and drink by setting time-bound targets, a tactic that worked with salt.
“You set targets for reduction, 10, 20 per cent reduction over a time course. You slowly screw them down… We reckon we could reduce sugar intake in the UK by about 50 per cent by doing that. [It would be better] if you did other things, such as stopping advertising of these unhealthy products to children — if we ban cigarette advertising, why don’t we ban unhealthy food, it’s a much bigger cause of death.”
MacGregor, who has championed the subject worldwide, says that tackling dietary diseases is possible, because people’s tastes are mutable, and can quickly adapt. The challenge is one of political courage.
“The problem is, you need someone who’s willing to confront the food and sugar-sweetened soft drink industry,” he says.Birdbrain: Man Arrested For Throwing Parrot In Face Of Pursuing Police Officer Share
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While being chased by a cop, a Connecticut man allegedly threw a parrot at his uniformed pursuer, who was bit on the hand when trying to shield himself from the feathered projectile.
Luis Santana, 32, was arrested Tuesday night on several charges, including assaulting a police officer, disorderly conduct, and animal cruelty.
A patrolman responding to a call about a fight encountered Santana on a Waterbury street around 10 PM. When Santana bolted, bird in hand, Officer Gary Kichar gave chase.
While fleeing, Santana turned and threw the white parrot at Kichar’s head. When the cop raised his hand to protect himself, the bird bit his finger.
Kichar was treated at the scene for the bird bite.
The parrot was initially turned over to animal control officials.
Santana was apprehended while hiding in a nearby building. Free on bond, he is scheduled for a November 18 court appearance.
Following the bird tossing, investigators learned of a burglary Tuesday evening during which jewelry and a parrot were stolen. Santana is a suspect in that crime, according to Deputy Chief Chris Corbett of the Waterbury Police Department. Corbett added that the parrot was later reunited with its owner.Ledger Awarded Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grant
The Editorial Team at Ledger is very pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grant to help develop the journal and expand its capabilities.
Decentralized 2018 – Europe’s premier blockchain event (14-16 November; Athens, Greece)
After the success of Decentralized 2017 event, University of Nicosia is organizing Decentralized 2018, the largest and most in-depth event of its kind in Europe.
Ledger Receives Additional Funding from Bitcoin Unlimited
The Editorial Team at Ledger is pleased to annouce that it has received additional funding from Bitcoin Unlimited to help improve the research journal's publication process.
Volume 2 (2017) Is Now Complete!
The Editorial Team at Ledger would like to announce the completion of our second year of publishing excellent, peer-reviewed work on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology research!
Call For Presentations (Satoshi's Vision Conference)
The Satoshi's Vision Conference will take place in Tokyo, Japan 23-25 March 2018. The Call for Presentations invites 1-2 page submissions, due 15 January 2018.
Ledger: Call for Papers | 2017 October 24
The journal Ledger invites authors to submit their original research to the very first peer-reviewed academic publication devoted solely to the field of cryptocurrencies and its related subtopics.
"Bitcoin Mining as a Contest": New paper published
Ledger journal has just published an exciting new article, written by Nicola Dimitri -- a professor of economics and game theorist from the University of Siena in Italy. In this paper, Dimitri shows how the structure of Bitcoin mining may naturally prevent the formation of a monopoly. Read the full article to learn more.
Posted: 2017-09-01
Ledger: Call for Reviewers | 2017 May 15
Ledger, the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, is seeking reviewers with expertise in all related disciplines.
The Future of Bitcoin Conference, Arnhem, The Netherlands, June 30 - July 1, 2017
The team at Ledger would like to draw attention the upcoming deadline (15 May) for presentation proposals to The Future of Bitcoin Conference in Arhnem, The Netherlands, June 30 - July 1, 2017.
Ledger receives grant from Bitcoin Unlimited
The Editorial Team at Ledger is pleased to annouce that it has received a grant from Bitcoin Unlimited to help improve the research journal's publication process.
Update On Our Progress at Ledger
The purpose of this post is to update the community on our progress getting Ledger, the first peer-reviewed academic journal for cryptocurrency research, off the ground.
Call for Papers (special issue of the Metaphilosophy journal)
Metaphilosophy Special Issue CFP: Toward a Philosophy of Blockchain Technology 4,000-5,000 words - Submission deadline: October 1, 2016
Call for Papers (10th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems)
Digital Currencies, Digital Payments and Blockchain Applications Track 10th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, 4-6 September 2016, Paphos, Cyprus ( http://mcis2016.eu/ ).
Ledger welcomes Dr. Michael Kumhof from the Bank of England to its Editorial Board, along with three new editors.
Ledger is very excited to announce the addition of economist and researcher Michael Kumhof to its Editorial Board. At this time, we are also pleased to welcome our three newest editors: Charles Evans, Antony Zegers and Josh Westmoreland.
Transition to Rolling Submissions
The Editorial Team at Ledger is pleased to announce the beginning of rolling submissions to the journal...
Reminder: Deadline for Inaugural Issue is 31 December 2015
The Editorial Team at Ledger wishes to remind authors that the submission deadline (31 December 2015) for the journal's inaugural edition is rapidly approaching.
Ledger Welcomes Five New Members To Its Editorial Team
We are very excited to welcome Catherine Mulligan, William Knottenbelt, George Giaglis, Shin'ichiro Matsuo and Jon Matonis to the Editorial Team of Ledger.
Ledger: Call for Papers | 2015 September 15
The journal Ledger invites authors to submit their original research for the inaugural issue of the very first peer-reviewed academic publication devoted solely to the field of cryptocurrencies and its related subtopics...UICollectionView is one of the most important tools in our toolbox as iOS developers. Achieving smooth scrolling performance is a badge of honor for many of us. This year in iOS 10, Apple has made substantial changes to how cells make their way into collection views.
Today we'll take a look at these changes, and how we can take advantage of them in our apps. Let's dive in! 🏊
Here's the TLDR:
UICollectionView will now call cellForItemAtIndexPath: way before it used to. Sometimes the cells we return from that function won't even end up being displayed. We should proceed accordingly.
This dramatically improves scrolling performance as the system intelligently manages everything, giving us beautiful, buttery-smooth, 60fps scrolling. Neat!
Here's the slightly more wordy version:
In iOS 10, Apple has enhanced UICollectionView's ability to "pre-load" cells before they appear on screen.
Essentially, UICollectionView is now aware of the direction the user is scrolling, and will "look ahead" to cells that will be coming on to screen soon, call the appropriate existing delegate functions (like cellForItemAtIndexPath: ) as needed.
Let's look at how the UICollectionViewCell lifecycle has changed in iOS 10. We'll start with how things are today, in iOS 9:
First, cellForItemAtIndexPath: is called, and we dequeue a cell. UICollectionView pulls it from the reuse queue, and calls prepareForReuse on it.
Next, we'll configure the cell to our needs. Setting the content of labels, etc.
Then, right before the cell is scrolled into view, willDisplayCell:atIndexPath: is called.
The user looks at the beautiful cell we've created until they grow tired of it, and eventually scroll it off screen.
At this point, we'll get a didEndDisplayingCell:atIndexPath: call, and our cell will re-enter the reuse queue.
If the user changes their mind and scrolls back up, the whole process starts over with cellForItemAtIndexPath: 😨
Now, how about in iOS 10? Next we'll look at how this process has improved:
In iOS 10, things are mostly the same, all the way up until the point where the cell goes off screen at the end.
Yes, didEndDisplayingCell: |
‘Dangerous consequence’
These practices have a more dangerous consequence. It has turned many people in this part of the world against “Europe”, and allowed the authoritarian president to whip up “anti-western” sentiments. These companies are to a large degree responsible for the poor relations that now exist between the different countries in Europe.
David, Russia
‘Dumpster of the EU food market’
I visit western Europe once or twice a year. The same products, marketed under the same name, are of inferior quality in Romania than in Germany or France or the UK. Not just prepackaged foods but fruit, vegetables and meat as well, when comparing brands available from the same chain of supermarkets. When I hear the excuse of catering to “local tastes”, I start to hyperventilate. Nobody has an appetite for inferior food – and the solution is, most of the time, “add more sugar”. If you add to this the fact that food is generally more expensive in Romania, you get a clearer picture of why Romanians might think they are considered the dumpster of the EU food market.
Dorin, Romania
Europe's 'food apartheid': are brands in the east lower quality than in the west? Read more
‘Only their hypocrisy upsets me’
How convenient “local tastes” are: more sugar, lower percentage of fruit, lower percentage of meat; never vice-versa. But it makes sense. People want to buy western brands because it makes them feel good – but if western companies delivered their standard products, they would be too expensive for local consumers. If these companies wanted to be honest and create a sub-standard local brand, then advertising would be far more expensive than just adapting the existing brand. The natural solution was controlled damage to their standard brands. It’s only their hypocrisy, pretending that this is the “local taste”, that upsets me.
Mihai, Romania
‘Inferior comfort food’
I have one particular product that triggered my (amateur) research on the topic: frozen pizza. It was my favourite comfort food. Suddenly it looked and tasted different, definitely inferior. I also noticed that, for the first time, the cooking instructions were not in German, Dutch, English or Spanish. Instead, they were in the languages of central and eastern Europe. Years later I lived in the Netherlands, and noticed the same pizzas looked like the old versions I loved. Comparing the boxes, I noticed the “western” pizza contained seven slices of cheese, compared to five in the “eastern” version. The eastern pizza weighed less, but contained more saturated fats and sugar; hence also more calories.
Lara, Slovenia
‘Laundry will never smell as good’
In Poland you can find shops reselling goods bought in Germany, especially cleaning products and chocolate. My uncle in Germany still brings washing products for my mum. Your laundry will never smell as good and for as long if you use Polish versions of washing liquid brands. My cousins were always jealous of my nice-smelling clothes (now they get their washing products from Germany too).
Roza, Pole living in France
‘Salmon is a disgrace’
One of the biggest culprits is fish - salmon is a disgrace in the Czech Republic. It is usually cooled to a point before it freezes, then thawed before being passed off as fresh salmon. The cooling data and thawing is written on the side of boxes – but the retailers take advantage of the fact consumers cannot generally read English-language storage instructions. Savvy buyers know to buy goods where labels on products have Czech language labels stuck over the original text. This means the product that is sold in western markets is identical to the Czech market product.
Nigel, Czech Republic
‘Cling film doesn’t cling’
We’ve known for years the goods here are of lower quality, but are sold at greater cost. Well-known brands of wine that are “bottled” in the Czech Republic taste rancid compared to their UK counterparts. Toilet paper is rough, flimsy and will actually give you paper cuts. Cling film doesn’t cling, stock cubes add no flavour.
Maie, Czech Republic
The Inequality Project: the Guardian's in-depth look at our unequal world Read more
‘Capitalism hasn’t delivered’
We are used to buying basic groceries in the west and transporting them to our home countries. The tediousness of it contributed to the end of communism. However, it seems capitalism hasn’t delivered “what we paid for” either.
Sandra, Slovenia
Food industry statement
We take the accusations of alleged “dual quality” very seriously. Consumers are core to our business, and equally important wherever they are. It must also be stressed that whatever the recipe, our food always meets European standards and remains the safest in the world. The companies currently in the spotlight have rigorous quality management systems in place to ensure consistent quality across their brands, all over the world. The composition of products may sometimes be slightly different between countries for various reasons, but this does not necessarily imply “dual” or “inferior” quality between east and west European markets. For example, differences in composition can also found between the UK and France, or between Italy and Sweden.
Florence Ranson from FoodDrinkEurope, the industry’s lobby group in BrusselsCAIRO (Reuters) - As the Egyptian state presses its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the man expected to become president has deployed a new weapon in the battle with the Islamists: his own vision of Islam.
A volunteer leaves the headquarters of former Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi near his poster in El Gamaliya district, where he spent his childhood, in the old Islamic area of Cairo May 9, 2014. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who deposed the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi and is expected to be elected president later this month, has cast himself as a defender of religion and taken aim at the doctrinal foundations of Islamist groups the state is seeking to crush.
Striking a pious tone that sets him apart from former president Hosni Mubarak, Sisi also appears to be taking on the mantle of a religious reformer. He has blamed outdated “religious discourse” for holding back Egypt.
“I see that the religious discourse in the entire Islamic world has cost Islam its humanity,” Sisi said in an interview televised on May 5. “This requires us, and for that matter all leaders, to review their positions.”
With references to God and morality, Sisi may turn out to be the most outwardly pious of any of the military men to have governed Egypt since the republic was founded in 1953.
This does not mean he will inject more Islam into the government of a state whose laws and culture have long been shaped by religion. Sisi has said there is no such thing as a “religious state” - challenging a central Islamist concept.
But he seems certain to encourage the role played by religion in the public life of this conservative society.
And as the authorities try to curb Islamist influence by tightening control over mosques, Sisi’s presidency could bring a sustained effort to reinforce state-backed, apolitical Islam, providing clerical cover for destroying his Islamist foes.
“He is trying to replace the Islamists and counter the Muslim Brotherhood’s argument that he is anti-Islam,” said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Islamic movements based at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
“There is a religious aspect to his character and at the same time it is a political tool to strengthen his popularity and legitimacy among conservative Egyptians,” he said.
“He has some kind of religious vision for society.”
Sisi has been compared with Anwar Sadat, the head of state known for his piety who was assassinated by Islamists in 1981. Like Sadat, Sisi has a mark on his forehead from years of pressing his head to the carpet in daily prayer. His wife wears an Islamic veil.
TURNING AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD
Sisi’s reputation for piety encouraged the Brotherhood to believe he could be a reliable ally, one of the reasons Mursi appointed him army chief in August, 2012. But Sisi revealed strongly anti-Brotherhood views after deposing Mursi following mass protests against Mursi’s rule less than a year later.
Sisi accused the group of having an ideology which claimed to hold the “exclusive truth” and of seeking to advance the cause of an Islamic empire rather than of Egypt.
In the interview screened on May 5, Sisi said violent groups were a front for the Brotherhood, vowing that the movement would not exist once he was in power.
The movement, most of whose leaders are in jail, has yet to respond to his most recent accusations, though it has previously denied such claims and says it has long rejected violence. The group sees Sisi as the mastermind of a bloody military coup.
Islamist groups seeking to infuse government with their vision of Islam have been a thorn in the state’s side for decades. Some of the world’s most radical militants are Egyptian, including al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
Since Mursi was removed from power, the state has faced the worst wave of militant violence since the 1990s.
Several hundred policemen and soldiers have been killed in attacks that spiralled last year after the government killed hundreds of Mursi’s supporters in a crackdown. Sisi said two plots to assassinate him had been uncovered.
Sisi has lamented interpretations of Islam that fail to keep up with the times: “We have frozen this. It has been hundreds of years,” he said in the interview broadcast on May 5.
In a meeting with tourism executives in late April, Sisi addressed the question of how “religious discourse” had damaged the tourism industry - an engine of the economy repeatedly hit by Islamist attacks over the years.
Sisi said the sector had suffered from a religious discourse “not linked to concepts and developments of the age”.
“There must be an enlightened religious discourse to protect society from alien ideas,” he said, according to a statement posted on the official Facebook page of his campaign.
He has also said that places of worship should play a role in fixing Egypt’s moral problems, and good decisions must be in harmony with both society and “God’s rulings”.
RAISED IN ISLAMIC CAIRO
Yasser Abdel Aziz, a columnist who has met Sisi and followed his comments on religion, describes Sisi as a typically “moderate Egyptian” Muslim, distinguishing his approach, for example, from the puritanical Wahabism of Saudi Arabia.
Sisi would “strengthen the role of religious discourse in public institutions and in public life”, but would not involve religion in government, he said. “He sees Islam as a force for good and work,” he said.
Sisi was raised in the historic heart of Islamic Cairo.
He recalled seeing Christians and Jews practicing their faiths unhindered and has cited influences from his childhood including Sheikh Mohamed Metwally El Shaarawy, an Islamic preacher who died in 1998.
Former grand mufti Ali Gomaa has also been cited as a source of influence for Sisi. Sisi was present at a gathering of army officers last year at which Gomaa promised a future in paradise for members of the security forces who killed militants or were killed by them, leaked footage of the meeting showed.
Like many of the top religious figures in the Egyptian state, Gomaa is an adherent of a mystical school of Islam known as Sufism whose practices have sometimes set them at odds with more puritanical Muslims, including hardline Islamist groups.
Some analysts speculate that Sisi may have a mystical side, after a recording emerged in which he talks about experiencing visions of the future. In one of his dreams, the late Sadat tells Sisi he knew he would one day become president.
In one of his first meetings after stepping down as army chief, Sisi met leaders of Egypt’s Sufi orders and descendents of the Prophet Mohammad. They backed him for the presidency.
“I hope God rewards us for protecting the people and also protecting Islam,” Sisi told the meeting in a recording posted on his campaign’s Facebook page.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood accuse Sisi of manipulating religion for political gain - the same charge that was made against them.
“He used it to permit bloodletting, bringing sheikhs to justify killing,” said a Brotherhood member who declined to be identified for fear of arrest. “He only wants religion to be prayer and fasting.”
Sisi’s strong opposition to the Brotherhood has earned him the support of Egypt’s biggest religious minority, the Coptic Christians. But some Egyptians fear that long-persecuted smaller minority groups such as Shi’ites, Baha’is and atheists will face more harassment as the state adopts a pious veneer. “Sisi doesn’t want to change the religious culture of society or adopt policies that bring more religious freedoms. He will exploit this culture to realise his goals,” said Karim al-Deeb, 35, who describes himself as an agnostic.
While most of Egypt’s Islamist groups share the Brotherhood’s opposition to Sisi, he has held on to the support of the main ultraorthodox Salafist group, the Dawa Salafiya, which first backed Mursi but later supported his removal.
Dawa Salafiya, more radical than the Brotherhood in calling for an Islamic state after the 2011 uprising that brought down Mubarak, now says it sees Sisi as best qualified to lead the state. It and its political arm, the Nour Party, have been give space to continue their activities, unlike the Brotherhood.
“Sisi is personally interested in ‘true Islam’ and ‘correct Islam’ and undermining the Islamist movements,” said Ashraf El-Sherif, a lecturer in political science at the American University in Cairo (AUC). “It’s part of his personal mission.”It appears that talent clustering provides little in the way of trickle-down benefits to service and blue-collar workers.
The past couple of decades have seen America sort itself into two distinct nations, as the more highly skilled and affluent have migrated to a relatively small number of cities and metro areas. "The highly educated cluster around a few small nodes," writes David Brooks in The New York Times last week. "Decade after decade, smart and educated people flock away from Merced, Calif., Yuma, Ariz., Flint, Mich., and Vineland, N.J. In those places, less than 15 percent of the residents have college degrees. They flock to Washington, Boston, San Jose, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco. In those places, nearly 50 percent of the residents have college degrees." The Economist's Ryan Avent adds that "Cities that had relatively skilled populations in 1980 have become more skilled and more productive, and have generally featured fast-rising wages and housing costs. Places that were relatively less skilled, by contrast, have stayed that way and have mostly experienced a growing wage and productivity gap with the high flyers."
But a key question remains: Who benefits and who loses from this talent clustering process? Does it confer broad benefits in the form of higher wages and salaries to workers across the board or do the benefits accrue mainly to smaller group of knowledge, technology, and professional workers? The University of California, Berkeley’s Enrico Moretti suggests a trickle-down effect, arguing that higher-skill regions benefit all workers by generating higher wages for all workers. Others contend that this new economic geography is at least partially to blame for rising economic inequality. I've been examining the winners and losers from this talent clustering process in ongoing research with Charlotta Mellander and our Martin Prosperity Institute team. This research divides workers into three socio-economic classes — highly skilled knowledge, professional, and creative workers, and less skilled and lower paid blue-collar and service workers — and takes into the account the wages and housing costs borne by each. On close inspection, talent clustering provides little in the way of trickle-down benefits. Our main takeaway: On close inspection, talent clustering provides little in the way of trickle-down benefits. Its benefits flow disproportionately to more highly-skilled knowledge, professional and creative workers whose higher wages and salaries are more than sufficient to cover more expensive housing in these locations. While less-skilled service and blue-collar workers also earn more money in knowledge-based metros, those gains disappear once their higher housing costs are taken into account. Our results are still preliminary, and it's worth remembering that correlation points to an association between two variables but does not identify what causes what. Still the broad story that emerges from our findings helps us better understand the true winners and losers from America's new economic geography.
At first blush, everyone seems to benefit from the clustering and sorting of talent. The wages of all types and classes of workers track the wages of the most skilled group, according to our analysis. The wages of both lower skilled service and blue-collar workers are significantly correlated with wages for knowledge, professional creative workers (with correlations of.80 for service wages and.62 for blue-collar wages). Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Everyone also initially seems to benefit from talent clustering in larger metros as well. Bigger metros bring powerful clustering and agglomeration effects; they have faster metabolisms and greater rates of innovation. Improved productivity translates to higher wages across the board, as countless studies have shown. So it's not surprising that average wages closely track metro population, as the scatter-graph below shows. The correlation between average wages and metro population is considerable (.58), and it holds for all three class of workers: knowledge, professional and creative workers (.69), service workers (.46) and blue-collar workers (.28). Data for individual places is embedded in each chart. But, housing costs are also higher in these larger, more skilled metros. Residents pay a significant premium for the increased productivity they offer, as well as for their amenities, everything from views and good weather and coastlines to restaurants and arts and cultural venues. Housing costs rise as good jobs and more highly skilled workers gravitate to these places, a process that is exacerbated by restrictive zoning regulations, as Avent argues in his book, The Gated City. The correlation between housing costs and knowledge, professional and creative wages is considerable (.80), as well as between housing costs and metro population (.53). The scatter-graph below shows the relationship between the latter.
Still, even when we look at the amount of wages left over after paying for housing (subtracting median housing costs from average salaries and wages), workers on average still seem to make out better from talent clustering. Workers in San Jose — home to Silicon Valley — do the best, with over $4,000 per month, or $48,556 per year, left over after paying for housing. Much the same is true in San Francisco where the average worker has $3,767 per month, or $45,200 per year, left over after housing, and Washington, D.C., where the amount left over is $3,609 per month, which works out to $43,308 a year. But — and here is where the story gets way more interesting — this overall effect turns out to be an illusion. The "average" amount left over is higher simply because the most highly skilled and highly paid group does so well that it pulls up overall wages. The punch line changes dramatically once we consider the effects of higher housing costs on the three different classes of workers. Highly skilled knowledge, professional, and creative workers continue to benefit. They have more than enough left over in the more expensive metros. The positive correlation between their wages left over and housing costs (.58) indicates this, and the line on the scatter-graph points upward. But the opposite is true for the other two classes of workers. The correlations between left-over wages and housing costs are negative and significant for each of them (-.36 for service workers and -.20 for blue-collar workers), and the lines on the scatter-graphs slope down. The benefits of highly-skilled regions accrue mainly to knowledge, professional, and creative workers. The trickle-down effect disappears once the higher housing costs borne by less skilled workers are taken into account. The benefits of highly skilled regions accrue mainly to knowledge, professional, and creative workers. While less-skilled blue-collar and service workers also earn more in these places, more expensive housing costs eat away those gains. There is a rising tide of sorts, but it only lifts about the most advantaged third of the workforce, leaving the other 66 percent much further behind. The full effects of talent clustering are even more insidious. Avent points to research by Rebecca Diamond, a graduate student in economics at Harvard, which shows that this sorting process involves migrations away from as well as to knowledge-based metros. As she puts it, "[t]he combination of desirable wage and amenity growth for all workers causes large amounts of in-migration, as college workers are particularly attracted by desirable amenities, while low skill workers are particularly attracted by desirable wages." But this leads directly to higher housing costs, which according to Diamond "disproportionately discourage low skill workers from living in these high wage, high amenity cities." This creates an additional level of inequality — inequality of well-being — where more skilled workers not only take home more money, but benefit from better neighborhoods, superior amenities, and better schools. This well-being inequality, Diamond explains, is an additional 20 percent higher than can be explained by the simple wage gap between college and high school grads. Inequality in America thus extends far beyond income to include the basic conditions that determine and reinforce avenues for upward mobility and future economic success in the long run. "This sorting is self-reinforcing," Brooks writes in the Times piece, "and it seems to grow more unforgiving every year." It's not just a vicious cycle but an unsustainable one — economically, politically, and morally. Lede image: Radoslaw Lecyk/Shutterstock.comLONDON (AP) — Uber’s chief executive ordered an urgent investigation Monday into a sexual harassment claim made by a female engineer who alleged her prospects at the company evaporated after she complained about advances from her boss.
Travis Kalanick responded on Twitter to an open statement by Susan Fowler Rigetti about her year at the ride-hailing app. In a blog post titled “Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber,” Rigetti says the company’s human resources department ignored her complaints because her boss was a high performer.
“What’s described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in,” Kalanick tweeted. “Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired.”
In her blog, Rigetti said she joined Uber as a site reliability engineer in November 2015. On her first official day with the company, her boss propositioned her in a string of messages on the company chat. As it was “clearly out of line,” she immediately took screen shots of the remarks.
“Upper management told me that he “was a high performer” (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn’t feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part,” she wrote.
Rigetti, who did not name the manager at issue, left the team. But she said as she tried to progress in the company, she found her way blocked. She alleged sexism was rampant in the company, and that when she pointed that out at a company meeting, she was rebuffed.
In a particularly comical moment, she noted that the director of engineering ordered leather jackets for the site’s reliability engineers, but later decided it would only give the jackets to male engineers because there were too few women in the company to qualify for a bulk purchase discount.
“The director replied back, saying that if we women really wanted equality, then we should realize we were getting equality by not getting the leather jackets,” she wrote. “He said that because there were so many men in the org, they had gotten a significant discount on the men’s jackets but not on the women’s jackets, and it wouldn’t be equal or fair, he argued, to give the women leather jackets that cost a little more.”
Kalanick said he has instructed the company’s chief human resources officer to look into the blog post, adding “there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber.”
The remarks will strike a nerve among those trying to bolster the number of women in science and engineering, who have long argued that male-dominated atmospheres are discouraging the talented from seeking careers in the sector.
Rigetti said she temporarily disabled comments on her blog post “because there were too many for me to keep up with.”
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Spiritual abuse, a type of abuse that results from a spiritual leader, system, or indoctrinated individual’s attempts to control and/or manipulate another individual, can be difficult to recognize, and many people are entirely unaware that this type of abuse even exists.
Those who are aware of spiritual abuse may understand this concept as the oppression or domination of individuals within a particular religious organization, leading these people to follow the leaders without dissent or question. While this is one manifestation, any abuse—committed intentionally or otherwise–that occurs in a religious context and negatively impacts a person’s spirituality, effectively diminishing or breaking their spirit, can be described as spiritual abuse.
Spiritual Abuse in Intimate Relationships
Spiritual abuse may occur in relationships, though some may not recognize they are experiencing abuse. A key feeling to look for, if you believe spiritual abuse may be present in your relationship, is shame. Shame, obvious at times but less apparent at others, can be experienced in many ways, all of which are likely to lead to hurt and pain.
Spiritual abuse can be recognized in many of the following situations but is not limited to these:
Do you feel ashamed when you and your partner have different thoughts about religion? If your partner adheres to a particular religion and you feel it is not safe to challenge their ideas about religion, spiritual abuse may be present.
Have you ever been silenced by your partner when challenging a common ideology in their religion? Have they called your thoughts and opinions silly, wrong, or stupid, leading you to feel ashamed of having the audacity to think differently?
Has your partner ever forced you to attend religious gatherings? Find a Therapist Advanced Search
Have you ever been shamed or punished by a partner for not obeying a particular religious rule or set of rules?
Does your partner use scriptures, religious texts, or beliefs to justify harmful or abusive behaviors?
Does your partner insist children be raised according to a certain faith, even if you do not follow that faith?
Many churches teach that in a heterosexual relationship, the male has supremacy over the female: the man is the head; the woman is the help-meet. This was true in the church I attended in my late teen years. I, and other young women, were given multiple reasons why God had arranged it thus. “Ladies, you should be so lucky to find a man to help and support!” we were told. As much as I hoped at the time to fit into this box, I—strong, opinionated, and stubborn as I was, and still am—simply didn’t. I push back. I make decisions. I desire to be involved in all aspects of a relationship, as an equal member, not a lesser part.
My partner, another member of the church, did not support these aspects of my nature. On more than one occasion we had disagreements in which he told me, jokingly at first, to “submit,” persisting until I stopped talking. His “joke” response continued, silencing me again and again until I lost the energy and willpower to defend myself further. To avoid that word, “submit,” I forfeited my voice and my opinions.
In this way, messages from religious organizations trickle down, affecting relationships, shattering the spirits of many, often leading to religious trauma syndrome or another lasting negative impact on mental health and well-being.
Spiritual Abuse in Parent-Child Relationships
Parent-child spiritual abuse, while common, may be tricky to recognize, as the line between abuse and influence can at times be blurry one. When does the attempt to influence and shape a child’s moral outlook through religious upbringing cross the line into abuse?
I imagine many individuals, when considering the topic of spiritual abuse, think of the movie Carrie. In this film, Carrie suffers extreme physical and spiritual abuse at the hands of her mother, all in the name of God.
Spiritual abuse perpetuated by parents, not always obvious or blatant, can be seen when parents:
Encourage single-minded thinking. When parents discourage questions or shut a child down for challenging what they learn, they are teaching the child that critical thinking is not valuable.
Use exclusive language or “us vs. them” mentality when referring to those who do not adhere to the same religious group. This language serves to give children a pointed message about the organization of social relationships and can encourage both an elitist mentality or a savior complex.
Stifle a child’s interest in learning about other religious practices. This often furthers exclusive language by sending the message that others might be dangerous, evil, etc.
Force a child to participate in certain rituals such as prayer, worship, communion, bowing, group participation, repentance, public displays of adherence, etc. A child who does not wish to participate likely has a reason, and parents who ignore the child’s choices send the message that children do not have the freedom to make their own choices.
Force a child to remain in an environment where a traumatic event occurred. Children who have an extreme reaction to a religious environment typically do so for a reason. Parents may be unaware a traumatic event has taken place, but to ignore the child’s reaction instead of attempting to discover the reason for it is likely to teach the child they cannot expect to be protected from harm, even by their parents.
The parent-child dynamic of spiritual abuse should not be equated with a parent’s attempt to raise a child in a religious household. Parents who follow a particular faith may read their child stories from a religious text, explain why certain morals are important or why they hold certain beliefs, and bring their child to church events. These are not examples of abuse when they are not forced on a child.
Further, parents who encourage their child to ask questions and provide the child with explanations instead of simply saying, “Because God says so,” can help their child learn, grow, and think critically. It is often worth it for a parent to take the time to explain to a child why they chose to follow a particular faith, as this serves to introduce the child to that unique and important aspect of the parent’s life.
Abuse in Small Cults
Society as a whole has become more aware of cult practices in recent years. Cults might exist as small branches of major religions or are large organizations in their own right, and they may be difficult to recognize or define. People who have left them, however, often report abusive practices, though many share that they did not recognize these tactics as abuse until they had a chance to step away from them.
Some of the following may be questions to consider:
Am I in danger? Physical danger? Danger of a destroyed reputation?
Am I being forced to pay money in order to become spiritually enlightened?
Have I been shamed for thinking differently?
Have I been equipped with the tools to research my beliefs on my own, or are there only a chosen few individuals who are authorized to give me information?
Is there a ranking system? Am I being taught that I am somehow lesser than other individuals?
Is my individuality unappreciated or unwelcomed?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may wish to carefully consider the religious group to which you belong. It may be a good idea to seek the support of a trusted friend or family member along with professional help from a counselor, particularly one trained to provide help with spiritual and religious issues. A person should not have to worry that sharing their worries or opinions will lead to judgment or recrimination.
Abuse in Large Organizations
Spiritual abuse typically becomes more insidious as the size of the organization grows. In large organizations, however, the most common forms of abuse may be more difficult to identify.
One way of identifying whether you have been, or currently are, in a spiritually abusive relationship is to look at the leadership in your organization.
Do the leaders hold all authority?
Do they discourage free thinking or opinions about their messages?
Do they inform followers they are less valuable because of things they cannot change (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and so on)?
Do they demonize other religions and belief systems?
Do they catch you in the “loop”?
Spiritual abuse is sneaky. It hides in the fact that it is not commonly discussed and thus is often overlooked. But know that if you have experienced spiritual abuse or oppression, you are not alone, and compassionate help and support can help you overcome its effects.
The “loop” is an idea I have been developing as I continue my own spiritual exploration. Recently, the pastor giving a Christian church service I attended shared information I disagreed with. As I picked apart the message in my head, I experienced doubt about my own religious beliefs. As if the pastor had read my thoughts, he exclaimed, “And if you have doubt, that is because you are ensnared by sin.”
“Oh, that explains it,” I thought. “Now I need to do whatever he says I should to wipe out my sin, and that will ease my doubt. Wait. What?!”
This thought ran through my head as I processed what he told me. I was so quick to believe I was being manipulated by evil that my ability to think critically about his message was compromised by a loop he had created. He stated a “truth,” pinpointed doubt and critical thinking, and then he blamed it on outside forces like sin. My ability to deconstruct his message was inherently sinful, I interpreted.
Now, this was not a direct situation of spiritual abuse. That pastor was not intending to abuse his congregation. However, I can tell you that I did feel oppressed. My spirit felt crushed.
If you have felt similar oppression from this type of preaching, teaching, or reading, you may have felt abused. You may have experienced guilt, shame, or fear. Your emotional well-being may have been affected.
So what to do? How can you find an organization that affirms you and allows your spiritual self to thrive?
Look for organizations with leadership that is horizontal, not vertical. True leaders pool the voices of those they represent. They do not stifle the voices of their congregation to remain in the role of “truth holder.”
. True leaders pool the voices of those they represent. They do not stifle the voices of their congregation to remain in the role of “truth holder.” Find a community that celebrates your differences. It is oppressive to be told that because you are female, you cannot lead; because you are LGBTQ+, you cannot participate; because you are black, you belong in a black congregation. Avoid homogeneous congregations and find one that celebrates you and all aspects of your identity.
It is oppressive to be told that because you are female, you cannot lead; because you are LGBTQ+, you cannot participate; because you are black, you belong in a black congregation. Avoid homogeneous congregations and find one that celebrates you and all aspects of your identity. Surround yourself with people who encourage you to form and process your own opinions about spirituality and your beliefs. Avoid communities, friends, and partners who confine you to one way of thinking and silence your opinions.
Avoid communities, friends, and partners who confine you to one way of thinking and silence your opinions. Find a safe person/people to talk to and process, if necessary. This could be a counselor/therapist, friend, family member, or a support group.
Spiritual abuse is sneaky. It hides in the fact that it is not commonly discussed and thus is often overlooked. But know that if you have experienced spiritual abuse or oppression, you are not alone, and compassionate help and support can help you overcome its effects.
References:
Kinsley, M. (2013, January 17). Eyes wide shut: ‘Going Clear,’ Lawrence Wright’s book on Scientology. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/books/review/going-clear-lawrence-wrights-book-on-scientology.html Tamm, J. (2011, April 14). What is a cult? Recognizing and avoiding unhealthy groups. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayanti-tamm/the-c-word_2_b_848340.html
© Copyright 2017 GoodTherapy.org. All rights reserved. Permission to publish granted by Mackenzi Kingdon, MA, LMHCA, therapist in Seattle, Washington
The preceding article was solely written by the author named above. Any views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the preceding article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment below.Rocket City has a flame-topped tower (like the Space Needle’s natural gas flame in ’62), with an observation deck looking out on Seattle weather “washed and darkening cloud sheets...a magnificent sky, marble carried to a wildness of white billow and candescence.” Its futuristically fast elevator combines the Needle with the Bubbleator, whose operators, like the novel’s, were all tall, striking females.
Elvis Presley shot a movie at the Fair, putting real fairgoers in a fantasy story; Rocket City has a filmmaker who calls the entire world a giant film set. The Fair’s burlesque shows boasted “Girls of the Galaxy,” posing in space-wear as tourists snapped naughty shots on rented cameras; their counterparts show up in Gravity’s Rainbow. The Fair’s X-rated puppet show, Les Poupées de Paris, created by the future creators of H.R. Pufnstuff and the Banana Splits, may have inspired some of Pynchon’s obscene cartoonish scenes, as did Walt Disney, who consulted on Seattle’s Fair.
But Pynchon’s central inspiration was the May 1962 visit by scientist Wernher von Braun, who told the wife of the Fair’s president, Joe Gandy, that Hitler had forced him to work on the V-2 rockets that hit London. Gravity’s Rainbow focuses on von Braun’s old job, building death rockets with Jewish slave labor in the underground German V2 base. After Boeing B17s bombed it, von Braun surrendered to US troops in 1945, then emigrated to run the US Saturn missile program (whose engineer, John Minasian, became engineer of the Needle, which looks like the gantry that holds up a rocket before launch).
Von Braun attended the Fair with astronaut John Glenn, who’d just become the first American to orbit Earth. Their talk about peaceful uses of space perhaps struck Minuteman missile worker Pynchon as ironic, and gave Gravity’s Rainbow its plot, about “a good Rocket to take us to the stars, an evil Rocket for the World's suicide, the two perpetually in struggle.”
There was a deep spiritual side to the Century 21 space debate that made it into Pynchon’s fiction. A Russian astronaut who visited Seattle the week before Glenn and von Braun mocked American astronauts, whose thoughts often turned to God while in space. “I saw neither angels nor God,” said the piously atheist Communist. Glenn retorted, “The God I pray to is not small enough that |
o Yang/NPR Zhuo Yang/NPR
Every weekend, I rise at 7 a.m. to get on the subway to hunt for apartments. The cheapest two-bedroom homes in the suburbs of Shanghai cost $200,000 or more, which would take me more than 12 years to pay off — if I don't spend a dime of what I make.
This is the reality of China's boom. After decades of explosive growth, the cost of living in China's big cities has skyrocketed, and many young people have been priced out of the housing market.
People in the West tend to think the Chinese are taking over the world; the reality is young people here struggle to make ends meet. Putting food on the table and having a shelter are still their biggest concerns. I'm 27, with a graduate degree in journalism and a good job in my field, and I'm worried about these basics.
No Home, No Honey
Owning a home is even more important in China than in America. Homeownership is the main prerequisite for single men looking for wives — property becoming a unifying force that binds two families together.
A rough calculation reveals that every month after paying the mortgage and for food and other essentials, I will have a little more than $100 left. A crowded bus ride to the office now takes nearly two hours.
Mothers-in-law want their daughters to have an easy life, making single male homeowners the preferred choice of a mate. But that's not enough. In-laws demand that homeownership certificates include their daughters' names — an insurance policy that entitles the wife to half the value of a property if a couple divorces.
A growing income gap and rampant materialism have driven many young women to openly focus on finding rich husbands. Some who do agree to marry poorer guys are reluctant to share the burden of paying off debts.
Businesslike as it may sound, the family negotiations before marriage are to a great extent like preparations for a business transaction. This is true of many Chinese families, mine included.
This age-old practice is suffocating many young men in China. Buying property is the talk of the nation, just as it was in the U.S. before the bubble burst a number of years ago. Except it is much harder here. Statistics show on average it takes families in Shanghai 28 years to pay off an apartment, in a city where prices compare with big American cities but incomes are far lower.
Not A Supply Problem
After seeing a lot of real estate during my three months of house hunting, it seems to me that the high prices aren't a result of demand outstripping supply but the result of a policy failure. Block after block of apartments in suburban Shanghai sits empty. It's more obvious at night, when few lights in those buildings are on.
Enlarge this image toggle caption faceleg/Flickr faceleg/Flickr
The popular Chinese magazine Caijing recently reported that a survey done by the Beijing police last year indicated that of the 12.3 million apartments in the city, 3.8 million were vacant. That's a vacancy rate of 29 percent.
With limited investment options, companies and the rich have poured money into the real estate market. They are willing to let property sit empty so it can fetch a good price — in the belief that incomes and demand will eventually catch up.
A commentary in the People's Daily, the Communist Party's main newspaper, recently asked why so many young people suddenly feel so old. A subsequent survey by Beijing News showed 86 percent of respondents cite high housing prices as the major source of pressure in their lives. This frustration is widely shared. I've started losing sleep since I began house hunting.
What A "Bargain"
To find a cheaper home, I focused on the areas at the end of each subway line. The search for a good price pushed me so far out, I came within a few miles of the next province. After months of painstaking online searches and visits, I settled on an 860-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment that costs $208,000. That price tag is so big that it felt like a boulder on my shoulder. However, in the current market, this price really seems like a bargain.
The apartment was built six years ago; colorful fliers from small businesses cover the walls of the building's hallways. It's just the skeleton of a living space, really; rooms with walls and uneven bare concrete floor and not much else — no appliances, no wooden flooring or carpeting, no usable toilet even.
To modestly outfit the place will require an additional $40,000. A rough calculation reveals that every month after paying the mortgage and for food and other essentials, I will have a little more than $100 left. A crowded bus ride to the office now takes nearly two hours.
A friend of mine, who moved to Australia and now works in a factory making springs for pacemakers and hearing aids near Sydney, owns a house, a brand new Toyota SUV and has three kids. Our monthly income is almost the same. He drives 20 minutes to his workplace. Life in Australia seems much easier, although he does complain he has no savings.
Things should get better. Thanks to Shanghai's fast-expanding infrastructure, a new subway line is expected to open by the end of this year. That would very likely cut my commuting time to 70 minutes.
My father comes from a poor farming village in western China. It has taken a few generations for my family to have a member able to live and work in what is arguably China's premier megacity. To give my children a leg up, I plan to stay.
Zhuo Yang works in NPR's Shanghai bureau.Desperate to keep a restaurant job to support her children, a Jersey City woman said she endured years of sexual assault, groping and demeaning remarks by her boss and his brother, according to a lawsuit.
The 43-year-old single mother of teenage twins claimed in a lawsuit filed in Hudson County Superior Court that the owner of Wonder Bagels in Jersey City threatened to fire her after she was late several times in 2009.
"Issa (Salloum) came out and told me he wanted me to do what his wife don't do, and I asked what was that," the former restaurant employee alleges in her deposition given as part of the lawsuit. "And he told me that -- he told me that he wanted to have sex with me, and I was like, 'I'm not -- you know, that's not happening.'"
They also threatened to tell her boyfriend, the lawsuit adds.
The plaintiff's name is contained in the lawsuit, but NJ Advance Media is not identifying the woman because she is an alleged sexual assault victim.
Brothers and business partners Issa and Nasser Salloum, who are named in the lawsuit, are accused of repeatedly cornering the woman in the walk-in refrigerator, behind the grill and in the upstairs office, and putting their hands down her pants and up her shirt when no other employees were around.
The lawsuit, filed in April 2016, also accuses them of committing assault and battery by sexually assaulting her numerous times.
The former employee said she was hired at $8 an hour in 2006 to work six days a week taking orders, preparing food, and opening and sometimes closing the shop. Her salary rose to $10 an hour the following year, at the same time verbal abuse allegedly began.
Issa Salloum, the owner of the Sip Avenue restaurant, and his brother Nasser Salloum, a manager, called her "white trash" and "stupid bitch," quizzed her about her sex life, and made obscene gestures with produce, according to the lawsuit.
Issa began sexually assaulting the woman in 2009; Nasser, who filled in as manager when Issa would take extended vacations, in 2012, the complaint said.
The brothers adamantly deny the allegations and claim she is lying, according to court records and depositions.
"They are respected members of the community, and the allegations are false," Frank Babcock of Jersey City, attorney for the brothers, told NJ Advance Media. They operate five shops in Jersey City and one in Bayonne, according to the Wonder Bagels website.
NJ Advance Media attempted to reach the brothers for comment by phone at their Sip Avenue store and on multiple occasions in person at all of their Jersey City stores, but they were unavailable.
"I don't want to try case in the newspapers. I can't go into details," Babcock said.
In depositions taken in August, the Salloum brothers said the woman chose to quit months after spilling a large pot of scalding coffee on her foot in July 2014.
"We never told her she can't come back. We never heard from her. We were waiting for her to come" back, Nasser Salloum said in a deposition.
But the plaintiff's attorney, Brooke Barnett of Newark, said her client was fired. She was being punished for pursuing a worker's compensation claim for her injured foot, according to the lawsuit.
"I'm sure if (she) could go back to working her job at the bagel place -- minus the harassment, minus the assaults -- she'd go back tomorrow," Barnett said. "It's not Hollywood, it wasn't a big corporate job, but at the end of the day, it was her job."
Barnett said her client wanted to talk publicly about the case, filed in state Superior Court in Hudson County last year, because she has been inspired by the recent #MeToo movement and the flood of sexual harassment and misconduct cases that have come to light.
Tell us your experiences with sexual harassment
Barnett said she contacted NJ Advance Media in response to its call out to readers to tell about any incidents in the workplace regarding harassment and misconduct.
"The reason why I am coming out -- I have four daughters, and now two granddaughters, and I don't want them to go through what I went through," the plaintiff said. She said she is taking medication and undergoing therapy for anxiety and depression. At one time, she said she contemplated suicide, according to the deposition.
"But I just think of my daughters and my grandchildren. I'd like to be there for them," she said.
Barnett said she believes some of the allegations leveled by her client are crimes, but they decided that with the passage of time, it would be too difficult to pursue a criminal case.
The former employee said the assaults took place in the upstairs office, usually when she was told to come to get her paycheck, according to the lawsuit. She said the brothers were careful to avoid abusing her near the security cameras or when other employees were around, the complaint adds.
She said she never confided in any other employees whom she believed knew the brothers personally, according to the deposition. In 2012, she said she did confide in her sister, according to the lawsuit.
"I told my sister. She told me to leave there. I said I can't leave -- I have to take care of my younger two daughters," the plaintiff said.
NJ Advance Media could not reach the sister.
"The threat of termination hanging over the demands for sex were especially fearsome to (the) Plaintiff," according to the lawsuit, "because of her lack of education and ability to obtain employment." She did not graduate high school, the lawsuit said.
Also, Barnett said her client "did not have the strength years ago to go through the rigorous criminal justice system. The idea of talking about (the allegations) in the type of detail required for a conviction was not something she was willing to do at that time. Clearly she chose to heal herself through a more private option and setting by seeking therapy, in which she continues to do."
Staff reporter Sara Jerde contributed to this report.
Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati.This article appeared in our July 2013 Issue.
It's day one of what's promising to be a strange old year. The pro surfing tour has just changed hands for the first time in three decades, been signed away for a song, and while the outgoing owners haven't yet cleaned out their desks, the new owners haven't moved in either. The whole show's in limbo, and at this historic juncture everything and nothing is happening simultaneously. It's been termed a "bridging year," but a bridge to where exactly, no one is sure.
The press conference for the first event of the season—the Quiksilver Pro—is being held on the beachfront at Snapper Rocks. The humidity is so sharp it's like breathing fish hooks. A stifling room full of leaky newspaper hacks and TV network girls melting like wax dummies stare at an empty chair with the nameplate "Kelly Slater" in front of it. His no-show is for "personal reasons," although there's a murmur it might have something to do with his involvement in this "new tour." The other piece of scuttlebutt is that he's gone AWOL to avoid questions about the layoffs that Quiksilver—his seven-figure, two-decade sponsor—announced back in California the previous day. In reality, with the sun out for the first time in weeks, he's most likely smacking a white ball around a golf course somewhere. But the buzz in the room is all around the future of the World Tour, and the first question is fired at the gloriously insouciant Dane Reynolds, the World Tour's most disinterested surfer, and as a consequence, the surfer the world is most interested in. He's asked whether he's been approached to be part of the new 2014 World Tour, now owned by ZoSea Media Holdings, Inc. Dane edges awkwardly toward the microphone. The pregnant silence is broken when he stammers: "Err… ZoSea? What's that?"
Randy Rarick has seen it all before. The long-time contest promoter and ASP board member was there when the very first pro surfing body, the IPS, formed in 1976. It was done around his kitchen table at Sunset Beach. He was also there for pro surfing's first coup seven years later, albeit on the receiving end as the newly formed ASP marched in and took pro surfing. "Ian Cairns walked in with a $25,000 check from OP and he waves the check in front of everybody and said, 'You want to stay with the IPS or you wanna come with me?'" Rarick laughs [now, anyway]. "So for 25 grand everybody jumped ship. But that was fine. It was time for a change, Fred [Hemmings] and myself were burned out and Ian came through the door with new energy…and 25 grand."
Rarick wasn't surprised then, when at the ASP board meeting in Coolangatta in February 2012, a phone book-sized business plan outlining a proposed private takeover of the ASP hit the table with a thud. A hitherto unknown group by the name of ZoSea Media was making the pitch, although ZoSea's two front men—Paul Speaker and Terry Hardy—needed little introduction. Speaker was on the board of Quiksilver, while Hardy was Kelly Slater's longtime manager and the driving force behind the failed 2009 "Rebel Tour." The genesis of the ZoSea takeover can be traced back to September 2011, in that surfing hotbed of New York City. At the time, the writing was already on the wall for the ASP. The event horizon three years earlier on Wall Street had been crossed and the surf industry—and tethered to it, pro surfing—was being drawn into a black hole. The surf brands were abandoning the exotic, money-burning exercise of taking events to good waves and retreating to the great citadels of capitalism. Quiksilver had set out to embrace the big-city surf contest, bringing in music and skate and moto and art, leveraging non-endemic sponsors, constructing a pop-up retail borough, treating the surfers like foreign dignitaries and splashing a cold million in prize money. The irony of the event is that a hurricane wiped out the sideshow and left Dream Tour conditions for the contest, but the consensus was that despite the fact it was the first and last New York event, the whole thing had worked and the guy charged with making it work had been Paul Speaker. New York was his light bulb moment. "There are amazing stories on Tour," he offers, "both through the history of the events and within the lives of the surfers. This became apparent to me early on as a fan and follower of the sport and that interest was nurtured during my time on the Quiksilver Board where we were able to bring the world's best surfers to New York for the first time." The surf brands had raised pro surfing as their own, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it, watched it blossom, and for many of them it had almost become a raison d'etre, if not the fundamental driver of their marketing and team rosters. The surf brands needed pro surfing, even if collectively they weren't entirely sure how they were going to pay for it.
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But the ZoSea pitch wasn't just for the media rights, as this ASP board had seen several times in the recent past. It wasn't a rebel tour. It was a play for the whole sandpit: the ownership and management of the ASP and its media rights. And the buyout figure attached to the plan wasn't 25 grand this time—it was nothing. Donuts. Zero. The deal, however, would drop the cost of each event for the licensee from $3 million currently back to $1 million, and ZoSea banked on the brands wanting out more than they wanted in.
"Their timing was pretty impeccable," Rarick agrees. "They came in when everybody needed them to come along." Surf industry spot fires dotted a landscape that had been milk and honey not five years earlier, share prices were falling through floors, and for the most part it was clear that as a group, the brands—the traditional owners of pro surfing, along with the surfers—could no longer indulge bankrolling it (to the tune of 30-odd million dollars annually). But at the same time this was their baby. There was a personal attachment to pro surfing that went far beyond the balance sheet. For proof, just sit next to Rip Curl founder Doug "Claw" Warbrick while he watches Mick Fanning's heat in his sandals and socks, ghost scoring and levitating with glee after every wave. The surf brands had raised pro surfing as their own, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in it, watched it blossom, and for many of them it had almost become a raison d'etre, if not the fundamental driver of their marketing and team rosters. The surf brands needed pro surfing, even if collectively they weren't entirely sure how they were going to pay for it.
"You've got to realize the scenario that was unfolding," states Rarick. "The ASP, we sat there and said, 'If we don't take the deal we can keep the status quo and tread water for a year, then maybe somebody will go out there and find a big sponsor,' and we all looked around the room and said, 'We been saying that shit for 15 years and nobody has come! Is it really going to happen now? No. You know what, we don't have a better offer, let's roll with it.'" The decision, however, was not unanimous. "Quik and Billabong saw them as a savior and said, 'Thank God, we can get out of this deal,' but Rip Curl and Vans were dead against it." The final vote on the deal was set to go down at the ASP board meeting in France in early October.
Meanwhile, the other traditional owners of the ASP—the surfers—were in furious agreement. Gaining consensus among any group of surfers, anywhere at anytime, can be an exercise in herding cats, but ZoSea had taken cues from New York and pitched the surfers first and foremost in their plans. Not only would prize money increase, but surfers would also get a pension plan. They would be the stars of the show. "I think most guys were initially skeptical," recalls then-Surfers' Rep, Kieren Perrow. "Your whole livelihood depends on getting this decision right, and the livelihoods of guys and girls 10 years down the track too." The surfers saw a risk in voting for the deal, "but we saw the risk of doing nothing as even greater," he says. "Things were dire, and I wouldn't even want to contemplate the very worst case, which is that it might have fallen over totally."2013 has been termed a “bridging year” for the ASP, but a bridge to where exactly, no one is sure.
The art deco Mercedes Hotel, overlooking Le Canal de Hossegor, hosted the meeting where the surfers' vote was taken. Perrow recalls: "Everyone showed except one guy—33 of the 34 surfers." Kelly Slater was there and took his place among the rank and file of the surfers' union. Even though it was Kelly's manager making the play for the ASP and everyone suspected Kelly was more involved than he was letting on, he stayed at arm's length during the negotiations, and continues to do so today, describing his silence as "pleading the Fifth."
"He's tried to stay out of it," says Perrow. "He's passionate about it and can see why it works and talked through the whole proposal, but he's smart enough to know he doesn't want it to seem like he's pushing a personal agenda."
The October 2012 ASP board meeting was held in the boardroom of the stately Quiksilver Boardriders House in the old quarter of Hossegor, an oversized image of Kelly looking on down from the wall like a portrait from a Poe story (read whatever symbolism into it you like, but the eyes followed everyone in the room). The vote was a fait accompli. Most of the debate had already taken place during heated one-on-ones in the months prior. The ZoSea proposal was voted on and passed as a matter of business, the final vote 8 to 2. The term sheet was signed and that was it; after 30 years pro surfing had a new owner.
"There'd been so much buildup to it and so much tension and there were so many last-minute meetings that when the vote actually happened it was almost an anti-climax," says Perrow of the meeting. For those on the board, some with lifetimes devoted to pro surfing, it was a melancholic moment. "I'd been on the board for 30 years," says Rarick, "and I thought, wow, I'd been to the first board meeting and here I was at the last. We looked around the room and went, shit, it's over. There was a bittersweet nostalgia to it you could say, but we toasted to a new future, a new chapter, a new page. The old ASP is gone and it's time to move on."
The deal was announced publicly on October 5 through a short press statement that said nothing meaningful and left plenty open for interpretation. If this was indeed the exciting future of surfing, why wasn't it being screamed from the rooftops? "These guys needed to get the word out," states Rarick. "They were being so quiet about it, and all it's doing is firing speculation and a bunch of bullshit. I told Paul Speaker, I said, 'Paul, all you've got to say is that there will be no major announcements for six months, and that itself would have been an announcement."
Speaker, however, hit the ground running. "One side of me was exhausted and one side of me was absolutely delighted that we were able to get this closed," he recalls. "Within 24 hours the excitement turned into a to-do list and we were off to the races. It was a short-lived celebration, then it was a series of meetings about how we were best going to set up 2014." He began a whistle-stop tour of the events, negotiating licenses, taking an inventory on what exactly it was they now owned, how they could package it up next year, and who they could get to buy it.
SURFER finally managed to interview Paul Speaker in March, by which stage Speaker had been appointed CEO of the "new" ASP. Kieren Perrow was appointed interim Tour "Commissioner," a role that seemed to have been custom built for Kelly once he retires from competing. The old ASP board had been disbanded but a new board was yet to be appointed. The interview, Speaker's first direct engagement with the media, was a conference call with several other media organizations and seemed more a presentation—half the call was taken up with a prepared statement. It was slick, there were a lot of marketing buzzwords thrown around, and a dollar for every time "moving forward" was used could have bought the ASP back off Ian Cairns.
But it was a sign of the times and very different to an interview I'd done with former ASP CEO Rabbit Bartholomew, circa 2005 at the height of the Dream Tour, when he grabbed me around the neck, started punching his heart, and crying tears of joy about a wave he'd seen Kelly ride in Tahiti and how beautiful it was. Speaker, from the little we've seen of him, will make up in energy and business smarts what he lacks in world titles. "I am so enthusiastic and thrilled we have this chance," he says. "It's a joyful time, man. Really, incredibly cool."
So what can we expect in 2014? Well, we know Dane won't be there, but beyond that two things are becoming clear. The first is that this will be a sport. A mainstream sport. Speaker's NFL background almost pre-ordained that the new Tour would be framed as "the game." "For the first time we're able to approach this league as a global centralized sports league," he says, "and it's essential for us that those who are already engaged with us, and those who are invited in, see it as one of the premier global sports in the world." And secondly, unlike the former ASP, this incarnation will be a business. It won't be a ratings calculator, it won't be a marketing campaign for another business. It will be a business in its own right. "Centralized broadcast, centralized management, centralized sponsorship," as Speaker renders it down. The Women's Tour, for so long a year-to-year proposition, may also be a big winner of the new deal. Speaker has four daughters who are surf fans and he can see the potential. "There are way more brands that target women than men, and I don't know if we've done a good job of getting this sport in front of them and demonstrating how powerful this sport could be." “We’ll make sure the broadcast is best of class and the interaction with fans is best of class and we’ll never sacrifice any of that for bad waves.” —CEO Paul Speaker
But for mainstream dollars to be tapped there needs to be a mainstream audience, and amid the conjecture, how the new Tour will be broadcast seems to be the center of most interest. While there is no network deal on the table as yet, Speaker ruled out pay-per-view as an option in the broadcasting mix, hinting that convergence technologies will be the driver. "It's a really exciting time for surfing as technology is catching up to how people watch surfing. The world has changed and fundamentally 'broadcast' and 'webcast' are words used for yesterday, not tomorrow. When we talk about broadcast partners we consider online, digital, linear television, and multi-platform distribution as the one thing. We have consumers interacting with us in a manner that's different to any other sport and we have to recognize that." Although not mentioned in the interview, Paul has been overheard using the line, "broadcast, not bro-cast" hinting at who you might (and might not) hear announcing heats next year.
The other hot-button topic surrounding 2014 and beyond is whether taking surfing mainstream will see the Tour back on city beaches, in shitty surf. So far, no one has got rich holding surf contests in the tropics. "The product itself will revolve around the best surfers and the best waves," says Speaker using a familiar catchphrase, "and that's the Commissioner's part of it. We'll make sure the broadcast is best of class and the interaction with fans is best of class and we'll never sacrifice any of that for bad waves."
The current Commissioner, Kieren Perrow, is confident. "They get it. They need a mix of good, rippable surf like Trestles, then they need to get scared out of their minds at 12-foot Pipe. They've seen how it works. No one will watch 10 Huntingtons." The Commissioner's office will be the "keeper of the flame" and look after the sport—the waves, the rules, an "international best practice" drug-testing regime—while ZoSea will take care of the business. "There's always a concern in a sport that business becomes more paramount than integrity," states Speaker, "and we put those checks and balances in the Office of the ASP Commissioner. We've spent a tremendous amount of time with members of the old ASP—surfers, brands, founders—to ensure the integrity of surfing was protected." As to where the balance of power really sits between ZoSea and its Commissioner, we'll find that out on the next 20-foot day at Cloudbreak.
The $64,000 question—although it'll be closer to $64 million by the time we find out the answer—is will this whole thing work? And what happens if it doesn't? For so long the ASP has been without the resources or a real mandate to go forth and grow surfing outside of surfing itself. But now that it's free to chase those dollars, we'll find out for sure if those clams are actually out there. Having Nike, the world's biggest sports marketing company, retreat from surfing a month after the new deal was inked doesn't exactly instill confidence. But ask yourself, when was the last time you complained of too few people in the surf? Surfing seems to be booming seemingly everywhere except on the majority of surf industry balance sheets. And ZoSea's strategy might just sidestep the whole thing and look for a bigger pie altogether. Paul Speaker has a favorite statistic he's been rolling out from his time at the NFL, and it's that 97 percent of people who watch the NFL have never played a game of football in their lives.
Whether ZoSea succeeds may also depend on how big their war chest is. Their backer is reportedly Floridian billionaire, Dirk Ziff. His involvement to date has been as a (very) silent partner, although his skin in the game is reported to be somewhere between $20 and $30 million, chump change when your net worth is $4.4 billion. His motives for diving into pro surfing are also unknown. SURFER inquired about Ziff's connection to ZoSea (and Ziff's connection to the actual sea), but ZoSea was unable to offer a confirmation or denial or any background information. The interesting parallel here of course is Greville Mitchell and the "old" ASP. The avuncular multi-millionaire from the island of Guernsey was pro surfing's unlikely savior in the early 2000s, bailing out the ASP on more than one occasion. (In fact, the surfers themselves bailed the ASP out in 2002, with many only being repaid earlier this year.) And it wasn't that Mitchell was a red-hot surfer—he didn't surf at all—but his connections and friendships with the surfers themselves were strong and he contributed to pro surfing as a philanthropist, not an investor. The nature of Ziff's connection to surfing, if there is one, might dictate whether he's investing with his head or his heart, and it might ultimately decide the fate of the new Tour.
The other gentleman holding the fate of the "new World Tour" in his hands is someone a little more familiar to you than Dirk Ziff. In many places around the world Kelly Slater is pro surfing. In other places he's even bigger than pro surfing, and you get the feeling the new Tour might live or die by his engagement. Kelly has kept his cards close to his chest up until now, and all he's done is offer tacit approval and raise his hand at a meeting in France. But Kelly has long championed the notion of surfing as a mainstream sport and, reading between the lines, the fact that he's come out at the start of this season and committed to doing the whole tour (the first time he's done so in many years) tells you he's staying in the game with an eye to 2014. And the new Tour will need him. With the power base of pro surfing shifting back once again from Australia to California, Kelly will be crucial in winning over a market where the dominant paradigm places emphasis on looking cool rather than lifting trophies. Maybe someone from ZoSea also needs to call Dane.
"Will it work?" ponders Randy Rarick. "I have a big question mark on this. I don't want to see these guys fail; I love pro surfing. They just haven't shown enough cards for me to know for sure. But I hope they're successful. They're smart enough guys to be able to monetize it for themselves. Whether they can put enough back into the sport to keep it growing remains to be seen. But I'm cautiously optimistic. They're rolling the dice and for their sake, and all our sake, I hope they come up a winner because that will be good for surfing. We'll see in three years. The guy who's bankrolling them will blow $25 million in three years and if they can find a way to monetize it in that time, great, but if they don't they'll hand it back to whatever shell of the ASP is left at that time and say, 'Good luck.'" I put it to Rarick that it might go full circle and the IPS might get the rights back. "Well, I'll be here sitting at my kitchen table if that happens. But I'm not paying 25 grand."It’s best to remember that you are only passing through, that you are a guest here: a 10-car conga line of lollipop-colored, wings-and-spoilers, hiss-crackle-and-pop dream machines, showing up unannounced at the gas stations and convenience stores of deeply rural Kentucky and Tennessee. You come to expect the instant appearance of smartphones in careworn cases, snapping for social media, even when upload speeds can seem slower than the sun’s unhurried march across the summer sky.
These are places where a late-model pickup truck might be a statement of success, and you’re driving a six-figure supercar. There will be questions. So you happily answer them. You put the Little Leaguers behind the wheel of the Lambo and the McLaren and the Alfa one at a time. You listen to stories about Terminator Cobras. You engage in nostalgic tales of Hemi Darts and dimly remembered drag races flagged from the town square in the moonlight of a distant past. Most of all, you stay polite and friendly. You’re a guest here. Just passing through.
DW Burnett & Richard Pardon
How could it be otherwise, in states where the very roads and buildings feel itinerant, where the natural rise and fall of the land remains almost entirely unconquered by the developer’s bulldozer or the engineer’s dynamite? Five minutes after you leave that gas station, you’re swallowed into deep forests, blind corners, roller-coaster descents terminating in wicked, decreasing-radius bends. They say that New York reaches 200 feet into the bedrock of Manhattan, but in Kentucky and Tennessee, the veneer of civilization is no deeper than the lightly laid asphalt connecting hill to holler and back again.
Road & Track staffers come here year after year, from as far as London and Seattle, in order to forget. Forget the glitzy new-car introductions and the deep pile of the showroom carpet, forget the hype and the profit and loss. Here we read the Braille intent of nature through fingertips on the wheel. Here is where excellence shines and unpleasant artifice is exposed to ridicule, first gentle then earnest in long discussions over park benches and local barbecue tables. Our mission is simple: choose the car that impresses, surprises, excites, delights. Then come back from the hills and tell the story. And that’s what you will find in the pages to follow: From 10 cars, we chose first four, then one, and that one is our Performance Car of the Year for 2018. Come along and be our guest.
DW Burnett
THE CONTENDERS
Welcome to the fifth year of PCOTY. As in the past, competitors must be new or significantly revised for 2017, and they must be series-production cars that push the limits of performance and pleasure on both road and track. That means no crossovers and no track-only specials. In all cases, we request the purest possible expression of enthusiasm in any given platform, which is why we have the Civic Type R instead of the outstanding Civic Si. It’s also why the Camaro on hand wears dive planes to complete its two high-performance badges—ZL1 and 1LE.
Although we invite every car that fits our criteria, some manufacturers are unable to meet our scheduling requirements, while others dislike the prospect of exposing their products to our unsupervised and unblinking evaluation. This year, we had 10 contenders answer the bell. The field was incredibly diverse, so we decided to start by giving each car a chance to compete directly with its closest neighbors, both in terms of intent and execution. Therefore, the contenders were divided into four brackets.
Richard Pardon
The Lamborghini Huracán Performante, fortified with additional power from its naturally (and defiantly) aspirated V-10 to complement what is arguably the most innovative active-aero package in production-car history, faces off against the captivating and enigmatic new McLaren 720S for our Supercars crown. In the Grand Tourers category, Bentley’s W-12 Continental Supersports will play the bespoke beast to the Lexus LC 500’s cyberpunk aristocrat. Porsche already won PCOTY with the 991-generation GT3 in 2015, but the cognoscenti-pleasing new option of a six-speed manual transmission makes it a natural fit for Track Stars competition, where it will reprise its Ring rivalry with the brutish Mercedes-AMG GT R and Chevrolet’s Amtrak-like ZL1 1LE. But first up, we have the Wild Cards: The Type R will play the plucky underdog in a cage match with Audi’s wicked-quick TT RS and Alfa Romeo’s unashamedly operatic Giulia Quadrifoglio.
After two days on the road and two days at NCM Motorsports Park, our jury of editors selected a winner for each category. A second round of voting chose the Performance Car of the Year from that final four. It’s not about raw lap times, and it’s not about |
—The night before I left for Evolution 2013, I mentioned to a few friends that I wasn't going to be around for the weekend because I was heading to a big Street Fighter tournament. I'm used to having to explain that a bit: yes, people still play Street Fighter and other fighting games. Yes, people travel from all across the world to compete. And, yes, this is basically the Olympics for fighting games. Before I could launch into my spiel, one of my friends responded:
"Oh, you're going to Evo. Hey, how about that Infiltration, right? Could you believe he beat Daigo?"
He paused and looked a little sheepish. Almost apologetically, my friend looked at the other guy in the room—a 40-year-old man who came to the gym with his kids—and said, "Yeah, we're all nerding out over here."
The older man looked back. "Naw, I play Street Fighter X Tekken online with my son."
I first started attending Evolution (though everyone just calls it Evo these days) in 2003, fresh out of high school, back when it was held in the main ballroom at Cal Poly Pomona. To the best of my memory, attendance that year barely broke 1,000 people total. That felt big back during the peak of Capcom vs. SNK 2 and the nascent Street Fighter III: Third Strike revival, which would soon be fueled by the infamous Evo Moment #37 (video below).
But this year saw more than 3,500 competitors and thousands of spectators packed wall-to-wall in a pair of massive Las Vegas ballrooms. The place was overflowing with people playing just about every fighting game you've ever heard of (and many that you haven't). It felt like bearing witness to a movement. For one golden weekend, practically everyone walking around Bally's and the Paris was wearing Street Fighter shirts, carrying 10-pound arcade sticks, swapping tips, and talking about who we like to win it all this year.
Welcome to Evo, 2013.
Day 1: Enjoy your complimentary butt-kicking
My first day at Evo got off to a rough start. I drove from Oakland to a friend's house in Las Vegas, and my poor car broke down about two miles from my destination. After troubleshooting and a tow, I didn't get to sleep until 4am and was up three hours later to catch the mechanic as he opened the doors. But there's no time to be tired at Evo—especially when your Street Fighter IV (SF4) pool starts at 10am—so I made it down to Bally's in a borrowed Prius (thanks, Manya!). I got there just in time to see... oh my God, this line (right).
Get excited, everybody. At this point, I was lucky enough to catch the eye of long-time fighting game community organizers Tom "inkblot" Cannon and Seth "s-kill" Killian. They kindly handed me my competitor's pass and sent me on my way to my SF4 pool.
Now, SF4 isn't my main game. I'm a Marvel vs. Capcom devotee. But I figured I should enter the “main event” anyway. My first opponent was an El Fuerte player named Jose "GordoRlz" Moreno who came all the way from Mexico. He absolutely destroyed my Ryu with non-stop mix-ups that I simply couldn't deal with. I was sent packing into the loser's bracket after two games. As I unplugged my arcade stick, one of his friends came up to me, said, "With love, from Mexico," and gave me some candy.
Thanks, guy.
Next up was an E. Honda player named Joon "Jdok" Dokgo. He was a younger guy, and this was his first time at Evo. Ryu is a tough matchup for E. Honda since a smart Ryu player can dictate the pace of the match with fireballs to slow Honda down and chip away at his life—which is exactly what I did. In the end, he succumbed to tournament nerves (I threw him four times in a row). I put him away. After the match, he grudgingly shook my hand, frustration clear on his face. After a few minutes, he opened up a bit. "Sorry," he said. "I got salty."
No problem, Jdok. Welcome to Evo.
Sadly, I was the next player to go. An Oni Akuma player named Chris "Chrisz" Zelenka took me out fairly easily. Still, I managed to win a single match. Considering I don't play SF4 very seriously, I wasn't terribly disappointed with my performance. And since I wasn't due to compete in anything else until Marvel vs. Capcom the next day, I decided to check out some indie games.
Fighting gamers, an untapped resource
Evo isn't just about fighting games anymore. Capy Games President Nathan Vella (Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery, Super Time Force) and Seth Killian collaborated in 2012 and 2013 to set up an official indie showcase where independent game developers can show off their works-in-progress to Evo attendees. Games in the showcase are selected with an eye towards deeply competitive gameplay, a satisfying feel, and (mostly) local multiplayer, all of which are game design virtues that the fighting game community has kept alive since the days of arcade Street Fighter II.
At this year's showcase, Aztez drew a lot of passer-by interest, in part due to the really bold black/white/red visual motif and in part due to the fact that the developers were demoing it with an Oculus Rift dev kit. Samurai Gunn got a lot of love because it was so easy to pick up and play, and the idea of a multiplayer dueling platformer was easy for people to immediately pick up on. And Spy Party returned from last year's showcase with a very large group of players—no doubt because creator Chris Hecker was excitedly explaining to anyone who would listen how to play the game.
Evo isn't just another trade show for these developers. They bring their games for publicity and free, high-quality playtesting. The average Evo attendee has an unrivaled ability to quickly learn a new game and suss out the easiest path to victory. I was chatting with Noah Sasso, creator of BaraBariBall, and he kept noting that many of the newcomer players we watched looked like they were due to put on a good show at Saturday's BaraBariBall tournament. TowerFall creator Matthew Thorson concurred: "Evo is different. People who played TowerFall at E3 weren't as good, and you kind of have to pretend to be bad when you're showing them how to play."
The showcase was accompanied by a panel talk, too. Vella joined Chris Hecker (Spy Party), Beau Blyth (Samurai Gunn), and TowerFall's Thorson for an entry-level discussion on breaking into indie game development. It's not a bad fit for a place like Evo. After all, the way a fighting game player methodically dissects a game is not so dissimilar from the theoretical work a game developer does to build a game and make it balanced and fun.
So how do you start? "Just start making stuff," said Blyth. "I thought of Samurai Gunn when I was at a party watching The Room one too many times." Which programming language should you learn first? "It doesn't really matter," Thorson said. "Use GameMaker."
Should I quit my job to go indie? "Make your mistakes on someone else's dime," Hecker said. The crowd nodded along, dutifully taking notes. Maybe I'll see some of them presenting at next year's showcase.
Closing out with quarterfinals
The first day at Evo closed out with tournament finals for two of the smaller games (Mortal Kombat 9 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2). But for most people, all eyes were on the Street Fighter IV quarterfinals. The top two players from each qualifying pool fought each other until only eight players remained to fight for the title on Day 3. The culling process typically takes at least three or four hours, and the excitement in the hall only grew until the main screen had everyone's undivided attention. After a certain point, the hall hype passed the threshold of no return. The crowd reacted to every excellent play with a rippling ooooh and ahhhh that you can't help but take part in. It's an amazing feeling, and it's why I come back every year.
The first day's SF4 competition had plenty of amazing matches. A Japanese player named Haitani came out swinging with Makoto. This is a fairly unpopular tournament character pick, but Haitani managed to pull off several upsets with excellent reads and unrelenting aggression. Drama only grew as Japan's Street Fighter legend Daigo "The Beast" Umehara took an early loss to Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi, another longtime Japanese player with a storied Evo history.
Then, Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez sent last year's dominant SF4 champion Sun Woo "Infiltration" Lee to the losers bracket in an unthinkable upset. Infiltration went on to meet longtime friend and training partner Ryan "Laugh" Ahn in the loser's bracket, eventually knocking Laugh out of the tournament. Afterward, neither player was willing to make the customary post-game handshake—they wouldn't even make eye contact with the other. The crowd didn't seem to know what to make of it.
But my favorite moment from Evo Day 1 was much smaller. Two drunken game devs off to the side were commenting on American veteran Alex "CaliPower" Valle's advancement into the semifinals in between sips of some awful-looking margarita-in-a-can:
"It's so great that he's gotten this far," one said.
"Why?” the other said. “Because he's old? Are you saying old men can't play Street Fighter?" (Valle's age is a bit of a running joke in the Street Fighter community, even though he's only pushing 35).
They continued for a while. "Do you know why it's important?"
"I know. Do you?"
It reminded me of the endless days I had spent as a kid watching Spring Training baseball in the Arizona heat, overhearing a dozen similarly dumb boozy chats while wishing I was somewhere else. We've made it, I thought to myself. Street Fighter has made it.
I headed back home shortly afterwards. Had I been staying in the tournament hotel, I might have mustered up the energy to try to find the “Salty Suite”—an after-hours unofficial hotspot for top players and up-and-comers looking to challenge top players to high-stakes money matches. But the day's events left me drained. I repaired back to my friend's house for a sandwich and some sleep."Before that it's just swimming endlessly and having no aim, no way to cope." The 38-year-old Sydney massage therapist sitting across the road from the Downing Centre District Court is HIV-positive, a diagnosis which entitles her to anonymity under NSW law. Ten years ago she was infected by a man - Chris Muronzi - who knew he was carrying the disease but maliciously decided to have unprotected sex with her on six separate occasions. Thanks to an appalling conspiracy of circumstances, including the negligence of doctors at an eastern suburbs medical clinic where she went to get tested, the woman then accidentally passed the disease to her new partner before she was diagnosed. She has just come from the courtroom where Muronzi, a 42-year-old Australian of Zimbabwean descent, appeared in a brief sentencing hearing on the charge of maliciously inflicting grevious bodily harm, a charge which carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence.
She has agreed to speak publicly about her experience for the first time in order to encourage people to take better care of their own wellbeing - both those who have the disease and those who do not. "I met him at an event where a friend of mine was modelling her jewellery," the woman says of her first encounter with Muronzi as a vulnerable 27-year-old. "I was a struggling make-up artist at the time. I was actually rejected [for a job] that night. I was told that I wasn't required or needed. I'd also recently finished a significant relationship.... I wanted to have a really nice time with someone. Maybe I thought, here we go, we'll start a fresh with something different." Though Muronzi was not into using protection, their initial sexual encounters were safe ones. "It was a few months into it that I put my guard down," she says.
"I'd seen him more often and I'd seen him for a few months already." The woman had no idea that her lover had been diagnosed with HIV eight years before in 1995 and had been receiving treatment and advice from a Sydney doctor for all of that time. This included advice on managing his condition and his legal responsibility to disclose his HIV status to any sexual partners. He never gave even the vaguest hint to the woman that he had the disease, even when she rang and told him years later about her own diagnosis. It took a court-ordered blood test for the truth to come out.
The woman's discovery of her own condition was even more convoluted and painful. Her decision to get tested stemmed, simply enough, from a general discussion with her new partner about the attitude of Australian women towards safe sex. "It was a conversation bordering on an argument," she says. "He was commenting on Aussie women being a bit blasé about protected sex. He was generalising about it so we had an argument. I said, would you like me to have a test? Would it make you feel safer and better? So that's when I went ahead with the test." In March 2004 she went to the Bondi Junction Medical and Dental Centre.
The result was inconclusive but the recall letter for urgent retesting was sent to her old address, which she had given on visit to the medical centre in 1999. When the woman returned three weeks later, she saw a different doctor who called up her records on his computer. He did not read a note made by the centre's medical director, Dr Harry Johnson, that she needed a repeat blood test, and gave her the all-clear for HIV. About a week later she had unprotected sex with her new partner and infected him with the disease. It was not until June 3 of that year that Dr Johnson tracked her down and she was told of the need for another test, which confirmed the diagnosis of HIV.
"What the f---? those were the exact words that came into my mind," she recalls. "My jaw just dropped... I couldn't deal with that reality. I was walking around in a daze. "I felt completely responsible at the time for him and for the impact it would have on him. It just devastated me, it was one of the worst days of my life. Inadvertently causing someone complete harm. Not knowing how to cope with that. I had never really had to think about that." Even harder, she recalls, was having to tell her partner. "I said, 'I don't have good news to tell you'.
"Just the simple possibility of him being negative was the hope as clinging on to. A few months passed before he go the courage to test himself. And it was positive." The man subsequently sued the Bondi Medical Centre and two of its doctors. The doctors admitted liability in 2009 and agreed to pay him $745,000 plus $197,500 in court costs. The company which owns the medical centre was ordered to pay him $300,000 in compensation two years later. The woman gave evidence during the court proceedings, devoting a huge amount of her time and energy to do what she could for him. But not long after her own health took a turn. She came down with Pneumocystis pneumonia, which forced her into hospital for the next six weeks. In hospital she suffered an allergic reaction to medications and near constant insomnia.
As well as being horrific, the experience was, in the woman's words "a dose of reality". She began taking anti-retroviral medications which she had previously avoided. She also decided to go to the police with her now overwhelming suspicion that Muronzi was responsible. "I realised that I had to go through the process... I had to stop this happening to anyone else, first and foremost, but I also needed to do this for myself. I think going through the process was maybe my last attempt at gathering some information to help me let go." A blood test proved that Murzoni was responsible, and soon after he pleaded guilty, which entitles him to a 25 per cent discount on sentence when judge Penelope Hock hands down her decision in November.
The woman wants to see justice done, but she has a much stronger desire to move on and help others do the same. "If it doesn't feel right, don't go there," is her advice to others about sex, but also life more generally. And for those who do contract the disease: "Act soon for yourself. support yourself first because you're number one in this. Care for yourself." Muronzi will be sentenced on November 25.Image copyright John Innes Centre Image caption A close relative of tobacco has been turned into a polio vaccine "factory"
Plants have been "hijacked" to make polio vaccine in a breakthrough with the potential to transform vaccine manufacture, say scientists.
The team at the John Innes Centre, in Norfolk, says the process is cheap, easy and quick.
As well as helping eliminate polio, the scientists believe their approach could help the world react to unexpected threats such as Zika virus or Ebola.
Experts said the achievement was both impressive and important.
The vaccine is an "authentic mimic" of poliovirus called a virus-like particle.
Outwardly it looks almost identical to poliovirus but - like the difference between a mannequin and person - it is empty on the inside.
It has all the features needed to train the immune system, but none of the weapons to cause an infection.
Leafy factory
The scientists hijacked a relative of the tobacco plant's metabolism to turn its leaves into polio-vaccine "factories".
First, they needed to create new instructions for the plant to follow.
The starting material was the genetic code for making the outer surface of poliovirus.
It was enhanced by combining it with material from viruses that naturally infect plants.
The new instructions were then put into soil bacteria, which were used to infect tobacco.
The infection took hold, the plants read the genetic instructions and started making the virus-like particles.
Infected leaves were mixed with water, blended, and the polio vaccine was extracted.
The virus-like particles prevented polio in animal experiments, and an analysis of their 3D structure showed they looked almost identical to poliovirus.
Image copyright Diamond Life Source Image caption An image of the virus-like particle, made by Diamond Light Source's electron bio-imaging centre
Prof George Lomonossoff, from the John Innes Centre, told the BBC News website: "They are incredibly good mimics.
"It's a very promising technology,
"I would hope we get vaccines produced in plants in the not too distant future."
The research is funded by the World Health Organization, as part of efforts to find replacements for the polio vaccine.
Polio - which can cause permanent paralysis - is a thing of the past for most of the world, but the infection has not been eradicated.
And using weakened poliovirus in current vaccines poses a risk of the virus regaining some of its dangerous traits - called vaccine-derived poliovirus.
Dr Andrew Macadam, principal scientist at the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said: "Current vaccines for polio are produced from large amounts of live virus, which carries a threat of accidental escape and re-introduction.
"This study takes us a step closer to replacing current polio vaccines, providing us with a cheap and viable option for making virus-like particle-based vaccines."
Great potential
But this technology is not limited to polio or even just to vaccines.
As long as researchers have the right sequence of genetic code, they can make a vaccine against most viruses.
And they have also used plants to make antibodies like those being used in cancer therapy.
Plants are also being investigated as a new source for the winter flu jab.
Currently, it is grown in chicken eggs and takes months to develop.
Prof Lomonossoff told the BBC: "In an experiment with a Canadian company, they showed you could actually identify a new strain of virus and produce a candidate vaccine in three to four weeks.
"It has potential for making vaccines against emerging epidemics, of course recently we had Zika and prior to that we had Ebola.
"It's highly responsive, and that's one of the great attractions of the technology."
The plants have the advantage of growing quickly and needing only sunlight, soil, water and carbon dioxide to grow.
It means it could be a cheap and low-tech solution to vaccine development.
But there are still issues to resolve, including making vaccine on a large scale.
Another issue is whether there is any risk from using plants to make the vaccine - does the tobacco-relative mean there is nicotine in the vaccine?
Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay, a lecturer in vaccine development at University College London, said: "The initial results look impressive.
"However, there are very few plant-based vaccine manufacturers and almost no licensed human vaccines that are currently produced in plants."
Denis Murphy, a professor of biotechnology at the University of South Wales, said: "This is an important achievement.
"The challenge is now to optimise the plant expression system and to move towards clinical trials of the new vaccine."
Follow James on Twitter.Don't bother Adele with questions about her weight. She has Grammys to win.
The British pop star covers the new issue of Rolling Stone, opening up about both her music and all the questions about her weight. She also talks about her difficulty performing in front of audiences.
"I'm scared of audiences," she tells the magazine. "One show in Amsterdam I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit. I've thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels I projectile vomited on someone. I just gotta bear it. But I don't like touring. I have anxiety attacks a lot."
She probably shouldn't worry; her record, 21, is set to retake the number one slot in the charts, pushing Britney Spears' Femme Fatale down to second.
As for her weight, to her, it is a non-issue.
"My life is full of drama and I won't have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like," she tells the magazine. "I don't like going to the gym. I like eating fine foods and drinking nice wine. Even if I had a really good figure, I don't think I'd get my tits and ass out for no one."
Not that she minds if other stars show some skin.
"I love seeing Lady Gaga's boobs and bum," she says. "I love seeing Katy Perry's boobs and bum. Love it. But that's not what my music is about. I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears."
For more, click over to Rolling Stone.Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press
EDMONTON -- Federal New Democrats spurned the pleas of their Alberta brethren and signalled a desire to shift their party back to the left Sunday by agreeing to explore the merits of a manifesto that calls for more drastic action to combat climate change.
Adoption of the principles of the Leap Manifesto came just hours before delegates to the NDP's national convention voted to replace leader Tom Mulcair, who led the party to a disappointing third-place finish in last fall's election on a moderate, centrist platform.
The manifesto advocates a swift end to the use of fossil fuels, including a moratorium on new infrastructure projects such as pipelines that perpetuate reliance on the non-renewable resources that contribute to climate change.
Spearheaded by documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis and his wife, anti-capitalism activist and author Naomi Klein, it declares Canada's record on climate change thus far to be "a crime against humanity's future." And it calls for "energy democracy" in which communities collectively control future renewable energy sources, rather than "profit-gouging" corporations.
On Saturday, Alberta's NDP premier, Rachel Notley, pleaded with New Democrats to understand that thousands of families in her province depend on natural resources for their living, and need a pipeline and support for the oil and gas sector to maintain their quality of life -- even while working to improve the environment.
The resolution adopted Sunday was watered down somewhat in an apparent bid to soften the blow to the party in Alberta.
It recognizes the manifesto as "a high-level statement of principles that speaks to the aspirations, history and values of the party." But it also stipulates that specific policies advocated in the manifesto "can and should be debated and modified on their own merits and according to the needs of various communities and all parts of Canada."
Grassroots New Democrats are to debate the policies that will flow from the manifesto as part of the run-up to the party's next policy convention in 2018.
Lewis stressed on the floor of the convention Sunday that the manifesto is not designed to be inconsiderate of those who work in the oil and gas industry.
"We recognize the pain and wrenching anxiety of tens of thousands of families in this great province of Alberta who are hurting because Big Oil wanted their labour in the boom and then bailed on them in the bust, which is precisely why the Leap Manifesto calls for training and resources for fossil-fuel workers," he said.
"In fact, it insists that a transition to a clean-energy economy must be led by a democratic participation of the workers themselves."
But Gill McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, spoke against the resolution. While he was reluctant to oppose it, he said the manifesto could be turned into a dangerous political symbol that could be used by opponents in the province.
"When I first read the Leap Manifesto, I was excited because it reflected a lot of the things that I've been thinking about in terms of policy and politics," he said. "However, in politics, sometimes things become symbols and not policy and I'm afraid that's what is happening with the Leap document."
Indeed, just moments after delegates passed the resolution, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean took to Twitter to mock Notley's inability to persuade her own party on the need for pipelines.
"Premier Notley fails to get'social license' for pipelines -- from the.NDP," he tweeted. "Disappointing."
Among other things, the manifesto calls for:Project Zomboid has been shambling onwards in the public eye for nigh on four years now. Bits of it have fallen off in the process, but the game’s been sustained the whole time by an otherworldly undead force: the sheer strength of its central survival pitch.
The Indie Stone are now implementing endgame features like vehicles, stealth and NPCs – and shooting for a finished game in the first few months of 2015.
“We’re starting to plan out our final march toward 1.0, which we’re hoping will be within the late first quarter of 2015, possibly creeping into Q2,” blogged the devs. “However that’s not an ETA because you know what dark alleyways ETAs lead us down!”
The march begins with a trumpeting of Zomboid features yet to come.
Stealth-peeking, fence-creeping and shooting around corners will “shake up the looting game significantly”, and vehicles will render the journey between West Point and Muldraugh both shorter and squishier – provided you have a mechanic and enough siphoned petrol.
News on the radio and kids’ shows on the telly will provide crafting tips, as well as a new means of keeping your character from madness. And NPCs will finally be pushed out in a not-too-distant update.
“Yes they are being worked on,” said The Indie Stone. “They are always being worked on. We know. We know!”
Finally, the devs are working to overhaul their UI with the help of an outsourced team who “made a phenomenal UI for another game”. Joypad and split-screen players in particularly are going to be served better in the months leading up to 1.0.
“There are obviously many other things we want to do with the game, and as we’ve said before no one should panic that 1.0 means the end,” wrote The Indie Stone. “As long as PZ makes enough money to keep the devs stocked up in fish pies (i.e. makes enough money to pay for development) we’ll try and keep the train going as long as possible.”
Our Fraser recommended we buy into Project Zomboid in early access over a year ago. Perhaps there’s a forgotten three-year-old Paypal transaction with your name on it?Scientists and environmentalists are warning that Russia's Siberian forests, hit with a severe drought this summer, are increasingly being consumed by wildfires that are consistently underestimated by the government.
Greenpeace told the French news agency AFP on September 27 that the fires have destroyed 2 million hectares of Siberian forest, and it blamed the problem on global warming.
Russia's federal forestries agency has conceded it is battling a major wildfire problem this year but estimates that only 125,000 hectares of land have been affected.
But Greenpeace Russia spokesman Aleksei Yaroshenko warned of "an unprecedented catastrophe in Siberia," which he blamed in part on "the ineffectiveness of the authorities."
He told AFP that the fires peaked last week around the Siberian cities of Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk near Lake Baikal, where nearly 5 million people live, and that some schools had to be closed because of the thick smoke covering the area.
Since then, much-needed rain has shrunk the affected area but "around 900,000 hectares are still on fire today," he said.
On September 25, Russia's minister of emergency situations, Vladimir Puchkov, called for additional measures to protect residents in the affected areas and said authorities have not been able to fully gauge the extent of the fire damage because satellite surveillance has been hampered by a huge cloud of smoke.
Photos take by NASA satellites this summer showed a swath of smoke covering much of Siberia and stretching from the border with Kazakhstan to Mongolia.
Experts claim that such images show that the fires are 10 times more widespread than acknowledged by the Russian government.
“If you look at the whole area over the past 30 years, there’s a significant increase in burned area that is very clear by the early 2000s,” Susan Conrad, a former U.S. Forest Service scientist who has spent decades researching the impact of fire on Siberia, told ClimateWire.
Conrad and a group of Russian, Canadian, and American colleagues have tracked the incidence of “big fires,” or those about 2,000 hectares in size or larger, since 1979. They’ve found a sharp uptick.
Fires are a natural event in wild forests and affect other countries such as Canada and the United States, as well. They destroy huge areas in Russia each summer, usually in the eastern region of Siberia, leaving poorly funded government agencies struggling to contain them.
But Greenpeace wildfire prevention expert Grigory Kuksin told the Siberian Times that the government could do more to get the fires under control.
"Everywhere it's the same scenario, where a small fire is ignored and then goes out of control," he said. "If they start reacting on time to small fires, everything will be OK."
Aleksandr Bruykhanov, senior researcher at the Forestry Institute in Krasnoyarsk, told the Siberian Times that massive wildfires have become more frequent and cannot be fully controlled by the government. He said they will only be extinguished when rain returns to the region.
"Large wildfires have been happening here every 10 to 30 years, and in the last decades every five to 10 years, because of increased anthropological pressure and global climate change," he said.
"The Emergencies Ministry won't be able to help here but will only cause some extra work for foresters, who will have to rescue rescuers."
With reporting by AFP, Siberian Times, Mashable, and ClimateWireIt hasn't been a good month for the Eastside city of Montebello.
See also: Sen. Ron Calderon Bribed by Undercover Agent, Report Says.
Yesterday Al Jazeera America reported that the FBI is accusing the town's state senator, Ron Calderon, of taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes. And now the husband of Montebello's mayor is being charged with allegedly selling meth... near a school:
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The L.A. County District Attorney's office this week said that 44-year-old Ruben Guerrero, husband of Mayor Christina Cortez, faces six felony counts of selling methamphetamine near a school.
Guerrero was arrested at the home he shares with her honor last week.
See also: Ruben Guerrero, Husband of Montebello's Mayor, Arrested in Meth Case.
The suspect, prosecutors said, succumbed to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Major Crimes Bureau sting operation: According to D.A.'s statement, a criminal complaint...
... alleges Guerrero sold methamphetamine on three separate occasions - Sept. 26, Oct. 2 and Oct. 15. The complaint includes an allegation that the sales took place within 1,000 feet of Montebello Intermediate School.
Oops. Allegedly.
Guerrero was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. Prosecutors say they'll ask for $150,000 bail.
He'll could get 11 years behind bars if he's successfully prosecuted.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.In recent months, US Airways had the worst record for on-time flights and misplaced bags among the major airlines and it piled up the most customer complaints at the Transportation Department.
“How long do you think the airline will be around the way it’s running right now?” a US Airways worker wrote in July.
Many US Airways employee questions are more parochial — about benefits and free travel privileges. But quite a few inquiries reflect the workers’ concerns for customers.
“Who thought it would be a good idea to have pink Pepto-Bismol ads on tray tables talking about diarrhea?” a worker wrote in July. The Pepto ads were replaced in August.
Another employee wondered in October 2006: “Why can we not get better quality snack items for our coach customers? One customer recently compared the generic pretzel nubs we serve to the fish food you buy in a.25 gumball machine at any zoo or park.”
Actually, fish food would appear to be too costly. “We’ve worked with our purchasing team,” management explained, “to bring in many companies to compete on our main cabin tidbit item (pretzels). To date, no one has been able to match our current cost, about 3 cents per package.”
Mr. Parker, at quarterly sessions, answers a mix of questions from workers who have crowded into a meeting room at the Tempe, Ariz., headquarters and those sent by e-mail from around the country. The sessions are videoconferenced companywide.
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Workers who normally answer questions from the media handle the overflow on those occasions, posting answers on an internal Web site and putting some of the exchanges in a weekly newsletter. They often quote prior remarks by Mr. Parker, so much of the grilling is directly addressed to him.
What makes the exchanges unusual in corporate America is that the questions are presented precisely as they were asked, full of attitude and, often, anger.
“Not some sanitized version,” Mr. Parker said in an interview. Employees, he added, “are going to talk about it anyway.”
So, last April, a question came in: “A statement that Doug made in a letter today was ‘Most of our reliability issues were related to a difficult reservations system migration. That project is now back on track...’ NO IT IS NOT, not even close! Could we please use some of the money that we were going to purchase Delta and get a computer system with the capabilities that we require?”
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Another question that day: “I was on an Airbus yesterday that was extremely dirty. The headrests on the blue fabric seats were a grayish brown color. Several seats were ripped. The seat cushions had no cushion left. Are we the 99-cent store airline? How do I take pride in this product?”
Airline mergers may be profitable but, in the short term at least, they are rough on passengers. “The only success so far has been on the financial side,” John McCorkle, a US Airways flight attendant and union officer based in Philadelphia, said in an interview. “It was an absolute disaster for our employees and our customers.”
Mr. Parker said the merger saved two troubled airlines from potential financial ruin and that, over time, service would improve. In the meantime, blunt employee input “keeps management extremely honest,” he said.
Last March, when US Airways combined its two reservations systems into one, it was a mess. Kiosks that dispense about half of the boarding passes did not work properly. Neither did the Web site, where 16 percent of passengers check in. That left ticket counter agents, who normally handle the other third of check-ins, to process nearly 100 percent in some locations. And many of them had not received adequate training on the new system, so they were moving more slowly. It amounted to triple the work for a temporarily less efficient group.
The reservations mess, though in a sanitized way, had been explained to Scott Kirby, the airline’s president. “I certainly knew we had issues,” Mr. Kirby said. “But until I went out and met with employee groups, I didn’t appreciate the problems we were having.”
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Spending a day at the hub in Charlotte, N.C., about one week into the mess “really was an epiphany,” Mr. Kirby said. “I wrote a diatribe on my BlackBerry on my way back to Phoenix.” Because of the reservations problems, just 55.5 percent of US Airways’ March domestic flights got to the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival times, an industry low that month.
Distrust between the sides of the 2005 merger — old US Airways is known among the rank and file as East, America West as West — has in some ways grown worse, not an encouraging sign in an industry contemplating other mergers.
Pilots from the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on merging seniority lists: seniority dictates everything from what kind of plane they fly, to where they fly |
essayist in this country since William Hazlitt, he acquired both an attention to prose style and a literary form that suits him perfectly. Blythe’s writing dwells partly on rural life and wildlife but the interest in the real stuff of nature is deeper and wider in Mabey’s. He is, after all, a lifelong practising botanist.
Mabey has mapped not only the extent of the genre’s territory but also supplied the models for many of the new books. An early work called The Unofficial Countryside (1973, recently reissued by Little Toller) was about those overlooked bastard landscapes that are at once industrial, urban and inhabited by wild plants or animals. The subject has subsequently been revisited by so many others that it is virtually a subgenre under the heading “edgelands”. Rob Cowen’s Common Ground, published in May, is the latest in this field. Mabey’s Flora Britannica (1996) directly supplied the formula for my book Birds Britannica (2005).
Mabey’s memoir Nature Cure (2005) charts his prolonged mental illness and his gradual awakening to nature during a very slow recovery. One can surely spot that book’s DNA in many of the more recent works: H Is for Hawk, Katharine Norbury’s affecting debut, The Fish Ladder, and even The Moth Snowstorm, in which McCarthy links his experience of nature to his mother’s mental breakdown.
Mabey’s entire project could be summarised as a movement along a single axis between culture – land practice or literature, science, the visual arts, sculpture, whatever – and nature. It is metaphorically and actually rooted in a soil of real, living things. Almost every one of the books involves movement between those two poles. In Macfarlane’s work and in so many of the new books, nature and culture have been replaced by landscape and literature. It may seem a relatively small shift in emphasis but one cannot help pondering its significance.
In a sense, the issue is writ largest in William Atkins’s The Moor (2014). It is well written and intelligently observed and had a deserved place on the shortlist of a new award for nature and travel writing, the Thwaites Wainwright Prize. It straddles several older literary boundaries. It is difficult to say if it’s an old-fashioned travel book, a nature work, or a volume of literary criticism. It is probably all three and what is certain is that it typifies the new crop unleashed since Macfarlane’s rise to pre-eminence.
The Moor attempts to explore the cultural purpose and meaning of some of the most forsaken, yet most contested, semi-natural places in Britain. They are the gritstone uplands, dominated by heather, mosses and lichens but also now by sheep and by red grouse. This intermittent column of high ground serves as England’s vertebrae from Cornwall to Cumbria. Yet a striking anomaly about The Moor, which looks more significant in view of the recent widening gulf between north and south, is its billing as a book about British uplands, when Atkins barely crosses the English border. Yet Scotland holds twice as much grouse moorland – two million acres – as England and Wales combined.
In truth, the author is most comfortable tackling the historical and inherited psychological roles of such landscapes as described in the literary works of W H Auden, the Brontës, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath or Henry Williamson. There are, for instance, far more titles in the bibliography concerning the sexual politics of Hughes and Plath than there are about the environmental politics of red grouse and hen harriers.
Wild thing: Robert Macfarlane, the genre’s figurehead, has been criticised for being an “excursionist”. Photo: Colin Hattersley/Writer Pictures
Does that matter? It does if you consider that most moorland exists today to deliver a cash crop of grouse to a super-rich elite who think little of paying between £3,000 and £12,000 per person for a day’s shooting. Just as significant is that you and I, through our taxes, help to subsidise those little luxuries. As a consequence of management that aims to create the maximum possible grouse bag and therefore raise the most money, grouse moor owners have almost extinguished the predatory hen harrier from England and substantially reduced its potential numbers in Scotland.
At present in Britain, perhaps no environmental issue is more heated or more controversial than that of driven grouse moors and hen harrier persecution. It goes to the heart of modern British society because it taps in to that larger social narrative about the rich getting richer and ordinary people having less and less say in the running of their own country.
Atkins is perfectly entitled to define the territory of his literary project. There are no automatic requirements for a work to tackle these issues. Yet one cannot read The Moor without feeling the modern political realities and their urgent, nature-centred questions brewing on the elected boundaries of his book with the force of thunderclouds. Moors, real moors, have multiple meanings that are rooted in the animals and plants that thrive – or don’t thrive – in their churlish, acidic conditions. That is perhaps the crucial difference between a work that seeks to traffic between culture and nature and one that moves from literature to landscape, which is as much an imagined as it is a real place.
One of the central concerns of the new literature is the idea of “re-enchantment”, a diffuse term that seems to mean whatever the author wishes. What it usually involves is clothing a landscape in fine writing, both the writer’s own and that of other historical figures – Emily Brontë, Edward Thomas and Nan Shepherd are good examples – so that the place is infused with fresh cultural meaning. (John Crace’s mischievous “Digested Read” for the Guardian of Macfarlane’s latest book, Landmarks, defines “Macfarlish” as “the process of praising other authors to make your own book better by association”.)
The problem with this formula is that landscapes readily persist when all that makes a place enchanting – the filigree of its natural diversity – has long since vanished. A perfect example is Kinder Scout in Derbyshire. It is among the most iconic moorland places in England, the site of the “mass trespass” of 1932, when the workers of Manchester tried to reclaim England’s countryside for its people. All of the macro-details – the sky, the elements, the contours of the place, with those fantastic gritstone monoliths along its wind-buffeted edge – are intact. What is gone is everything else: the complex vegetation, the living peat substrate, the grouse, the twites and the ring ouzels. A massive, long-term restoration project at Kinder seeks to put back the lost magic.
The main challenge that confronts authors of nature writing in Britain is the one considered in The Moth Snowstorm. How can we produce pastoral narratives when the realities underlying them are so sharply defined and their implications – social, political and cultural – so profound?
Surely it behoves all those who care about these islands’ non-human life to take account of the central story concerning nature in Britain? That narrative speaks of how we are bulldozing our fellow Britons – between 60,000 and 80,000 species of animal and plant – over the cliff into oblivion. We, a supposedly “nature-loving” people, are in danger of creating one of the most denatured countries on the planet. I would suggest that outside the lymphatic system of reserves and national parks, vast areas of England are already there.
All of the environmental organisations know this story but they are struggling to tell it, partly because the news is so bad. Everyone prefers a happy ending. Yet major players such as Mike Clarke, the CEO of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, are quietly, passionately talking of game-changing environmental initiatives. Quite how the game can change is difficult to see, however, without some major reawakening by our political classes to the idea that civilisation is rooted in a genuine and benign transaction with non-human life.
Does this mean that all nature books have to be filled with the grief and pain of loss? Of course not. But they have to navigate – as McCarthy endeavours to do – between joy and anxiety. Nature writers must ponder and engage with these troubling realities. Otherwise, we are just fiddling while the agrochemicals burn.
The real danger is that nature writing becomes a literature of consolation that distracts us from the truth of our fallen countryside, or – just as bad – that it becomes a space for us to talk to ourselves about ourselves, with nature relegated to the background as an attractive green wash. The project of re-enchantment might restore to us a canon of lost writings about the eeriness and mystery of our landscape. Yet, as Emerson warned in his essay “Nature”, what worth is there in words that have no real soil at their roots?
Mark Cocker’s latest book is “Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet” (Jonathan Cape)Harvey Weinstein has been quietly fuming for weeks over the MPAA ratings board, which has slapped two of his company's films with what he considers overly restrictive ratings. "The King's Speech," a leading best picture Oscar contender about an Australian speech therapist who helps Britain's King George VI conquer a terrible stammer, was slapped with an R rating for one scene in which the royal curses to help cure his stutter. "Blue Valentine," a dark romantic look at two young lovers in a crumbling marriage, was given an NC-17 rating because of a scene involving oral sex.
But Weinstein, who has been uncharacteristically silent for months, is ready to roar again. He announced Thursday that he's hired a team of superstar lawyers to oversee his company's appeals of both cases. The legal eagles include fabled Hollywood litigator Bert Fields; David Boies, who helped lead the legal challenge to overturn California's Prop 8 ban on gay marriage; and Alan Friedman, who has been involved in a host of previous ratings battles. In an exclusive interview, Weinstein said he was confident of winning both cases, especially the appeal for "Blue Valentine," whose slim commercial chances would be hurt the most if it were saddled with the scarlet letter of an NC-17 rating, which would prevent most theater chains from playing the film starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.
"I've always felt that the ratings board saw what wasn't there," Weinstein told me, referring to the scene in "Blue Valentine" involving simulated oral sex. "It's just a credit to the persuasiveness of Derek Cianfrance's directing skills. There's no oral sex. Michelle Williams isn't even naked. It looks like she is, but it's just the angle of the shots."
As part of Weinstein's appeal of the rating, Cianfrance and his actors can appear before the board to argue their case. Although many filmmakers have unsuccessfully argued their case in the past, Weinstein believes this time things will be different. "When we show the board how the movie was filmed, with Derek and Ryan and Michelle explaining it to them, I think that will change their minds."
There are skeptics, myself included, who wonder if this last-minute challenge isn't just another inspired Weinstein PR campaign to gain attention for his films, which are due for release in the coming weeks. Weinstein has pretty much written the book on creating controversy for embattled films, dating back to 1990, when he sued the MPAA after it gave an X rating to Pedro Almodóvar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"
Weinstein lost that fight, although the battle did prompt the MPAA to replace the X rating with the NC-17. Weinstein has played the celebrity lawyer card in the past as well. In 1991, he hired Alan Dershowitz to monitor the national TV networks after ABC, CBS and NBC refused to air ads for the film "The Pope Must Die."
"I know that I've done a lot of that in the past," he acknowledged. "It was always great fun, when Jack Valenti was still alive, for us to joust with each other over some of my movies. We really had a great time arguing about the 1st Amendment. But in this case, especially with 'Blue Valentine,' the NC-17 rating really jeopardizes the movie's box office chances, which are really fragile as it is. I'm not hiring big-gun lawyers just for the PR value. I'm looking to them for their brains and thoroughness. My movies' livelihoods are at stake."
Weinstein says that Fields, who is overseeing the appeal for "The King's Speech," has an unusual argument in mind to help overturn the film's R rating. "Bert actually has a strategy involving the contextualization of the swear words," Weinstein explained. "The way the filmmakers won with the British ratings board [which eased up on its initial rating] was they argued that the F-words were used in a speech therapy manner. They were simply used as a way to channel the king's anger. They weren't used as swear words. And I think that winning in England, where the board is almost as unyielding as it is here, bodes well for us."
However, Weinstein faces a procedural problem with his appeal on "The King's Speech." He is requesting what is known as a "special hearing" with the MPAA, which is necessary because the film is now within 25 business days of its theatrical release. But according to MPAA rules, filmmakers can only have a special hearing if their appeal is filed "not more than 25 days after the date when the rating is certified" as well as within 25 days of its actual release.
Since "The King's Speech" was given its rating more than a month ago, it would only be eligible for a special hearing if Joan Graves, the head of the appeals board, grants a waiver because the filmmakers were unable to comply with the deadlines.
I find it hard to imagine that Graves will revisit the ratings decision, since when I spoke to her several weeks ago she was firm in her belief that the MPAA was justified in awarding an R to "The King's Speech," even if it meant that the MPAA was putting a heartwarming history lesson in the same ratings category as "Saw VII" and "Jackass 3D." Graves wouldn't comment for this story, instructing an MPAA spokesperson to say that "we have not yet been contacted by the Weinstein Co. about an appeal."
When I told Weinstein that he needed Graves to grant "The King's Speech" a waiver for it to be considered for a special hearing, he sounded unfazed. "My bet is that this is the kind of movie she likes. I can't imagine someone as erudite and intelligent as Joan not having an open mind about this. I know she doesn't really want to have people wondering why my brother Bob's movie, 'Piranha 3D' has the same rating as 'The King's Speech.' I mean, Bob is laughing about how much he got away with in 'Piranha' while his poor brother Harvey is getting killed here with a movie that most kids would think is a Disney movie."
I wish I was as hopeful as Weinstein is about his films getting a fair hearing. But even some sly flattery aimed at Joan Graves probably won't do the trick. The MPAA not only gets to make up its own rules about what ratings to give movies, but it seems to live in its own alternate universe when it comes to what sort of language and sexual situations merit a firm hand from the ratings police. Fields and Boies may have won a ton of legal battles, but they'll have their hands full going up against the ratings board.
Photo: Colin Firth portrays King George VI in a scene from "The King's Speech." Credit: Laurie Sparham/ Associated Press/The Weinstein Co.Just hours ago a deal that would send Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa to San Jose, likely for multiple draft picks including a second rounder, seemed imminent and on its way to finalization. Now, trade talks have hit a snag and it appears as though the trade won't happen after all:
Both sides seem dug in on Bieksa. Doesn't look like VAN-SJ deal will happen. — Iain MacIntyre (@imacVanSun) June 26, 2015
Negotiations could potentially start back up at some point but, for now, Sharks fans can breathe a cautious sigh of relief. Darren Dreger reported on a Vancouver radio station earlier today that the trade would have likely seen Bieksa shipped to San Jose for two second round picks (presumably the 39th overall selection and a second rounder from next year) and subsequently signed by the Sharks to a contract extension in the 4-year, $16 million range. The 34-year-old defenseman will be a UFA next summer and has declined over the past three seasons from a bonafide top-pair blueliner into a player best suited for third pairing duty.“While Jesus was in Bethany, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
The man great in popularity — like Mr. Obama — receives from us a mild shower of praise. The man great in humility — like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or Mother Theresa — receives a thunderstorm of the stuff.
This is paradoxical. After all, the exaltation of the humble is a thing the humble — by their nature — are uninterested in. Martin Luther King would be the last to want every other street christened “Martin Luther King Boulevard” — yet so every other street is christened. Mother Theresa would surely have us spend less on posters of her wrinkled face, and more on the poor — but that won’t dissuade the world from extolling her in libraries, churches and schools, or from building statues, painting murals, and buying her image.
It seems that the Rabbi’s upside-down claim that “the humble shall be exalted” rings true not merely in the sense of the future exaltation of Heaven, but within the human heart. We naturally exalt the humble.
Consider a marriage proposal. A man is most exalted precisely when he is most humble — when he bends down on one knee and begs the object of his love to concede to call him husband. Consider the child. It is not the king a mother gazes on and exalts, but the baby born to her — a naked, helpless, humble creature — whom she crowns her jewel, her love, and her all. Consider a death. It is the ultimate humility — the absolute, inevitable humility of human mortality — that we exalt with ritual. Of all men the dead man least desires exaltation, yet we will pile upon him flowers, poetry, praise and prayer — music, memory and a holy piece of earth. We lift up the lowly.
Now if the exaltation of the humble is a thing the humble — by their nature — are uninterested in, why the exaltation? I suppose a man could argue that there is no use, and that we are fools for extolling those who have escaped the desire to be extolled. But the denial of natural, human response always springs from a silly elitism. A real answer then: The exaltation of the humble is not for the sake of the humble, but for the sake of the exaltant. It is good to praise.
For praise is the joyful bow of a free man. If Mother Theresa had gone about her work pridefully, demanding that we follow her, then praise of her would always be praise demanded. But Mother Theresa went about her work in all humility. Thus enthroning her in praise — whether in statues, books, or sainthood — is joyful. We bow to her greatness, but we bow willfully and of our own accord, in love and sincerity. We are thus ennobled.
Why? Because this contradicts our world, who demands we consider ourselves the summit of existence. We are to be proud of ourselves, happy with who we are, full of self-esteem, bowing to no one — which is all well and good as long as one avoids the sneaking suspicion that he’s an imperfect wreck of a man, a feat which — as far as I can tell — has only ever been achieved by Ayn Rand.
The humble allow us to bow — and bow happily! — and in doing so avoid the death that is self-obsession. We admit — in the view of men like Ghandi — that there are those whose virtue we have yet to attain, whose life we hope to emulate. Praise of those great in humility is natural and easy: It frees us from the endless panic and disappointment that is a life lived under the assumption that we are the greatest. Exalting the humble, in this sense, is a minor salvation, for it allows us to freely admit that we can improve, that we can become what we are not, and that we can escape the misery of selfishness and pride.
For praise is rarely separated from the desire to be like the object of praise. This is not always in itself good, as when we praise the merely rich, the evil, or the shallow. But when it is a praise of greatness in humility, the very act of praise is simultaneously an inspiration for ourselves to share in that humble greatness, as the exaltation of Mother Theresa is simultaneously an inspiration to be like Mother Theresa. The exaltation of the humble always leads us to desire communion with the humble.
And so, as travelers at a journey’s end, we arrive at God. God’s humility is so great, His desire for us so strong, that He — the Transcendent First Cause of All Nature — became flesh and blood and guts and bone. The Fullness of Beauty became Man to teach us how to live. The Fullness of Truth took on our fallen nature and died in atonement for our sins, granting to us what our moaning, yearning, Mumford-and-Sons-loving hearts cry for: Communion with our Maker.
God did this in the utmost of humility, coming not as a king, but as a baby, living not as a Lord, but as a carpenter, dying not as hero, but as a criminal, remaining not as a conqueror, but as bread and wine, fruit of the earth and fruit of the vine. Does this not make sense? In this very humility we are given the opportunity to exalt our God. He does not need our praise. The humble — by their nature — are uninterested in exaltation. The exaltation of the humble is not for the sake of the humble, but for the sake of the exaltant. His humility is a gift to us. We are fulfilled in exalting him, for precisely the same reasons we are ennobled in our earthly lifting of the lowly: We may bow before the manger and the cross willfully and in perfect freedom, desiring — as is natural — to be in communion with Him, our ultimate object of our praise. Because of His humility we may bow, always experiencing this gift of praise as salvation, for by it we admit that we are fallen, and that through Him we can become what we are not — children of God once more, children whose restless hearts are stilled.
This is my defense of the gold that adorns Catholic Churches. For Catholics believe the words of Christ, that He becomes bread for us, and that by this we really, truly eat His body, taking within us the divine life. Could we fathom the depth of humility it would take for a man to offer those who wrong him his flesh to eat and blood to drink? Can we fathom becoming food for our enemies, that they may live? Then we should tremble at even the consideration of God’s humble descent into food for us.
But he told us it was so, and thus, infinitely more than we respond to earthly instances of greatness in humility, we respond to this. Infinitely more than we exalt the humble man, we exalt the Humble God. We come bearing gifts to enthrone the throneless King, we come to Bethlehem — which only means House of Bread — as Magi seeking to praise he who has made himself vulnerable to our praises. We give him our rarest, for it is our salvation to praise God, to recognize Him as infinitely greater than ourselves and thus able to save. We build for him a tabernacle of gold, and chalices of silver, pillars of marble and windows of fiery glass. He does not disdain these treasures any more than he disdained the Wise Men’s or the woman at Bethany’s, for our praise is his gift to us, the poor, who by it are granted the desire for communion with him.
That we, the poor, should give more. That we, the poor, should scandalize the world by the wealth we strip from ourselves and form around the Body and Blood of Christ. By his humility Christ in the Eucharist has given us the opportunity to exalt him beyond anything the world has ever seen. We will do so.
Part 1(David Hardy’s cover for the November 1975 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
I couldn’t stop laughing while putting together this post from my collection of gleaned covers: gumby in space with two fuzzy tufts and three unsymmetrical eye ridges (or, his fingers) ogling at a space probe, mushroom people transfixed by a mysterious white tentacled orb hoisted aloft by man in a pink cape and a skimpy pink unitard, evil nosed caterpillars, scary monstrous mole monster, etc. Did the editors KNOW precisely what the art looked like before it appeared on the covers evoking such throat hurting unintended (or perhaps intended) consequences? But, I have to admit there’s nothing like a cool (and funny alien) to make me pick up a book or magazine.
As always, what are your favorite funny alien covers which I haven’t posted?
I’ve read a few of Vance’s novels so I’ll probably pick up The Eyes of the Overworld eventually and The World Between and Other Stories eventually — are they worth reading? I suspect that the 1939 Amazing stories edition (below) is little more than mindless pulp — but, I’m intrigued by The Best SF Stories from New Worlds ed. by Michael Moorcock. The contents of the the New Worlds magazines are generally my cup of tea.
Enjoy!
(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the 1966 edition of The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Jack Vance)
(Robert Fuqua’s cover for the Febuary 1939 issue of Amazing Stories)
(Jack Gaughan’s cover for The World Between and Other Stories (1965), Jack Vance)
(Uncredited cover for Warlord of Kor (1963), Terry Carr)
(Paul Lehr’s cover for The Best SF Stories From New Worlds (1968), ed. Michael Moorcock)
For more similar posts see my Science Fiction Cover Art INDEX.Should you make the LG G5 your next phone? I can't think of a reason to in 2019, frankly.
The LG G5 was first released in 2016, and it was pretty good back then. Yes, the modular nature of it was a little half-baked, but it did at least work, even if LG didn't really follow up with any modules. That's the first problem: it's USP was pretty much dead on arrival.
But more than that, it's just not really up to speed any more. While it may outperform the very cheapest new handsets of 2019, most mid-rangers will have it squarely beat, and they're also more likely to get updates to Android, as well.
But what if you're dead sold on the idea of a modular phone? Well, LG has long given up that dream, and in fact there's only one manufacturer keeping it alive: Motorola. Last year's Moto Z3 Play kept the dream alive, and still uses the same modules as previous generations, meaning there's plenty to choose from. Otherwise, it's a pretty average phone with a relatively high price tag.
If you don't care about a modular smartphone, then there's plenty of decent options out there. Consult our best smartphones guide and see which floats your boat. But it's unlikely to be the LG G5 in 2019.
Katherine's original 2016 review continues below
It was always said that having a modular phone would be impossible - especially one that appeals to a mainstream audience, by a large manufacturer. Let alone one that could integrate a full metal unibody and an interchangeable battery.
How has LG achieved such a feat of technical wizardry? The key lies in a small button on the left-hand side of the handset. Press this, and you'll quickly notice that the whole lower section of the phone beneath the main display has just become a little looser, revealing the ingenious masterstroke of the G5's design. For unlike other flagship smartphones you'll see, the LG G5 is an altogether different kind of handset – it's modular.
LG G5 review: Modular design
It's by no means the first smartphone to incorporate interchangeable modules into its design – Google's Project Ara has that particular honour – but it's still the first modular phone from a major manufacturer that you can actually buy and use like a normal handset.
This brings a number of advantages to the G5, as it not only means you can adapt it at will to suit the task at hand, giving it more longevity than other, more regular smartphones on the market. Okay, so it's not waterproof like the S7, but it should still survive the odd rain shower if you get caught unawares.
Admittedly, whether you'll actually want to carry around extra modules is another matter entirely. What's more, there are currently only two modules available for the G5, and it doesn't look like LG's going to be following them up with more anytime soon. There's the £80 Cam Plus, a camera grip that adds physical buttons and a zoom wheel, and the £150 Hi-Fi Plus, a Bang & Olufsen-made portable Hi-Fi DAC with a built-in amplifier that supports 32-bit 384KHz high-definition audio and B&O Play, but that's it.
Either way, £150 is quite a lot to pay for Hi-Res audio support - especially when the HTC 10 comes with it as standard - and even the camera grip seems disproportionately expensive for what it is. While ostensibly giving you a greater amount of grip for taking pictures, as well as physical shutter, video record and zoom buttons, the Cam Plus isn't nearly chunky enough to make it more comfortable when holding in landscape. It also doesn't help that it has quite a slipper inner edge, making it feel slightly hazardous for one-handed use.
It's certainly nothing like the Moto Z and Moto Z Play's Hasselblad True Zoom module, which adds a proper grip as well as a 10x optical zoom on Motorola's new flagships, but then the Cam Plus is also significantly cheaper. However, having tried both modules out, I'd rather pay more for the Moto Z's Hasselblad extension than make do with the rather disappointing Cam Plus.
The Hi-Fi Plus probably has a wider appeal than the Cam Plus, particularly if you use your phone as your main music player, but it's still quite expensive. It adds a palpable boost to the overall soundscape, widening the range of sounds you hear as well as giving the bass a bit more oomph, but unless you have a library full of high-res audio tracks, the difference it makes to ordinary music isn't going to be quite so noticeable. Yes, it sounds better, but I wouldn't pay £150 for the privilege.
LG also says you can use the Hi-Fi Plus module as a separate standalone unit with other Android, iOS, Window and Mac devices, but this proved nigh-on impossible to set up. Rather than install its own drivers automatically, you have to find them yourself on LG's website - with no guidance whatsoever. They're not even clearly labelled. Instead, you'll need to find the drivers for a product called AFD-1200 in the mobile accessories section of its software and firmware page. It's hardly the seamless experience you'd expect from such an expensive little do-dad, and it rather limits its overall appeal.
However, despite the G5's dedicated modules being a bit of a flop, the phone's main advantage comes from being able to replace the battery. When popping off the bottom and snapping another one into place is so easy, the ability to slot in an extra battery is arguably one of the biggest reasons why you'd go for a G5 over its rivals. Yes, the S7 and S7 Edge might have stonking battery lives without the need for additional batteries, but for those who like the added security of having essentially another smartphone's worth of power in their back pocket, and the opportunity to give their battery a completely fresh start when the old one starts to get a little old, the G5 starts to look like a pretty convincing alternative.
LG G5 review: Battery Life
In our continuous video playback test, for instance, the G5's 2,800mah battery lasted 11h 10m when we set the screen brightness to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2. While not fantastic compared to the 17h 48m I got from the S7 – which, to be fair, has a larger 3,000mAh battery – anyone with another G5 battery module at their disposal could theoretically extend that to 22h 20m, providing more than enough juice to get you through the day and long into the next.
It's also exceedingly quick to charge. In testing, I got a 30% charge in just 15 minutes, and it only took 30 minutes to reach 50%, making it incredibly easy to top up during the day. At least, it is provided you remember to bring the bundled USB-C cable with you, as LG's opted for a USB-C port on the G5 rather than a regular Micro USB. Still, at least it comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box unlike LG's Nexus 5X, which only came with a USB-C to USB-C cable. With a USB-C to A cable, this means you can still use it with existing USB plugs as well as connect it to your PC or laptop to easily transfer files and photos.
READ NEXT: Best smartphones 2017
LG G5 review: Performance
The modular design isn't the only interesting thing about the G5, though, as it's also the first smartphone I've seen that comes with Qualcomm's brand-new Snapdragon 820 chip. Unlike the octa-core 2.0GHz Snapdragon 810, which powered almost every major smartphone in 2015, the Snapdragon 820 is a quad-core chip with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. More cores don't necessarily mean better performance, though, as the G5 proved to be significantly faster in our benchmark tests.
Paired with 4GB of RAM, the G5 scored an impressive 2,325 in Geekbench 3's single-core test and a massive 5,422 in the multi-core test. The latter isn't quite as high as the S7's score of 6,437, but the G5's single-core score is almost 200 points faster, showing it can beat the S7 at some tasks.
The Snapdragon 820's GPU also provides a big step up in graphics performance. In GFX Bench GL's offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test, for instance, the G5 produced 2,844 frames, which translates to a super smooth 46fps. This is significantly higher than both the S7 and S7 Edge, which only managed around 37fps in the same test. In practice, it handled complex games like Hearthstone beautifully.
The same goes for web browsing. With a Peacekeeper score of 1,514, the G5 handled media and ad-heavy web pages with ease. At times, there were still a few signs of initial stutter while pages were loading, but otherwise, we were able to browse the web without any speed hitches whatsoever. Continues on Page 2The expression " surf and turf " is a Siamese twin. The order of the two keywords of this familiar expression cannot be reversed idiomatically
Siamese twins (also irreversible binomials,[1] binomials,[1] binomial pairs, nonreversible word pairs,[2] or freezes) in the context of the English language refer to a pair or group of words used together as an idiomatic expression or collocation, usually conjoined by the words and or or. The order of elements cannot be reversed.[1] The expressions milk and honey (two nouns), short and sweet (two adjectives), and do or die (two verbs) are various examples of Siamese twins.
Many Siamese twins are "catchy" (and thus clichés and catchphrases) due to alliteration, rhyming, or their ubiquity in society and culture. Word combinations like rock and roll, the birds and the bees, mix and match, and wear and tear have become so widely used that their meanings surpass the meaning of the constituent words and are thus inseparable and permanent parts of the English lexicon; the former two are idioms, whilst the latter two are collocations. Ubiquitous collocations like loud and clear and life or death are fixed expressions, making them a standard part of the vocabulary of native English speakers.
Some English words are known to have become obsolete in general but are still found exclusively in an irreversible binomial. In the passage of time since spick and span was coined, the origin and meaning of the word spick has been utterly forgotten; it has become a fossil word that never appears outside the familiar phrase.[3] In other cases an English word, like vim in vim and vigor or abet in aid and abet, will be found more often in such phrases than on its own; such a word may be archaic apart from the collocation.
Certain Siamese twins are known for their use in legalese. Due to the use of precedent in common law, many lawyers use the same collocations found in documents centuries old, many of which are legal doublets. So rather than a person "enunciating" a "narrative" or recollecting about a situation, a legal brief will instead declare that a person deposes and says something pertinent. Likewise, a person who bequeaths property habitually writes |
would also face a two-front war since it is already heavily engaged in the Bekaa, on the Golan and in maintaining control over a hostile and restive population inside Syria. Israel would simultaneously raise tensions along Syria’s Lebanon front without actually going to war. Turkey, angered by Syrian support to Armenian terrorism, to Iraqi Kurds on Turkey’s Kurdish border areas and to Turkish terrorists operating out of northern Syria, has often considered launching unilateral military operations against terrorist camps in northern Syria. Virtually all Arab states would have sympathy for Iraq. Faced with three belligerent fronts, Assad would probably be forced to abandon his policy of closure of the pipeline. Such a concession would relieve the economic pressure on Iraq, and perhaps force Iran to reconsider bringing the war to an end. It would be a sharp blow to Syria’s prestige and could effect the equation of forces in Lebanon. *** If Israel were to increase tensions against Syria simultaneously with an Iraqi initiative, the pressures on Assad would escalate rapidly. A Turkish move would psychologically press him further.
Recently-declassified CIA documents show that in 1986, the CIA drew up plans to overthrow Syria by provoking sectarian tensions.
Neoconservatives planned regime change in Syria once again in 1991 and again in 2001.
And as Nafeez Ahmed notes:
According to former French foreign minister Roland Dumas, Britain had planned covert action in Syria as early as 2009: “I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business,” he told French television: “I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria. This was in Britain not in America. Britain was preparing gunmen to invade Syria.” Leaked emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor, including notes from a meeting with Pentagon officials, confirmed that as of 2011, US and UK special forces training of Syrian opposition forces was well underway. The goal was to elicit the “collapse” of Assad’s regime “from within.”
Indeed.
A leaked communication shows that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2012:
The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad. *** What Israeli military leaders really worry about — but cannot talk about — is losing their nuclear monopoly.
And high-level American and Turkish officials say that Turkey supplied Sarin gas to Syrian rebels in 2013 in order to frame the Syrian government … to provide an excuse for regime change.
Indeed, the U.S. has carried out regime change in the Middle East and North Africa for six decades.A trillion-dollar storm is gathering over the commercial real estate landscape that’s threatening to add further pain to an already bruised US economy.
At the center of the worries is some $3.5 trillion in debt backed by everything from strip malls to offices and apartments across the nation — the lion’s share of which is badly underwater because this recession followed a five-year commercial property boom fueled by easy money and loose underwriting standards.
Now the owners of the less-than-full malls, apartment complexes and office buildings are succumbing to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression — because they can’t refinance the debt.
The commercial debt securitization market is dead.
“Because there is no securitization the system cannot process the wave of maturities coming due,” said Scott Latham, commercial property broker at Cushman & Wakefield.
“This is arguably the most important fact we’re going to be dealing with. If there’s no mortgage market that can feed the machine you’re just not going to have deals,” he said. “It’s going to be years before we recover and even when that happens we’re going to discover that we’re in a new paradigm,” Latham added.
About $1.4 trillion in real estate debt is set to mature over the next four years, with some $204 billion coming due this year alone.
Most of that debt won’t be able to be refinanced or restructured because lending standards have tightened and commercial real estate values have cratered since last year, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkus.
The debt behind the commercial real estate boom, commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS, entails pooling together commercial mortgages in apartment buildings, shopping malls or trophy offices in different locations, packaging them into bonds and selling them to investors.
CMBS issuance reached its peak with $230 billion transactions completed in 2007. Last year, as the market was dying, a relatively anemic $12 billion in activity was seen, according to industry newsletter Commercial Mortgage Alert.
The last time the markets saw a tsunami like this one was in the late 1980s during the savings and loan crisis, when builders overwhelmed the markets with commercial supply that went vacant for years.
However, this commercial real estate crisis, fueled primarily by developers and property investors getting easy access to relatively cheap loans, may be even worse than what’s come before. That’s especially the case since Average Joes and Janes are by extension huge landlords via pensions, endowments and mutual funds — which have big commercial property exposure over the past few years.
Broadly speaking, commercial real estate values are off by as much as 40 or 50 percent by some estimates.
C&W’s Latham also points out that some loan agreements with bank lenders stipulate that properties have to be rented at a certain dollar amount or run into technical default.
“Many of these loans don’t live long enough [to refinance],” Parkus told The Post. The research analyst plans on submitting a more comprehensive commercial real estate report as a follow-up to his popular report next week that’s even grimmer than his original.
According to C&W, Manhattan vacancies jumped 20 percent in the first quarter from three months earlier, with Midtown seeing a 24 percent vacancy rate.
“There’s going to be a lot of pain,” Anton commented. Here is how the commercial real estate crunch is affecting three companies:
* Broadway Partners
Take the case of Scott Lawlor, who is struggling to keep a $14 billion assemblage of the nation’s choicest properties he owns via real estate fund Broadway Partners from falling into the hands of his lenders — or worse, having to file for bankruptcy.
Recently, a consortium of lenders foreclosed on Lawlor’s John Hancock Tower — a trophy Boston office building. The $660 million the building fetched at auctioned when sold by Lawlor’s creditors represented half the amount Lawlor’s fund paid for it in 2006.
It serves as a haunting experience for the son of a Queens cab driver who in rapid-fire fashion in less than five years grew his firm from a few small office buildings in Philadelphia and New York into a billion-dollar empire spanning the nation. He did it on the back of leverage.
As it stands, Lawlor is fighting to restructure much of the debt he borrowed to fund his buying spree in the hopes of weathering the real estate storm. Sources told The Post that the Broadway CEO is currently in talks to recast a block of offices acquired from real estate fund Beacon Capital Partners and financed by the defunct Lehman Brothers.
Privately, Lawlor has told peers that he believes that he may lose one or two more properties to foreclosure but expects to maintain the bulk of his multi-million square foot office portfolio. A spokesman for Broadway declined comment.
* Tishman Speyer
Sources tell The Post that the sprawling 80-acre Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartment complex that Tishman Speyer acquired with its partners three years ago for $5.4 billion may end up in lenders’ hands after cash reserves for the residential complex run dry.
And that’s not the only asset on which the company is feeling the pinch. Tishman bought for about $21 billion on leverage the real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith at the height of the market.
Tishman’s Archstone purchase loaded the REIT up with massive debts, and lenders are believed to have been forced to place about $1 billion more into the company in order to keep it afloat.
Tishman officials have argued that they’re not taking as big a hit on its investments as one might believe because it never put that much equity at risk. Tishman put about $250 million into its investment in Stuy-Town and about $112 million in Archstone, sources said. A spokesman for Tishman declined to comment.
* General Growth
Properties
So far the biggest commercial real estate blow up has been that of REIT General Growth Properties Trust, the second-biggest owner of shopping malls throughout the US. It filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Like many of the commercial real estate investors, GGP ballooned in size by using leverage to scoop up a raft of malls in the early-2000s as choice, rarely sold mall jewels that hit the market.
GGP used billions in CMBS debt to fund its acQuisitions, but as retailers got slammed and the economy spiraled into recession so it couldn’t keep up with its payments.
In fact, GGP’s collapse into bankruptcy is testing the bounds of the laws that govern which debtholders get what when companies fall into Chapter 11.
As a holding company, GGP has filed for bankRuptcy, but it has many so-called special purpose entities that represent the individual malls it owns under the GGP umbrella.
Debtholders of those CMBS bonds had always thought that in a bankruptcy their ownership would be insulated from getting whacked — but now they’re not so sure.
So far instances like GGP, Tishman and Broadway have been treated as one-offs but there are already signs that a wave of such problem property situations is waiting in the wings.
In total, more than 4,500 properties are on the brink of default, representing some $95 billion in assets in the US, according to Real Capital Analytics.
At this point, it’s hard to determine how the commercial real estate problem will resolve itself but it’s expected that banks may suffer losses of $200 billion with regional banks being slammed the worst.
Case 1
Broadway Partners
$14 billion in property under management
Office assets +17 million sq. ft.
CEO: Scott Lawlor
Speed bump: Bought Boston’s John Hancock Tower for $1.3B in 2006 near market peak; forced sale for $660K last month.
Case 2
General Growth Properties
Over 200 US malls with 200 million sq. ft. in retail space.
Chairman: John Bucksbaum
Speed bump: Couldn’t pay debt due on 2004 purchase of Rouse Co. for $12 billion – and couldn’t refinance it.
Case 3
Tishman Speyer
92,000 apartments with 115 million sq. ft. rental properties
Chairman: Robert Tishman
Speed bump: Bought Stuy-Town for $5.2B in 2006; operating cash will only last to 2010; unable to refinance.Firefox Sync, the web browser's data synchronization feature, is not overly popular according to Mozilla. Only 1% of all users have it enabled, and of those, only 20% have set up a second device with which data is synchronized.
At the time of writing, data such as bookmarks, passwords, installed add-ons, tabs, the browsing history and installed add-ons can be synchronized between devices.
Mozilla's main motivation to improve Sync is to make it easier for users to set the system up, as it believes that it is the main reason why Sync is not used by more users of the browser.
Besides improving the usability of Sync, improvements are also desired in terms of quality and scalability of the service. Mozilla notes that its Sync servers are failing too frequently, and that the existing codebase is not adequately addressing "the reliability, performance, fault recovery, and efficiency requirements" of high-usage systems.
The current version of sync is also limited in terms of features that can be added to it, and this is also something that Mozilla wants to change as it puts Firefox's synchronization feature at a disadvantage when compared to other browsers.
Firefox Sync 1.5
The current plan is to ship Firefox Sync 1.5, the current version is 1.1, with Firefox 29. The goal is ambitious, considering that code will be frozen for that version of Firefox on January 29th.
The browser version itself will be released on April 29, 2014, and while time is limited, it is likely that Mozilla will improve the feature in the Aurora and Beta builds of Firefox 29.
The time constraints to mean that Firefox OS and the Modern UI version of Firefox for Windows 8 won't be supported initially by the new Sync.
What it means for existing users
Things do get a bit complicated for existing users, as it is not possible to easily migrate them from one Sync version to the next.
When Firefox 29 comes along, nothing at all will change for existing Firefox Sync users. Users who have not configured Sync yet will be introduced to the feature. This happens for instance on the new tab / home page.
Existing users can add new devices to Firefox Sync up until Firefox 28. This won't be possible anymore in Firefox 29, which may cause some confusion depending on how well -- or at all -- this is explained during the setup.
Starting with Firefox 29, it is no longer possible to create new Sync 1.1 accounts. From that version on, only new Firefox Sync 1.5 accounts can be created.
There is no option to sync data between a device running a Sync 1.1 account and another that is using the new synchronization version due to differences in data handling and storage.
Starting with Firefox 30, existing Sync users will be migrated to the new version, while the old Sync will be retired when Firefox 31 comes along.
What this means basically is that existing Sync users need to create a new Sync account and use it from that moment on. Once the New Sync account is created, it can be used like the old one. It is however necessary to set it up on all devices that need to be synchronized.
Self-hosted sync servers
Firefox Sync 1.1 allowed you to run your own sync-servers. The feature will theoretically be also available as part of Firefox Sync 1.5, but it will not be released right away with the Sync 1.5 update in Firefox 29.
Some unknown proportion of the user base uses their own Sync servers (whether as enterprise deployments or self-run home-network setups). These users probably (a) don't want to migrate, (b) have nowhere to migrate to yet. [Asa] I don't think we should worry too much about this group. If we can identify them and message them that'd be sufficient for my concerns.
New Sync setup flow To set up a New Sync account in Firefox, the following needs to be done: Click on Create Account link to get started. Enter email address and password for the Sync account (not the email password). Confirm the email address. Once verified, the account can be used on other devices to enable synchronization. (via Sören Hentzschel) Verdict All in all, it is up to Mozilla to explain to users why it is necessary to update Firefox Sync in a way that it is no longer compatible with the previous used version. If that is not handled well, it could irritate users who are using Sync currently. This is also true for Sync users who use self-hosted servers, as they won't be able to continue using them in the way they are setup currently when the New Sync is launched.
AdvertisementI'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed in some of the fanbase when it comes to the reaction to my latest Content Patch. I think if anything it did a good job of proving the existence of that obnoxious, almost cult-like obsession with a 9 year old FPS that was certainly good at what it did but innovated little, especially in comparison to the paradigm-shifting goliath that was its predecessor. Some of you might remember I expressed dislike for the general "GOTCHA" attitude of some of the fanbase who seem intent on looking for perceived hypocrisies and double-standards, no matter how far they have to stretch the truth in order to find them. This time it was the "Double standard" of looking forward to a new Deus Ex title and simultaneously not buying into the hype of HL3 and believing Valve would be better suited working on an original IP instead of continuing a story that at this point, most can can barely remember beyond "Aliens invaded, pick up that can". There's a few reasons why this so-called "Double standard" is a fallacy.
1) Eidos Montreal, unlike Valve, has made only 2 games in its lifetime, one of which was DX:HR and the other was Tomb Raider. It makes little sense to desire original IP from a developer who has made precisely none of it so far and has not proven their ability to create without prior influence. Valve on the other hand has elevated each genre they've entered every time they have released an original IP, as explained in the video. Portal, Half Life and Left4Dead are incredibly influential titles and each caused a paradigm shift to some extent in the way games were made in their respective genres. Their sequels did not. Valve is, if you haven't noticed, very iterative. People complained that L4D2 should have been DLC, Portal 2 was very much more of the same and compared to the great strides made by HL1 which fundamentally changed the way we think about FPS, HL2 added a boat, a gravity gun, a buggy and PICK UP THAT CAN. It should not be hard to figure out why I would prefer more original IP came from Valve.
2) There comes a point when a story becomes a little pointless to continue. HL2 is 9 years old, Episode 2 is 5 years old. You know what Deus Ex did after not being around for a while? It made a prequel, because frankly continuing where the other games left off was not a good idea. Hell, sometimes even prequels are a bad idea (see Star Wars), thankfully, DXHR worked out well in that regard. The desperation to continue a story that most have forgotten the fine details of by this point is something that is lost on me. DXHR came out 2 years ago, its ripe for a sequel at this point story-wise, whereas most of you are going to have to replay Episode 2 to remember what the fuck happened.
3) The whole point of the piece was to take a swipe at the unreasonable attitude surrounding Half Life 3 and its undeserved Holy Grail status within the gaming scene. HL2 was not the best FPS of all time, it was a very, very good FPS. HL3s release will not change the industry in the way HL1 did, yet people treat it with reverence. Why? Episode 1 was nothing special, HL2 had plenty of sections that I'd consider weak. Frankly, the gunplay in HL2 was nothing to write home about, yet anticipation of the sequel to this game and its respective episodic content reached fever pitch years ago and never went away. I frankly can't understand why you would reward a company that abandoned its biggest IP with a cliffhanger ending 5 years ago with so much adoration. They fucked you over pretty badly because lets be honest, Valve is a headless schizophrenic when it comes to game development, flitting between projects and abandoning ideas seemingly through whimsy. That's not an attitude I respect, yet some people have rewarded it with unflinching loyalty and I dislike that. They left their fans hanging for half a decade because they couldn't be arsed to finish their episodic content, which they billed from the start as a smarter way to develop games, allowing them to get out shorter content in your favourite IPs faster. Episodic content from Valve was a failure, yet that failure has been rewarded with zealous fandom.
"Hypocrite" is the worst thing you can call a person. It's worse than calling them a liar, because it says "not only are you a liar but you are unprincipled, you are manipulative". It is a word that should be used with great care and is abused by those with a complete lack of understanding of nuance. These are people that see black and white, love and hate as the only options in life. When I went to study law, we were taught very early that the devil is in the details, that distinguishing two scenarios that appeared identical on the surface, was a skill and vital to our chosen field. That is something that those within gaming could do well to learn. How many times have you seen "THIS IS A COPY OF THAT" or "TOO SIMILAR TO THIS" because someones understanding of the title does not extend beyond the boxart? The same attitude is on display here and it was very disappointing to read.
My opinion has not changed. I will play HL3 and I feel the fandom surrounding it is horrendous and without merit. I have no doubt it will be a good game but I prefered the Valve that took risks and that seems to have moved on to things beyond mere game development at this point.The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 (Turkish: 93 Harbi, lit. 'War of ’93', named for the year 1293 in the Islamic calendar; Bulgarian: Руско-турска Освободителна война, translit. Rusko-turska Osvoboditelna vojna, "Russian-Turkish Liberation war") was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox coalition led by the Russian Empire and composed of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro.[9] Fought in the Balkans and in the Caucasus, it originated in emerging 19th-century Balkan nationalism. Additional factors combined Russian goals of recovering territorial losses endured during the Crimean War, re-establishing itself in the Black Sea and supporting the political movement attempting to free Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire.
The Russian-led coalition won the war. As a result, Russia succeeded in claiming several provinces in the Caucasus, namely Kars and Batum, and also annexed the Budjak region. The principalities of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, each of whom had de facto sovereignty for some time, formally proclaimed independence from the Ottoman Empire. After almost five centuries of Ottoman domination (1396–1878), the Bulgarian state was re-established as the Principality of Bulgaria, covering the land between the Danube River and the Balkan Mountains (except Northern Dobrudja which was given to Romania), as well as the region of Sofia, which became the new state's capital. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 also allowed Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to take over Cyprus.
The initial Treaty of San Stefano, signed on 3 March, is today celebrated as Liberation Day in Bulgaria,[10] although it somewhat fell out of favour during years of Socialist rule.[11]
Conflict pre-history [ edit ]
Treatment of Christians in the Ottoman Empire [ edit ]
Article 9 of the 1856 Paris Peace Treaty, concluded at the end of the Crimean War, obliged the Ottoman Empire to grant Christians equal rights with Muslims. Before the treaty was signed, the Ottoman government issued an edict, the Edict of Gülhane, which proclaimed the principle of the equality of Muslims and non-Muslims,[12] and produced some specific reforms to this end. For example, the jizya tax was abolished and non-Muslims were allowed to join the army.[13]
However, some key aspects of dhimmi status were retained, including that the testimony of Christians against Muslims was not accepted in courts, which granted Muslims effective immunity for offenses conducted against Christians. Although local level relations between communities were often good, this practice encouraged exploitation. Abuses were at their worst in regions with a predominantly Christian population, where local authorities often openly supported abuse as a means to keep Christians subjugated.[page needed]
Crisis in Lebanon, 1860 [ edit ]
In 1858, the Maronite peasants, stirred by the clergy, revolted against their Druze feudal overlords and established a peasant republic. In southern Lebanon, where Maronite peasants worked for Druze overlords, Druze peasants sided with their overlords against the Maronites, transforming the conflict into a civil war. Although both sides suffered, about 10,000 Maronites were massacred at the hands of the Druze.[15][16]
Under the threat of European intervention, Ottoman authorities restored order. Nevertheless, French and British intervention followed. Under further European pressure, the Sultan agreed to appoint a Christian governor in Lebanon, whose candidacy was to be submitted by the Sultan and approved by the European powers.[15]
On May 27, 1860 a group of Maronites raided a Druze village.[citation needed] Massacres and reprisal massacres followed, not only in the Lebanon but also in Syria. In the end, between 7,000 and 12,000 people of all religions[citation needed] had been killed, and over 300 villages, 500 churches, 40 monasteries, and 30 schools were destroyed. Christian attacks on Muslims in Beirut stirred the Muslim population of Damascus to attack the Christian minority with between 5,000 and 25,000 of the latter being killed,[citation needed] including the American and Dutch consuls, giving the event an international dimension.
Ottoman foreign minister Mehmed Fuad Pasha came to Syria and solved the problems by seeking out and executing the culprits, including the governor and other officials. Order was restored, and preparations made to give Lebanon new autonomy to avoid European intervention. Nevertheless, in September 1860 France sent a fleet, and Britain joined to prevent a unilateral intervention that could help increase French influence in the area at Britain's expense.
The revolt in Crete, 1866–1869 [ edit ]
The Cretan Revolt, which began in 1866, resulted from the failure of the Ottoman Empire to apply reforms for improving the life of the population and the Cretans' desire for enosis — union with Greece.[18] The insurgents gained control over the whole island, except for five fortified cities where the Muslims took refuge. The Greek press claimed that Muslims had massacred Greeks and the word was spread throughout Europe. Thousands of Greek volunteers were mobilized and sent to the island.
The siege of Moni Arkadiou monastery became particularly well known. In November 1866, about 250 Cretan Greek combatants and around 600 women and children were besieged by about 23,000 mainly Cretan Muslims aided by Ottoman troops, and this became widely known in Europe. After a bloody battle with a large number of casualties on both sides, the Cretan Greeks finally surrendered when their ammunition ran out but were killed upon surrender.[19]
By early 1869, the insurrection was suppressed, but the Porte offered some concessions, introducing island self-rule and increasing Christian rights on the island. Although the Cretan crisis ended better for the Ottomans than almost any other diplomatic confrontation of the century, the insurrection, and especially the brutality with which it was suppressed, led to greater public attention in Europe to the oppression of Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
Small as the amount of attention is which can be given by the people of England to the affairs of Turkey... enough was transpiring from time to time to produce a vague but a settled and general impression that the Sultans were not fulfilling the "solemn promises" they had made to Europe; that the vices of the Turkish government were ineradicable; and that whenever another crisis might arise affecting the "independence" of the Ottoman Empire, it would be wholly impossible to afford to it again the support we had afforded in the Crimean war.
Changing balance of power in Europe [ edit ]
Although on the winning side in the Crimean War, the Ottoman Empire continued to decline in power and prestige. The financial strain on the treasury forced the Ottoman government to take a series of foreign loans at such steep interest rates that, despite all the fiscal reforms that followed, pushed it into unpayable debts and economic difficulties. This was further aggravated by the need to accommodate more than 600,000 Muslim Circassians, expelled by the Russians from the Caucasus, to the Black Sea ports of north Anatolia and the Balkan ports of Constanţa and Varna, which cost a great deal in money and in civil disorder to the Ottoman authorities.[21]
The New European Concert [ edit ]
The Concert of Europe established in 1814 was shaken in 1859 when France and Austria fought over Italy. It came apart completely as a result of the wars of German Unification, when the Kingdom of Prussia, led by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, defeated Austria in 1866 and France in 1870, replacing Austria-Hungary as the dominant power in Central Europe. Britain, worn out by its participation in the Crimean War and diverted by the Irish question and the social problems created by the Industrial Revolution, chose not to intervene again to restore the European balance. Bismarck did not wish the breakup of the Ottoman Empire to create rivalries that might lead to war, so he took up the Tsar's earlier suggestion that arrangements be made in case the Ottoman Empire fell apart, creating the Three Emperors' League with Austria and Russia to keep France isolated on the continent.
France responded by supporting self-determination movements, particularly if they concerned the three emperors and the Sultan. Thus revolts in Poland against Russia and national aspirations in the Balkans were encouraged by France. Russia worked to regain its right to maintain a fleet on the Black Sea and vied with the French in gaining influence in the Balkans by using the new Pan-Slavic idea that all Slavs should be united under Russian leadership. This could be done only by destroying the two empires where most non-Russian Slavs lived, the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires. The ambitions and the rivalries of the Russians and French in the Balkans surfaced in Serbia, which was experiencing its own national revival and had ambitions that partly conflicted with those of the great powers.
Russia after the Crimean War [ edit ]
Russia ended the Crimean War with minimal territorial losses, but was forced to destroy its Black Sea Fleet and Sevastopol fortifications. Russian international prestige was damaged, and for many years revenge for the Crimean War became the main goal of Russian foreign policy. This was not easy though — the Paris Peace Treaty included guarantees of Ottoman territorial integrity by Great Britain, France and Austria; only Prussia remained friendly to Russia.
The newly appointed Russian chancellor, Alexander Gorchakov depended upon alliance with Prussia and its chancellor Bismarck. Russia consistently supported Prussia in her wars with Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870). In March 1871, using the crushing French defeat and the support of a grateful Germany, Russia achieved international recognition of its earlier denouncement of Article 11 of the Paris Peace Treaty, thus enabling it to revive the Black Sea Fleet.
Other clauses of the Paris Peace Treaty, however, remained in force, specifically Article 8 with guarantees of Ottoman territorial integrity by Great Britain, France and Austria. Therefore, Russia was extremely cautious in its relations with the Ottoman Empire, coordinating all its actions with other European powers. A Russian war with Turkey would require at least the tacit support of all other Great Powers, and Russian diplomacy was waiting for a convenient moment.
Balkan crisis of 1875–1876 [ edit ]
The state of Ottoman administration in the Balkans continued to deteriorate throughout the 19th century, with the central government occasionally losing control over whole provinces. Reforms imposed by European powers did little to improve the conditions of the Christian population, while managing to dissatisfy a sizable portion of the Muslim population. Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered at least two waves of rebellion by the local Muslim population, the most recent in 1850.
Austria consolidated after the turmoil of the first half of the century and sought to reinvigorate its longstanding policy of expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, the nominally autonomous, de facto independent principalities of Serbia and Montenegro also sought to expand into regions inhabited by their compatriots. Nationalist and irredentist sentiments were strong and were encouraged by Russia and her agents. At the same time, a severe drought in Anatolia in 1873 and flooding in 1874 caused famine and widespread discontent in the heart of the Empire. The agricultural shortages precluded the collection of necessary taxes, which forced the Ottoman government to declare bankruptcy in October, 1875 and increase taxes on outlying provinces including the Balkans.
Balkan uprisings [ edit ]
Herzegovina Uprising [ edit ]
An uprising against Ottoman rule began in Herzegovina in July 1875. By August almost all of Herzegovina had been seized and the revolt had spread into Bosnia. Supported by nationalist volunteers from Serbia and Montenegro, the uprising continued as the Ottomans committed more and more troops to suppress it.
Bulgarian Uprising [ edit ]
The revolt of Bosnia and Herzegovina spurred Bucharest-based Bulgarian revolutionaries into action. In 1875, a Bulgarian uprising was hastily prepared to take advantage of Ottoman preoccupation, but it fizzled before it started. In the spring of 1876, another uprising erupted in the south-central Bulgarian lands despite the fact that there were numerous regular Turkish troops in those areas.
A special Turkish military committee was established to quell the uprising. Regular troops (Nisam) and irregular ones (Redif or Bashi-bazouk) were directed to fight the Bulgarians (May 11 – June 9, 1876). The irregulars were mostly drawn from the Muslim inhabitants of the Bulgarian regions, many of whom were Circassian Islamic population which migrated from the Caucasus or Crimean Tatars who were expelled during the Crimean War and even Islamized Bulgarians. The Turkish army suppressed the revolt, massacring up to 30,000 people in the process.[25] Five thousand out of the seven thousand villagers of Batak were put to death.[27] Both Batak and Perushtitsa, where the majority of the population was also massacred, participated in the rebellion. Many of the perpetrators of those massacres were later decorated by the Ottoman high command. Modern historians have estimated the number of killed Bulgarian population is between 30,000 and 100,000. The Turkish military carried on horribly unjust acts upon the Bulgarian populations.[28]
Konstantin Makovsky, The Bulgarian Martyresses, a painting depicting the atrocities of bashibazouks in Macedonia.
Bashibazouks held captive by the Bulgarian and Russian army.
Bashi-Bazouks, returning with the spoils from the Romanian shore of the Danube.
International reaction to atrocities in Bulgaria [ edit ]
Word of the bashi-bazouks' atrocities filtered to the outside world by way of American-run Robert College located in Constantinople. The majority of the students were Bulgarian, and many received news of the events from their families back home. Soon the Western diplomatic community in Constantinople was abuzz with rumours, which eventually found their way into newspapers in the West. While in Constantinople in 1879, Protestant missionary George Warren Wood reported Turkish authorities in Amasia brutally persecuting Christian Armenian refugees from Soukoum Kaleh. He was able to coordinate with British diplomat Edward Malet to bring the matter to the attention of the Sublime Porte, and then to the British foreign secretary Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (the Marquess of Salisbury).[29] In Britain, where Disraeli's government was committed to supporting the Ottomans in the ongoing Balkan crisis, the Liberal opposition newspaper Daily News hired American journalist Januarius A. MacGahan to report on the massacre stories firsthand.
MacGahan toured the stricken regions of the Bulgarian uprising, and his report, splashed across the Daily News's front pages, galvanized British public opinion against Disraeli's pro-Ottoman policy.[30] In September, opposition leader William Gladstone published his Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East calling upon Britain to withdraw its support for Turkey and proposing that Europe demand independence for Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina. As the details became known across Europe, many dignitaries, including Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi, publicly condemned the Ottoman abuses in Bulgaria.[33]
The strongest reaction came from Russia. Widespread sympathy for the Bulgarian cause led to a nationwide surge in patriotism on a scale comparable with the one during the Patriotic War of 1812. From autumn 1875, the movement to support the Bulgarian uprising involved all classes of Russian society. This was accompanied by sharp public discussions about Russian goals in this conflict: Slavophiles, including Dostoevsky, saw in the impending war the chance to unite all Orthodox nations under Russia's helm, thus fulfilling what they believed was the historic mission of Russia, while their opponents, westernizers, inspired by Turgenev, denied the importance of religion and believed that Russian goals should not be defense of Orthodoxy but liberation of Bulgaria.[34]
Serbo-Turkish War and diplomatic manoeuvering [ edit ]
Serio-comic war map for 1877. Anti-Russian cartoon depicting Russia as a vicious octopus.
Punch cartoon from June 17, 1876 Russia preparing to release the Balkan dogs of war, while Britain warns him to take care.cartoon from June 17, 1876
On June 30, 1876, Serbia, followed by Montenegro, declared war on the Ottoman Empire. In July and August, the ill-prepared and poorly equipped Serbian army helped by Russian volunteers failed to achieve offensive objectives but did manage to repulse the Ottoman offensive into Serbia. Meanwhile, Russia's Alexander II and Prince Gorchakov met Austria-Hungary's Franz Joseph I and Count Andrássy in the Reichstadt castle in Bohemia. No written agreement was made, but during the discussions, Russia agreed to support Austrian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Austria-Hungary, in exchange, agreed to support the return of Southern Bessarabia—lost by Russia during the Crimean War—and Russian annexation of the port of Batum on the east coast of the Black Sea. Bulgaria was to become autonomous (independent, according to the Russian records).[35]
As the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina continued, Serbia suffered a string of setbacks and asked the European powers to mediate an end to the war. A joint ultimatum by the European powers forced the Porte to give Serbia a one-month truce and start peace negotiations. Turkish peace conditions however were refused by European powers as too harsh. In early October, after the truce expired, the Turkish army resumed its offensive and the Serbian position quickly became desperate. On October 31, Russia issued an ultimatum requiring the Ottoman Empire to stop the hostilities and sign a new truce with Serbia within 48 hours. This was supported by the partial mobilization of the Russian army (up to 20 divisions). The Sultan accepted the conditions of the ultimatum.
To resolve the crisis, on December 11, 1876, the Constantinople Conference of the Great Powers was opened |
information do you need to confidently understand what a particular line of code is doing, and how hard is that information to find? Let's call this the reasoning footprint for a piece of code. The pitfalls above come from the reasoning footprint getting out of hand, rather than implicitness per se.
Does readability then demand that we minimize the reasoning footprint? I don't think so: make it too small, and code becomes hopelessly verbose, making it difficult to read by forcing too much information into view at all times. What we want is a sweet spot, where routine or easy to find details can be left out, but relevant or surprising information is kept front and center.
How to analyze and manage the reasoning footprint
There are three dimensions of the reasoning footprint for implicitness:
Applicability. Where are you allowed to elide implied information? Is there any heads-up that this might be happening?
Power. What influence does the elided information have? Can it radically change program behavior or its types?
Context-dependence. How much of do you have to know about the rest of the code to know what is being implied, i.e. how elided details will be filled in? Is there always a clear place to look?
The basic thesis of this post is that implicit features should balance these three dimensions. If a feature is large in one of the dimensions, it's best to strongly limit it in the other two.
The? operator in Rust is a good example of this kind of tradeoff. It explicitly (but concisely) marks a point where you will bail out of the current context on an error, possibly doing an implicit conversion on the way. The fact that it's marked means the feature has strongly limited applicability: you'll never be surprised that it's coming into play. On the other hand, it's fairly powerful, and somewhat context-dependent, since the conversion can depend on the type where? is used, and the type expected in the scope it's jumping to. Altogether, this careful balance makes error handling in Rust feels as ergonomic as working with exceptions while avoiding some of their well-known downsides.
By contrast, a feature like unrestricted implicit conversion rightfully has a bad reputation, because it's universally applicable, quite powerful, and context-dependent. If we were to expand implicit conversions in Rust, we would likely limit their power (by, say, restricting them to AsRef -style coercions, which can do very little).
One route for strongly limiting context-dependence is employing conventions, in which the compiler is simply assuming a default unless told otherwise. Often such conventions are universal and well-known, meaning that you don't need to know anything about the rest of the code to know what they are. A good example of this technique in Rust is the the fact that mod foo; looks for foo.rs (or foo/mod.rs ) by default.
One final point. "Implicitness" is often relative to where the language is today, something that seems radical at first—like type inference!—but then quickly disappears into the background, to the point that it no longer feels implicit at all (see Stroustrup's rule). But sometimes a bit of implicitness really is a bad idea. The key is to carefully consider the impact on the reasoning footprint.
Example: type annotations
One bit of ergonomics that is increasingly taken for granted is type inference. In the days of yore, you'd have to annotate every local variable with its type, a practice that seems wildly verbose now—but at the time, type inference seemed wildly implicit.
Type inference in Rust is quite powerful, but we limit the other two dimensions:
Applicability: type inference happens only for variable bindings; data types and functions must include complete, explicit signatures.
Context-dependence: because data types and functions are annotated, it's easy to determine the information that's influencing the outcome of inference. You only need to look shallowly at code outside of the current function. Another way of saying this is that type inference is performed modularly, one function body at a time.
By and large, the amount of type inference we do in Rust seems to be a good match for what you can hold in your head.
The type system also provides a good example of using conventions for ergonomics: lifetime elision. That feature allows you to leave off lifetimes from function signatures in the vast majority of cases (check out the RFC—we measured!). Lifetime elision greatly aids learnability, because it allows you to work at an intuitive level with borrowing before you grapple with explicit lifetimes.
Applicability: lifetime elision applies to a broad class of locations—any function signature—but is limited to those cases for which the lifetimes are strongly implied.
Power: limited; elision is just a shorthand for a use of lifetime parameters, and if you get this wrong, the compiler will complain.
Context-dependence: here, we overshot. The fact that elision applies to types other than & and &mut, means that to even know whether reborrrowing is happening in a signature like fn lookup(&self) -> Ref<T>, you need to know whether Ref has a lifetime parameter that's being left out. For something as common as function signatures, this is too much context. We've been considering pushing in the direction of a small but explicit marker to say that a lifetime is being elided for Ref, a strategy similar to the one for? mentioned earlier.
There's also been some extensions to the original elision proposal, again carefully crafted to follow these rules, like the lifetimes in statics RFC.
Idea: implied bounds
One papercut with Rust today is the fact that, for certain data structures, you end up having to repeat the same set of trait bounds over and over. HashMap is a good example; it takes a key type which, in practice, must satisfy the Hash and Eq traits. So the question is, how should we understand a signature like the following?
fn use_map<K, V>(map: HashMap<K, V>) {... }
Right now, such a signature would be accepted, but if you tried to use any of map's methods, you'd get an error that K needs to be Hash and Eq, and have to go back and add those bounds. That's an example of the compiler being pedantic in a way that can interrupt your flow, and doesn't really add anything; the fact that we're using K as a hashmap key essentially forces some additional assumptions about the type. But the compiler is making us spell out those assumptions explicitly in the signature. This situation seems ripe for an ergonomic improvement.
It's straightforward to assume bounds that are "implied" by the type, like assuming that K must be Hash and Eq above, by tying it to the type definition:
struct HashMap<K: Hash + Eq, V> {... }
What's the impact on the reasoning footprint? It means that to completely understand a signature like
fn use_map<K, V>(map: HashMap<K, V>) {... }
you need to be aware of the bounds on any type constructor like HashMap that you're applying to a type variable like K. So in particular, if you're trying to invoke use_map, you need to know that there are some unstated constraints on K.
Applicability: very broad; applies to any use of generics.
Power: very limited; the bounds will almost always be needed anyway, and in any case adding bounds is not very risky.
Context-dependence: fairly limited; it draws from the bounds on all type constructors that are applied to type variables (like HashMap<K, V> ). Usually you will be well aware of these bounds anyway, and when using a function like use_map, you're generally going to be passing in an existing HashMap, which by construction will ensure that the bounds already hold. The compiler can reliably also produce an error pointing directly to the type(s) imposing unfulfilled bounds.
Example: ownership
A lot of work went into making Rust's ownership system ergonomic, and that work entailed judicious use of "implicit" features. It's particularly instructive to look at the places where borrowing is explicit, and places where it's not:
Borrowing is implicit for the receiver when invoking a method.
Borrowing is explicit for normal function arguments and in other expressions.
Ownership is important in Rust, and reasoning locally about it is vital. So why did we end up with this particular mix of implicit and explicit ownership tracking?
Applicability: common, but narrowly-described: it applies only to the receiver of method calls.
Power: moderately powerful, since it can determine whether the receiver can be mutated (by mutably borrowing it). That's mitigated to some degree by borrow checking, which will at least ensure that it's permitted to do such a borrow.
Context-dependence: in principle, you need to know how the method is resolved, and then its signature. In practice, the style of self borrowing is almost always implied by the method name (e.g. push() versus len() ). Notably, this point does not apply to function arguments.
This design also aids learnability, by often just doing "the obvious thing" for borrowing, and thereby limiting the situations in which newcomers have to grapple with choices about it.
Ideas: implied borrows
Nevertheless, there are some pain points around borrowing in Rust today. To wit:
Discarding ownership. Sometimes you have ownership of a value, like a String, and want to pass it to a function that only needs a borrow (say, &str ), after which you no longer need the value. Today, you must borrow the value in the argument:
fn read_config(path: &Path) -> Config {... } let mut path = PathBuf::new(src_dir); path.push("Config.toml"); // we have to borrow `path` with `&` even though we're done with it let config = read_config(&path);
But we could easily allow you to write read_config(path), implicitly borrowing path for read_config and then dropping it immediately afterwards. That would retain one's ability to reason locally about ownership, since ownership of path is indeed fully relinquished from the caller's perspective (and the buffer is destroyed at the end of the call to read_config ). But it allows you to gloss over the unimportant detail that the callee happened to only need a borrow. And again, if you just forgot to borrow, and try to use path afterward, the compiler will catch it, just as it does today. This is an example of a not terribly powerful bit of inference (it's only introducing a shared borrow for an object about to be dropped) that we'd allow to occur virtually everywhere.
Borrowing in match patterns. One stumbling block when learning Rust is the interaction between pattern matching and borrowing. In particular, when you're pattern matching against borrowed data, you often have to do a little reborrowing dance:
match *foo { Some(ref contents) => {... } None => {... } }
Here we're using * to dereference an Option, and then ref to rereference its contents. Beginners and experienced Rustaceans alike tend to miss one or both of these markers, in part because it's usually the only thing you could be doing. Thus, we could consider inferring these markers from context:
Infer the need for dereferencing based on the type of the expression being matched and the arms of the match. That's a very limited amount of context that will already be front and center in the programmer's head.
Infer the need for ref (or ref mut ) based on the borrowing usage in the match arm, much like we do for closures already. That expands the reasoning footprint a bit, since you can't tell at a glance from the pattern what kind of borrow is being taken. But examining code blocks to determine the borrows they take is something Rust programmers do all the time, and as explained in the ownership section, the borrowing system is designed to make that easy to do. And in any case, it's still quite local context. As usual, if you get this wrong, the borrow checker will catch it.
In addition to that story for context-dependence, the feature would be only narrowly applicable (only to match ) and only moderately powerful (since, again, the borrower checker will catch mistakes).
Both of these changes would expand the reasoning footprint slightly, but in a very controlled way. They remove the need to write down annotations which are essentially already forced by nearby code. And that in turn lowers the learning curve for match.
Example: the module system
Finally, let's take the module system. In the most common usage, modules are defined like so:
mod some_module;
where some_module.rs is a file at an appropriate place in the source tree. You can specify an explicit path if you prefer, so this is a case of implicitness through convention. But while this bit of implicitness helps, the module system still makes a number of fine distinctions that trip up newcomers and require redundancy that even old hands can forget.
Idea: eliminate the need for extern crate, and maybe mod too
The clearest-cut case is the extern crate declaration, which is used to bring an external crate into scope. The vast majority of Rust projects use Cargo for dependency management, and already specify the crates they depend on in their Cargo.toml file. Hence, extern crate is usually redundant, and it's easy to forget to add it after updating Cargo.toml. New users often complain about baroque distinctions between mod, use, extern crate, and entries in Cargo.toml ; maybe we could improve matters by obviating the need for extern crate. What does that mean for the reasoning footprint?
It means that to know what crates are in scope at the root, you need to consult the Cargo.toml, which becomes the sole source of truth for this concern. That's a pretty limited context: it's single place to look, and in many cases you already need some level of awareness of its contents, to know which version of the crate is being assumed. Inferring extern crate also fares well on the applicability front: only root modules are affected, so it's easy to know precisely when you need to consult Cargo.toml.
Thinking along similar, but more radical lines, an argument could be made about the need for mod itself. After all, if we're usually just writing mod some_module to tell Rust to pull in a file at a canonical location with the same name, we're being forced to duplicate information that was already readily available. You could instead imagine the filesystem hierarchy directly informing the module system hierarchy. The concerns about limited context and applicability work out pretty much the same way as with Cargo.toml, and the learnability and ergonomic gains are significant.
Now, both of these proposals assume your code follows the typical patterns, not making use of extra, non-default flexibility. There are a lot of questions about the fine details and expressiveness. But, at least from an implicitness perspective, neither of these changes set off any alarm bells for the reasoning footprint.
The initiative
With those aims and that design philosophy in mind, how do we plan to proceed?
First off, we'll be using the roadmap tracker to help organize ideas for ergonomic improvements. The tracker is already populated with some of the ideas the language team has been mulling over, but we'll keep it updated as proposals emerge on the the internals forum and elsewhere. The language team is eager to mentor, so if one of the ideas catches your eye and you'd like guidance working toward a full-blown RFC, log your interest on the tracker! And similarly for implementation, once the RFC has merged.
Digging deeper, there's a vital cross-cutting concern: empathy. The goal here is to try to imagine and evaluate ways that Rust could be different. To do this well, we need to be able to put ourselves back in the shoes of a newcomer. Of someone who prefers a different workflow. We need to be able to come to Rust fresh, shedding our current habits and mental models and trying on new ones.
And, perhaps most importantly, we need empathy for each other. Transformative insights can be fragile; they can start out embedded in ideas that have lots of problems. If we're too quick to shut down a line of thought based on those problems, we risk foreclosing on avenues to something better. We've got to have the patience to sit with ideas that are foreign and uncomfortable, and gain some new perspective from them. We've got to trust that we all want to make Rust better, and that good faith deliberation is the way to make productivity a core value, without sacrificing the others.
Let's do this!There's something about dual-screen gadgets that makes any geek warm and fuzzy inside. Take, for instance, the latest announcement from Asus: they're planning to release an e-book reader with two distinguishing characteristics: two screens, and low price.
Adding another screen to an e-reader makes perfect sense on paper; after all, who doesn't want to be able to read an e-book the way you read a real book, with two pages visible at all times? In practice, I'm not so sure; personally I've always preferred a single page view in all the applications (various comic readers, Adobe Acrobat, etc) that offered me the choice. But who cares - if you don't like the double page view, you can just use the extra screen real estate for something else: browsing the web, tweeting, updating your blog; the possibilities are endless.
Asus' e-reader, which will also fall under the company's successful Eee line of products, will probably cost around £100 ($163), which would make it one of the cheapest such devices on the market. However, it's possible that we'll see several versions (just try to count all the versions of the Eee netbook, and you'll get the general idea about Asus' strategy when it comes to these things), with the more expensive version of the device adding support for 3G and more storage.
With the e-book wars heating up, we're really excited to see a device that innovates in this space while keeping a reasonable price; according to Engadget, we could see one on the market soon, before the year's end.Today, Tesla started the rollout of a new software update for its fleet of vehicles equipped with second generation Autopilot hardware.
The new update features what CEO Elon Musk called a ‘silky smooth’ new control algorithm for Autosteer, as well as automatic perpendicular parking and automatic display brightness adjustments.
Update: the software update also includes full speed Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which was previously restricted to low-speed.
A Tesla spokesperson confirmed to Electrek that the update is not being pushed over-the-air yet, but it is being rolled into the new vehicles coming out of the Fremont factory and vehicles going into service.
By the end of the week, the fleet should start receiving the update over-the-air as promised by Musk at the shareholder meeting last week.
Some Tesla owners had complained that the Autosteer and TACC were rougher than what they were used to with the last few updates, but the CEO reassured owners last month by saying that an upcoming new algorithm would fix that:
Excited about the Tesla Autopilot software release rolling out next month. New control algorithm feels as smooth as silk. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2017
We were able to confirm with Tesla that the new update includes those improvements.
On top of the new control algorithm, Tesla is also pushing two features from the first generation Autopilot that were still missing on the vehicles with second generation hardware.
Here are the release notes:
Autopark: Perpendicular Parking To make it easier to park in a variety of situations, Model S can now also back up into perpendicular spaces using Autopark. Drive completely past the space at no more than 10 mph until the ‘P’ appears in the instrument panel. Then use the same Autopark functions as in parallel Autopark – starting canceling, pausing, resuming, and so on. Display Brightness With Display Brightness, you can clearly see the touchscreen and instrument panel throughout the day and night. This feature adjusts screen brightness based on your Model S surroundings. It also learns from your preferences: if you adjust the brightness manually, Display Brightness uses your update to make future adjustments. Display Brightness is enabled by default. To disable, uncheck Auto-adjust in Controls > Displays > BRIGHTNESS & MODES.
Autopark was already available for parallel parking, but perpendicular parking was one of the few features that were still preventing full parity with the first generation Autopilot.
The original system was powered by Mobileye technology, but Tesla has been developing the same features using its own computer vision technology on the new hardware.
While we still have to see what Musk meant by a “silky smooth” Autosteer with some test drives, it looks like this update could mark the start of the transition from just feature parity to Tesla starting the actual transition to the new ‘Enhanced Autopilot’. Though it apparently still doesn’t feature the automatic windshield wipers for some reason.
At the shareholder meeting last week, Musk reiterated that the improvements on Autopilot will eventually lead to Tesla demonstrating a completely autonomous coast-to-coast drive by the end of the year.Martin says:
A research program designed to enhance spiritual awareness for persons with a cancer diagnosis is accepting volunteer participants at the Bayview Campus of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. The program consists of a brief counseling intervention, including medical screening, rapport-building appointments, two all-day sessions that include psilocybin administration, and appointments to facilitate initial integration and application of insights gained. More detailed information is available at cancer-insight.org
Conducted by Drs. Roland Griffiths, William Richards and colleagues, this program is designed to help cancer patients who are suffering with some degree of psychological distress to become less anxious and depressed, and to become more fully engaged with life again. Psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in the "sacred mushrooms" that have been used in religious ceremonies by indigenous people in Mesoamerica for approximately two thousand years, is employed to facilitate the resolution of personal conflicts and to occasion states of consciousness that for some may be indistinguishable from visions and mystical experiences recorded in the history of religions. Psilocybin has not been found to be toxic or addictive, and is considered reasonably safe for persons without a history of serious mental illness, when administered in accordance with the safety guidelines published by the Hopkins researchers. Additional information on safety and the unique contributions this intervention may make to human personal and spiritual well-being, may be found here.
The research is FDA approved and is open to persons between 21 and 70. Confidentiality is maintained for all applicants and participants.YPSILANTI, MI—Preparing to bear the brunt of the lonely winter vacation, a 10-pack of Swiss Miss hot chocolate was reportedly bracing itself Monday to shoulder the burden of holding together local man Josh Hesford’s depressing holiday alone. “Okay, it’s just me and him for the holidays, but don’t worry, you got this,” said the box of instant cocoa packets with marshmallows, adding he was confident that at least one family member would come through with a card to help ease the load. “I don’t know how much of watching Christmas movies with this sad sack I’ll be able to take, but as long as I just stay strong and do what I need to do, this will all be over before I know it.” At press time, the depleted 10-pack was ready to give up on New Year’s Eve when a bottle of whiskey arrived just in time.
Advertisement(Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on Monday, led by the energy sector as oil prices dropped, while investors awaited the next run of major earnings reports and sought further clarity on President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
The benchmark S&P 500 receded after climbing close to a record high on Friday.
U.S. equities have rallied since Trump’s November election, spurred by hopes for fiscal stimulus, lower taxes and fewer regulations under the Republican-led federal government.
“The market is starting to come down from its euphoric high and realize that maybe not everything is going to be solved in the first 100 days,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa. “There’s a lot of uncertainty.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average.DJI fell 19.04 points, or 0.09 percent, to 20,052.42, the S&P 500.SPX lost 4.86 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,292.56 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC dropped 3.21 points, or 0.06 percent, to 5,663.55.
Goldman Sachs economists said a fiscal boost to the United States is more likely in 2018 than this year because “the balance of risks is somewhat less positive” one month into 2017 and Trump’s growth-boosting agenda could be offset by negative effects of trade and immigration restrictions.
“There are concerns regarding the backlash against any protectionist policies that come out of Washington and other countries and investors are seeking clarity,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive officer at 50 Park Investments.
Nine of 11 major S&P sectors ended lower. Energy shares.SPNY fell 0.9 percent as oil prices declined.
In earnings news, Hasbro (HAS.O) shares jumped 14.1 percent after the No. 2 U.S. toymaker reported record holiday-quarter revenue.
Tyson Foods (TSN.N) fell 3.5 percent. The company disclosed it had received a subpoena from U.S. authorities that it said likely stemmed from allegations the company conspired to fix chicken prices.
Several major companies will report results later in the week, including Gilead Sciences (GILD.O), Walt Disney (DIS.N) and Coca-Cola (KO.N).
More than half of S&P 500 companies have reported fourth-quarter results, and about two-thirds of them beat Wall Street expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
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About 6 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 6.7 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.63-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.73-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 108 new highs and 24 new lows.This article is over 2 years old
Former principals argue private schools are rapidly becoming public because government funding covers far more expenses than fees • Can we really call schools private when they get so much public money?
Two former school principals Chris Bonnor and Bernie Shepherd have said private schools are rapidly becoming public schools, based on the amount of public funding they receive.
Bonnor and Shepherd, authors of a school funding analysis Uneven Playing Field – the state of Australia’s schools, said the argument that subsidising private schools to save public funds was questionable.
Writing in Guardian Australia, Bonnor and Shepherd have said that for all but the wealthiest schools, fees are now the “icing on the cake”.
“The public funding of private schools has risen to the level where the running costs of most private schools are now substantially met by combined state and federal funding,” Bonnor and Shepherd write.
“If a private school is defined by who pays, then they are rapidly becoming public. They still collect fees, a hangover from when they needed the money to match the investment in public schools.
“But for all but the wealthiest schools the fee income seems to be icing on the cake. When we realise that schools enrolling similar students churn out similar results, it becomes harder to justify the icing – especially when governments are such big partners.”
The federal government has yet to reveal a school funding plan for what was to have been years five and six of Gonski funding plan, after Tony Abbott broke a promise to fund schools at the same level as Labor.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has committed to have a school funding plan ready for the April Council of Australian Governments (Coag) meeting.
While Birmingham has committed the government to the concept of needs-based funding at the heart of the Gonski reforms, he has also said that more funding would not solve the decline in educational standards in Australian schools.
On Sunday the minister announced a panel of principals, teachers, speech specialists, academics and researchers to implement the year 1 national phonics and numeracy checks – announced before the last election.
The panel will advise the Coalition on a pilot assessment and determine the frequency, timing and core skills to be tested.
“This panel will also consider existing examples from Australia and overseas, such as the year 1 phonics check used in England that involves children verbally identifying letters and sounds in both real words and made up words to show a child’s understanding of how language works,” Birmingham said.
Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, said the new phonics testing would not make up for the cuts to the Gonski progam.
“The simple fact is that the Liberals are saying they want a new test to identify kids who are falling behind, but they don’t want to properly fund the one-on-one teaching that would help those kids catch up,” Plibersek said.
The president of the Australian Education Union, Correna Haythorpe, said the minister’s announcement was a distraction from the real issue of the funding agreement, which needed to be completed in the first half of the year.
Australian schools require the funding to be finalised for the 2018 school year.
Haythorpe said the Coalition’s announcement suggested schools were not already identifying phonics gaps, nor teaching phonics.
“Phonics are already amongst a range of programs used by teachers,” Haythorpe said. “We must remember children have individual learning needs and for the minister to re-announce plans to test six-year-olds in absence of committing to fund schools is walking away from the fundamental issue.”
Julia Gillard: Gonski reforms shifted debate towards needs-based funding Read more
The Queensland education minister, Kate Jones, said the lack of details about the year 1 test was troubling.
“All Simon Birmingham had to do is do his homework and he would know that phonics is part of the Australian curriculum,” Jones said.
“[Phonics] is being taught in our schools and I’m confident that our teachers are doing it well.”
One of the biggest critics of the federal Coalition’s reversal on Gonski schools funding, Adrian Piccoli, was dumped as education minister in the NSW premier Glady Berejiklian’s cabinet reshuffle on Sunday.
Piccoli drew widespread praise for his six years as minister after the reshuffle.District Court Judge Liam O'Grady has just issued a detailed memorandum explaining why Cox isn't entitled to a safe harbor defense. He ruled that Cox willingly failed to disconnect repeat or flagrant 'pirate' subscribers, a decision that could have an enormous impact on all U.S. Internet providers.
Today marks the start of a crucial trial that may define how U.S. Internet providers deal with pirating subscribers in the future.
Internet provider Cox Communications is facing a lawsuit from BMG Rights Management which accuses the ISP of failing to terminate the accounts of subscribers who frequently pirate content.
BMG claimed that Cox gave up its DMCA safe harbor protections due to this inaction, something District Court Judge Liam O’Grady agreed on last week in a summary judgment.
This order puts the Internet provider at a severe disadvantage while facing millions of dollars in damages. In a memorandum published a few hours ago Judge Liam O’Grady justified his decision.
According to the court there is enough evidence to conclude that Cox did not terminate the access of repeat infringers under appropriate circumstances.
“The record conclusively establishes that before the fall of 2012 Cox did not implement its repeat infringer policy. Instead, Cox publicly purported to comply with its policy, while privately disparaging and intentionally circumventing the DMCA’s requirements,” the memorandum (pdf) reads.
Judge O’Grady notes that Cox had a policy in place to deal with repeat infringers, but that in reality these users would simply be reconnected upon request. They would then start over with a clean slate.
“Cox employees followed an unwritten policy put in place by senior members of Cox’s abuse group by which accounts used to repeatedly infringe copyrights would be nominally terminated, only to be reactivated upon request.”
“Once these accounts were reactivated, customers were given clean slates, meaning the next notice of infringement Cox received linked to those accounts would be considered the first in Cox’s graduate response procedure,” O’Grady adds.
The Judge cites several emails and other communication from Jason Zabek, Cox’s Manager of Customer Abuse Operations, who instructs employees not to be too harsh. Keeping customers on board appears to be a prime motivation.
Below is a snippet from an email Zabek sent to a group of employees:
“After termination of DMCA, if you do suspend someone for another DMCA violation, you are not wrong. However, if the customer has a cox.net email we would like to start the warning cycle over, hold for more, etc. A clean slate if you will. This way, we can collect a few extra weeks of payments for their account. ;-)”
In other emails asking about whether repeat infringers should be reconnected Zabek replied with statements such as “It is fine. We need the customers,” “DMCA = reactivate,” and “You can make him wait a day or so if you want. ;-).”
In 2012 Cox abandoned this unofficial reactivation policy but that didn’t have a positive impact on the number of account terminations, on the contrary in fact.
The record shows that the number of disconnections dropped significantly, to less than one per month on average. In addition, emails show instances where Cox prefers to keep frequently pirating customers on board as they provide a significant revenue stream.
“BMG has identified specific instances in which Cox knew accounts were being used repeatedly for infringing activity yet failed to terminate,” Judge O’Grady writes.
“Cox does not seriously challenge these examples. Labeling them as ‘nothing more than conjecture and hyperbole,’ Cox argues that these snippets of conversations do not show what actions call centers actually took against accounts,” he adds.
For its part, Cox argued that it’s up to a court to decide that the appropriate response to infringement is the termination of the account of a subscriber, noting that copyright holder complaints may not always be accurate.
But Judge O’Grady disagrees and notes that when an ISP has actual knowledge that an account holder is a persistent pirate, his or her account should be terminated.
“Appropriate circumstances arise when an account holder is repeatedly or flagrantly infringing copyrights. Thus, when Cox had actual knowledge of particular account holders who blatantly or repeatedly infringed, the responsibility shifted to Cox to terminate their accounts,” he writes.
While BMG also submitted several other arguments, Judge O’Grady found the above sufficient to rule that Cox is not entitled to DMCA safe harbor protection.
The ruling means that it will be more difficult for Cox to defend itself against BMG’s copyright infringement claims. However, it will also raise alarm bells at various other U.S. Internet providers. At the moment it’s rare for ISPs to disconnect pirating users and this case has the potential to alter the landscape.Delegates will formally approve policy plank at Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September, official says
The Democratic Party is moving to include support for gay marriage in the official party policy statement for the first time, a Democratic official said Monday, marking a key milestone for advocates of same-sex unions.
The party's platform drafting committee voted to include language backing gay marriage during a weekend meeting in Minneapolis, the official said.
Democratic delegates will formally approve the platform during the party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in early September.
The Democratic platform committee's move was first reported by The Washington Blade, a lesbian and gay newspaper.
President Barack Obama will officially accept his party's nomination at the convention. Rival Mitt Romney will get the Republican nomination a week earlier during his party's convention in Tampa, Florida.
Seeking to ramp up enthusiasm among Democrats, party officials said on Sunday that former President Bill Clinton will deliver the nominating speech on Wednesday night of the convention. Obama and vice-president Joe Biden are to speak on Thursday, the convention's final night.
The Obama campaign and convention organizers on Monday announced that Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts and a popular figure among liberals, will be given a featured speaking role. Warren headed the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the committee that examined the bank bailout. She also was the leading advocate for a consumer financial protection agency, created under the 2010 overhaul of financial regulations. Warren's convention address will precede Clinton's.
Several prominent Democrats began pushing earlier this year for support of same-sex marriage to be included in the convention platform, which lists principles the party supports. The effort got a boost in May when Obama voiced his personal support for same-sex unions.
The Democratic official would not comment on the exact language of the pro-gay marriage plank approved by the drafting committee. It was unclear if the party would call for any national action to legalize gay marriage. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the platform committee's decision.
Obama has said he considers gay marriage to be a state issue, not a federal matter.
Gay rights advocates hailed the decision as a significant step forward.
"I believe that one day very soon the platforms of both major parties will include similar language," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "There is no more American value than honoring and protecting one's family."
The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions, said the decision sets up marriage as a defining issue in the presidential election.
"We will rally supporters of traditional marriage to make sure they realize that the outcome of the presidential election may determine the future of marriage in our country," said Brian Brown, the organization's president.Blaming Caribbean coral reef destruction on global warming is leaving them vulnerable to overfishing, tourism, and the Panama Canal.
Coral cover has more than halved since the 1970s and the reefs could be entirely dead within 20 years, warned the report, Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012.
Although global warming is expected to add to the problems faced by corals in the future, particularly by raising acidity in the oceans, making it harder for them to build their exoskeletons, more immediate threats are doing greater damage.
“The threats of climate change and ocean acidification loom increasingly ominously for the future, but local stressors including an explosion in tourism, overfishing, and the resulting increase in macroalgae [seaweed] have been the major drivers of the catastrophic decline of Caribbean corals,” says the report, edited by Jeremy Jackson, Mary Donovan, Katie Cramer and Vivian Lam.
Gustaf Lundin, the director of the global marine programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature – which commissioned the review of 35,000 studies by 90 experts – told The Times that that climate change had become a “convenient truth”, a reference to former US vice president Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
“Some countries have said: ‘There is nothing we can do. If there isn’t global action on climate change, it’s all doomed’,” he said. |
Mr. Durham never brought charges, but Mr. Obama’s call for a criminal probe was clearly aimed at indulging the left’s Bush hatred.
A more judicious Republican candidate than Mr. Trump would promise to de-politicize the Justice Department and not follow Mr. Obama’s example. But as Democrats keep saying, Mr. Trump isn’t one to honor traditional political norms. It’s a shame Mr. Obama created the precedent for Mr. Trump to embrace.
Speaking of bad precedents, don’t forget FBI Director James Comey. The bureau is supposed to be independent, but Mr. Comey’s investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s private emails offered so many special deals and ignored so much evidence that it has undermined public confidence in a single standard of justice. Mr. Comey absolved her in a highly unusual public statement, only days before the Democratic convention, and in a way that let senior officials at the Justice Department duck political accountability. No wonder Mr. Trump’s supporters cheer his call for a special prosecutor.
Democrats want to portray Mr. Trump as a solely Republican infection, but the New Yorker’s rise could not have happened without the political tenor and governing example of the past eight years.When it comes to preparing firewood, stacking may be the most pleasant part of the job. The hard and sometimes dangerous work of disassembling a tree with a chain saw is done. The tedious splitting is over. Now comes the time to convert a loose, messy pile of wood into an orderly stack—a satisfying transformation that appeals to the builder in me.
But, unlike real construction, there's no noise or heavy lifting. You don't need tools. You just take each stick and fit it with another while enjoying the wood's pungent, earthy smell and the way its freshly split surface reflects light. Give me a quiet afternoon and a pile of wood to stack and I'm a happy man.
Well-stacked wood is attractive, but its real virtue is that it will be dry by the time you need it. Seasoned wood burns efficiently, doesn't require constant attention to stay lit, and creates less pollution in the form of smoke (unburned wood vapor).
Stephen Lewis
There are a number of stacking strategies that put the combustion odds in your favor. If you have trees on your property that are about 13 to 16 feet apart, you can use them as end posts and stack split wood between them in what's called a hammock span. This can work just fine for a few seasons, but in the long term it can damage the trees' bark.
Another approach is to build a wood rack, which is fast, easy, and inexpensive. On the other hand, split wood itself can be used as a building material. My two favorite stacks are the utilitarian end-pillar and a decorative German type known as a holzhaus, or wood house, which makes a smaller footprint than the end-pillar stack with the same volume of material.
They're both reliable ways to dry wood to about 20 percent moisture content by weight. Scientific research has found that you don't need to get wood much drier than that. Wood releases most of its moisture through its end grain, and both types of stacks expose the wood to capitalize on the heat of the sun and desiccating breezes.
After six to eight months in the stack, your wood is ready to be moved inside. If your stove or fireplace is small, you can lug a few sticks at a time in a simple canvas tote like the Custom LeatherCraft C390, shown on page 87. It's ruggedly built, with three rivets holding each leather handle to the canvas body. If you need to transport an armful or more, consider an efficient two-wheel caddie; Brookstone and Landmann both make sturdy models. But garden carts, dollies, or a well-built children's wagon can serve just as well.
As for the indoor stack, sure, you could toss the kindling in a 5-gallon bucket and dump the firewood in a corner, but if you want to extend the order and aesthetics of the exterior stack into your living room or den, there are plenty of attractive wood-storage systems available from suppliers such as Pottery Barn. Or, peruse their offerings for inspiration and then build your own.
6 Signs Your Wood Is Well-Seasoned
It doesn't smell like wood. Most of the woody scent you get is caused by moisture.
. Most of the woody scent you get is caused by moisture. It's dull in color. Seasoned wood should look gray.
. Seasoned wood should look gray. It's not heavy. Water makes up as much as three-quarters of the weight of a green piece of wood.
. Water makes up as much as three-quarters of the weight of a green piece of wood. The ends have cracks. As the wood dries out, it becomes more brittle.
. As the wood dries out, it becomes more brittle. The bark is missing or comes off easily. When the moisture goes, the bark usually goes with it.
. When the moisture goes, the bark usually goes with it. It sounds hollow when you hit it against something. (Probably best if that something is another log.)
How To Forage for Firewood
1. Find wood from spruce, aspen, birch, willow, or pine trees for kindling. Although these woods burn quickly, they light easily. (Fires made with them are also easier to extinguish because they don't leave much of a charcoal bed.)
2. Be wary of wood that you find on the ground, as it's more likely to be wet or rotten.
3. Most of your campfire wood should come from low branches. If they snap off easily, they're dead already and will burn well. If they don't snap off easily, leave them alone.
4. For larger, longer-burning pieces of wood, find a nut-bearing tree. Oak, hickory, walnut, and maple are all hardwoods, which means they're denser and have a higher Btu. (See below.)
Dry wood in descending order of Btu in millions per cord
Oak: 27.6
Maple: 25.5
Hickory: 24.6
Elm: 20
Birch: 20.8
Walnut: 22.2
Aspen: 18.2
Pine: 17.7
Willow: 17.6
5 Ways To Improve Your FirewoodAllen Leja, Good afternoon, I wanted to follow up with the recent replacement stock I received from the CMP. WOW. The stock that was sent was much nicer than I had anticipated. The CMP also sent along a set of hand guards that matched. I cannot be more pleased with how it looks. I want to acknowledge how incredible the CMP customer service is and that all of my experiences with the CMP have been outstanding. Sincerely,
In addition to making a purchase at one of our store locations, rifles may only be ordered through the mail. For ordering information and to download an order packet, visit Ordering Information. For.22 rifles and air rifles, please see the order forms listed on those sales pages.
IMPORTANT: If your State or locality requires you to first obtain a certificate, license, permit, or Firearms Owner ID card in order to possess or receive a rifle, you must enclose a photocopy of your certificate, license, permit, or card with the application for purchase. Rifle shipments to OR,WA, NY and NJ must be made to a state licensed dealer. You must provide a copy of the dealer’s license with your order form. (As a result of CT Bill 1160 and Bill 13-220) Rifle shipments to CA must be made to a State licensed dealer or may be made to individual homes, providing that a CA Certificate of Eligibility and a Curio and Relic License are provided. Rifle shipments to WA & CT must be made to licensed or dealer or may be shipped directly to the customer if a C&R license is provided. IL can only ship to address on FOID card.
WA, NY, NJ and CT customers who have already mailed their rifle orders to CMP should provide [email protected] with dealer information or order cancellation instructions. Information can also be faxed to 256-835-3527 or mailed to CMP Customer Service, (Attn: FFL Order), 1401 Commerce Blvd., Anniston, AL 36207.The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the Congressional Gold Medal—the highest civilian award of the United States. It recognizes those people who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".[2] The award is not limited to U.S. citizens and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.
It was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy,[3] superseding the Medal of Freedom that was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to honor civilian service during World War II.
History of the award [ edit ]
Similar in name to the Medal of Freedom,[2] but much closer in meaning and precedence to the Medal for Merit, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is currently the supreme civilian decoration in precedence in the United States, whereas the Medal of Freedom was inferior in precedence to the Medal for Merit; the Medal of Freedom was awarded by any of three Cabinet secretaries, whereas the Medal for Merit was awarded by the president, as is the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[4]
President John F. Kennedy established the current decoration in 1963 through Executive Order 11085, with unique and distinctive insignia, vastly expanded purpose, and far higher prestige.[1] It was the first U.S. civilian neck decoration and, in the grade of Awarded With Distinction, is the only U.S. sash and star decoration (the Chief Commander degree of the Legion of Merit—which may only be awarded to foreign heads of state—is a star decoration, but without a sash). The Executive Order calls for the medal to be awarded annually on or around July 4, and at other convenient times as chosen by the president,[4] but it has not been awarded every year (e.g., 2001, 2010). Recipients are selected by the president, either on the president's own initiative or based on recommendations. The order establishing the medal also expanded the size and the responsibilities of the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board so it could serve as a major source of such recommendations.
The medal may be awarded to an individual more than once; Colin Powell received two awards, his second being With Distinction;[5] Ellsworth Bunker received both of his awards With Distinction. It may also be awarded posthumously(after the death of the originator); examples (in chronological order) include John F. Kennedy, Pope John XXIII, Lyndon Johnson, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez, Roberto Clemente, Jack Kemp, Harvey Milk, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Elouise Cobell, Grace Hopper,[6] Antonin Scalia, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth.[7] (Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, civil rights workers murdered in 1964, were awarded their medals in 2014, 50 years later.)
Insignia [ edit ]
Medal and accoutrements including undress ribbon, miniature, and lapel badge.
Graphical representation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel, with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from the Great Seal of the United States) within a golden ring. Golden North American bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon with white edge stripes.
A special rarely given grade of the medal, known as the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction,[8] has a larger execution of the same medal design worn as a star on the left chest along with a sash over the right shoulder (similar to how the insignia of a Grand Cross is worn), with its rosette (blue with white edge, bearing the central disc of the medal at its center) resting on the left hip. When the medal With Distinction is awarded, the star may be presented descending from a neck ribbon and can be identified by its larger size than the standard medal (compare size of medals in pictures below).
Both medals may also be worn in miniature form on a ribbon on the left chest, with a silver North American bald eagle with spread wings on the ribbon, or a golden North American bald eagle for a medal awarded With Distinction. In addition, the medal is accompanied by a service ribbon for wear on military service uniform, a miniature medal pendant for wear on mess dress or civilian formal wear, and a lapel badge for wear on civilian clothes (all shown in the accompanying photograph of the full presentation set).
Recipients [ edit ]
Gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]DETROIT -- Forward Todd Bertuzzi (sore back) and defenseman Jonathan Ericsson (flu) will be in the lineup tonight for the Detroit Red Wings when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m., FSD).
Forward Jan Mursak has been reassigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Defenseman Ruslan Salei is scratched tonight, as Jakub Kindl goes back into the lineup.
Forwards Pavel Datsyuk (lower-body injury) and Johan Franzen (groin) are out, as expected, and remain day-to-day.
"It feels a lot better than what it was,'' Bertuzzi said.
The Red Wings will try to snap a three-game winless streak (0-2-1). The Leafs have won three in a row.
“Playing in the Western Conference and playing the same teams over and over again it gets kind of repetitive,'' Bertuzzi said. "So it'll be nice to (play Toronto). It'll enhance the enthusiasm in this room.
“We want to make sure our game's at its best in all different areas -- PK, PP, defensively, our shot totals. Those are things we got to build upon.''
Here are the anticipated lines for the Red Wings:
Cleary-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi
Modano-Filppula-Holmstrom
Hudler-Abdelkader-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves
Lidstrom-Stuart
Ericsson-Rafalski
Kindl-Kronwall
Howard (starting)
MacDonald
Rookie goaltender James Reimer has led the Leafs' push for a playoff spot, taking over the starting job about two months ago. He has won his last four starts and is 17-7-4, with a 2.51 goals-against average and.924 save percentage, which is tied for fourth in the NHL.
"They've gone on a run with him,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "Now, my thing with goalies is always the test of time. So not only so you got to do it for one year or two years, you got to do it over time. And as the shooters get to know you and we get to know you we get a better report. And our report is going to be based on what little we've seen and it's not enough.''
Former Red Wings defenseman Brett Lebda, who signed a two-year free-agent contract with Toronto in the offseason, will be in the lineup. Lebda has been a healthy scratch in 30 games. He has one goal, three assists and a minus-14 rating in 40 games.
Here are Toronto's anticipated lines:
Nikolai Kulemin-Mikhail Grabovski-Clarke MacArthur
Joffrey Lupul-Tyler Bozak-Phil Kessel
Darryl Boyce-Nazem Kadri-Joey Crabb
Fredrik Sjostrom-Tim Brent-Mike Brown
Keith Aulie-Dion Phaneuf
Carl Gunnarsson-Luke Schenn
Mike Komisarek-Brett Lebda
James Reimer (starting)
Jean-Sebastien GiguereAV star Minako Komukai admits to drug use as Tokyo trial begins
TOKYO (TR) – During her first hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Friday, adult video (AV) actress Minako Komukai admitted to using stimulant drugs, reports TBS News (April 16).
“Accumulated stress due to a fight with my boyfriend and work exceeded my limits, and I used stimulant drugs,” said a tearful Komukai, attired in a black jacket and pants.
According to Tokyo Sports (April 16), the actress added that she wished to stop using stimulant drugs altogether.
On February 6, officers from the narcotics drugs control division of a government health and welfare bureau arrested Komukai after finding 0.1 grams of stimulant drugs in her apartment in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward.
The actress, 29, was reportedly uneasy on her feet when she was taken into custody.
This is Komukai’s third arrest on drug charges over the past six years. In 2009, the Tokyo District Court handed down a guilty ruling and a prison sentence of 18 months, suspended for three years. After her arrest two years later, she was not prosecuted due to a lack of evidence.
In the current trial, prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison term. The next hearing is scheduled for April 27.CLOSE Fort Pierce police released this security video after arresting Middleton Henderson, 21, on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2017, and charging him with robbery with a weapon and aggravated battery.
Middleton Henderson (Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY FORT PIERCE POLICE DEPARTMENT)
FORT PIERCE — Police detectives arrested a Fort Pierce man Thursday after he used a cattle prod to rob a gas station, according to an arrest affidavit.
Middleton Henderson, 21, of the 3800 block of Edwards Road, was arrested at about noon after Fort Pierce police detectives and a K-9 and helicopter from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office were deployed to search for him, police spokesman Ed Cunningham said.
He was charged with robbery with a weapon and aggravated battery, according to the report.
More: Chemical leak in Fort Pierce causes temporary evacuation
The clerk of the Citgo gas station on the 4100 block of Okeechobee Road said Henderson was hanging around the gas station before the robbery. He walked in and out of the store multiple times, making small talk with the clerk, according to the report.
Henderson re-entered the store with a white T-shirt wrapped around his hand and a taser-like weapon. Police later identified the weapon as a cattle prod, according to the report.
Fort Pierce police said Middleton Henderson used this weapon in a robbery Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. (Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY FORT PIERCE POLICE DEPARTMENT)
Henderson jumped over the counter, and the two began fighting, with the clerk getting shocked, kicked and punched, Cunningham said.
Leaving the cattle prong on the floor, Henderson took money from the drawer under the register and left, according to the report.
More: Fort Pierce man charged with hit-and-run of bicyclist
Officers found Henderson in an abandoned house in the 2300 block of South 29th Street, according to the report.
Henderson said he robbed the gas station because he hadn't seen his son in weeks and lost his home, his job and his car, according to the report.
Henderson was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail, where he remains with a $45,000 bail.
CLOSE There's a reason why Fort Pierce experienced such a drastic drop in crime from 2015 to 2016. LAURIE K. BLANDFORD/TCPALM Wochit
Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/st-lucie-county/2017/10/12/fort-pierce-man-robs-gas-station-cattle-prong-police-say/760104001/President Donald Trump announced Christopher Wray as his nomination for the new FBI director in a tweet Wednesday morning:
I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2017
Wray was appointed Assistant Attorney General by President George W. Bush in 2003, serving for two years. He subsequently returned to private practice, where he would represent New Jersey Governor Christie in his Bridgegate trial.
The president has searched for an official to run the FBI since firing director James Comey last month, setting off a firestorm of controversy given the ongoing investigation into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Trump told reporters he was seeking a swift replacement for Comey, but his search was reportedly delayed by a chaotic interviewing process.
A number of lawmakers were floated for the job. It was reportedly a few weeks ago that former Senator Joe Lieberman was a frontrunner for the post, but he withdrew from the running after facing headwinds. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Trey Gowdy were also both under consideration, but eventually withdrew.
This story is breaking, and will be updated.
[image via screengrab]
—
Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comEIDOS Montreal has created some truly amazing single-player games. However, all of this is about to change. David Anfossi, head of studio at EIDOS Montreal, has revealed that the studio will now emphasize on online experiences. And we are pretty sure that Tomb Raider and Deus Ex fans did not ask for this.
As David Anfossi stated:
“At Eidos-Montréal, we’re constantly working towards creating innovative and exciting experiences for gamers everywhere. In turn, we are placing an added emphasis on the online experiences in our games, striving to continually provide players with content that is memorable and impactful.”
This basically means that the next Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games – alongside their upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy game – will most likely feature online/multiplayer functionalities. And if that’s the case, then we can assume that they will also feature some forms of microtransactions.
Anfossi concluded that EIDOS Montreal’s universes can have a chance to thrive only via interactivity and online play.
“Through the inherent interactivity of online play, our universes will have the chance to thrive both now and into the future. To achieve this, we are building the teams and tools capable of supporting our ambitions.”
It’s worth noting that EIDOS Montreal experimented with multiplayer/online play in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game featured Breach; an arcade approach on the gameplay of the Deus Ex series that provided players with a unique connected puzzle shooter experience. This mode was, in our opinion, one of the least interesting features of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. However, Square Enix and EIDOS Montreal saw an opportunity there and they released it later as a free to play game, called Deus Ex Breach.President Obama went on a tear against Donald Trump last night, expressing his frustrations with the GOP candidate dividing the country, “looking for scapegoats [and] ignoring the evidence.”
The president preached a message of unity and told people not to get cynical, especially at the voting booth. (The fact that Great Britain voted to leave the EU despite him coming out against that may have left him feeling a little sour.)
Obama said it’s important for all Americans to “assume the best in each other and not the worst,” and then said this:
“We don’t have time for charlatans and we don’t have time for hatred and we don’t have time for bigotry and we don’t have time for film-flam and we don’t have the luxury of just popping off and saying just whatever comes to the top of our heads. Don’t have time for that.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
— —
Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comThe Internet recently exploded with reports of the iPhone 6 Plus’ bendable body. Unofficially dubbed “Bendgate” this problem seems to occur when the device is in pockets and other tight areas that apply pressure on the chassis of the iPhone 6 Plus. This is probably a small issue when you look at the big picture and ones that other metal phones including previous iPhones also experience. Over 10 million iPhones have been sold since its Sept. 19 launch, but we’ve only seen a handful of legit Bendgate issues in the wild. The question is, does this actually bother you?
Mainstream media has been running wild with this “issue.” (It has even hit Snopes) We’ve seen #bendgate trending on Twitter and reports hitting global news outlets. Even a video published by Unbox Therapy showed how brittle the iPhone 6 Plus body can be when forcing it to bend. In comparison, other plastic smartphones such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 survived a “bend test” nearly unscathed. Are you concerned with Bendgate?The devastating floodwaters in Texas are raising several major health concerns for residents in both the short and long term, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
"CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell spoke with Dr. David Persse, physician director of Houston's EMS and Public Health Authority, about what Houston residents should watch out for in the coming days and how those in shelters can take precautions to avoid a health crisis.
While mosquitoes aren't currently a concern for Persse, they will be in a major one very soon.
"In the short term I'm not too worried about the mosquitoes 'cause all this rain is gonna wash out all the breeding sites for the mosquitoes," he said. "But that'll be only about 10 to 14 days, and then we're gonna have an explosion of mosquitoes 'cause there's so much standing water which is all breeding sites."
Asked if they've had any Zika cases in the area, Persse said, "We've had people who've been here who've been infected with Zika in Central and Latin America but we've not had any local transmission here. But that is absolutely something that is front and center on our radar."
With more than 17,000 people in shelters and about 8,000 crammed into a convention center that has an official capacity of just 5,000, O'Donnell asked Persse, "How do you avoid a health crisis?"
"When we have lots of people congregated into small spaces like this, you worry about viral illness outbreaks that would cause gastrointestinal problems," Persse said. He said the worries are much like the concerns on cruise ships, where viruses like the norovirus can run rampant. It could become a "real problem in a convention center where people are already got all kinds of problems going on."
In order to prevent an outbreak like that, Persse said personal hygiene and access to hand sanitizer are key.
"You have to really try to get folks to focus on their own personal hygiene. So the facility has to make sure the bathrooms are kept tidy, which means they need to be cleaned multiple times a day," he said. "Also, we try to get the hand sanitizer throughout the facility so people will have it easily accessible to them. The one place you don't have hand sanitizer is in the bathroom because you want people to use soap and water to wash their hands."
O'Donnell spent time inside the convention center Tuesday speaking to evacuees and said, "Getting the hand sanitizer up and distributed has been one of our challenges. We need so much of it. The facility had some to begin with but this is a crowd that is much larger than the facility is used to dealing with."Cookies and web trackers are constantly monitoring our online lives. But who are the big players tracking us? Help us to identify them and we'll reveal what they're doing with our dataFind out how and why The Guardian uses cookies
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Just a few minutes surfing the web can result in a string of company names, products and services unknown outside of the worlds of online advertising and analytics.
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"The president is playing a round of golf with Sen. Lindsey Graham, where the two are discussing the tax cuts and reform legislation and the importance of fully funding our national security needs in upcoming government spending negotiations," according to White House spokesman Raj Shah.
Trump left his Mar-a-Lago resort and headed to his golf club shortly before 9:30 a.m., according to pool reports. It is his 82nd day visiting one of his golf courses since taking office, according to NBC News.
.@realDonaldTrump motorcade on Congress Ave heading to Trump International Golf Club. #TrumpInPalmBeach pic.twitter.com/r1jEdnpt4c — George Bennett (@gbennettpost) December 10, 2017
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Trump frequently works from his golf clubs, and the White House occasionally acknowledges that he is golfing with someone of note.
Trump spoke at a rally in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday night, where he urged attendees to support Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. Pensacola is located roughly 600 miles from West Palm Beach. Trump also attended the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Saturday.
He is scheduled to return to Washington later Sunday.
Earlier Sunday, Trump tweeted an update on Republican efforts to pass a tax-reform bill.
Trump recently spent his Thanksgiving holiday at Mar-a-Lago, which included time at his golf club.
— Updated 11:45 a.m.MSNBC's Richard Lui appears to be testing the limits of irresponsible media coverage of terrorist incidents. Up until now, the press has fretted in the aftermath of such attacks about possible retaliations or "backlash" against Muslims or others not involved in them, even though such misguided revenge-seeking has rarely occurred. Saturday evening, Lui worried about police "overreacting" shortly after terror attacks in London which, as of the time of this post, had taken the lives of seven innocents and injured 48 others, including 21 critically.
All of the carnage and mayhem which had just occurred didn't stop Lui from wondering, concerning post-attack attempts to restore order, whether "there's a risk of overreaction, of deploying... too much force."
Adding insult to the very real deaths and injuries, Lui's 7:35 PM Eastern Time question Saturday evening, directed at a guest law enforcement analyst, came ten minutes after London's Metropolitan Police "declared" (at 00:25 London Time, 7:25 Eastern Time) that the attacks were "terrorist incidents" (HT Mediaite via Washington Free Beacon):
Transcript (first 1:03 of video segment):
RICHARD LUI: When you have analyzed these incidents post facto as well as during, as you have so many times with me and others here on MSNBC and NBC News, what is the risk — there’s certainly a risk of underreaction — but is there any risk of overreaction, of deploying too much? You know, as we’ve been watching all of this live coming into our satellite center here in New York City, and then beaming it out from London, is there ever a point where you go, "Well, that’s too much, or you shouldn’t be applying that amount of force there"? JIM CAVANAUGH, NBC NEWS LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, you know, in the city, the experience and the attacks, when there’s multiple attacks, really I don’t think the response could be too large, to get enough officers and investigators there to quickly quell and then find out what’s going on. It’s not a question of too many officers. It’s a question of using them adequately, smartly, getting all the help you can get.
It would be more than a little interesting to have Lui specifically identify the "dangers" of "overreacting" or "applying too much force" just after such a horrible pair of attacks reportedly carried out by the same three people. Too many police vehicles with scary blue lights on the streets? Too many searches of people at the scenes to make sure that no potential accomplices tried to blend into Saturday evening crowds? Or has Lui suddenly become a fiscal conservative worried about police overtime bankrupting the City of London?
Richard, the police killed the terrorists. You're really not trying to tell us that this was an example of applying too much force, are you?
As to the attacks themselves, the first, according to an Associated Press report, took place when the terrorists' "rented van veered off the road and barreled into pedestrians on busy London Bridge." After that, they "got out of the vehicle with large knives and attacked people at bars and restaurants in nearby Borough Market until they were shot dead by police."
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A better question might be whether there was indeed an underreaction by law enforcement thanks to inadequate routine preparation.
The Daily Caller, cribbing from fast-moving timeline reporting at the UK Guardian, has reported that "Eyewitnesses Say Community Police Fled From Scene Of Terror Stabbings At Borough Market." London community police are typically unarmed, carrying only "mace, handcuffs, batons and, on occasion, a stun gun," and those involved may have been promised immediate full-force backup. Regardless of whether what happened was part of standard procedure or cowardice, the result was that "Citizens had to throw chairs at the jihadists" to defend themselves and try to save others.
The three individuals who carried out the attacks reportedly made it a point to declare "This is for Allah" as they stabbed and slashed each of their victims. To its credit, at least for now, the Associated Press mentioned this important point in quoting an eyewitness in the the fifth paragraph of the just-mentioned report which was primarily about the arrests of 12 others in connection with the attacks.
That roundup appears to have been pretty efficient post-attack police work (but perhaps too little, too late, as has so often been the case in the past).
Maybe Richard Lui thinks they "overreacted" by moving too quickly.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.The Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants engaged in some trash talk prior to Sunday’s NFC Championship game — and to make the day a little more interesting, the two mascots agreed to a bet.
.@SFGiants We’re in. WHEN we win, you have to post a photo of Lou Seal going #FeastMode on some Skittles. #GoHawks — Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) January 17, 2014
The Seahawks prevailed in a thriller, and Lou Seal stuck to his word.
Congrats to the @Mariners @Seahawks and the #12thMan – on our way to the store. — San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) January 20, 2014
To the @Mariners and their fans, we tip our caps to you as Lou Seal goes in #FeastMode – and scene. pic.twitter.com/JniJk6E1yH — San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) January 20, 2014
Tastes so good. RT @SFGiants We tip our caps to you as Lou Seal goes in #FeastMode – and scene. pic.twitter.com/XOIFJW7Bw8 — Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) January 20, 2014
(Thanks to @cut4 for bringing this to our attention.)Americans face a "stark choice" to keep importing heavy crude from unfriendly countries with far worse environmental records than Canada or opt for the controversial $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline to funnel Alberta's oil sands crude to Gulf refineries on the Texas coast, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Wednesday.
"The U.S. can choose Canada – a friend, neighbour and ally – as its source," Mr. Oliver said in a speech in Washington, the latest in a long string of public lobbying by premiers and federal ministers. "Or it can choose to continue to import oil from less friendly, less stable countries with weaker – or perhaps no – environmental standards," he added, repeatedly fingering Venezuela as the prime example of an unreliable, unfriendly and less-than-green source of thick, carbon-heavy crude.
In a post-speech question-and-answer session at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the minister dropped his usual carefully measured tone to decry leading climate-change scientist James Hansen, recently retired from NASA. |
life as well as damage to ships and offshore structures," said Donelan in a statement. "Our results, while representing the worst-case rogue wave forecast, are new knowledge important for the design and safe operations for ships and platforms at sea."Class Members of the CRT class action settlement include individuals and businesses who purchased a CRT or product containing a CRT, such as a TV or computer monitor, in the following states for their own use and not resale:
Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin or the District of Columbia between March 1, 1995 and November 25, 2007
Hawaii between June 25, 2002 and November 25, 2007
Nebraska between July 20, 2002 and November 25, 2007
Nevada between February 4, 1999 and November 25, 2007
To be eligible to make a claim, you must have purchased the CRT televisions, monitors or other CRT Products “indirectly”, meaning that you purchased the products from someone other than the defendant manufacturers or alleged co-conspirators. Purchases made directly from a defendant or alleged co-conspirator are not included. Persons or businesses who purchased directly from a defendant manufacturer or alleged co-conspirator should visit the direct purchasers for additional information.
What is a CRT? The cathode ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, and a phosphorescent screen used to view images. The CRT was a main component of old-style televisions and monitors.Re: Higby in China, plus some minor infos came out of the chat
Higby Originally Posted by Wow, talk about lost in translation. I think I know the player they're quoting, but my translator just said something like "they want to know if there will be more to do than just attacking/killing" which I'm not sure got the full point across! I talked a bit about how the Mission System is designed to help player coordination and will help out a lot with coordinating defenses and strategy.
Just for the record, if lattice or sanctuaries were brought up it wasn't by me. I did talk about how a true intercontinental conquest via connected warpgates would come once we had the right number of continents to support it, as well as that a more robust tutorial and training area akin to the PS1 VR training was in the works. To be clear, there are no plans to add a PS1 style "lattice" system or sanctuaries to the game.
Nothing I talked about out here at DiGiChina should be a surprise or news to anyone who has been paying attention to what we've been talking about at recent events like SOE Live, etc.
edit: oh, and it was about 100 degrees in that tiny room, packed to the gills, so thats why I was sweating my ass off! =D
Heh.
To be fair, the "lattience system" made it pretty clear that something is off. Lattience just doesnt work in PS2, also never quite worked in Planetside. IT doesnt fix the metagame or anything, it just makes it terrible.
Anyway, no to sancs? I bet my balls that we will see sancs again. THey are required for the continent metagame, unless you are able to magically allow us to have 666 + 666 vs 666 (Two pop locks of people of one faction against another faction), and thats not gonna happen.
People need a space to go in case shit hits the fan. Cant be the home continent as that system would break whenever said home continent is under full attack.
DirtyBird, im with you on that one. Pretty much whenever you actually listen to the dude you notice he got a rather big clue. However, if you dont listen enough, or language barrier strikes, then its easy to get this "hes talking down to me" feeling. Quite a few folks got this, especially PS1 vets who didnt follow the game very closley, and only listened to Higs and the crew once or twice.
Most likley its just the usual effect of "this guy is taking away my toys" from PS1 vets who dont quite like how PS2 turned out to be. It appears that those chinese in question are within that category.
So, dont misunderstand me. Higby is a stellar guy, and i hope i can get to drink with him at Gamescon till 5 am again next year. Heh.To be fair, the "lattience system" made it pretty clear that something is off. Lattience just doesnt work in PS2, also never quite worked in Planetside. IT doesnt fix the metagame or anything, it just makes it terrible.Anyway, no to sancs? I bet my balls that we will see sancs again. THey are required for the continent metagame, unless you are able to magically allow us to have 666 + 666 vs 666 (Two pop locks of people of one faction against another faction), and thats not gonna happen.People need a space to go in case shit hits the fan. Cant be the home continent as that system would break whenever said home continent is under full attack.DirtyBird, im with you on that one. Pretty much whenever you actually listen to the dude you notice he got a rather big clue. However, if you dont listen enough, or language barrier strikes, then its easy to get this "hes talking down to me" feeling. Quite a few folks got this, especially PS1 vets who didnt follow the game very closley, and only listened to Higs and the crew once or twice.Most likley its just the usual effect of "this guy is taking away my toys" from PS1 vets who dont quite like how PS2 turned out to be. It appears that those chinese in question are within that category.So, dont misunderstand me. Higby is a stellar guy, and i hope i can get to drink with him at Gamescon till 5 am again next year.
Twitter! __________________(Feature image showing preparation of Kumbh 2019 at Prayagraj by Siddharth Agarwal of Veditum)
EDIT article in SCIENCE magazine by TUSHAR SHAH and others on Ganga: “The quickest, cheapest, and most effective way for Mr. Modi to show a less polluted Ganga by 2019 would be operating dams and barrages in the Ganga basin with the sole objective of augmenting river flows. This would be a start to controlling discharge of untreated sewage and industrial waste, which will take a long time.” http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6414/503 (2 Nov. 2018)
DOWN TO EARTH says about Ganga: “the river will continue to run as – and even more – polluted as ever… Till August 31, 2018, only a little more than a quarter of the total number of projects sanctioned under it (Namami Gange) had been completed… according to CPCB’s Water Quality Map, only five out of the 70-odd monitoring stations on the river had water that was fit for drinking; only seven had water that was fit for bathing…”
-“Down To Earth quotes a study report and CPCB data to say that the actual measured discharge of wastewater into the Ganga is 123 per cent higher than what has been estimated…”
-“Numerous hydroelectric projects on the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda have turned the upper stretches of the Ganga into ecological deserts, says the Down To Earth assessment. The baseflow amount of the river has decreased by a huge 56 per cent in 2016, as compared to the 1970s.”
– “about 180 MLD of sludge will be generated in the five Ganga Basin states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal) when they become ODF. If proper sludge management is not done, this would invariably pollute the Ganga. What should cause further concern is that faecal sludge is a bigger pollutant than sewage – while BOD of sewage is 150-300 mg/litre, that of faecal sludge would be 15,000-30,000 mg/litre.” https://www.cseindia.org/ganga-may-not-flow-clean-in-the-near-future-says-new-analysis-9085 (30 Oct. 2018)
Meanwhile, a new CAG report reveals that almost 26 million litres of untreated sewage still flows into the Ganga every day in Uttarakhand. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/water/uttarakhand-has-failed-to-rejuvenate-the-ganga-through-namami-gange-62027 (2 Nov. 2018)
Continue reading “DRP News Bulletin 05 November 2018: More Reports on Spectacular Failure of Namami Gange Program “ →Well, back to topic, let's review the most probable choices we have, first for the SE Asia civ :- ASEAN is composed of these countries : Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapour, Thailand and Vietnam- EP already ruled out Khmer, Vietnam and Burma.- I am excluding Indonesia, since Jakarta is already a CS in the game.- I am also excluding far too obscure choices for the main public and nation's other names : Brunei (forgive me @Siptah ), Laos, Srivijaya, Majapahit, and so on.With these information combined, we have right now as most possible choices :- Malaysia : with a powerful and booming economy, it could also represent, instead of the "modern country", the ancient malay culture, which is certainly one of the most important in ASEAN history.- Philippines : it's a choice that for some reason seems to be quite popular among players, but if it is added, I believe it will more focused on the post-hispanic period rather than the the pre-hispanic.- Singapour : a modern City-state that is extremely wealthy, and may be the Venice.2 of civ VI.- Thailand : it already has a precedent in the Civ franchise (as Siam in Civ VI), and is the most tourist appealing nation in ASEAN. Everybody has heard about Thailand, may it be for the best or for the worse.On the african case, the choices are still very broad. However, following the same logic, we can already exclude some contesters for their capital being a CS in game :- Ashanti (Kumasi), Madagascar (Antananarivo), Swahili (Zanzibar) and Carthage (Carthage)Among the most possible choices, we 2 kinds of contestant civs : those that were already present before, and those popular among players that have yet to appear.- Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Songhai and Zulu are on the first category, thus making them high possible choices.- Aksum (despite it will probably merged within Ethiopia), Nubians, Numidians, South Africa and Zimbabwe seem to be the most popular african choices among players.Without EP's knowledge, Africa will far more troublesome to guess than SE Asian civ...The Other Holocaust —
the Terror Famine in Ukraine
The Barnes Review
JULY, 1996
By PETER J. LORDEN
People talk about “the holocaust” as if there had been only one this century, and that one unique in human history. But what of the one inflicted by Josef “Stalin” Djugashvili on Ukraine?
Although Ukraine’s holocaust by famine resulted in the deaths of many more people than were ever attributed to Adolf Hitler in the “official” holocaust, and although it happened only a few years earlier, few now living have any perception of it. That’s understandable, as only one “holocaust” is taught in our schools and constantly featured in the media.
[Add. Image] Bodies of the victims of Holodomor
Could this be because those media are heavily influenced by people who have much to gain by promoting one while drawing a blackout curtain across the other? Is it merely by accident that obsessive promotion of the one would be diminished by extensive disclosure of the horrors and dimensions of the other?
Whatever the reasons for this disparity, surely it is time to right the balance. What historian Alfred Lilienthal labeled 20 years ago as “Holocaustamania” still continues in a torrent of books, movies and all manner of media drum-beating; leading some Israelis offended by this exploitation to quip, “There’s no business like Shoah-business.” No such exposure has occurred relative to the Ukraine’s holocaust, although that tragedy is well documented.
Harvard historian James E. Mace was being conservative when he wrote in Famine in Ukraine — 1932-33. [1]
“The Ukrainian famine was a deliberate act of genocide.”
[Add. Image] James Mace (1952 – 2004). For decades the information about Holodomor was a tightly guarded secret, but the truth began gradually to emerge, and after Ukraine’s independence, some documents that were unearthed from the KGB archives threw more light on the tragedy of 1932–1933 in Ukraine. One of the first to start the search for the truth about the famine was a US citizen, the late professor James Mace.
http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20083/84
Marco Carynnyk, writing in the same book under the heading Blind Eye to Murder wrote:
“The victims of the famine in Ukraine were consigned to their slow and agonizing deaths … where once again democratic governments maintained ‘normal relations’ and cooperated in suppressing news about a genocide.”
Yet, only the “official” holocaust has been globally recognized, Carynnyk adding that the other has been;
“met by some with a conspiracy of silence that is little short of criminal.”
Wasyl Hryshko’s The Ukrainian Holocaust of 1933 [2] was published in 1983, and Miron Dolot’s Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust [3] in 1985. The latter stated:
“History has not recorded another such crime as the famine perpetrated against an entire nation, nor one ever carried out in such a cold-blooded manner.”
[Image] This emaciated Ukrainian boy appears to be begging for the most basic mortal necessity-food. A Communist party functionary wrote:“Starvation had wiped every trace of youth from their faces, turning them into tortured gargoyles.”The author Arthur Koestler observed that party-controlled Ukrainian newspapers ran pictures of healthy smiling children while “skeletons tottered in the streets.”
That Dolot was not exaggerating is made horribly clear in the definitive work on this tragedy, Robert Conquest’s The Harvest of Sorrow, [4] published in 1986. Yet none of these well documented accounts seem to have had much effect on public consciousness anywhere. How quickly the world forgets victims of even the most colossal evildoing when those aware of it lack the means to gain public awareness. On an individual basis, perhaps the best remedy would be to ask of anyone bringing up “the holocaust”:
“Which one are you referring to?”
Only a great novelist could make those murdered millions rise and walk before us, make us feel the shame and despair of people deliberately reduced to feeding on grass and tree bark, on diseased horses and dead humans, even the bodies of their own children. Vasilli Grossman’s Forever Flowing goes some way toward that. Others can only recite the bare facts of what happened, and who was responsible.
[Add. Image} Vasilli Grossman’s Forever Flowing
The first thing to be grasped about the Ukrainian holocaust — the greatest single crime of our century — is that it arose within a system which was profoundly evil. Whoever doubts that need only consult Stalin’s Secret War [5] by Nikolai Tolstoy, to whom any writer on this subject must be deeply indebted. For the sheer magnitude of its crimes against humanity, nothing in history can match those of the Bolshevik regime.
V.I. Lenin (born Ulyanov) had declared at the outset:
“The scientific concept of dictatorship means nothing more or less than unrestricted power, resting directly on the use of force... Yes, the dictatorship of one party.”
For its rule to be absolute, people must be made utterly dependent on the state. Thus, private property was to be abolished, along with religion and nationalism. Only one loyalty was to be permitted — loyalty to the party, which later became loyalty to the perversely deified Stalin.
{Add. Image] Vilén, Lenin bewigged and clean shaven, Finland, 11 August 1917
All means of coercion toward this end were approved, all objections regarded as treasonous, all decent motives dismissed as “obsolete bourgeois morality.” To these men, human life was nothing but raw material, to be hacked and hammered into whatever shape their ideology might dictate.
[Image] A Communist “requisition squad” removes grain hidden by Ukrainian peasants desperate to survive. People ate rodents, ants and worms. Robert Conquest estimated in Harvest of Sorrow that five million Ukrainians died. Conquest also noted that forced collectivization killed off some 200,000 Germans of the lower Volga (they had come there due to the encouragement of fellow German Catherine the Great) and that the Cossack regions of the Don and Kuban were totally decimated.
Thus Stalin wrote in 1928 that the purpose of his offensive against farmers throughout the Soviet empire was;
“to remold the peasantry, its mentality and production, along collectivist lines.”
People who thought those “lines” would have anything to do with shared austerity or the cant about “from each according to his capacity and to each according to his need” were sadly — often fatally — mistaken.
Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn estimates in The Gulag Archipelago [6] that some 60 million died there from 1918 to 1953, at which time this horrific system still held some 10 million in camps ranging across one-sixth of the Earth. It was run by the secret police organization, (known first as Cheka, then GPU, NKVD, MGB and finally KGB). Its founder, Felix Dzershinski, said,
“The Cheka is not a court; we stand for organized terror.”
[Add. Image] Felix Dzershinski
Lenin had called for concentration camps as early as 1918, but their great expansion began in 1929. At that time a Turkish Jew and former Black Sea lumber tycoon named Naftaly A. Frenkel dazzled Stalin with a grandiose plan to “build socialism” with slave labor on a starvation diet. His guiding principle:
“We have to get everything out of a prisoner in the first three months; after that, we don’t need him any more.”
[Add. Image] Jewish mass murderer, Lt. General Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel, of the murderous NKVD.
Frenkel’s pitch gained him the title “Chief Overseer of the Labor Battle.” Later he was purpose of his offensive against farmers made a general in the NKVD.
To populate a system where the death rate was so high (intentionally so, because Stalin always feared an uprising), a constant supply of fresh victims had to be supplied. Thus millions of loyal Soviet citizens were falsely accused, and an entire national minority sent to join them. Accusations were especially facilitated by Andrei Vyshinsky’s 1937 decree that it wasn’t necessary to prove a person had said or done something “wrong,” but only that he or she might have done it.
As MGB Col. Vladimir Komarov told a victim:
“You keep saying that you’re only accused but not convicted. You must understand that this distinction does not exist for us. Everyone’s guilty.”
Children were encouraged to denounce their parents; pupils their teachers. Nor were the children spared. They once made up half the Gulag population, it being customary for whole families to be shipped off and worked to death in the Kolyma gold fields or the coal mines of Vokuta. Even 12-year-olds were subject to full penalty, a Ukrainian boy in the Terror Famine getting eight years for having two potatoes in his pocket.
Why hadn’t the Soviet people, including Ukrainians, revolted against this hellish tyranny? Their failure to do so certainly reinforced a negative image of them in the outside world. Yet how could the people rise against Stalin, when most had never known anything but autocracy, and the secret police were everywhere?
Their character is shown in an order sent by NKVD boss Nikolai Yezhov to one of his deputies:
“You are charged with the task of eliminating 10,000 enemies of the people. Report results by signal.”
Such ruthless repression deprived the people of forming a resistance leadership. What could potential rebels do? People had to keep their heads down. In such a milieu, the safest advice was that which Lazar Moyseyevieh Kaganovieh (aka Kogan) gave to his niece:
“Never ask anyone about anything.”
The few centers of rebellion — notably some Ukrainian villages in the Great Famine — were wiped out.
It must also be noted that the lives of millions of people had undergone a huge dislocation, leaving them even more powerless to rebel. As we read in Red Empire [7] by Hughes and Welfare:
“Every industrial revolution requires a massive shift of population from the country to the towns. … Seventeen million people made that journey in the years of Stalin’s Five Year Plan. Illiterate, wretched, hungry, pushed around by a new ruling elite which despised them, these peasant hordes became the new working class of Russia.”
The Terror Famine of 1932-33 was not the first. Ukraine has always struggled for independence from its enormous and aggressive neighbor. That struggle became especially fierce after the Red Revolution, when Ukraine’s declaration of statehood triggered a Bolshevik invasion costing some four million lives. Not only was Ukraine “the bread basket of Europe,” but a region of prosperous and pious farming communities. The southern Ukraine in particular exemplified those three things the Bolsheviks had sworn to abolish-private property, religion and nationalism.
[Image] One of the watch towers built in fields throughout Ukraine farm regions during Stalin’s starvation holocaust. Party activists, such as the Young Pioneers seen in this photo, kept on the lookout for “snippers”; people attempting to gather ears of corn. Any peasant caught with stored grain was treated as a kulak. This meant the family would be shot or deported to slavery in Siberia.
After the massacre of Ukrainian leaders ordered by Lenin — who in 1918 offered his thugs a cash bounty for every landowner and priest they hanged — the 1921-22 famine caused by grain exportation killed millions more. Leon Trotsky was then heading the Red Army, with Gen. R.P. Eideman as his grain-grabbing deputy. Said Trotsky:
“That rich granary is ours!”
[Add. Image] Map (click to enlarge) of the Holodomor Famine Genocide Area in Ukraine and Kuban (gray area). Black border is the current borders of Ukraine. Yellow border was the Ethnographic border in 1930.
http://www.faminegenocide.com/kuryliw/map.jpg
The brutal means used to secure it — along with an anti-nationalist campaign which saw Ukrainians shot dead on the street merely for speaking their own language — caused such a drop in production that famine appeared in other parts of the Red empire. Fearing a general loss of control, the Bolsheviks had to invite foreign aid relief. Even then they insisted, through spokesman Maxim Maximovieh Litvinov, that food relief go only to other parts of the empire, not Ukraine.
In fact, Isidor Larin of Gosplan (a “Five Year Plan” commission) was still pushing for more seizures when transports were leaving points only 20 miles away from starving villages. Yet, Litvinov told the world that the USSR was again exporting grain.
“The Soviet government was actually holding its own starving citizens as hostages to be ransomed for foreign aid.” [8]
This duplicity was neatly illustrated by the spectacle of two ships berthed side-by-side in Murmansk — an American unloading grain for relief and a Soviet loading grain for sale in Hamburg, Germany.
Lenin had to make a tactical retreat. Temporarily abandoning Marxist dogma, his New Economic Plan encouraged Ukrainian culture while fostering the growth of an allegedly independent Communist Party of Ukraine.
Production duly improved. But by 1928 — with Lenin dead and his own position secure — Stalin canceled the NEP. He launched a Five Year Plan of industrialization, to be financed by exports. A principal export was grain. Since Bolshevik theory held that its production — along with political control of the peasantry — could best be increased by forced collectivization, the facade of Ukrainian independence collapsed.
“Collectivization” meant herding all agricultural workers into a kolkhoz or collective farming complex, where the state would own everything and tell them what to do.
[Image] Hollow-eyed peasants “vote” to join a collective farm; the alternative a virtual death sentence of ten years in Siberian concentration camps. Brian Moynahan wrote in The Russian Century:
“Two million kulaks were dumped in ‘special settlements’ on a 400-mile stretch between Gryazovets and Archangel … At Yemetsk, there was a vast camp of families that had been separated from their fathers. Thirty-two thousand lived in 97 barracks, with no medical care.”
Stalin’s first and terribly consequential step toward it was to get rid of independent farmers. This category came to include even the smallest of small holders, such as those who owned more than one cow, or had hired others to work for them.
These kulaks were denounced as “vermin,” “capitalist-readers” and “enemies of the people.” Stalin’s overall plan for “liquidating the kulaks as a class” throughout the Soviet Union was headed by Commissar of Agriculture A. Yakovlev. Its expediter in Ukraine was Yakov Bauman.
In this “dekulakization” campaign of 1929-32, some 3 to 4 million Ukrainians were either murdered or shipped away — often entire families — to early deaths in the Gulags. Only the poorest peasants then remained, and it was these who were left to starve in villages from which the Bolsheviks had systematically removed every scrap of food. KGB defector Viktor Kravchenko wrote of them. [9]
“They had been trapped and left to starve, each in his own home, by a political decision made in a far-off capital around conference and banquet tables.”
[Add. Image] Victor Kravchenko was born in Yekaterinoslav on 11th October 1905. His father, a railway worker, was a socialist who participated in the 1905 Russian Revolution. He was trained as an engineer and worked in the Donets Basin region. He joined the Communist Party in 1929. Kravchenko was an expert in metallurgy and was placed in charge of a rolling mill at Nikopol. He was deeply shocked by the Great Famine that he witnessed in 1932-1933, that was caused by the economic policies of Joseph Stalin.
Kravchenko wrote about these experiences living in the Ukraine in his autobiography, I Choose Freedom (1947):
“People dying in solitude by slow degrees, dying hideously, without the excuse of sacrifice for a cause. They had been trapped and left to starve, each in his home, by a political decision made in a far-off capital around conference and banquet tables. There was not even the consolation of inevitability to relieve the horror. … Everywhere were found men and women lying prone, their faces and bellies bloated, their eyes utterly expressionless.”
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkravechenko.htm
When told in that capital of their hideous suffering, Stalin replied, “Moscow has no tears.”
In July 1932, the Ukrainian Communist Party had seen that a famine was imminent, and asked that expropriations be reduced. Moscow’s response, conveyed by Vyacheslav M. Molotov and Kaganovich, was that the quotas must be met. To ensure this, Stalin sent in the murderous Pavel P. Postyshev with his lieutenants Ye Veger and Mendel M. Khatayevich, the latter a senior member of the Politburo.
Other accomplices included L.I. Kaminsky, chairman of the Collective Farm Center, and V.A. Balitsky, head of the Ukrainian GPU. He reported to Stalin’s crony, a Gen. Voroshilov, in mid 1933:
“From 8 to 9 million people have already perished in the Ukraine alone.”
Given that a few years later Voroshilov would calmly countersign lists of thousands of his brother officers to be executed in Stalin’s purge of the military, this news is not likely to have upset him.
[Add. Image] (left to right) Stalin, Molotov and Kaganovich
But the prime movers and overall enforcers of the Terror Famine were Stalin’s “trustees,” Molotov and Kaganovich, who were to be partners again in the Terror of 1936-38. Roy Medvedev, in All Stalin’s Men, [10] tells us that Molotov, long Stalin’s foreign minister and ever the coldly efficient bureaucrat;
“played a particularly sinister part in Ukraine in 1932, where he directed grain procurement operations in the southern provinces.”
As for “Kogan,” he was always Stalin’s chief trouble-shooter, the man relied on to get things done no matter what the cost in human suffering. When Soviet arms reconquered the Polish Ukraine in 1944, he was the man Stalin sent in to speed up collectivization. Kahan. [11] however, stated:
“Stalin felt that, as a Jew, Lazar would be more ruthless in eliminating Ukrainian nationalist tendencies. … He was not disappointed.”
In addition to the millions dying in Ukraine itself, others died in the nearby Don and Kuban areas. All told, some 8 million Ukrainians starved to death in the holocaust of 1932-33. Meanwhile, Stalin annually sold to the West expropriated grain equivalent to a quarter-ton for each starved individual. No one should doubt that the Terror Famine was man-made, a deliberate act of genocide. It stopped precisely at the Ukraine-Russia border.
[Add. Image] An image of young Ukrainian boys struggling to avoid death by starvation.
Starving Ukrainians were forbidden to leave their homeland, and no one was allowed to bring food into it. Tens of thousands of “loyal” urban communists, brainwashed to view the peasants as their enemies, were sent into the countryside to seek out whatever food the peasants might have hidden. One of them was Isaac Babel, another Lev Kopelev, later well-known as a “dissident writer.” Red Empire [12] quotes him:
“Our great goal was the universal triumph of communism, and for the sake of that goal everything was permissible — to lie, to steal, to destroy hundreds of thousands and even millions of people.”
These expropriators were backed by half-a-million Red Army soldiers and countless GPU agents, not to mention the ubiquitous commissars assigned since 1928 to enforce collectivization.
How these latter had behaved, descending on peaceful villages to bully the peasants into abandoning their independence, is best described by Miron Dolot, [13] who lived through it as a boy. The arrogance of a Commissar Zeitlin is tellingly presented there. Peasants were told, “If you want to eat, join the Kolkhoz!” But in the end there was nothing to eat even there. Watchtowers were set up in the fields and anyone trying to glean a few grains from a harvested field could be shot for “violating socialist property.”
That charge was even brought against men who tried to feed their children by catching fish in a nearby river. These people were supposed to die, and anything they did to avoid it was a criminal act. That there was plenty of food could be seen in piles of grain left to rot; but heavily guarded and maddeningly beyond reach. Whole transports were willfully destroyed in order to boost the export price.
All of this is detailed in The Harvest of Sorrow, previously cited. Overall figures on the death toll from Stalin’s agricultural policy are hard to pin down. As Nikita Khruschev subsequently admitted, without mentioning his own bloody record in Ukraine — “Nobody was keeping count.” And Stalin did his best to ensure that nobody could. He had the 1937 Census Report suppressed and made it a crime even to utter the Russian word for “famine.”
The once-prosperous Don and Kuban areas, where some five million Ukrainians had lived, were reduced to the same utter desolation as their southern homeland. Particularly stomach-turning is Conquest’s chapter on the fate of the children, who may have accounted for some four million of Ukraine’s total dead. Orphans of kulak families were treated with special cruelty-ostracized or beaten-up, denied the little food given others.
Few dared to help them, because of the Leninist axiom: “In the class struggle, philanthropy is evil.” Many were shot or drowned in sunken barges. Thousands of others were left to starve under guard in isolated camps and barns or collected in a “children’s town,” which was actually a bare field. People asking their fate were told, “The Party is looking after them.” Indeed it was — their corpses were hauled away by night.
In the midst of all this, Conquest tells the story of Deputy Commissar of Education M.S. Epstein, who spoke in glowing terms of Soviet child care as compared to the pitiful status of children in “the capitalist countries.” [14]
[Image] Stalin had few prestigious dupes with the intellectual influence of George Bernard Shaw. Here, GBS is being driven in Moscow during the height of the Ukraine forced famine. He wrote in The Times of London that “tales of a half-starved population dwelling under the lash of a ruthless tyrant” were nonsense. He wrote of “crowds of brightly dressed, well-fed; happy-looking workers.” In a time when Orthodox cathedrals and churches were being razed or turned into warehouses, Shaw claimed:
“In the USSR, unlike Britain, there is freedom of religion.”
Were there no foreign aid organizations to help the people starving from collectivization, and not only in Ukraine? Indeed there were, but Stalin long refused to let them in. Soviet President Mikhail Kalinin even branded such organizations as “political impostors.” When foreign food distribution was finally permitted, Ukraine was again excluded. Stalin had learned from Lenin’s famine how effective a weapon hunger could be. He was now using it to crush Ukrainian nationalism once and for all.
No outsiders must interfere with his genocidal project. When it was over in late 1933, Stalin formed a Committee for Migration to settle the depopulated area with Russian farmers, Those sent in had to drag corpses out of the houses and dispose of them. Although they cleaned and whitewashed everywhere, the stench of death remained so pervasive that many gave up and returned to their own homes. As the distinguished editor of New York’s Ukrainian Quarterly, Dr. Walter Dushnyck, summed it up in a 1983 pamphlet, [15]
“This was a gigantic holocaust inflicted on a nation starving to escape Moscow colonialism.”
What was the world’s response to this horror? Some gruesome photos in newspapers, a few demonstrations. But these were mostly swamped by Soviet propaganda. Officials in London and Washington knew the truth, but took the line that this was an internal affair of the Soviet Union, to be ignored for the sake of “preserving diplomatic relations with a friendly power.” Part of a massive cover-up by that power was the carefully sanitized tour for foreign dignitaries such as French Prime Minister Edouard Herriot, who then denounced any talk of famine as “Nazi propaganda.”
The cover-up was also reinforced by communist sympathizers in both the British Foreign Office and the American State Department, as well as by Fabian Socialists George Bernard Shaw and James and Beatrice Potter Webb. Tolstoy tells us [16] that some affluent Americans also helped by pushing for American recognition of the USSR in return for a lucrative deal on stolen czarist artworks.
[Add. Image] Bernard Shaw and Lady Astor with party leaders and Culture of the USSR; far left – Karl Radek
Banker Andrew Mellon and the Hammer clan (principally Armand and his father) were prominent here, Armand’s father having once led the U.S. Communist Party.
A similar role was to be played in the years of 1937-38 by Ambassador Joseph E. Davies, whose best-selling Mission to Moscow, says Tolstoy;
“was a sustained apologia for all of Stalin’s excesses.”
(That role was to be played again in the 1940s, according to Vaksberg, by such American literati as Howard Fast, Sholem Asch, Iilian Hellman and Albert Khan;
“whose shameless lies praising Stalinism and Stalin it is impossible to read without revulsion” [17]
[Image] This ludicrously staged Soviet propaganda scene (implying the wonders of collective farming) loses its humorous aspects when it is realized that it was photographed in 1933, during the Ukraine holocaust. Brian Moynahan wrote in The Russian Century that, three years after the start of collectivization, the number of sheep and goats had been reduced by two-thirds, the number of cattle and horses halved.
Stalin’s chief spokesman in this famine was again Maxim Litvinov, now risen to foreign minister. He steadfastly dismissed all reports of famine in Ukraine as lies put out by “counter-revolutionary provocateurs.” To their eternal discredit, the bulk of the Moscow foreign press corps backed him up. Only a few, most notably the Manchester Guardian’s Malcolm Muggeridge, tried to get the truth out. The rest, anxious to “keep in” with Soviet censors, allowed themselves to be led by a man whom Muggeridge later called:
“The greatest liar I have met in 50 years of journalism.”
That man was Walter Duranty, an English correspondent for the New York Times. He ridiculed “scare stories about a non-existent famine” while privately telling friends that the death toll could reach 10 million. The other correspondents even joined him in lampooning an honest Welsh writer named Gareth Evans, who back-packed through a famine area on his own and published a horrifying account of it in London.
[Add. Image] Walter Duranty (1884 – October 3, 1957) was a Liverpool-born, Anglo-American journalist who served as the Moscow Bureau Chief of The New York Times (1922–36). Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a |
power I shall and will defend this doctrine of his Holiness' right and custom against all usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever, especially the Lutheran of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the now pretended authority and churches of England and Scotland, and branches of the same now established in Ireland and on the Continent of America and elsewhere; and all adherents in regard that they be usurped and heretical, opposing the sacred Mother Church of Rome. I do now renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince or state named Protestants or Liberals, or obedience to any of the laws, magistrates or officers. I do further declare that the doctrine of the churches of England and Scotland, of the Calvinists, Huguenots and others of the name Protestants or Liberals to be damnable and they themselves damned who will not forsake the same. I do further declare, that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of his Holiness' agents in any place wherever I shall be, in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, Ireland or America, or in any other Kingdom or territory I shall come to, and do my uttermost to extirpate the heretical Protestants or Liberals' doctrines and to destroy all their pretended powers, regal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare, that notwithstanding I am dispensed with, to assume my religion heretical, for the propaganda of the Mother Church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents' counsels from time to time, as they may entrust me and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or circumstance whatever; but to execute all that shall be proposed, given in charge or discovered unto me, by you, my ghostly father, or any of this sacred covenant. I do further promise and declare, that I will have no opinion or will of my own, or any mental reservation whatever, even as a corpse or cadaver (perinde ac cadaver), but will unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive from my superiors in the Militia of the Pope and of Jesus Christ. That I may go to any part of the world withersoever I may be sent, to the frozen regions of the North, the burning sands of the desert of Africa, or the jungles of India, to the centers of civilization of Europe, or to the wild haunts of the barbarous savages of America, without murmuring or repining, and will be submissive in all things whatsoever communicated to me. I furthermore promise and declare that I will, when opportunity present, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do, to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or condition; and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics, rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants' heads against the walls, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulating cord, the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity, or authority of the person or persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith, of the Society of Jesus. In confirmation of which, I hereby dedicate my life, my soul and all my corporal powers, and with this dagger which I now receive, I will subscribe my name written in my own blood, in testimony thereof; and should I prove false or weaken in my determination, may my brethren and fellow soldiers of the Militia of the Pope cut off my hands and my feet, and my throat from ear to ear, my belly opened and sulphur burned therein, with all the punishment that can be inflicted upon me on earth and my soul be tortured by demons in an eternal hell forever! All of which, I, _, do swear by the Blessed Trinity and blessed Sacraments, which I am now to receive, to perform and on my part to keep inviolable; and do call all the heavenly and glorious host of heaven to witness the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and witness the same further with my name written and with the point of this dagger dipped in my own blood and sealed in the face of this holy covenant." (He receives the wafer from the Superior and writes his name with the point of his dagger dipped in his own blood taken from over his heart.) Superior: "You will now rise to your feet and I will instruct you in the Catechism necessary to make yourself known to any member of the Society of Jesus belonging to this rank. In the first place, you, as a Brother Jesuit, will with another mutually make the ordinary sign of the cross as any ordinary Roman Catholic would; then one cross his wrists, the palms of his hands open, and the other in answer crosses his feet, one above the other; the first points with forefinger of the right hand to the center of the palm of the left, the other with the forefinger of the left hand points to the center of the palm of the right; the first then with his right hand makes a circle around his head, touching it; the other then with the forefinger of his left hand touches the left side of his body just below his heart; the first then with his right hand draws it across the throat of the other, and the latter then with a dagger down the stomach and abdomen of the first. The first then says Iustum; and the other answers Necar; the first Reges. The other answers Impious." (The meaning of which has already been explained.) "The first will then present a small piece of paper folded in a peculiar manner, four times, which the other will cut longitudinally and on opening the name Jesu will be found written upon the head and arms of a cross three times. You will then give and receive with him the following questions and answers: Question From whither do you come? Answer The Holy faith. Q. Whom do you serve? A. The Holy Father at Rome, the Pope, and the Roman Catholic Church Universal throughout the world. Q. Who commands you? A. The Successor of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus or the Soldiers of Jesus Christ. Q. Who received you? A. A venerable man in white hair. Q. How? A. With a naked dagger, I kneeling upon the cross beneath the banners of the Pope and of our sacred order. Q. Did you take an oath? A. I did, to destroy heretics and their governments and rulers, and to spare neither age, sex nor condition. To be as a corpse without any opinion or will of my own, but to implicitly obey my Superiors in all things without hesitation of murmuring. Q. Will you do that? A. I will. Q. How do you travel? A. In the bark of Peter the fisherman. Q. Whither do you travel? A. To the four quarters of the globe. Q. For what purpose? A. To obey the orders of my general and Superiors and execute the will of the Pope and faithfully fulfill the conditions of my oaths. Q. Go ye, then, into all the world and take possession of all lands in the name of the Pope. He who will not accept him as the Vicar of Jesus and his Vice-regent on earth, let him be accursed and exterminated." Editor's Notes Alberto Ribera taking the Jesuit oath. This oath is taken from the book Subterranean Rome by Carlos Didier, translated from the French and published in New York in 1843. Dr. Alberto Rivera escaped from the Jesuit Order in 1967, and he describes his Jesuit oath in exactly the same way as it appears in this book. Semper idem: always the same. The Jesuit Oath of Induction is also recorded in the Congressional Record of the U.S. (House Bill 1523, Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, Feb. 15, 1913, pp. 3215-3216). Copyright © 2007 by Niall Kilkenny Return to ContentsLos Angeles Cops Found To Be Tampering With Mandated Recording Devices
from the all-the-power,-zero-accountability dept
Who watches the watchers? Well, when you're the Los Angeles Police Department, you watch yourself. And when that kind of watching seems to be inhibiting, you just screw with the "watching" equipment. (via Ars Technica)
Los Angeles police officers tampered with voice recording equipment in dozens of patrol cars in an effort to avoid being monitored while on duty, according to records and interviews.
An inspection by Los Angeles Police Department investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division were missing antennas, which help capture what officers say in the field. The antennas in at least 10 more cars in nearby divisions had also been removed.
Members of the Police Commission, which oversees the department, were not briefed about the problem until months later. In interviews with The Times, some commissioners said they were alarmed by the officers' attempts to conceal what occurred in the field, as well as the failure of department officials to come forward when the problem first came to light.
"On an issue like this, we need to be brought in right away," commission President Steve Soboroff said. "This equipment is for the protection of the public and of the officers. To have people who don't like the rules to take it upon themselves to do something like this is very troubling."
"We took the situation very seriously. But because the chances of determining who was responsible was so low we elected to … move on," [LAPD Commander Andrew] Smith said, adding that it cost the department about $1,500 to replace all the antennas.
To guard against officers removing the antennas during their shifts, Tingirides said he requires patrol supervisors to make unannounced checks on cars.
Since the new protocols went into place, only one antenna has been found missing, Smith said.
Last month, the department conducted a follow-up audit and found that dozens of the transmitters worn by officers in Southeast Division were missing or damaged.
These antennas, linked to both in-car camera systems and officers' body mics, helped increase the recording range. Removing the antennas didn't completely prevent recordings, but it did make it harder to pick up officers' voices once they entered buildings or ventured further away from the receivers located in the vehicles. According to the manufacturer, the antenna boosts the effective range of the body-worn transmitters by roughly a third.When you're watching yourself (something prompted by a decade-long DOJ investigation of the LAPD), you have this luxury. No cop's going to turn in another cop who removes an antenna or otherwise tampers with the department-imposed oversight measures. A whole lot of time elapsed between when the tampering was discovered and when it was finally brought to the attention of those charged with monitoring the monitoring.This is very troubling, and while it's nice of the Police Commission to admit that fact, this tampering points to the officers' underlying resentment of nearly any method of monitoring or control. Many police officers don't like being recorded in public by citizens, so it stands to reason they don't much care for being recorded by the department itself. Hence, antennas go missing.Those who are supposed to be making sure the police officers aren't becoming a law unto themselves seem to have little interest in attacking the mindset that leads to this sort of behavior.Too hard, won't try. That's the standard being applied to the LAPD. Instead of making an effort, band aids are being applied. Officers are now supposed to sign off that the antennas are in place at the beginning and end of their shift. This leaves a gaping hole in coverage (otherwise known as the shift itself) should officers decide they'd rather not be recorded. This hole has received its own band aid.Great, but considering there are many more officers than supervisors, and considering the fact that it tookbefore the missing antennas were brought to the attention of the Police Commission, who really believes this is going to stop officers from disabling antennas during work hours?Oh, Commander Smith believes.Well, that's the sort of result you can expect from self-reporting. Sure, a few cops may get a verbal handslap from a supervisor if they happen to come across a missing antenna, but it's a safe bet these supervisors aren't any happier about their men and women being recorded while on duty. Because if they did care, it never would have gotten to the point where nearly half of the antennas in a single division went missing.With these cops being charged with keeping department-issued antennas present and accounted for, some have opted to go a different route to avoid being recorded.This time there's actually an investigation being opened, months after the original antenna abuse was uncovered by an internal audit (but hidden from the Police Commission). Judging from what's happened previously, there's very little reason to believe this will lead to the ouster of bad cops who don't like accountability. A few scapegoats may be offered up to calm both the public and department oversight, but if a ten-year investigation by the DOJ failed to bring about the sort of systemic change needed, it's highly unlikely an internal investigation will result in anything better.
Filed Under: la, lapd, police, recording, tamperingIt’s an incredible year for Star Wars fans. Episode VII: The Force Awakens arrives in cinemas later this year. Star Wars: Battlefront hits PCs and consoles in November. And with our own genre, Knights of the Fallen Empire, the latest expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, will open from October 27.
Touted as a ‘return to BioWare storytelling,’ KOTFE will see us become ‘The Outlander’, a veteran of the great Galactic War. When the expansion launches, we’ll have nine chapters of new episodic content to play through, with further updates planned shortly after the holiday season. For more information on how that’ll work, I caught up with James Ohlen, Game Director on SWTOR, over at Gamescom.
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Before I get into any of the story reveals shared at Gamescom, it’s worth catching up with
Bill Murphy’s and Jean Prior’s previews on what we’ve already discovered. During the event in Cologne, we were also shown content from Chapter 3, including the famous Carbonite defrosting scene on the planet Zakuul. Which led me to the first question – just how would the transition be handled?
“I don’t want to do spoilers, but I can say that the defeat of the Empire and Republic don’t come instantaneously - it takes a period of time for it to occur.” Ohlen went on to explain that he liked to look at the current game in a similar way to Episode I, II and III of the films, with IV, V and VI being similar the phase they’re entering now. “So you had the wars and everything that happened before, and then some time has passed, and then this is a new era, with new heroes and new villains. But the player is that figure that bridges both gaps. He’s almost like an Obi Wan, except he’s an Obi Wan that doesn’t die! [laughs] It’s that kind of feel.”
Ohlen’s team is also keen to keep supplying new content, with nine chapters being delivered when the expansion launches. Folowing a break for the holiday season, the studio is planning to follow that up with regular updates, possibly as frequent as every month.
“We want to have a game that’s very similar to a TV series. Not a weekly TV series because we just don’t have the ability to produce a new episode every week, but we would love to do a monthly cadence. Now I can’t really promise that because I’ll be killed, but that’s where our goal is. Whenever we’ve had a cadence that’s regular and expected and that fans can trust in, that’s been very successful for us and so that’s what we want to do. We want fans to know that, no matter what, their next episode is going to land on this date. And then it’s going to continue to have the same cadence throughout the year.”
Building the Story
It was abundantly clear, from what I saw at Gamescom, that the cutscene quality in KOTFE has improved significantly. According to Ohlen, it’s something the team has been working on for a long time. “We’ve been focusing a lot on improving the tools and processes for our cinematic designers, and we have been putting a lot of effort in our cinematic tools, and making sure that the team and the tools and the pipelines are going to be able to produce high quality cinematic content on a regular basis.”
“One of the first steps towards that was Shadow of Revan from last year, but we feel we’re there now. So yes, the cinematics that you’re going to see are probably the best we’ve ever done in the game, and you’re going to see a lot of them. And that has to do with the tools, but it also has a lot to do with the team focusing on making sure we can do the best BioWare storytelling possible.”
According to Ohlen, that signature storytelling isn’t just about good quality cinematics, but is also about having meaningful choices with consequences that matter.“We hear the complaints, we know that players feel that you had choices in the original campaigns, but they didn’t have as much of an impact as we would have liked. So we’re making sure that we put more of an emphasis on that. […] We also heard from fans that they don’t want artificial, filler content in their game, so that’s something else we’re really focusing on.”
“What if you had an epic Bioware story, a ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ you could say, like in the Old Republic universe, where it was just focused on telling an epic story where the player was the hero, and you got great choices, and everything you love about choices and cinematic storytelling was there.”
As for having meaningful choices, Ohlen also agreed that it’s likely to improve replayability when playing alts. “Yes, for sure. If you have multiple characters, I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to play through Knights of the Fallen Empire multiple times, just to see how it all rolls out depending on your choice.”
Changing Up Companions
With other famous BioWare franchises such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age, a hero’s companions would change with each sequel – some would stay, others would drift away or become NPCs, and new ones would join up in their place. The same approach is being taken with KOTFE, as Ohlen explained. “Maybe at the beginning they’ll be a little bit apprehensive, but I think once they see how good the story is, and the fact that we haven’t pulled an Alien 3 and just killed off the favourite characters - they’re still around and we’re going to make use of them. We know that they’re characters that people are very much attached to. But make use of them in different ways.”
“One of the lessons we learned from Star Wars: The Old Republic is that I think we were too conservative with our companions. We let gameplay decide, we didn’t want players to not have access to certain characters for gameplay purposes because we felt that would be bad in a massively multiplayer game. And now, looking back at it, there’s other solutions we could have done there while still having that ‘BioWare Choice Matters” element to the game. We can still have the player impact companions, or lose and not have companions, and it won’t affect the gameplay long-term.”
A Deal for Fans
The focus on an epic storyline isn’t by accident. As Ohlen described, it’s also the result of regular, meaningful involvement with the community. “There’s two ways that they give input. There’s the communication obviously either from the forums or from the community events. But then there’s also the communication that we get from metrics that we gather on play style and everything else. Both of them really pointed to one thing, which is that story is the central theme and the best part of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It’s what all our fans wanted. If we could give them an endless epic Star Wars story, they would be happy campers for the rest of their lives.”
“That’s not to say that the other elements of the MMO aren’t important – we have a big contingent of fans in PVP warzones, we have a big contingent of fans who like the coop flashpoints and operations, and those are systems that we’re going to support because they’re a big part of an online world – but the story is really what our community would love to see a lot more of.”
It’s a similar story elsewhere. When I asked Ohlen about the recent community poll on future mounts, and the huge call for Basilisk War Droids, he responded “No promises, but there’s a good chance that it will show up.”
Surprisingly, Knights of the Fallen Empire won’t come with its own price tag. Instead, anyone who’s a subscriber will be able to leap into the new content when it opens on October 27. When you mix in the high rate of planned updates, I asked Ohlen how he was able to make money on the whole deal.
“There’s a whole bunch of answers there. We actually had lots of discussions, and then it became the obvious answer. Obviously, Star Wars: The Old Republic is a business, and needs to continue to roll so that we can continue to produce this great content. But, like a TV series, we want our fans to be at the same moment in time – we don’t want our fans to be scattered across all the different episodes. If you think of a service like HBO, you can binge watch and get to the most current episode, and be with everyone else, and we feel that’s important for our fans as well. So if we gated them by making content cost money, we feel that would not make a good community. So you become a subscriber, you get all the content.”
“But also, we really feel that if you have a vibrant community of subscribers and fans, you’re going to be successful no matter what. Instead of taking the short-term look and saying ‘hey, we can make a bunch of money when we release in October,’ we want to take the long term look. We want to have a healthy Star Wars: The Old Republic universe for years, and so this is a way to encourage more people to come back and we’ve really lowered the barriers of entry.”
As we wrapped up, I asked Ohlen about the longer term future. Would KOTFE be the final large expansion, and would monthly updates take over? “Personally, I would love to continue doing big events every year for Star Wars: The Old Republic. So no, I don’t see it as being the last expansion. I see it as being a refocusing of Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I want to do exciting things every year. That’s what our fans want, that’s what the team wants. So if we can make it happen – which I think we can – there’s nothing saying that in 2016 we won’t have equally exciting things to talk about.The scientific process.
In everyday speech, the word "theory" is used as a "best guess". In modern science, a scientific theory is a tested and expanded hypothesis that explains many experiments. It fits ideas together in a framework. If anyone finds a case where all or part of a scientific theory is false, then that theory is either changed or thrown out.
An example of a scientific theory that underwent many changes is the germ theory of disease. In ancient times, people believed that diseases were caused by the gods, or by curses, or by improper behavior. Germs (microorganisms) were unknown, because germs are too small to see. With the invention of the microscope, germs were discovered, and the germ theory of disease was proposed. Thanks to the germ theory of disease, many diseases can now be cured. However, the germ theory of disease had to be modified, because some diseases are not caused by germs. The flu and scurvy are examples of diseases that are not caused by bacteria, but viruses or poor nutrition. Scientists modified the germ theory of disease, so that today we would state that theory as "Some diseases are caused by germs".
To be a scientific theory, a theory must be tested a large number of times, by different scientists in different places, and must pass the test every time. The theory must be stated exactly, sometimes using mathematics. And it must fit in with all of the other scientific theories. Science has many branches. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy are some of the major branches of science. A scientific theory in one branch of science must hold true in all of the other branches of science. For example, the atomic theory of matter, that all matter is made up of atoms, was discovered using physics, but the chemicals used in chemistry, the living tissue used in biology, the rocks studied in geology, and the planets studied in astronomy are all made up of atoms. The atomic theory of matter holds in every area of science.
Sometimes scientists come up with a theory that is wrong. The discovery of an exception to a scientific theory is a major event, and a scientist can become famous by discovering an exception to a rule. Einstein became famous for his theory of relativity, which found an exception to Isaac Newton's laws of motion. Newton's theory, which had been accepted for hundreds of years, had to be changed, and has been changed.
Here is a list of some of the major theories of modern science. These theories have been tested thousands of times, and no exception has been found.
The atomic theory of matter: all matter is made up of atoms.
The law of conservation of mass and energy: in chemical and physical reactions, mass and energy stay the same, in atomic reactions, mass is changed to energy or energy to mass according to the formula E = mc 2.
. The cell theory of living things: all living things are made up of cells.
The tectonic theory of geology: the surface of the earth is composed of tectonic plates, which move slowly.
The periodic table of elements: atoms are distinguished by their atomic number and atomic weight, and can be arranged in a table which illustrates their properties.
The theory of relativity: scientific laws hold in different frames of reference.
Quantum theory: the smallest amount of energy is a "quantum unit", and all energy comes in multiples of this amount.
The theory of evolution: It explains how living things changed over a long time, and how they have come to be the way they are.John Nyaradi is Publisher of Wall Street Sector Selector, a financial media site focused on news, analysis and information about exchange traded funds and global financial and economic developments. John's investment articles have appeared in many online publications including MarketWatch, Trading Markets, Money Show, Yahoo Finance, Investors Insight, Fidelity, ETF Daily News, iStock Analyst and his interviews have appeared on MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance's Breakout, National Business Talk Radio, Sound Investing, and The Index Investing Show. His book, " Super Sectors: How to Outsmart the Market Using Sector Rotation and ETFs ", is included among the Years Top Investment Books in the 2011 Stock Trader’s Almanac.
Greece, the problem that won't go away, can generate profits instead of disaster for nimble investors.
Greece and the euro zone have been in the news forever, it seems, as the Continent lurches from one crisis to another. Much has been written about the dangers but very little has been discussed about how to profit from what seems to be an unavoidable meltdown in Europe.
In my view, investors are missing out on potential opportunities here because every crisis generates an equal opportunity; in every market there are two sides of the trade as some people lose and others win.
Finally, great dislocations often times are accompanied by great opportunities, and I believe that the continuing situation in Greece and Europe is going to be a global dislocation that will likely generate tremendous volatility with concurrent enormous short term profit opportunities.
Here's a quick rundown of where we are now:
1. New elections are to be held on June 17 and apparently the tide continues to turn in favor of the antiausterity Syriza party, which says it won't approve the austerity measures already negotiated with Europe.
2. The G-8 meets this weekend with Greece and Europe at the top of the agenda. German Chancellor Merkel reportedly wants Greece to have a referendum on staying in the euro while she and newly elected French President Hollande met to discuss their divergent approaches to solving the European crisis.
3. World stock markets continue to sell off, along with the eurodollar as investors fret over the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone and eurodollar and what that might mean for contagion and global financial stability.
So the dangers seem clear, but dangers bring opportunity and so here are some ideas for seeking profits should the worst come to pass in Europe:
1. PowerShares Bullish Dollar ETF UUP, +0.00% : The dollar has been on a sharp rise, up approximately 3% since the beginning of May. Many experts predict that the euro will continue to fall and the dollar will continue to rise as the "flight to safety" trade continues.
2. ProShares UltraShort Europe EUO, +0.42% : This ETF is designed to track 2X inversely to the eurodollar and is up about 7% since early May. Many analysts forecast that the euro will continue to drop and some are even saying that the euro could once more reach parity with the dollar as investors flee for the safety of other currencies. Leveraged ETFs are tricky to use as they readjust daily and compounding of gains/losses can work for or against you, and so you must fully understand these products before venturing into these waters.
Another, more straightforward option for a "short" position against the euro would be to short CurrencyShares EuroTrust FXE, -0.16% which has declined more than 3% since the beginning of May.
3. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond TLT, -0.91% : U.S. Treasury Bonds have been in a sharp uptrend in recent days along with the dollar, and this fund has gained nearly 6% since the beginning of May. Long-dated Treasuries are now near record highs, and 10-year Treasury yields are at record lows so the bond market is clearly in a panicked state over the future of the global financial system.
4. Active Bear ETF HDGE, +1.02% is up approximately 15% since the beginning of May. This ETF actively shorts various U.S. companies and current holdings include Goodyear GT, -0.23% SanDisk SNDK Rockwell COL, +0.00% and Green Mountain Coffee GMCR This ETF comes with a management fee, however. If Greece implodes, it is quite likely that the ripple effect will spill over into the United States and take U.S. stock markets lower than it already has and this ETF is a good way to get short exposure in the U.S.
So, danger always brings opportunity. At Wall Street Sector Selector we currently hold positions in TLT and HDGE, among other positions designed to profit from further problems in Europe and we see the likelihood of lower global equity prices and continued flight to quality as we head toward the climactic Greek elections in June.
Wall Street Selector owns positions in HDGE and TLT.Publisher 2K Sports announced that it will be revealing a host of details about the upcoming WWE 2K14 on its Twitch.TV channel today and tomorrow, including gameplay improvements and the roster reveal for the 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode.
All you need to do is click on 2K's official Twitch.TV channel and then enjoy the shows. Here's the schedule, as well as details on each of the three presentations, courtesy of 2K Sports:
WWE 2K14 Gameplay Livestream
Friday, August 16 at 12 p.m. PDT
Senior Game Designer Bryan Williams and Interactive Marketing Manager Aubrey Sitterson walk you through full WWE 2K14 matches
Showcasing new and improved gameplay elements like OMG Moments, Catching Finishers, the new reversal system and more
WWE 2K14 30 Years of WrestleMania Roster Reveal
Saturday, August 17 at 12:30 p.m. PDT
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler and WWE Superstar Damien Sandow reveal the full 30 Years of WrestleMania roster in-ring at SummerSlam Axxess
WWE 2K14 30 Years of WrestleMania Symposium
Saturday, August 17 at 6:45 p.m. PDT
WWE Superstars and Legends take a look back at some of their favorite WrestleMania moments.
Our Take
I haven't played a WWE game in a few years, so I'm not likely to tune into the first few streams. The last one has a lot of potential, even if you don't plan on picking up WWE 2K14. I grew up watching pro wrestling, and I have a lot of fond WrestleMania memories. Of course, mine mostly center around drinking lots of soda and eating pizza in my living room. The wrestlers are likely to have better stories, which is why I'll be watching.The effect of movies featuring dogs on the popularity of dog breeds can last up to ten years and is correlated with the general success of the movies, according to new research from the University of Bristol, the City University of New York, and Western Carolina University.
The study, published today in PLOS ONE, also found that movies' influence was strongest in the early twentieth century and has declined since.
The researchers used data from the American Kennel Club, which maintains the world's largest dog registry totalling over 65 million dogs, and analysed a total of 87 movies featuring dogs. They found that the release of movies is often associated to an increase in popularity of featured breeds over periods of one, two, five, and ten years.
Additionally, they found that these trend changes correlated significantly with the number of viewers during the movie's opening weekend, considered as a proxy of the movie's reach among the general public.
This suggests that viewing a movie may cause a long-lasting preference for a breed that can be expressed years later, when the time comes to buy a new dog.
The impact of movies has been large. The ten movies with the strongest ten years effect were associated, the authors found, with changes in registration trends such that over 800,000 more dogs were registered in the ten years after movie release than would have been expected from pre-release trend.
The 1943 hit Lassie Come Home is associated, in the following two years, with a 40 per cent increase of Collie registrations in the American Kennel Club. An even more dramatic example is the 100-fold increase in Old English Sheepdog registrations following the 1959 Disney movie The Shaggy Dog.
Professor Stefano Ghirlanda, lead author of the study said: "We focused on changes in trend popularity rather than on popularity itself to avoid attributing to movies trends that were already ongoing before movie release, as up-trending breeds may have been chosen more often for movies."
The team also discovered a general decrease during the century of movies' influence on the success of dog breeds. Earlier movies are associated with generally larger trend changes than later movies. This might be due to an increased competition with other media, such as television, and more recently, the internet, but also to an increased competition among movies. Movies featuring dogs were released at a rate of less than one per year until about 1940 but a rate of more than seven per year by 2005.
The authors had previously shown how dynamics in dog breed popularity are subject to the erratic fluctuations typical of fashion and fads. For example, they discovered that the more rapidly puppy registrations increased, the more rapidly their popularity declined, a phenomena also found for baby names popularity.
Additionally, they showed that popularity of breeds is unrelated to breed temperament and health. Hal Herzog, co-author of the paper said: "On the whole, breeds with more desirable behaviours, greater longevity, and fewer inherited genetic disorders did not become more popular than other breeds. In short, cultural shifts in types of pets largely reflect ephemeral changes in fashion rather than selection for functional traits."
Cultural dynamics are often considered too whimsical to be subject of scientific enquiry but, the authors argue, studies like this demonstrate that influences on popular culture can be detected and quantified, given the right data.
But what are the consequences for the dogs? Dr Alberto Acerbi, a Newton Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol and co-author of the paper said: "If people buy en masse dogs because they appear in movies the consequences can be negative for the dogs themselves. Our previous study found that the most popular breeds had the greatest number of inherited disorders.
"It's not surprising that we tend to follow social cues and fashions, as this is a quite effective strategy in many situations. However, in particular cases the outcomes can be negative. When choosing a new pet, we may want to act differently."Adventure games have had somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. Thanks to studios like Telltale Games as well as distributors like Steam and GOG, old-school gamers have been given the opportunity to revisit some of the classics from years past, and younger ones who missed out the first time around get to see what the hype was all about. Along with the old classics being reissued, developers are taking the basic tools of the genre and using them to craft entirely new stories. One of these is Resonance by xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games. It is a contemporary thriller in which you navigate four characters, each with a part to play and a stake in the outcome, as they work to figure out the cause of a mysterious explosion and the implications of the technology behind it.
On the surface, the design of Resonance is familiar. If you’ve ever played a point-and-click game, it will feel familiar right away. If not, there’s a handy ‘How To Play’ tutorial accessible from the main menu. Left-clicking the mouse triggers context-sensitive actions, and right-clicking will examine an item and provide you with vital information. Once you have items in your inventory, you can use them on items by selecting and dragging them over to a person or thing. It’s an intuitive system that minimizes the amount of trial and error gameplay that often pl |
, this is any human being. If you tested rats and you gave a rat one easy maze with some cocaine at the end, or a harder maze to get less, they’re gonna go and get the coke. It’s the same thing. It’s this big fucking scheme that we’re living in in America and that’s not even presumption, that’s statistical and factual. You can’t tell me otherwise.
“So my music is just an outward representation of my life. Our lives. And I’m not trying to promote any separatist notions, because I don’t want to separate people at all, but I am – as a mixed person who is literally white and black – trying to ask everybody to look at the big picture. This is what’s happening in America. It’s also happening in Britain. And it’s also happening in the Middle East. There’s a fucking emotional and intellectual apartheid. It’s set up. It goes deeper than where one city ends and another begins; it’s set up in people’s psyche.
“And I know this is how it is because, like I said, I’ve played both sides. I got to have friends and date people on the other side. My mother made sure that I went to school outside of my ‘hood because they weren’t paying enough attention to the people in my ‘hood. So I went elsewhere and got an education that’s different to the one I would’ve got and I got to observe my ‘hood from an outsiders perspective.”
Most editors would advise against using a block quote like the above in a piece of writing, but how could I interrupt that? Besides, it’s not listening to people with experiences like Jason’s that have lead to The Absolute Fucking State Of Things Right Now. And with the truly dire place rock music finds itself in with its so-called rock stars never threatening to say anything with even a fraction of the worth of this, Butler’s words warrant this space.
In 2016 with the rock scene we have – a rock scene that Butler and his band are, themselves, a part of – we’ll just have to play the hand we’ve been dealt and look forward. Before our time is up, I pose Butler one final question: What do you want from your rock scene?
“Awareness, man.” He responds, with a shake of the head. “If I say the shit I say on stage, I just don’t want it to be mind-blowing to people anymore.”
Then, Butler poses the best question of the afternoon.
“I think about this often,” he warns. “What if every band didn’t worry about what the label thought or what the industry told them to be? I know that’s a very ambitious thought, but it’s the ambitious thoughts that keep me going.”As reviewed by The Car Family
This is not going to be a great year for new cars so if you can get a great deal on a 2007 model you may want to move now. There are essentially only a handful of vehicles that can stir the credit juices and most of them ignore the current cost of fuel.
Aston Martin DBS
We have snuck some rides in the Aston Martin and found them underwhelming for the price. Good looking to be sure, but resale value could cost you plenty.
Audi
This company is rapidly becoming the most aggressive European firm delivering well-priced products that impress both in driving dynamics and interior comforts. The A4, one of our favorites, gets larger, thankfully, and comes with a variety of engines from the base 200 horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four to the 3.2-liter V-6 with 264 horsepower. Transmission choices consist of a six-speed manual, six-speed automatic, and CVT. We found the CVT excellent giving us over 35 mpg on the highway. As usual, you can order Quattro all-wheel drive. Starting around $30,000.
Audi also brought to market a new TT Coupe and Roadster that are better in every way. However the biggest sound out of Audi is that of the overpriced Porsche 911 hitting the obsolete pile. The R8 is Audi’s mid-engine sports car complete with a 420 hp engine that gets to 60 mph in just over four seconds. Terrific handling, and much more civilized than the Porsche. Better looking too. And you can even get a rear view camera to help with parking this peach.
Accompanying these outstanding new products is a RS 4 Cabriolet. With the same 420 hp at 7,800 rpm engine that comes in the R8 plus a S5 two-door coupe featuring a 354 hp 4.2 FSI V8 engine or a 265 hp 3.2 FSI V6 engine.
Bentley Brooklands
The Bentley Brooklands coupe has 530 horsepower derived from a twin-turbocharged 6.75 liter V8, but don’t bother looking for the 550 because, despite a $340,000 plus price tag, they have all been spoken for. The sexy Continental GT gets more power, is less expensive, and gets more looks, but it doesn’t have the space or the collector interest.
BMW
The 1-Series is in the house. Smaller, bubbly, and fast, this new BMW comes with some dynamic engines, including the possibility of the twin-turbo 300 horsepower powerplant. Look for several versions from convertible to coupe to sedan in the coming years.
The M3 finally gets a V8 and everything else BMW has more power. Forget the horsepower numbers, they can’t begin to explain the spine-tingling, addicting, and expensive pleasure these driving machines provide. Pay the man.
Buick
The Enclave is a loaded crossover Buick that shares its platform for the well regarded GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook. It comes loaded with features such as xenon headlights and can carry eight adults. You get your choice of all wheel or front wheel drive and it is quite elegant for the price. Meanwhile, Buick is also bringing its LaCrosse and Lucerne vehicles into battle with a Super title going to those with a little jazzier exterior and a handling package. Some engine tweaks might create a minor buzz, but the big news here is 300 horsepower engines under the hood.
Cadillac
Cadillac continues to impress with fresh designs and potent powerplants. The CTS has been redesigned and has two engine choices of note. There is the 3.6-liter V6 with direct fuel injection that provides about 300 horsepower and one without this feature that has 263 horsepower. Cadillac is also tempting the younger buyer with a hard-drive enabled stereo and a V8 that could well bust through the 400 horsepower ceiling. The STS can be had as a supercharged 469 horsepower STS-V or a milder V6. The revamped styling makes a compelling case to rethink Cadillac as an oldster’s car.
Chevrolet
Chevrolet Malibu gets a facelift and loses the handy Maxx version. The Malibu is a much more complete car than the one it replaces and you can add a panoramic sunroof and a 252-horsepower all-aluminum V6. This car easily competes with similar sedans from Ford, Nissan, and Toyota for value and features.
Chevrolet’s Tahoe GMC Yukon hybrids now can operate at low speeds on electric power alone. If you need a really big SUV this might be of note, but the Saturn Outlook, Buick Enclave and are easier to live with, smoother, and better values.
Chrysler/Dodge
We tested the Sebring and its cost in the $30,000 range makes it a bit dear. You can get it with a soft top or a retractable hardtop and still have room in the trunk.
The Town and Country van is new and better. There is a delightful Swivel ‘n Go seating system that features second-row seats that swivel 180 degrees to face the third row. You also get a removable table that installs between the two rows, an integrated booster seat and power-folding rear seats as options. Better performing engine choices and better handling make this easily as good as the Honda Odyssey for families. However, the Kia Sedona is less expensive, albeit without some of Chrysler’s unique and useful features.
Dodge’s Avenger is a smaller version of the Charger and comes with available all wheel drive. You can also get it with a sports tuned suspension, a hard drive for the stereo, and an easy to live with price. This is well worth a test drive if you are looking for a mid-sized sedan with a little attitude.
Viper’s V10 now makes 600 horsepower and is a little easier to live with on the street.
Ferrari
The only news is the 430 Scuderia. For about $225,000 you can own a 503 horsepower coupe that weights just 2800 pounds. Since we can’t even get waited on in a Ferrari showroom let alone get a test drive, we don’t know anything about this Italian. Just pay the premium, pay the gas-guzzler tax, and drive around town all day in second to hear that glorious exhaust note.
Ford
Ford’s Focus looks different this year and has a suspension upgrade. The Shelby GT convertible, which loaded goes for over $35,000, can be ordered as a coupe or convertible. Nice looking, but the handling is the best part. The Shelby GT500 KR has a higher output engine that produces over 500 horsepower.
The Ford previously known as the Five Hundred is now the Taurus. Finally getting some needed horsepower, this well regarded family vehicle has a new 3.5 liter 260 horsepower V6 and optional all-wheel-drive system. Still sedate, it is a comfortable ride with no pretensions of being something other than a safe sedan. Ford is also brings a Taurus X, a SUV that has a 3.5-liter V-6 and is the closest thing that Ford offers to the old LTD station wagon in terms of being useful. It is similar to the awfully good Ford Edge and both are the best SUVish vehicles Ford has ever produced.
Honda
Honda’s all-new Accord coupe and sedan are bigger. The ride and quietness are also upgraded in the new model. The new Honda fits into the middle of the Nissan Altima and the Toyota Camry, but isn’t much ahead of either. And don’t forget competition from the Ford Fusion and the new Chevrolet Malibu.
The Honda has three engines. The new 3.5-liter V-6 has 268 horsepower and delivers exceptional gas mileage with its running on three, four, or six cylinder technology. But our favorite is the midlevel 190-horsepower four-cylinder engine. Plenty of poke and gas mileage near the top of the 20 mph grouping. Brakes are okay, but someone has been a bit too smart with the interior and it takes getting used to some of the knobs and gauges. The rear seat does not split when folded down and the trunk is the same size as the last model. This will truly be a test for Honda loyalists, but the handling and fuel mileage should enable the Accord to appease the choir.
Hyundai
Every year we are surprised at the quality of the Hyundai products. This year the large SUV, the Veracruz, surfaced and it is a good one. A powerful engine, refined ride, lots of standard features, and a price well under the competition make this a value leader. Also keep your eyes out for a Genesis sedan with a large output engine.
Infiniti
The G37 Coupe with its V6 engine producing 330 horsepower is a looker. It can make the BMW look sheepish for a lot less money. In the wings is a new small crossover.
Jaguar
Jaguar XF and XJ have been redesigned. A XKR Portfolio with a 420 horsepower engine is coming and so is a smaller Jaguar. Our advice is to wait for the new S model if you are looking for a sedan. Regardless, with Jaguar’s quality numbers improving and its elegant looks, this is the car to own if you want to make a statement about class.
Jeep Liberty
The Liberty is slightly larger and has a “Sky Slider” canvas roof option. It can be purchased with an entertainment system that includes a 20-gigabyte hard drive for storing music and files. The freshened Jeep has a 210-horsepower 3.7-liter V6. You can order a new Selec-Trac II full-time system or Command-Trac part-time system. The Grand Cherokee gets a face lift and the rest of the line is stable.
Kia
Nothing new here, but this manufacture has some stimulating bargains in the Sedona van and its small and large sedans. We absolutely adore the Kia Rondo. It is a must drive for families who want a tidy minivan that handles well and gets excellent fuel mileage.
Lexus
Lexus is clearly going after BMW, and also stepping all over the expensive manicured nails of the Porsche Boxter with its new high-performance IS-F featuring a 5-liter V8 engine with an estimated 400 horsepower and an eight-speed automatic transmission. If this isn’t too nose heavy there is simply no reason to buy the Porsche, and the free maintenance plan from BMW may be all that separates this Lexus from their M squad.
Also new is the Lexus flagship, the long-wheelbase LS 600h L with a new 5-liter V8, dual-stage continuously variable transmission, and two electric motors, giving a peak output of 430 horsepower. And, this heavily equipped sedan also has all wheel drive. Priced at just under $110,000, this is the Lexus showpiece. Fairly fast, capable of consistent fuel mileage of about 24 mpg, and with enough options to make it the equal of much more expensive German sedans, this is one Lexus you need to drive to appreciate. Be warned, there isn’t much trunk space, but the backseat room is huge. Also online is a thirsty SUV dubbed the LX 570. With a to 381 horsepower V8, this is a big SUV with pretty much everything as standard equipment.
Mazda
Mazda’s real sleeper is the M5 minivan. This handy sized van does everything well and, although not a speed merchant, can keep up on the highway. Well priced and it has an interior that is very well laid out. An underrated vehicle. Mazda’s Speed6 has all wheel drive and a turbocharged engine, but it is listed at nearly $30,000. Stick with the base model and save a bundle if you can live without the speed part. As always the car formerly known as the Miata is just plain fun. It comes with an available retractable hardtop and has just enough power to make driving a delight. A perfect sports car for those who like to drive, but don’t have a lot of money.
Maserati Gran Turismo
The GranTurismo coupe is eye catching and has 405 horsepower, but it isn’t quick and isn’t that great at handling a twisty course. On the other hand, it is a magnificent grand touring machine and is elegant as well as athletic. This is one car that photos don’t do justice.
Mercedes
What an improved portfolio. The new C-Class is bigger, better, and comes in a diverse array of products including the C300 Luxury, C300 Sport and C350 Sport with engines yielding from 228 horsepower to 268 horsepower. You can also order all-wheel-drive and all models have a 7-speed automatic transmission. The smilemobile from Mercedes is the CL63 AMG, with 457 horsepower in a convertible no less. Call us smitten. Still, our very favorite family vehicle is the E Class Bluetec sedan with the diesel engine that provides 35 mpg on the road and plenty of spunk in traffic. Starting prices are around $52,000, but worth every penny. The diesel also comes in other model Mercedes products, but is not available in all states.
Nissan
The Altima coupe is adorable. Smallish, lightish, and with an optional 270 horsepower V6, this is one mean dog. Nicely priced and it clearly shows that you don’t have to pay Porsche or BMW prices to have a canyon runner with legs.
Rogue. This crossover style SUV is interesting looking, but hardly elegant. It almost looks old right out of the box. With a tight, but well planned interior the Rouge is certainly a much superior vehicle than the awful Hummer models. A lot of interior storage and a 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder that is ample for most driving endeavors. The CVT works very well. Nissan seems to have the best version of this economic transmission marvel and we highly recommend it if you travel in traffic a great deal. You can even get paddle shifters to help you feel in control. The handling is super and you can easily get in the low 20-mpg range. Pricing is very competitive making the crossover SUV market the most interesting for buyers.
Porsche
Porsche is offering a more powerful 911 that is also more expensive. No wonder they are one of the biggest money making car manufacturers on the planet. We have found the 911s are good, but the others not. Our reward for publishing that information was that Porsche has refused to let us test any more products after doing it for over a decade. Our best advice is not to be swayed by the speed, but check the service department and talk to technicians before paying those insurance premiums and maintenance fees. Nevertheless, the Porsche cabriolet is a most solid open top car. You might want to check out the “Is Your Porsche a Lemon” article.
The Porsche Cayenne has a more powerful engine, still gets questionable gas mileage, and has very little interior room. But, hey, it’s a Porsche, and who ever said buying a car had to be a rational decision.
The expensive 911 Turbo Cabriolet is really a bargain considering it is one of the fastest convertibles available with a 480-horsepower engine. It can probably outrun the sun’s rays. But, check those insurance rates and maintenance fees first. If you can handle it, this is the ragtop to own.
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi’s Lancer is nice looking, as are all Mitsubishi products, but doesn’t have the solid feel we like for the money. Like Mazda, it is trying to capture the sporty but frugal buyer and that is difficult to do. The Evolution should be the big draw at the dealership, but this rocket is a bit too edgy for us. A good warranty and good looks keeps this company ticking.
Pontiac
Pontiac’s GXP version of the G6 comes in coupe of sedan form and is quite interesting in both appearance and interior appointments. However, the whole world is waiting for the rear-wheel-drive G8 with a 3.6-liter V6 or 362 horsepower 6.0-liter V8 engine choice.
Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe.
It costs over $400,000, uses gas like a broken pipeline, and has front opening doors. All this makes it special to those who are into conspicuous consumption.
Saab
A much better 9-3 breaks cover this year with less torque steer, very good fuel mileage, and excellent safety features. The convertible is stunning. Look for all wheel drive in future models and a 280-horsepower turbocharged V6 for the 9-3 sedan and SportCombi wagon.
Saturn
They are putting a lot of work into the new Saturn line and it is bound to pay off. The Astra is an excellent replacement for the Ion and the Vue is so much better than it s predecessor that it deserves a new name. The Vue comes in a hotted up Red Line version and a Green Line model with some hybrid features such as an engine that shuts off at stoplights. These two vehicles added to the already worthwhile Aura make the Saturn lineup the strongest in the General Motors family for utility and gas mileage.
Scion
The xB is completely redesigned and the xD replaces the xA. The xB has been made more spacious. The xD is the smaller and has the lesser price tag. All this is very confusing. The best bet is to see them side-by-side and you are going to notice a huge difference. For a couple of extra thousand the xB offers more of everything, including a 158 horsepower engine and room for five adults. You can get pretty much everything as an option, but the most appreciate feature is the higher output engines. We like the tossability of the xB, but it is hard to resist the extras you get with it big brother, the xB. If you need room, want to make a statement, and can’t resist cute these are good deals.
Smart
Well, the Smart is here, finally. The two models are the fortwo coupe and fortwo cabrio both of which are less than nine feet long making them easy to park, maneuver, and garage. Look for prices to start in the low $10,000 range with the cabriolets getting much more dear. Fuel economy isn’t all that great, but this is a handy vehicle and so the 40 mpg or so figure might not be its main selling point. A great delivery vehicle, the Smart does not feel small on the inside and can keep up with traffic but side winds get your attention.
Subaru
A new look, a few more horsepower are what Subaru is offering this year. As always a fun car to drive and very fuel efficient for all wheel drive models.
Suzuki may have the best vehicle you never heard of for sale this year. The SX4 sedan is chassis has responsive handling, and a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine producing 143 horsepower priced under $14,000 this Suzuki is available with front wheel drive. Given the terrific warranty this Suzuki is deserving of a test drive.
Tesla Roadster
For just under $100,000 you can own a battery powered two seat roadster that can go up to 200 miles before recharging and is quite fast. Not for everyone, but the promised sedan might be. The Tesla uses lithium-ion batteries so do your homework about these before you buy.
Toyota
Where is the Corolla?
While waiting for that much-anticipated model consumers will have the opportunity to buy a all new Highland with a better chassis and more room and power from an available 270 horsepower V6. A hybrid version is also planned with an electric only option until the car reaches 25 mph. Interestingly, the Lexus 400 RX hybrid we drove two years ago did this until over 30 mph.
Volkswagen
The GTI gets a anniversary edition, the Jetta gets a long awaited wagon version, the Golf gets a R32 all wheel drive version with 250 or so horsepower, and a terrific new small SUV called the Tiguan comes to life for Volkswagen. Look for more diesels, and a Touareg 2 large SUV. This could be the year that Volkswagen starts an upswing in sales, especially if they get those diesel models certified in all states.
Volvo
The Volvo V30 is a retro styled two-door hatchback that harkens back to the Volvo P1800. If you can’t remember that don’t worry, this nice looking sporty coupe is pricey, fairly fast, and has a subdued interior. The V30 is sure to be noticed, but it’s priced way too high to bring in many youthful buyers and not powerful enough to entice those who like to drive hard despite a turbocharged five cylinder engine. Lots of safety features.This week, the American Legislative Exchange Council, or "ALEC," will bring together hundreds of corporate lobbyists with state and local politicians at a posh hotel in San Diego for the group's annual meeting.
ALEC alum Scott Walker, who has signed over 20 ALEC bills into law, will address this month's meeting, as well as Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, who participated in ALEC meetings before he joined the U.S. Senate. Community groups are planning on bringing a little transparency to the proceedings, by welcoming the candidates and ALEC participants on July 22.
ALEC has had a mixed year. Over a dozen companies, including tech giants Google and Facebook, stopped funding the group over its role in promoting climate change denial, yet after the 2014 elections gave Republicans control of 68 out of 98 state legislative bodies, some states have had few impediments to the corporate-friendly legislation that ALEC peddles. For example, in just the first half of 2015, Wisconsin became a "right to work" state and repealed the prevailing wage; Michigan blocked local control over minimum wage and paid sick days; and Texas banned cities from regulating fracking.
A look at the San Diego ALEC agenda tells us more about what ALEC has planned for 2015 and beyond.
Attacking Federal Efforts to Rein in Carbon Pollution
Even though California is suffering from a historic drought, the climate change deniers on the Environment and Agriculture Task Force will be working on new ways to stymie action addressing carbon emissions.
In recent years, ALEC has targeted the Environmental Protection Agency's "Clean Power Plan," which is a set of rules limiting carbon dioxide pollution from coal plants. At the behest of its funders like Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, and American Electric Power, ALEC has been organizing a state-level campaign against the rules: the group organized legislators to press their state attorneys general into joining litigation backed by the energy industry that challenges the regulations, adopted a model resolution attacking the plan, and last December adopted a model bill that would create new hurdles for the Plan's implementation.
At this month's meeting, the Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force--which is chaired by American Electric Power-- will consider a "State Power Accountability and Reliability Charter (SPARC)," which seeks to undermine the Clean Power Plan by declaring that state agencies cannot implement it. And, the task force's "Energy Subcommittee" will hold a discussion on "State Responses to EPA’s Proposed Clean Power Plan."
Another model bill on the ALEC agenda is the "Environmental Impact Litigation Act," which effectively allows corporate interests to hire a state's Department of Justice as their own private attorneys. The bill creates a corporate-backed fund for states to sue over federal environmental laws--such as the EPA's Clean Power Plan--guided by an "environmental impact litigation advisory committee" made up of political appointees and representatives of "individuals representing agriculture and energy trade commissions."
Undermining Renewable Energy
ALEC will also double-down on its attacks on rooftop solar and renewable energy.
For the last few years, ALEC and funders like Edison Electric Energy have promoted bills to repeal state Renewable Portfolio Standards, which require utilities to provide some power from renewable sources. Despite support from the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity, ALEC has had limited success in pushing these bills into law, so the group is looking for new ways to undermine renewable standards.
The latest effort is called an "Act Providing Incentives for Carbon Reduction Investments." The industry-friendly bill would free utilities from the requirement that they produce more energy from renewable sources, as long as they claim to make "carbon reduction investments"--which includes controversial programs like carbon sequestration, or campaigns to encourage consumers to reduce energy use. This would undermine the purpose of the renewable standards, which is to promote a shift to renewable energy.
Thwarting Rooftop Solar
Solar will also be on the agenda. ALEC has tried in a variety of ways to reduce incentives for individuals and businesses to build rooftop solar panels by raising the costs. Over the last few years, ALEC and its utility industry funders have promoted bills to eliminate "net metering," which gives solar users a credit for excess energy they feed back into the grid, and have been behind efforts to impose a surcharge on rooftop solar users. With few exceptions, these efforts have failed, thanks to strong support for solar from conservatives who like the self-sufficiency that rooftop solar provides, and the fact that in many states the solar industry is creating manufacturing and construction jobs.
In San Diego, ALEC will consider a proposal called a "Resolution Concerning Special Markets for Direct Solar Power Sales" that aims to prop-up the monopolies enjoyed by traditional utilities and oppose direct-to-consumer solar sales. It will be coupled with a presentation called "Consumer Protection Concerns Surround Rooftop Solar Model Policy." In many states, solar developers are allowed to install panels on a customer's home or business for free, then sell the power directly to the consumer, rather than through a monopoly utility provider like Peabody Energy.
Direct-to-consumer energy sales that bypass heavily-regulated monopoly utilities might be viewed as the sort of "market disruption" that free market adherents claim to support. After all, ALEC has celebrated the emergence of ride-sharing companies like Uber because they disrupt taxi monopolies and allow direct-to-consumer ride sales.
The key difference is that ALEC is bankrolled by utility companies. ALEC funders like Peabody Energy, Duke Energy, and Murray Energy are not pleased about the threat to profits posed by direct-to-consumer solar, so therefore it must be crushed, free market principles be damned. Incredibly, the "Resolution Concerning Special Markets for Direct Solar Power Sales" declares that direct-to-consumer solar is "antithetical to free markets."
The proposal appears to come from the climate change deniers at the Heartland Institute.
"Beepocalypse Not"
At this meeting, ALEC is denying more than climate change. It also is apparently denying the mass die-off of bees, which threatens food supplies--two-thirds of crops require bee pollination--and which scientists have linked to type of insecticide produced by ALEC member Bayer and other companies. Until recently, Bayer had a representative on ALEC's corporate board and has been listed as the ALEC corporate co-chair in states like Massachusetts, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas.
Bayer has been actively pushing back on the notion that its products contribute to a bee colony collapse. According to a report from Friends of the Earth, Bayer recently launched a "Bee Care Tour” as well as a children’s book "in which a friendly neighborhood beekeeper tells young Toby that the bees are getting sick, but 'not to worry' it's just a problem with mites, and there is special medicine to make bees healthy"--medicine that Bayer produces, of course.
At this month's ALEC meeting, bee die-off denialists took a clumsy stab at being clever: in an apparent reference to "Apocalypse Now" (or perhaps Wayne's World), they titled their presentation, "'Beepocalypse Not."
Preemption Hypocrisy
ALEC's new offshoot focused on local government, the American City County Exchange (ACCE), will also meet in San Diego.
Local democracy has led to some significant policy wins in recent years, with cities like Philadelphia guaranteeing workers paid sick days, and places like Denton, Texas banning fracking. ALEC's response to cities and counties acting as laboratories of democracy has traditionally been to crush it, through state "preemption" laws that prohibit local governments from raising the minimum wage, or regulating GMOs, or building municipal broadband.
With ACCE, ALEC and its corporate backers are taking the fight directly to the local level, urging city and county officials on the one hand to give up their authority to protect the health and economic well-being of their constituents, and on the other to push policy measures to advance corporate interests.
The biggest proactive ACCE initiative is a push for local right to work laws. In the months following a local right to work workshop at ACCE’s meeting last December, twelve Kentucky counties have enacted the anti-union measures, and similar proposals have been floated in states like Illinois and Pennsylvania. But enacting right to work on the local level likely violates federal law, so groups like the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the state Chamber of Commerce are bankrolling the legal defense of counties that get sued.
Local right to work is again on the ACCE agenda for this month's meeting, with the group expected to officially adopt a Local Right to Work model bill.
It will also hold a workshop aimed a propping up another ACCE funder, the payday loan industry: the presentation is titled "Payday Loans; 'Local Free Market Solutions for a Difficult Policy Problem.'”
Besides pushing policy measures that advance the interests of ACCE's funders, ACCE is also urging local electeds to accept state preemption laws.
In a workshop titled “Understanding State Preemption Laws," ALEC and ACCE will pitch local officials on why they should let state legislatures steamroll their authority to protect the health and economic well-being of their constituents. The workshop will be moderated by Libby Szabo, a former Colorado state legislator and ALEC state chair who is now a local official: she resigned from the state legislature just two months after winning reelection to take a county commissioner appointment, leading to charges from the editorial board of the conservative Denver Post that she was "thumbing her nose at voters."
The lesson here is that ALEC supports local control when it advances the interests of its funders, yet actively works to undermine local democracy when it threatens corporate profits.
ALEC's hypocrisy around the idea "government that is closest to the people governs best" isn't just limited to city-state relations. Even though ALEC has fought federal policies like healthcare reform and the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of carbon emissions under the guise of “state’s rights,” at this month's meeting it will push policies that run contrary even to that notion. Here again, corporate profits trump anything resembling principles.
ALEC will hold a workshop telling state legislators that they should embrace federal preemption of state chemical regulation, which happens to benefit ALEC funders like the American Chemistry Council. The "Environmental Health and Regulation Subcommittee" will hold a presentation titled "Supporting Chemical Regulation Preemption Supports Manufacturing," where legislators will apparently be told it is just swell that the federal Toxic Substances Control Act will prohibit states from enacting tougher chemical regulations.
And, the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force will consider a proposed "Resolution Urging Congress to Eliminate Discriminatory State and Local Taxes on Automobile Renters," which calls on Congress to preempt discriminatory state and local taxes on car rentals. It is hard to imagine a more blatant piece of corporate-friendly legislation, yet ALEC continues to insist that only legislators can propose model bills at its meetings.
Amending the Constitution
In recent years, one of ALEC's top priorities has been to add a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And it will be a major focus of this month's meeting.
A balanced budget amendment is an idea that has been bouncing around for decades--even though it would cripple the federal government's ability to spend on earned benefit programs like Social Security, and block Congress from responding to economic downturns or natural disasters--but what is unique about ALEC's push is that they are trying to do it via an Article V Constitutional Convention.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides that thirty-four states (two-thirds) can trigger a convention to propose an amendment, which must then be ratified by 38 states (three-fourths). Although this seems like a tall order, in the past year over a dozen states have passed resolutions calling for an Article V convention, adding to at least twelve other states that enacted resolutions years ago. The proposal has been supported by Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
Key to the Article V push has been the "Jeffersonian Project," the 501(c)(4) group that ALEC formed in 2013 amidst complaints from Common Cause and CMD that ALEC was violating its 501(c)(3) charitable status by engaging in excessive lobbying. In order to deflect allegations of lobbying, the "Jeffersonian Project" is now used to urge legislators to pass ALEC model legislation, an activity that ALEC used to do directly.
This year, the Article V strategy dominates the agenda of ALEC's Task Force on Federalism and International Relations, with five presentations and two pieces of draft legislation. The task force's private sector chair is a representative of Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group founded by Grover Norquist. And, there will be two separate ALEC-wide policy workshops on the Article V effort, as well as a reception and dinner titled "States Constitutionally Saving 'The American Dream' Summit Via Balanced Budget Amendment Convention."
Throughout U.S. history, the Constitution has only been amended through a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress on a specific amendment, which is then ratified by two-thirds of state legislatures. In contrast, the Article V strategy triggers a full constitutional convention, and it is unclear whether the delegates could be confined to only passing one amendment. This fear of a "runaway convention" has led critics on both the right and left to oppose the Article V strategy.
ALEC has tried to quell these fears through a companion bill declaring that delegates to a convention may not vote on other issues besides a balanced budget amendment. Yet, at least some amendment supporters want to open up the Article V process and amend the constitution to address an array of issues, like limiting the Commerce Clause, banning international law in the U.S., and placing term limits on the Supreme Court, among other items from a right-wing wishlist.
The key driver of the broader Article V amendment effort is Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG), a group led by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, and whose board includes Wisconsinite Eric O'Keefe. CSG, which receives most of its funding through foundations such as DonorsTrust that cloak their donors' identities, has also backed multiple lawsuits related to the "John Doe" investigation into coordination between Governor Walker's campaign and Wisconsin Club for Growth, where O'Keefe is a director.
CSG's Convention of States effort has been endorsed by Mike Huckabee (who will be addressing the ALEC conference) and also attracted support from the likes of Glenn Beck. CSG's "Compact for America" appears on the ALEC agenda with both a presentation and a model bill, and Meckler will also address the conference on July 24.
Another group pushing an Article V amendment is Compact for America, a Texas-based group advised by Nick Dranias, formerly of the Goldwater Institute, and chaired by former Goldwater chair Thomas C. Patterson. This group also is promoting a model bill at the ALEC meeting, and will hold a full breakout session on July 23.
Wisconsin State Rep. Chris Taylor attended a session on ALEC's Article V plans at the group's 2013 conference. When she expressed hesitation that the public would support the effort, she was told, "You really don’t need people to do this. You just need control over the legislature and you need money, and we have both."
Continuing to Fight "Obamacare"
ALEC has long tried to undermine the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act. It produced the "State Legislators' Guide to Repealing Obamacare," and has promoted bills to try blocking the individual mandate in states, and to prohibit insurers from providing subsidies to low-income residents, and to reject the insurance “exchanges” where individuals can buy insurance (which would have had serious repercussions if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled differently in King v. Burwell).
Despite repeated failures to overturn the Affordable Care Act through Congress and the courts, ALEC is continuing to fight the law through the states.
At this month's meeting, the Health and Human Services Task Force will consider a bill to limit expansion of Medicaid benefits within the state |
map, it was east of the Mississippi,” Flanigan said. “If you look at our system map now, it covers the world.”
Flanigan saw the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring. His work has included special assignments like piloting the delivery of a new long-range version of the 777 in 2008, when he told the AJC, “It’s such a pleasure to see the company on the rebound.” With the 777, “we’ll be able to reach parts of the world that we couldn’t have dreamt of before.”
He also piloted inaugural Delta flights to cities such as Dubai.
Flanigan, who still lives in Conyers, said he has “mixed emotions” about leaving the job he loves.
“It’s a career that has exceeded my wildest dreams,” he said. “I’ve been preparing myself mentally for the last year, knowing it’s coming and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
In retirement Flanigan plans to keep his pilot license active and fly his own plane, as well as potentially pursuing other flying opportunities.
It will still be a big transition. At Delta, Flanigan has been senior flight instructor, line check airman and international chief pilot in Atlanta — and he never took a sick day in 45 years.
“My DNA always contained widgets,” Flanigan said, referring to the triangular Delta logo. “If you ever cut me, widgets are coming out.”(Escondido, CA) – Late Tuesday night breaking news from Stone Brewing…
Live blog below. 20 Updates & counting. Original report on the bottom.
(Photo credit: @DrinkEatTravel)
Update I: Drink Eat Travel leaked that there will be an unveiling of a new beer series today and focus on Stone’s electric vehicle charging stations and other sustainability efforts.
Update II: Looks like it was actually the North County Times that leaked the news on Tuesday afternoon: “[…] Stone Brewing applied to the city of Escondido to add 36 parking spaces to its Citracado Parkway location and to expand its kitchen by 2,000 square feet, said Rozanne Cherry, a planning official. The company also applied to add carports with solar panels on the roofs, Cherry said. In its news release, Stone said it would add electric car charging stations.”
Update III: Both San Diego Reader and SanDiego.com are reporting that Stone will open a 50-room hotel right near the current brewery.
Update IV: Failed to note earlier that Stone is reportedly on pace to hit 150,000 barrels this year which would be a 30% increase off of 115,000 barrels in 2010.
Update V: Best way to follow updates is this Twitter search.
Update VI: Stone Company Store in South Park to open in approx. 30 day according to multiple Twitter reports.
Update VII: Liberty Station blueprints and other pics from Drink Eat Travel
Update VIII: Per @SanDiegoMag, “Liberty Station 20,000 sq ft restaurant and 10 barrel pilot brewing system opening spring 2012.” @VisitSanDiego reports, “Stone Brewing is the third most visited attraction in North County. Now they are coming south to central San Diego.”
Update IX: The Full Pint reports, “TFP Question: Where is the 26.6 M coming from? Greg responds they are working with their bank, this is not an outside investment, and they will be getting it in disbursements, not in all one lump sum.” Wow.
Update X: Stone is hiring a lot of people right now.
Update XI: Craft Brewers Conference is next May. Have to wonder what they will have finished before that time.
Update XII: Map of Stone Farms via Drink Eat Travel (best coverage today IMHO).
Update XIII: On another note, Liberty Station was a trending topic on Twitter in San Diego earlier. Despite the magnitude of the Stone news, the San Diego Union Tribune (who got the exclusive scoop) still isn’t putting it on the front page as the main story of the day. Have featured stories about bad traffic and a toddler hit by a drunk driver instead.
Update XIV: Per @SaysGranite on Twitter, the Stone farm will not be used as a hop farm.
Update XV: Paraphrased from The Full Pint, Stone Farms isn’t meant to be a revenue generator; an organic farm that can be an “agricultural education platform” for the local community.
Update XVI: Forming a catering operation as well.
Update XVII: Hotel will be operational by summer 2013 per New Brew Thursday
Update XVIII: WestcoasterSD also providing great coverage. From their live blog, “Stone will open production space just to the south. 55000 sq ft production facility. All packaging and bright tanks will move. 400 to 500 thousand increase in production. Fermentation tanks to be added in current location. 6.3 million initial investment
Sour beers and barrel aging to take place in another location.”
Update XIX: Another update from WestcoasterSD, “To the east, more expansions. A 40 to 50 room boutique hotel with event space. Event space will be in and around barrel aging program. Potential outdoor space.11 million initial investment currently being designed. Open approximately summer 2013. Stone will have new offices for management and the catering division will be there.”
Update XX: Once again, via @NewBrewThursday, “Special collaboration brew with Stone/Baird/ishii brewing – green tea IPA. @stonebrewingco donating 50,000$ to Japan relief”
Update XXI: From The Full Pint, “The second BA version will be the Highway 78 Scotch Ale, aged in Scotch Whiskey Barrels, which will have a wider distribution.”
Original Story:
Sign on San Diego broke the big news about Stone’s $26.6 million local expansion project. Here is the gist of what is planned per the report:
• Bringing a 400-seat restaurant to Point Loma’s Liberty Station, complete with bocce courts, an outdoor space for movie screenings, a 19,000-square-foot beer garden and a small brewery.
• Expanding the company’s Escondido home, more than doubling its footprint and allowing it to produce about a half million barrels of beer a year.
• Running an 18.7-acre farm in North County to supply organic produce to the company’s two restaurants — Liberty Station and the existing Stone World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido.
• Opening a shop in South Park on 30th Street’s “beer corridor,” selling Stone ales in bottles, kegs and half-gallon “growlers.”
• Tackling a half dozen projects at once — adding 250 employees, acquiring 35 acres, building 125,000-plus square feet of work space and spending almost $27 million […]
Stone Brewing Co-Founders, Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, will be making some additional announcements on Wednesday going into more depth about their plans so expect some additional reports to trickle out during the day.
H/T to The Full Pint for spotting the report.The announcement in last week’s Federal budget that fees will apply to postgraduate research for the first time has so far flown under the radar. But the effects will be significant. Coupled with the effect of compound interest on undergraduate fees while a postgraduate is studying, a PhD could cost upwards of $30,000.
Under the budget changes to higher education fees have been extended to research Masters and PhDs. Until now, the vast majority of these researchers did not pay fees, in recognition of the central role they play in growing Australia’s capacity in research and innovation across the disciplines.
Postgraduate study is integral to research
Postgraduate researchers undertake much of the day-to-day research conducted in our universities. Because the PhD often provides the opportunity to pursue self-directed research, research at this level is an important source of new and unexpected discovery. And, of course, when these students graduate they become the research workforce on which Australia depends for further discoveries, innovations and applications of ideas.
It is important that potential PhDs and Masters by research students are not dissuaded from undertaking study at this level by the regressive nature of the proposed changes to higher education fee arrangements. The 2008 House of Representatives Standing Committee inquiry, Building Australia’s Research Capacity, raised concerns that postgraduate research already faced strong competition from the workforce due to the wages forgone while postgraduates studied.
Researchers won’t be able to afford the research
From 2016, postgraduate research places will be subject to HECS fees of between $1,700 and $3,900 per year. As with the deregulation of undergraduate fees, this is an about-face in the way the public benefit of higher education – in this case the highest form of education – is valued and funded.
Last week’s budget also introduced real interest on HECS debts from 2016 – for both new HECS debts and for current graduates who still carry a HECS debt.
Many questions have arisen about the introduction of real interest on HECS: is it fair to apply it to graduates who entered into HECS arrangements with no knowledge that interest would be introduced after the fact? Is it reasonable that the new lowest repayment rate (2%) is below the interest rate, so that even graduates making repayments through the tax system will be falling behind as cumulative interest grows their debt?
A question vital to the future of Australian research and innovation has been missed. How will the changes to undergraduate higher education fees affect participation in postgraduate research education?
The majority of postgraduate researchers will have an undergraduate HECS debt. Taking four years out of the workforce to do a PhD will mean that debt will quietly accumulate compound interest as research candidates study (it is presently adjusted each year for CPI only).
On an undergraduate debt of, say, $60,000 - which may be modest as the majority of postgraduate researchers are at Group of Eight institutions, and these institutions are likely to have the highest undergraduate fees - a four-year PhD would cost an additional $10,000 in interest on the undergraduate debt alone. And that’s at today’s 10-year bond rate – the rate to which interest on HECS is pegged. If the bond rate rose to or above 6%, at which the new interest rate on HECS is capped, accumulated interest would be more than $15,000 over four years.
Add to this the $7,000 to $16,000 that getting a PhD will cost in fees, and our brightest students will need to think very carefully about whether a PhD is really worth it.
People with higher degree qualifications go into a variety of areas of employment, but the PhD is no guarantee of high income. Indeed, if the graduate pursues a career in academia they will be likely to undertake further, postdoctoral research work, at a pay rate that is unlikely to be far above the median wage.
Further, research undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education in 2011 showed very high levels of job insecurity among early career academics, particularly in research-only roles.
Our brightest students will need to ask themselves if an extra $30,000 for a PhD is a bridge too far.Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) announced Friday that he will not seek a Senate seat in 2018 and will instead focus on his House reelection bid.
"I will not be a candidate for the U.S. Senate. There was a path, but today we are choosing not to follow it," Upton said in a statement.
“Instead, my focus will remain on helping all of my constituents with problems big and small and improving the quality of life for all in Michigan.”
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"We need focus and fortitude in Washington now more than ever. We are full speed ahead for re-election in 2018."
The longtime Michigan congressman and former head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee had been considered the far-and-away favorite for Republicans looking to run against Sen. Debbie Stabenow Deborah (Debbie) Ann StabenowLand conservation tax incentives should inspire charitable giving, not loopholes Four names emerge for UN position: report Democrats brush off GOP 'trolling' over Green New Deal MORE (D-Mich.), with rumors swirling about his potential bid.
The move is a mixed bag for Republicans in Washington.
Upton's decision keeps a veteran lawmaker in the House during a time when a number of his more moderate peers have announced their retirement, upping Democratic chances of snatching those seats in the midterm elections next year.
But it deprives the party of a top candidate for a Senate seat in a state that President Trump won narrowly in 2016.
Now that he's officially out of the race, the GOP options in the state are Army veteran John James and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young.
While Upton has far higher name recognition than either candidate and had been considered the favorite, James, a political outsider who has stepped up campaigning in recent months, led Upton by 5 percentage points in a recent poll by Target Insyght.
This report was updated at 8:53 a.m.B.C. RCMP announced charges at a news conference late Thursday afternoon against a 35-year-old Dutch citizen in connection with the online sexual extortion of Amanda Todd, the B.C. teen who killed herself in October 2012, and other alleged victims from around the world.
This is truly a day we've been waiting for - Carol Todd
"This is truly a day we've been waiting for," said Todd's mother Carol, her voice breaking as she fought back tears. "I always knew deep in my heart that what my daughter told me was the truth."
The man, whose identity has not been released, is facing five charges, including extortion, internet luring, criminal harassment and the possession and distribution of child pornography.
Carol Todd, Amanda's mother, fights back tears at a news conference and expresses her wish that her daughter's story will help increase pressure on child predators worldwide. (CBC) Coquitlam, B.C., RCMP Insp. Paulette Freill told reporters that authorities in the Netherlands arrested a Dutch citizen in January in relation to an investigation in that country involving Dutch victims.
Freill says Coquitlam RCMP launched an investigation in December 2010 that involved more than 30 police officers. She says the investigation eventually expanded to include local and international investigators and experts.
The National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre says the investigation includes victims from Canada and other countries.
International investigation
Insp. Bob Resch says the majority of the victims identified in Canada are children.
"All the police forces and jurisdictions where those victims are located have been notified and been in contact with those victims and have advanced their investigations accordingly," he said.
A Dutch man has been arrested in the Netherlands and charged in connection with the online sexual extortion of teen Amanda Todd, one of many suspected victims identified in an international probe. (CBC)
Carol Todd says Amanda's story has touched a lot of people around the world. She hopes the added attention will result in the arrest of more offenders who target young people.
"It is our hope that Amanda’s case will help the international community to work together to target and find those who commit crimes of exploitation against children and youth," Todd said.
Dutch media identified Todd
Earlier in the day, the Dutch media organization Omroep Brabant published news identifying Todd as one of the victims in the Netherlands case.
The journalist who broke the story in the Netherlands, Mathijs Pennings, told CBC News the man arrested is a Dutch national, who is accused of blackmailing numerous minors after recording their webcam activities. He is also alleged to have extorted older male victims for money.
His alleged victims include individuals from Europe, the U.K. and Canada, Pennings said.
The man allegedly told the Canadian girl to undress in front of a webcam, which she did, and then he saved those images in order to blackmail her, Omroep Brabant reported.
Amanda's mother told CBC that she was in shock at the news. She said RCMP told her there was an overseas development in the case two months ago.
"There were multiple people in those chat rooms," Carol Todd said. "So this would hopefully be the first layer of many layers that they could uncover."
Crisis Intervention & Suicide Prevention Centre of B.C.: Getting Help.Theo Walcott is Arsenal's longest-serving player having joined the club in 2006
A deal to keep England forward Theo Walcott at Arsenal beyond the summer of 2016 could be a slow process, admits manager Arsene Wenger.
Wenger revealed the former Southampton player was "difficult to convince" before he signed his previous contract, a three-and-a-half-year deal in 2013.
Walcott, 25, has made just four starts this season due to a knee injury.
"We have started very early with him," said Wenger. "He is very quick on the pitch, but off the pitch not always."
Walcott was on the bench for Arsenal's FA Cup victory over Manchester United as he continues his recovery from a serious injury picked up in January.
Walcott has found himself behind Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - who is out for up to a month - in Wenger's thoughts since his return, but the Frenchman says he would find similar competition for places at any big club.
"Walcott was difficult to convince (in 2013) and that is why it took us much time," said Wenger.
"I always wanted to keep him and I still want to keep him now.
"I want him to stay and be a regular player and fight for his place, but no matter where you go if it is a big club you have to compete for your place."Video: The end of this Snapchat story at a house party is worse than your worst Snapchat story
We imagine that the people who own this house are pretty pissed off right now...
Snapchat is undoubtedly one of the most popular apps in the country at the moment. It's great craic for sending pictures of food with the caption 'nom nom nom' or videos of you lip-syncing songs off the radio, it's deadly.
There's also a thing called 'Snapchat fear' and we've experienced it on many a Saturday and Sunday morning. You look at your sent snaps, there are loads, and you have no recollection of sending them, uh oh. Then you look at your Snapchat story and the night is pieced back together. *JOE cringes*
No matter how bad any of our Snapchat stories have been or will be, they will never top this one taken at a house party in America.
It starts out pretty normal with chanting, people jumping into crowds, Journey - Don't Stop Believin' playing in the background, terrible rapping but then it takes a turn; a terrible, terrible turn...“You’re cold, you’re getting warmer, you’re burning…” Does this bring back memories? Play this addicting game and test your general knowledge while having fun! After 94 Seconds with over 15 million downloads, discover the new 94 Game developed by Scimob that has already been downloaded by over 10 million players. An image or area to find, it’s up to you to pin it! The closer you get, the hotter you get. You’ve already caught on, the right answer is at 94 Degrees! Where is Brazil? What is the top speed of a leopard? Where are your triceps? Where is the ham on a pig? Pass numerous levels with very diverse questions on countries, logos, human muscles, historic dates, culinary specialties, the parts of a pig, geometrical shapes, states, top speeds of different animals, etc. *** INSTRUCTIONS *** * 1 image, 1 zone to find: it’s up to you to pin it! The closer you get to the right answer, the hotter it gets, and the more the lizard appreciates the heat! Of course, you’ll find the right answer at 94° * SINGLE PLAYER MODE: Complete the different levels, overcoming challenges and help your lizard to progress! * NEW – 2 PLAYER MODE: You can now challenge your friends or random players on-line. Who is going to be the hottest? * Check out your national ranking. *** AVAILABLE IN 7 LANGUAGES *** You can play in French, English, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, or Portuguese.LONDON (Reuters) - Only 34 countries have national plans to fight the global threat of antibiotic resistance, meaning few are prepared to tackle “superbug” infections which put even basic healthcare at risk, the WHO said on Wednesday.
Test tubes filled with samples of bacteria to be tested are seen at the Health Protection Agency in north London March 9, 2011. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
In a survey of government plans to tackle the issue, the World Health Organization said only a quarter of the 133 countries that responded were addressing the problem.
“This is the single greatest challenge in infectious diseases today,” said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health security. “All types of microbes, including many viruses and parasites, are becoming resistant.”
“This is happening in all parts of the world, so all countries must do their part to tackle this global threat.”
Antimicrobial drugs such as antibiotics and antivirals are used to treat conditions such as bloodstream infections, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and HIV.
But superbug infections — including multi-drug-resistant forms of TB — already kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, and the trend is growing.
Yet according to the WHO, few countries have plans to preserve antibiotics. Those that do are largely in wealthier regions such as Europe and North America, where health systems are better organized and funded and scientific capabilities are more advanced.
“Many more countries must... step up” with comprehensive strategies to “prevent the misuse of antibiotics and reduce spread of antimicrobial resistance”, the WHO report said.
Monitoring is key for controlling antibiotic resistance, the WHO said, but it is currently not effective. In many countries, poor laboratory capacity, infrastructure and data management are preventing effective surveillance, making it difficult to discern patterns of resistance and identify disease trends and outbreaks.
At the same time, non-prescription over-the-counter sales of antimicrobial drugs are common, increasing the risk for overuse and abuse by the public and by unscrupulous doctors.
Commenting on the WHO’s report, Mike Turner, head of infection and immunobiology at international health charity The Wellcome Trust, described drug-resistant infections as “one of the biggest threats to the future of global health”.
“Yet in most areas of the world we have no idea which drugs are being sold to whom and for what purpose. This is an appalling state of affairs,” he said.
“We cannot hope to stop bacteria becoming resistant to drugs unless we have simple, basic information in place.”'The problem is, the safer the circuit becomes the more ruthless the driving becomes' © Getty Images Enlarge
Former Formula One driver Anthony Davidson, who survived a massive crash during the Le Mans 24-Hour, said that racing was now so safe that it has created a situation where there is "borderline reckless-driving".
While he believes that safety is vital, he said that it should also be demanding. "I feel a driver should be challenged and should be punished for mistakes," he told the Guardian. "It's what makes people follow the sport in quite a gruesome way. It's the danger, racing drivers should be heroes.
"We don't want to see fans get injured or drivers get injured or killed but the drivers should get punished. On some modern circuits it's pathetic when you see drivers going off the track and nothing happens."
He said that the quest to make the sport safer and safer was actually creating a situation where the risks were rising. "The [circuits] are borderline too safe," he said. "The FIA have done an incredible job …. [it's] amazing when you think of where it used to be in the 60s and the 70s and the cars are going faster now then ever before.
"The problem is, the safer the circuit becomes the more ruthless the driving becomes. So today there is such little respect for each other's safety on the track. They feel like they can bang wheels in a straight line but 'the car is mega-safe - it will take it' is the belief and therefore you get this crazy, almost borderline reckless-driving coming into play.
"There's got to be compromise with safety and I feel it's just going too far at this stage. As a driver you have to live with the fact you might die one day. Otherwise you might as well just play computer games."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.I first learned how to play Mahjong in high school. My best friend Arthur, an immigrant from Taiwan, taught me. Mahjong is sort of like a Chinese version of poker, only with tiles instead of cards. Like most games that are able to captivate an entire culture, Mahjong blends skill and luck. Four players sit at a square table, pulling tiles from the neatly stacked wall or pushing them into the mush pot middle. Sessions can often last for hours.
When I told my parents about my new pastime, my mother was thrilled. She’d played with her family when she was young, so she felt like I was reclaiming a piece of her past.
My father didn’t quite have the same reaction. “Mahjong is for kids who don’t have anything better to do,” he told me. “Mahjong is for kids who won’t have jobs when they grow up.”
I played anyway.
Our games usually took place on Friday nights at Arthur’s house. Sometimes we chatted about girls or teachers or sports while we shuffle the tiles. Other times, we played in a tense quiet, waiting for the right tile to be thrown. Nobody seemed to know the rules all that well, not even Arthur. We’d often have to consult his mom to resolve disputes.
For me, the thrill of Mahjong went beyond the game play. Not only did it connect me to my friends in the present, it gave me a tangible way to interact with a culture that I normally experienced only through echoes.
The game has a special place in my heart, which is why I included it in The Shadow Hero, my upcoming graphic novel with Sonny Liew. Hank Chu, a Chinese American teenager who becomes a masked crime-fighter known as the Green Turtle, has a special affinity for Mahjong. Hank’s father and uncles introduce him to the game, and it’s how they bond as a community.
But Mahjong also plays a part in the underworld of Hank’s Chinatown. The criminals of our story are like the Mahjong version of DC Comics’ Royal Flush Gang. Each character is named after a Mahjong tile. When Hank struggles to bring the bad guys to American justice, he’s also struggling against his connection to his community.
I haven’t sat down at a Mahjong table in well over a decade, but I can still hear the click-clicking of our shuffling when I think back to high school. You need to give Mahjong a try, if you haven’t already. There are plenty of digital versions these days, but I wouldn’t recommend them. No Internet game can beat sitting down at a square table, feeling the coolness of the tiles beneath your fingertips, and talking with your friends about nothing at all.
Gene Luen Yang’s first book with First Second, American Born Chinese, is now in print in over ten languages and was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Printz Award. Yang’s other works include the popular comics adaptation ofAvatar: The Last Airbender, and the New York Times Best-Selling graphic novel diptych Boxers & Saints. The Shadow Hero, the story of the first Asian-American superhero is his most recent graphic novel. It is being published in six e-issues, starting in February, 2014; the fifth issue will be available on Tuesday, June 17th.Engima Moth. Image: You Ning Su CSIRO
A newly discovered month, less than 10mm long and named Enigma, on Kangaroo Island in South Australia is causing a stir.
Aenigmatinea glatzella, with its iridescent gold and purple wings, is a so-called living dinosaur which represents a new family of primitive moths.
This is the first time since the 1970s that a new family of primitive moths has been identified in the world.
The moth was unveiled today as part of a launch of a foundation to support research into Australian moths and butterflies, and the moths and butterflies in CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra.
The Enigma moth lives on Southern Cypress-pine trees, a very ancient element of our flora going back to the supercontinent Gondwana from which Australia was formed.
With wings outstretched, the adult moths are about the size of a five-cent piece. They are covered in scales that appear gold and purple, and the edges of their wings have feathery fringes.
Male Enigma Moth. Image: George Gibbs
The adult moths are short-lived. In just one day they emerge from their cocoons, mate, females lay their eggs, and then die.
Australia is thought to be home to about 22,000 species of moths and butterflies, of which about half have been named.
According to CSIRO’s Dr Ted Edwards, who was jointly responsible for describing the new family, by studying the moth’s appearance and analysing its DNA the team has revealed that the evolution of moths and butterflies is even more complex than previously thought.
“While the discovery of this new moth strengthens the evolutionary relationships between other primitive moth families, it also suggests that tongues evolved in moths and butterflies more than once,” said Dr Edwards.
“Our fauna is so exciting we can still find new primitive species. Australia is so rich in moths that vast numbers still remain to be discovered.”
A paper announcing the new family of primitive moths from Australia is published in the journal Systematic Entomology.
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Two people suspected of the Monday night burglary of a Reno sporting goods store in which several guns were taken are in a Nevada City jail awaiting extradition to Nevada after their arrest Tuesday night near Floriston.
The Reno Police Department said it recovered guns stolen from Sportsman's Warehouse at Kietzke and Moana lanes and other guns.
Keegan Vaughn, 28, and Crystal Rice, 26, were in a white car Tuesday night about 8:30 p.m. near the Cabela's store by Boomtown when a Nevada Threat Analysis Center official saw them and called police.
Reno police first started following them as they drove west into California at speeds up to 100 mph and then the Washoe County Sheriff's Office RAVEN helicopter picked up the trail so Reno police backed up for public safety, police said. The Nevada Highway Patrol also followed.
The California Highway Patrol set up spike strips to stop the vehicle in the Hirschdale Road area but the car hit the concrete dividing wall several times and eventually two of the tires went flat, Reno police said, so Vaughn and Rice pulled off in the Floriston area.
Rice was taken into custody first near the vehicle and authorities found Vaughn near the Truckee River.
The CHP booked the suspects on suspicion of possession of stolen property and resisting public officers.
Reno police said they are working with federal officials as well as the Washoe District Attorney's Office and the state of California for additional charges.
Police ask that anyone with additional information call police at 775-334-2140 or Secret Witness at 775-332-4900 or text the tip to 847411 keyword – SW.
Read or Share this story: http://on.rgj.com/1rNX1ufWilliam Trubridge adjusts his googles before attempting a world record dive of 334 feet in the constant weight no-fins discipline. Trubridge was attempting to break his own 2010 record of 331 feet. In just under two minutes he reached his target. However, on his ascension he grabbed the dive line, signaling to safety divers he needed help close to some 65 feet from the surface.
Fish swim around divers as the athletes prepare for their official dives. Divers acclimate in the water, warming up with breathing exercises, stretches and practice descents before their one chance at an official dive a day.
Walid Boudhiaf attempts a Tunisian National record of 347 feet in the Free Immersion Discipline. He reached his target depth and returned to the surface under his own power during the 4:02 dive, but suffered a loss of motor control at the surface, resulting in a disqualification.
Alexey Molchanov descends. He attempted a 288-foot dive as his final chance to win the competition, but he turned early at 278 feet and came in second overall.
Samo Jeranko stands at the edge of Dean’s Blue Hole.
Alexey Molchanov stands on the edge of Dean's Blue Hole after his 311-foot constant weight no-fins dive. He was disqualified for a surface black-out.
Alexey Molchanov stands on the edge of Dean's Blue Hole after his 311-foot constant weight no-fins dive. He was disqualified for a surface black-out.
"Sandfalls" occur in Dean's Blue Hole as soft, fine beach sand drops off into the vertical cave/sinkhole.
Evgeny Sychev heads to the surface on his 331-foot constant weight fins dive. He made the dive but was disqualified due to improper surface protocol.
Kate Middleton broke her own previous national record for New Zealand by completing a constant weight dive to 223 feet with a dive time of 2 minutes and 31 seconds.
Chris Crawshaw ascends to the surface, successfully completing his 223-foot constant weight no-fins dive.
William Trubridge ascends from a 383-foot dive to win the Vertical Blue 2014 competition at Dean's Blue Hole.
Kate Middleton came in 3rd overall at Vertical Blue 2014 in Dean's Blue Hole.
Relaxing after a freediving competition, Daan Verhoeven floats through a school of Unicorn Leatherjacket fish. Verhoeven at one time held five of the six Dutch freediving records.
Fish swim around Louisa Collyns as she swings underwater on a rope attached to two platforms inside of Dean's Blue Hole the day after the Vertical Blue 2014 competition ended.Entertainers, media personalities and other Black public figures recalled heartbreaking racist encounters that made them aware that racism was real and that it could affect them.
In a special Black History Month profile on CNN titled “The First Time I Realized I Was Black” on Friday, Feb. 10, political commentator Van Jones, actor Jason George and 18 other Black celebrities recounted harrowing experiences that made them aware of their Blackness.
From being pulled over by cops in a typical case of driving while Black to a young white peer calling someone the n-word out of anger, some of our favorite celebrities experienced racism like we have.
Jones, who has been a vocal critic of the rise of President Donald Trump, recalled experiencing one of the most disgusting forms of racism in his life.
When he was younger, a white girl tried to reach for his Coke but she stopped after a white boy came up from behind them and told her not to. Jones admitted the boy’s actions seemed odd but he drank his Coke anyway.
“And then we got on the busses and went back home,” he says. “The young white girl started to cry and I asked her what was wrong. And she said, ‘They told me later that everybody in the room spat in your coke while you were outside.'”
When George was in elementary school, a white peer called him the n-word after George tackled him during a pick-up football game. And a moment of leisure and fun suddenly turned violent.
“He was upset and maybe embarrassed and he called me a n—-r,” George recalls. “I kinda blacked out. I honestly remember nothing in the next few seconds. And by the time I actually remember what was going on … My hands were around his neck and he wasn’t breathing …
“This word. This one word had complete and utter control over me in some ways.”Equipping police officers with body cameras has been called a crucial step toward restoring their battered image. Politicians and police chiefs alike say the video footage will help hold officers accountable.
Yet on the other end of the justice system, Minnesota courts still view a news camera as an intruder.
For more than 40 years, the Minnesota Supreme Court has effectively barred photographers from criminal trials. It’s been persuaded that broadcasting from the courtroom will invade the privacy of crime victims and witnesses and turn serious proceedings into made-for-TV spectacles.
That ban has worked well for sketch artists, but otherwise denied the public a complete picture of how justice is doled out in Minnesota.
On Aug. 12, the state court system took a small but significant step toward bringing news cameras back into courtrooms. Judges must allow cameras into sentencings and other post-conviction proceedings “absent good cause” that those hearings should be closed, according to the Supreme Court’s order.
Off limits are any proceeding with the jury present, any case involving domestic violence or criminal sexual conduct or any image of victims testifying, unless the victim agrees in advance.
Lucile Tisland was on the witness stand in March 1984 during her trial in Brainerd, Minn. Others were court reporter Clarence Taatjes, left; County Attorney Tom Keyes, right, and District Judge Clinton Wyant.
And don’t expect to tune in to testimony from forensic experts, stinging cross-examination of witnesses or the reading of verdicts. Trials are off limits for cameras, unless all the parties consent ahead of time. That’s been virtually impossible over the past four decades.
With its hard line on cameras in courtrooms, Minnesota stands out among its neighboring states. People in Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota are accustomed to seeing court action on their TV screens and in their newspapers.
Yet even Minnesota’s “limited pilot project” of allowing cameras into sentencings goes too far for Associate Justice Alan Page, who’s retiring from the bench this month. His dissent warns that witnesses seen on camera will risk retaliation outside court, that the coverage will exacerbate negative depictions of black people and that TV cameras reduce the administration of justice to entertainment. The limited news media interest in civil trials, which have been open to cameras since 2011, “suggests that the media’s true intent is covering only the most notorious cases,” Page wrote.
Some of Page’s concerns have been echoed by another longtime opponent of cameras in courtrooms, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Freeman is hardly allergic to TV cameras, but he said witnesses and victims might be less likely to cooperate if they know they may show up on the evening news.
“Take all the pictures of judges or lawyers that you want. That’s part of our ballgame,” Freeman said. “For the victims and witnesses and jurors, we need to do whatever we can to protect them.”
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